MODULE 1 - IDEATION ENVS10008 Virtual Environments
Cindy Edelene Arief Student No: 600604 Semester 1/2013
Group 6
SPIDER WEB
It was quite confusing in the first place to choose one out of the many natural patterns that exist in this world. After several considerations, I came up with this uniquely orb web construction made by spiders. The production of this radical pattern of spider web begins from the first thread at the centre where spiders produce silk continuously. The threads increase in strength as the web gets larger. It is interesting to see the pattern made by this silk production that is interconnected from the inner to the outer layer of the spider web. Based on this naturally occuring pattern, I have tried to explore three analytical drawings from a spiderweb, each emphasising the ideas of balance, movement and symmetry.
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BALANCE
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MOVEMENT
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SYMMETRY
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RHINO NURBS MODELING EXERCISE 1 Sweep Rail
Open Curves Closed Curves
Sweep On Surfaces ENVS10008 Virtual Environments
Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
RHINO NURBS MODELING EXERCISE 2 Sweep Rail
Open Curves
Upper Sweep
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RHINO NURBS MODELING EXERCISE Pipe Command
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
READING QUESTIONS - Week 1 Poling, Clark (1987): Analytical Drawing In Kandisky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus Rizzoli, New York, pp. 107-122
Briefly describe three stages of analytical approach advanced by Kandisky and how you have applied the process to your found pattern? The three stages are: 1. In order to approach an analytical drawing, students are first required not to see the overall form in such a complex way, rather, simplicity is the key. They also need to realise the formal characterisation of individual parts of the form, both in isolation and in relation to the other parts. Finally in the first stage, students should represent the most concise possible schema of the whole construction. 2. “Development of the structural network” The second stage asks the students to make clear the tensions discovered in the structure which are then to be represented by linear forms. Moreover, to emphasise these principle tensions, broader lines or colors can be used. It is also worth noting that a starting or focal points (dotted lines) are crucial in indicating the structural network of the analytical drawing. 3. “Translation” The last stage here indicates the process to take a physically visible pattern and thence translate it to an abstract form. This could be tensions between forces of an object, as well as the construction of lines. Students can also use a variety of structural possibilities, as long as they are in a clear and concealed construction. Lastly, simplification is all that is needed to produce a concise and exact expression of analytical drawing. As Kandinsky has also mentioned the use of tracing paper, I have applied this to produce my analytical drawings and I found it to be much easier to find all the tensions in the structure of my spider web pattern. Tracing paper has enabled me to identify each individual tension and thus all the lines that represent each idea of balance, movement and symmetry.
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
FROM ANALYTICAL DRAWING TO MODELS The idea behind my analytical drawing of a spider web lies simply beneath the process of how a spider begins its silk production from the centre point and continually spreads out to result in a very strong orb web to capture its prey. This is shown by the use of triangular basic line element that starts from the centre and is repeatedly drawn until a circular form is developed.
Pattern Extrusion To visualise the analytical drawing in 3 dimensional, several sheets of white paper is simply folded and glued together to form a structure as seen in these images. The purpose of this extrusion of pattern is to ease the exploration of any other form that can possibly emerge.
Paper model extrusion of analytical drawing
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How controlled lightings affect the paper extrusion model
Digital model extrusion of analytical drawing
Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
EMERGING FORM Now that the paper model based on the analytical drawing has been produced, it is much easier to further develop the form of the models. In this case, I have used the concept of stacking different layers of the circular form of the base elements. The emphasise is where the base element in each layer is incorporated from the centre of the previous layer. This gives rise to a rather cylindrical shape that tends to bend as a result of narrowing circular space to put another layer on. The emerging form can be represented both in paper and digital form, as follows:
Paper models of the emerging form. From left to right: bird’s eye view, front view, top view, bird’s eye view.
Digital models of the emerging form. From left to right: bird’s eye view, front view, bottom view.
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
READING QUESTIONS - Week 2 Ball, Philip (2012): Pattern Formation in Nature, AD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 82 (2), March, pp. 22-27.
Describe the formation process behind your found pattern. Are there specific moments of the transformation from your found pattern that you can emulate or stimulate in your emerging form model? The formation process behind my found pattern is based on the naturally occuring process of spider web construction. Ball argues that patterns are usually formed through simple interactions between many components of a system, and in the case of the spider web, it is apparent that the silk thread is interconnected and joined together to form a very strong structure. It is also suggested that, “when any part of a web is perturbed, the whole web reacts.” (Science Daily, 2012). The fact of how sensitive spider web is has again emphasised the strong connectivity between each element. In my analytical drawing, this base element is shown by the triangular shape and the emerging form resulted from it also indicates the importance of the elements as a whole. One of the ‘moments of transformation’ as indicated by Ball is branching, in which I have applied this to my emerging form. Branching here does not literally mean a tree branching, rather it refers to a more abstract idea of the process of layer that branches out from the centre point of the precedent layer, gradually builds up to make a bended cylindrical shape. No matter how complex a structure is, it all begins by a very logic and simple rules that follow. This is true to the analytical drawings that we have been asked to produce and the ‘recipe’ behind it which acts as the rules leading to very complex structure.
