Growing performance essay

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WOODWORMS AS NATURAL OPTIMISING AGENTS Biological alterations on the isoptera behavior potential Enrico Pontello Tutor: Isak Worre Foged CITAstudio The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture Copenhagen, Denmark enrico.pontello@gmail.com; iwfo@create.aau.dk 1_Introduction 2_ Biomimicry and altered biological processes 2.1 Biomimicry 2.2 Biological alterations 2.3 Study cases 3_Isopteras behavior 3.1 Species 3.2 Patterns 4_ Project investigation 4.1 Topologic optimization 4.2 Tropism and chemotaxis 4.3 Xylophages experimentation 4.4 Final design

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1_Introduction

learn to create more innovative and sustainable design solution to make the step further. Looking at the corrugation on sea shells, replicated in the cardboard thickness or corrugated metal sheet, are adding stiffness and more resistance to bending. One of the most important examples is the Velcro. It has two layers: a “hook” side, which is a piece of fabric covered with tiny hooks, and a “loop” side, which is covered with even smaller and “hairier” loops. When the two sides are pressed together, the hooks catch in the loops and hold the pieces together. When they are separated, they make a special “ripping” sound.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. A new design workflow, seen not only as a way to mime and replicate natural phenomena, but an approach that is moving further from a synthetic prototyping and is getting closer to an exhaustive and organic result. This result might be an answer to a previous question or a solution that is clarifying an issue, figuring out the concrete potentials and opening new research scenarios. My personal goal is achieving a design which is moving from an assembly process to one that is growth controlled and regulated. This actualization is specifically obtainable by studying, testing and educating natural phenomena that collaborate with homogenous materials, not imposed anymore by the environment but creating a new one designed by nature. The final aim is to identify an architectural element that is naturally discretized by insectivore agents through a topological optimization.

Fig. 1: The Velcro system compared with the natural bur. 2.2_Biological alterations Biomimicry Innovation inspired by nature written by Janine M. Benyus is a collection of inspirations and theoretical speculations on how would be possible discover nature’s strategies for getting things done and turning those strategies into products and processes. Biomimicry has an innovation approach that seeks a sustainable solution to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested pattern strategies. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul. Is something more than just a resulting technology, realizing that, is possible to represent an entirely new way of looking at nature and especially our role in the natural world. From Janine Benyus’s TEDtalk entitled Biomimicry’s surprising lessons from nature’s engineers,

2.0_ Biomimicry and altered biological processes 2.1_Biomimicry Biomimetics is the reproduction of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The term “biomimetics” derive from bios, life, and mimesis, imitation. Living organisms have evolved, well-adapted structures and materials over geological time through natural selection. Biomimetics has given rise to new technologies inspired by biological solutions at macro and nano scales. Humans have looked to nature for answers to problems throughout our existence. Nature has solved engineering problems such as self-healing abilities, environmental exposure tolerance and resistance, hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing solar energy. I’m now focusing on what means biomimicry for design and how innovation can be inspired by nature. How nature gets things done and using what we can

“What Is Biomimicry? - Biomimicry 3.8.” Biomimicry 3.8. The Biomimicry Institute, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <https://biomimicry.net/ what-is-biomimicry/>.

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is clearly specified the role of Biomimicry and her interpretation on which are the studies that She made through her career and how Biomimicry can be misunderstood with some very similar applications. To exemplify, using bacteria to clean the water, is not exactly acting being inspired by nature. That’s bioprocessing, that’s bio-assisted technology: using an organism to do your wastewater treatment is an old, old technology called “domestication.” This is learning something, learning an idea, from an organism and then applying it. Learning about the natural world is one thing; learning from the natural world is something else. That’s the profound switch. The important thing is that these are solutions solved in context. And the context is the Earth, the same context that we’re trying to solve our problems in. So, it’s the conscious emulation of life’s genius. It’s not slavishly mimicking, it’s taking the design principles, the genius of the natural world, and learning something from it. What’s Heat, beat and treat process? It’s carving things down from the top, with 96 percent waste left over and only 4 percent product. This answer automatically how we make things. We can then identify two schools of thought, two radically opposed design cultures. One is made of thousands of steel parts, the other of a single silk thread. One is synthetic, the other organic. One is imposed on the environment, the other creates it. One is designed for nature, the other is designed by her.