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
PRECEDENT STUDY King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Saudi Arabia Architect: Zaha Hadid I have chosen this building built by the famous architect Zaha Hadid and her team members as they have incorporated the concept of nature into the building’s structure. This building was primarily built on the concern of technical and environmental issue to create an organic form. Its structure, as shown by several pictures below, is also capable of continual expansion and transformation. My emergent model, in a similar manner to how this building structure works, has the capability to expand in terms of adding another layer on top of the other. Model Photo of King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center
The pattern of leaf is used as the basic concept of the building.
Another important reason as to why this building has been selected as my precedent study is the natural pattern concept that is more or less embedded in the cellular structure of the crystaline forms. Zaha Hadid has taken up the leaf pattern as a guide to begin her sketches of this building. It is thus evident how a simple natural pattern can result in a very complex yet impressive structure in architectural building.
Photo taken during the construction of the building.
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How the building looks like from the inside.
Finalised exterior building.
Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
IMAGINARY LANTERN During the workshop, we were asked to verbally communicate our intended design of the lantern to a design partner. Using plasticine, I mentioned three key points that I want to implement in my lantern; they are layering, scaling and bending. Initially, I mentioned the idea of layering my emerging form that tends to bend as another layer is added on top of the other. It led to a formation of stacked layer in a rather large scale as seen below. However, I further explained that the lantern is going to be wrapped around the arm, which subsequently led to the simplification of the model in a smaller scale.
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SKETCH MODEL 1 - CLAY
LAYERING.
SCALING. BENDING.
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SKETCH MODEL 2 - CLAY
Initial emerging form that leads to the developed model.
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SKETCH MODEL 3 - CLAY
Trying out the other possibilities of how the lantern can be held. In this instance, the hollow made on the other side of the headpiece is intended to further spread out the light that will come out from the inside.
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
THE LIGHTING EFFECTS In the lecture “Camouflage and Effects”, there are 6 ways in which lights can be manipulated through materials and geometry, shown in the diagram below. Each of these manipulations can create certain effects including brightness, shadow/darkness, contrast, blurring, or distortion. Subsequently, the different effect produced will bring in different perception of the materials or objects in which the lights pass through. Same thing applies to the lantern that I will produce in this subject. The light that comes out of the lantern is going to reflect how this overall form of lantern is seen. Taking an example of the twisted-structure building Turm der Lüfte in Bremen, different kind and intensity of lights that are exposed through its glass wall can change the perception of people seeing it from the outside.
Turm Der Lüfte, Bremen
Three ways in which lighting can create different effects of the Turm Der Lüfte building.
Full intensity of lights are shined through the glass wall, in contrast to partially exposed light as shown in the three figures on the bottom corner of the page.
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Of all the effects in which light can change the perception of the lantern, I would argue that layered is perhaps my most favorite one. A very beautiful project done by Olafur Eliassson called the cold wind sphere has shown how a single light bulb inside a crystal sphere can produce such an amazing effect through the layered crystals. I have chosen this layered effect in conjunction with my emerging form and sketch models that have also been focusing on layer, thus light effects created by layer will hopefully suit my lantern best.
The effect of lights that I want to achieve through layering is more or less the repetition of my layer of emerging form.
Cold Wind Sphere by Olafur Eliasson
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Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604
REFERENCES Ball, Philip (2012): Pattern Formation in Nature, AD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 82 (2), March, pp. 22-27. Eliasson, Olafur (2012), Cold Wind Sphere, photograph, viewed March 2013, < http://www. olafureliasson.net/works/cold_wind_sphere_2.html> Loh, Paul (2013), Lecture 3: Camouflage and Effects, University of Melbourne. Science Daily (2012), Spider Webâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Strength Lies in More Than Its Silk, <http://www.sciencedaily. com/releases/2012/02/12021140004.htm> Zaha Hadid Architects (2013), King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, <http:// www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/king-abdullah-petroleum-studies-and-research-centre/> Zumtobel (2011), Light for Facades and Architecture, viewed March 2013, < http://www. zumtobel.com/PDB/Teaser/EN/AWB_Fassade_und_Architektur.pdf>
ENVS10008 Virtual Environments
Cindy Edelene Arief - 600604