Michelangelo said that when he looked at raw marble, he saw a figure struggling to be free. The chisel was Michelangelo’s only tool. But living things are not chiseled. They grow. And in our smallest units of life, our cells, we carry all the information that’s required for every other cell to function and to replicate. Tools also have consequences. At least since the Industrial Revolution, the world of design has been dominated by the rigors of manufacturing and mass production. Assembly lines have dictated a world made of parts, framing the imagination of designers and architects who have been trained to think about their objects as assemblies of discrete parts with distinct functions. But we don’t find homogenous material assemblies in nature. Let’s consider human skin, for example. Our facial skins are thin with large pores. Our back skins are thicker, with small pores. One acts mainly as a filter, the other mainly as a barrier, and yet it’s the same skin: no parts, no assemblies. It’s a system that gradually varies its functionality by varying elasticity. So here this is a split screen to represent my split worldview, the split personality of every designer and architect operating today between the chisel and the gene, between machine and organism, between assembly and growth, between Henry Ford and Charles Darwin. These two worldviews, my left brain and right brain, analysis, and synthesis, will play out on the two screens behind me. My work, at its simplest level, is about uniting these two worldviews, moving away from assembly and closer into growth. Why was this not possible 10 or even five years ago? We live in a very special time in history, where the confluence of four fields is giving designers access to tools we’ve never had access to before. These fields are computational design, allowing us to design complex forms with simple code; additive manufacturing, letting us produce parts by adding material rather than carving it out; materials engineering, which lets us design the behaviour of materials in high resolution; and synthetic biology, enabling us to design new biological functionality by editing DNA.

Fig.2: Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome and Neri Oxman’s Silk Pavilion

- Benyus, Janine. “Transcript of “Biomimicry in Action” Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in Action | TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <https://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action/transcript?language=en#t-982180>. - McLaren, Warren. “Biomimicry Lectures: Janine Benyus Down Under.” TreeHugger. N.p., 30 May 2006. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://www. treehugger.com/culture/biomimicry-lectures-janine-benyus-down-under.html>. - Oxman, Neri. “Transcript of “Design at the Intersection of Technology and Biology” Neri Oxman: Design at the Intersection of Technology and Biology | TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <https://www.ted.com/talks/neri_oxman_design_at_the_intersection_of_technology_and_biology/transcript?language=en#t-19172>.

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2.3 Study cases Innovation and sustainable design solution inspired by nature, here I’m explaining two examples that inspired me and stimulate me to move into my research direction. Differentiated by the direct application of biologic phenomena into design process and goal achieve One of the greatest example is what has been called “Silk pavilion”, a primary structure that has been created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC machine. Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density. Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological printer in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers. Following their pupation stage, the silkworms were removed. Resulting moths can produce 1.5 million eggs with the potential of constructing up to 250 additional pavilions. Affected by spatial and environmental conditions including geometrical density as well as variation in natural light and heat, the silkworms were found to migrate to darker and denser areas. Desired light effects informed variations in material organization across the surface area of the structure. A season-specific sun path diagram mapping solar trajectories in space dictated the location, size and density of apertures within the structure in order to lock-in rays of natural light entering the pavilion from South and East elevations. The central oculus is located against the East elevation and may be used as a sun-clock. Parallel basic research explored the use of silkworms as entities that can “compute” material organization based on external performance criteria. Specifically, we explored the formation of non-woven fiber structures generated by the silkworms as a computational schema for determining shape and material optimization of fiber-based surface structures.

Another example that is appropriate to analyze, might be a robotically controlled multi-chamber extrusion system, designed to deposit biodegradable composites with functional, mechanical and optical gradients across length scales. A seamless computational workflow is implemented for the design and direct digital fabrication of multi-material and multi-scale structured objects. The workflow encodes for, and integrates, domain-specific meta-data relating to local, regional and global feature resolution of heterogeneous material organizations. Geometrically diverse constructs associating shape-informing variable flow rates and material properties to mesh-free geometric primitives are deposited. The structures are made of a single material system derived from chitin - the most abundant renewable polymer in the ocean, and the second most abundant polymer on the planet. Ground arthropod shells are transformed into chitosan, a chitin derivative, to form a variable property aqueous solution. Once printed, constructs are formfound through evaporation patterns given by the geometrical arrangement of structural members, and by the hierarchical distribution of material properties. Controlled wrinkling follows. Each component will find its shape upon contact with air and biodegrade upon contact with water. Living matter in the form of Cyanobacteria is coated and impregnated onto chitosan samples to enable surface functionalization and impart additional properties such as water resistance and conductivity.

Fig.3: Hierarchically structured chitosan.

- Oxman, Neri. “Mediated Matter.” Silk Pavillion Environment | CNC Deposited Silk Fiber & Silkworm Construction | MIT Media Lab. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://matter.media.mit.edu/environments/details/silk-pavillion>. - Oxman, Neri. “Neri Oxman.” 3D Printing Water-Based, Biodegradable Composites - with Robots! | News | Neri Oxman. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://neri.media.mit.edu/news/article/3d-printing-water-based-biodegradable-composites-with-robots>.

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3_Isopteras creativity and behavior 3.1_Species Considering the increasing quantities of softwood used in building since the 1920s, is inevitable the increment presence of what we call “Common Furniture Beetle”. They have been categorized on hundred different species but only seven are of frequent occurrence, and it is the larval stage that we apply the description of “woodworm”. Adults do not feed; they just reproduce. The female lays her eggs into cracks in wood or inside old exit holes, if available. The eggs hatch after some three weeks, each producing a 1 millimeter (0.039 in) long, creamy white, C-shaped larva. For three to four years, the larvae bore semi-randomly through timber, following and eating the starchy part of the wood grain, and grow up to 7 millimeters (0.28 in). They come nearer to the wood surface when ready to pupate. They excavate small spaces just under the wood surface and take up to eight weeks to pupate. The adults then break through the surface, making a 1 mm to 1.5 millimeters (0.059 in) exit hole and spilling dust, the first visible signs of an infestation. The “Anobium Punctatum” variety is responsible for about 90 per cent of wood attack and is helpful to understand that this specie only attacks seasoned sapwood timber, not live or fresh wood. Also, it usually does not attack heartwood timbers. This is readily observed from infested structures, where one piece of timber may be heavily attacked but an adjacent one left virtually untouched according to whether it is made from the heartwood or the sapwood part of a tree trunk. Infection, past or present, is diagnosed by small round exit holes of 1 to 1.5 mm diameter. Active infections feature the appearance of new exit holes and fine wood dust around the holes. A. punctatum infection may not manifest holes until years after the timber has been acquired. “Lyctus” for example attack only the sapwood, consisting of the outer ring of wood in the tree which is often rich in starch, of the wide-pored hardwoods, among which oak is perhaps the most important.

The larval stage is responsible for nearly all the damage done by the beetle. They feed on many of the various hardwoods used in wood paneling, door and window frames, furniture, baskets, hardwood trim and flooring in homes. Only sapwood is attacked. Infestation usually occurs prior to construction of the article. Varnished, painted or polished surfaces are not normally susceptible to attack but the female beetle may still lay her eggs in empty tunnels created by previous beetle occupants. Subfloors, joists and rafters are usually made of pine or other softwood and generally escape infestation. Imported tropical hardwoods may be heavily infested because of poor drying and storage practices before shipment. “Death watch beetle” is the wood-borer which usually attacks hardwoods such as oak when a fungal attack is already in progress. It is thus mainly restricted to older buildings with built-in timbers of a higher moisture content than would today be tolerated. Significantly less important are the “Wharf-borer beetle”, found in timbers attacked by wet rot; “Ernobius mollies”, found under the strips of bark left on soft-woods rafters and joists; “Ptilinus pectinicornis” attacks furniture and musical instruments made of sycamore, maple, ash, and beech and is sometimes found in a joint infestation with furniture beetle. “Euophryum” confine is a small weevil which is already starting to rot due to the fungus Coniophora cerebella.

Fig.4: Representation of a “Jewel beetle”, adult and larvae stadium.

- Hutton, Tim. “Woodworm.” Woodworm: Anobium Punctatum. The Building Conservation Directory, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://www. buildingconservation.com/articles/woodworm/woodworm.htm>. - “Wood-boring Insects Eradication.” Isca Preservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://www.iscapreservation.co.uk/insects.htm>. Leschen, Rolf G. “Volume 1: Morphology and Systematics (Archostemata, Adephaga, Myxophaga, Polyphaga Partim).” Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <https://goo.gl/QqvpF2>.

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The insect that I’m currently analyzing is the “Jewel beetle”. His natural habitat is in the trees. It is commonest in imported North American softwoods, including western red cedar. Some larvae may survive drying and emerge later as adults, but they cannot re-infest dried timber. Records suggest that larvae of some species can survive for over 20 years in dry timber, and emerge as adults many years after the installation of buildings.

3.2_Patterns One of the first steps that have always helped us to understand if our environment is the presence of worms, is definitely their unmistakable outline on wood. These galleries are detectable superficially on the bark or inside the mass of wood analyzed. The factors that lead to many, different, configurations of these natural galleries, are for example the size of the same insect at the larval state, the species to which it belongs, the type of wood and the same instinct that carries the worm to follow precise erosion’s paths. The patterns, they are creating suggest the historic process they’ve made and with a deep analysis on the correlation between the specie and their behavior is potentially possible to predict how they conduct their drilling movements on the wood. These configurations have been compared below.

Fig.5: Behavior tests of the woodworms, in a closed glass jar.

Fig.6: Collection of different patterns, on disparate wood species, associated with distinctive woodworms erosion. 4_Project investigation

is a mathematical approach that optimizes material layout within a given design space, for a given set of loads and boundary conditions such that the resulting layout meets a prescribed set of performance targets. Using topology optimization is possible to find the best concept design that meets the design requirements. Topology optimization has been implemented through the use of finite element methods for the analysis, and optimization techniques based on the method of moving asymptotes, genetic algorithms, optimality criteria method, level sets, and topological derivatives. This system is used from the concept level of the design process to arrive at a conceptual design

4.1 Topologic optimization With a superficial but concrete overview of what is biomimetics about and which are the most important aspects related to isopteras behavior, I can now highlight the future program of this research purpose. This project combines many different areas of interest, starting with a topologic optimization, considered not as an experienced tool for architects and engineers to improve and updating it in terms of quality and efficiency, but a way to get a defined result, controlled by specific and known parameters. In order to clarify this concept, topology optimization

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proposal that is then fine-tuned for performance and manufacturability. This replaces time-consuming and costly design iterations and hence reduces design development time and overall cost while improving design performance. In some cases, proposals from a topology optimization, although optimal, may be expensive or infeasible to manufacture. These challenges can be overcome using manufacturing constraints in the topology optimization problem formulation. Using manufacturing constraints, the optimization yields engineering designs that would satisfy practical manufacturing requirements. In some cases, Additive manufacturing technologies are used to manufacture complex optimized shapes that would otherwise need manufacturing constraints.

plant or fungus in response to gravity. It is a general feature of all higher and many lower plants as well as other organisms. Charles Darwin was one of the first to scientifically document that roots show positive gravitropism and stems show negative gravitropism. That is, roots grow in the direction of gravitational pull (i.e., downward) and stems grow in the opposite direction (i.e., upwards). This behavior can be easily demonstrated with any potted plant. When laid onto its side, the growing parts of the stem begin to display negative gravitropism, growing (biologists say, turning; see tropism) upwards. Herbaceous (non-woody) stems are capable of a small degree of actual bending, but most of the redirected movement occurs as a consequence of root or stem growth outside. Thigmotropism is a directional growth movement of curvature which occurs in response to the stimulus of contact. Thigmotropism is found in twining plants and tendrils. After initial contact with support due to nutation, the tendril or twiner shows less growth in the region of contact and more growth on the opposite side. Thus, they bend around the support. Later, bending or coiling may occur in untouched parts of the tendril as well. Thigmotropism is a movement in which a plant moves or grows in response to touch or contact stimuli. Usually, thigmotropism occurs when plants grow around a surface, such as a wall, pot, or trellis. Touched cells produce auxin and transport it to untouched cells. Some untouched cells will then elongate faster so cell growth bends around the object. The response to chemical stimuli, such chemotropism, is common in some species of flies and other insects, stimulated by the odors emitted by the chemical decomposition of the flesh and of other substances to lay their eggs in these materials. The same insects react, however, adversely to certain fumes, which for this are often used as repellents. The cytotropism consists in approaching each other or in the removal of cells or groups of cells, mediated responses to chemical stimulation; It is common between cells of the immune system or between those involved in the formation of blood clots in response to a wound. Other commonly observed tropisms include galvanotropism or electrotropism, in response to an electric current; the geotropism, in response to the

4.2 Tropism and chemotaxis When animals, including humans, respond to a stimulus (which is something that causes a response), we call it a reaction. In plants, the response to a stimulus is known as a tropism. This plant movement toward or away from a stimulus can come in many forms. Before we look at a few, let’s better understand the word tropism. Like many words in science, tropism comes from a Greek word. Tropos means ‘to turn’, therefore, a tropism is a turn towards or away from a stimulus. When the movement is towards the stimulus, it is called positive tropism. Likewise, when the movement is away from the stimulus, it is called negative tropism. While there are several forms of tropism on plants, I just want to focus on three key types: phototropism, geotropism, and thigmotropism. Plants grow towards the sun, they can make food through photosynthesis. This movement in response to sunlight and is called phototropism. Therefore, phototropism is a turn towards or away from light. While most phototropism involves plants just growing toward the sun, some plants follow the sun throughout the day. For example, sunflowers will orient their flowers to the sun. In the morning, they point east towards the rising sun. They then gradually follow the sun throughout the day, eventually pointing west towards the setting sun. Geotropism is a turning or growth movement by a

Sigmund, O. “A 99 Line Topology Optimization Code Written in Matlab.” Struct Multidisc Optim. N.p.: Springer-Verlag, 2001. 120-27. Print. The second essential factor in this process is the biological phenomena that well explain behavior’s nature.

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direction of a current of water; the anemotropism, or the movement according to the wind direction; and the thermotropism, or the movement in relation to a temperature gradient. Neurotropism is the attraction or repulsion that certain substances have on the regeneration of nerve fibers. A substance is called positive neurotropic when the nerve fibers tend to grow in his direction and negative neurotropic in the opposite case. Initially, the term tropism was only used for movements in response to stimuli of fixed organisms like plants and animals, sessile, while those of animals capable of movement was being said tassia. Although today the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably to describe the movements of bodies such as spores and sperm it is preferable to use tassia. The attraction of a sperm into an egg cell is, for example, the result of chemotaxis, in which the sperm locates the egg cell swimming in the direction of the chemical substances secreted by it.

Chemotaxis is the movement of an organism in response to a chemical stimulus. Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food (e.g., glucose) by swimming toward the highest concentration of food molecules, or to flee from poisons (e.g., phenol). In multicellular organisms, chemotaxis is critical to the early development and subsequent phases of development as well as in normal function. In addition, it has been recognized that mechanisms that allow chemotaxis in animals can be subverted during cancer metastasis. Positive chemotaxis occurs if the movement is toward a higher concentration of the chemical in question; negative chemotaxis if the movement is in the opposite direction. Chemically prompted kinesis (randomly directed or nondirectional) is called chemokinesis.

Fig.7: Comparison between the superficial pattern and the internal core by the “jewel beetle”, of 15mm branch. - “Tropismo.” Tropismo. Oxford Scientific Films Ltd, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://luimmortal.altervista.org/Biologia/Tropismo.htm>. Weber, Danielle. “Tropisms: Phototropic, Geotropic and Thigmotropic Plant Growth - Video & Lesson Transcript.” CLEP Biology: Study Guide & Test Prep. Study.com, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://study.com/academy/lesson/tropisms-phototropic-geotropic-and-thigmotropic-plant-growth.html>. - Coli, E. “Chemotaxis.” E. Coli Chemotaxis. Department of Biology - University of Utah, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://chemotaxis.biology. utah.edu/Parkinson_Lab/projects/ecolichemotaxis/ecolichemotaxis.html>. “Termotattismo.” Vocabolario Treccani. Treccani, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/termotattismo/>. - Luo, Linjiao, Marc Gershow, Mark Rosenzweig, KyeongJin Kang, Christopher Fang-Yen, Paul A. Garrity, and Aravinthan Samuel. “Navigational Decision-making in Drosophila Thermotaxis.” The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society of Neuroscience. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 24 Mar. 2010. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2871401/>.

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Chemoattractants and chemorepellents are inorganic or organic substances possessing chemotaxis-inducer effect in motile cells. Effects of chemoattractants are elicited via described or hypothetic chemotaxis receptors, the chemoattractant moiety of a ligand is target cell specific and concentration dependent. Most frequently investigated chemoattractants are formylpeptides and chemokines. Responses to chemorepellents result in axial swimming and they are considered a basic motile phenomenon in bacteria. The most frequently investigated chemorepellents are inorganic salts, amino acids, and some chemokines. 4.3_Xylophages experimentation From an ethologic point of view, the “Jewel beetle” specie, that has been analyzed and observed, will be placed on his natural wood environment. Using the contrast between the warm and cold temperature as a chemoattractor, in correlation on the pattern from the topologic analysis, will allow the beetle to naturally sculpt the wood following the boundaries previously defined. These woodworms are moving and reacting following a precise criteria which I believe is possible to control and guide through this design workflow.

speculations – the intention to implement biological mechanisms as a key factor on the final design. Furthermore, there are many manufacturing aspects to consider, which might not appear as efficient as we would compare to a naturally one. In fact, in process manufacturing, the relevant factors are ingredients, not parts; formulas, not bills of materials; and bulk materials rather than individual units. Although there is invariably cross-over between the two branches of manufacturing, the major contents of the finished product and most the resource intensity of the production process generally allow manufacturing systems to be classified as one or the other. For example, a bottle of juice is a discrete item, but juice is process manufactured. The plastic used in injection molding is process manufactured, but the components it is shaped into are generally discrete, and subject to further assembly. I believe is also pertinent, mention the seven wastes of lean manufacturing as a root of all inefficient activities. Starting with transport, this is the movement of materials from one location to another, this is a waste as it adds zero value to the product. Transport adds no value to the product, a process that only costs money and makes nothing for you. The waste of Transport can be a very high cost to the process and needs people to operate it and equipment such as trucks or fork trucks to undertake this movement of materials. Every piece of product tied up in raw material, work in progress or finished goods has a cost. Inventory should be stored, it needs space, it needs packaging and it should be transported around. It has the chance of being damaged during transport and becoming obsolete. The waste of Inventory hides many of the other wastes in this systems. Unnecessary motions are those movements of man or machine which are not as small or as easy to achieve as possible, by this I mean bending down to retrieve heavy objects at floor level when they could be fed at waist level to reduce stress and time to retrieve. Excessive travel between work stations, excessive machine movements from start point to work start point are all examples of the waste of Motion. These wasteful motions cost time and money after all even robots wear out. We also tend to spend an enormous amount of time waiting for things in our working

Fig.8:“Jewel beetle” on his wood habitat. Overall, analyzing different designing mechanism, it appears almost spontaneous immediate correlation with the subtractive logic of woodworm behavior. A relevant remark, as it might emerge obvious, on the pure milling process, it could also be thought through robotic manufacturing, but considering the project’s aim widely is discernible – from previous

“The Seven Wastes | 7 Mudas.” Lean Manufacturing Tools. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2016. <http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/77/the-seven-wastes-7-mudas/>. 9


lives, this is an obvious waste. The Waste of Waiting disrupts flow, one of the main principles of lean manufacturing. The waste of overproduction is making too much or too early. This is usually because of working with oversize batches, long lead times, poor supplier relations and a host of other reasons. Overproduction leads to high levels of inventory which mask many of the problems within the organization. The waste of Overprocessing is where we use inappropriate techniques, oversize equipment or working with tolerances that are too tight. One of the biggest examples of over-processing in most companies is that of the “mega-machine� that can do an operation faster than any other, but every process flow has to be routed through it causing scheduling complications, delays and so forth. Finally, the most obvious of the seven wastes: defects. Invariably cost far more than expected. Every defective item requires rework

or replacement, it wastes resources and materials and it creates paperwork. As the last challenge on this, there’s the necessity to regulate and control the amount of material that has been removed from the initial shape. This final step would be possible allowing the wood worms to naturally behave and then using specific ultrasound devices in order to move them away from the wooden source. This is one of the few technique that might work without kill them with any pesticide or chemical substances. To sum up, this design proposal will allow me to understand and evaluate previous woodworms studies and physically investigate how this biological implementation would in the next future take part as an architectural design process.

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Get the topological optimization result.

Project the pattern with different temperatures.

Use ultrasounds to move the worms away from the source.

Fig.9: Conceptual diagrams on the research project.

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4 Apply the final design on a architecture scale.


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