Foundations of Design : Representation, SEM1, 2017 M3 JOURNAL - PATTERN vs SURFACE Georgina Barnes
(914642) Emmanuel Cohen, Studio 26, 26.4
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WEEK 6 READING: SURFACES THAT CAN BE BUILT FROM PAPER IN ARCHITECTURAL GEOMETRY Question 1: What are the three elementary types of developable surfaces? Provide a brief description. (Maximum 100 words) Developable surfaces are defined as ruled surfaces. The three major types are cylinders, cones and tangent surfaces of space curves. The surface of a cylinder is consists of a series of polygons. These are made up of parallel lines. These lines signify the shape as ruled and therefore a developable surface. The cone shape consists of a series of lines that merge at a point, thus it is also developable. Space curves are curved shapes. The tangent of these shapes is the face of the shape. It too is defined developable through ruled lines.
Question 2: Why is the understanding of developable surface critical in the understanding of architectural geometry? Choose one precedent from Research/Precedents tab on LMS as an example for your discussion. (Maximum 100 words) The understanding of what consists of developable surface is integral to architectural geometry, as without this knowledge, structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing designs could not be constructed. The Greenhouse design by Plasma Studio heavily features geometric architecture through panels of triangulated glass. These panels feature parallel lines in the triangular pattern, thus helping to easily identify that the surfaces are developable. Without knowledge of architectural geometry, the design could never have been envisioned let alone constructed as it relies heavily on rigid geometries.
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PANELLING 2D PATTERN
Standard triangle pattern This pattern is simplistic yet pratical as the triangular shape bends easily to follow the form of the landscape, and a more complex three dimensional pattern could be easily constructed on top.
Custom diamond pattern This pattern is much more complex than the triangle pattern and fits within a square panel. The design creates an interesting, kaleidoscope-esque pattern when grouped tightly together. However, as the pattern is already complex in it’s two dimensional form, building the three dimensional aspect on
Custom waratah pattern As the landscape I am designing upon is within Tasmania, I decided to create a simplified, geometric rendition of Tthe Tasmanian Waratah flower. The center diamonds are to represent the flower and the four outer triangles the leaves. This will become more apparent when the design is made three dimensionally. As with the previous design, thisfeatures a square panel and is a complex design. However, as the pattern features only standard angles with centralised shapes, I believe it will be more easily acheivable to construct three dimensionally. This will be my final pattern.
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VARIABLE 2D PATTERN
Curve attractors Here, I utilised the curve attractors variation on my Waratah pattern. The curves I utilised, as depicted in the second image, are placed along the high points of the landscape.
Base_u2 and base_v2 Adjusting the u and v options effectively shifted the design. This could prove useful in creating portions of flat space in the final model. However, I believe that this transition is too harsh and does not reflect the organic inspiration behind my pattern.
Random By selecting the random option, the pattern produced is irregular in it’s scale, distibution and position. The resulting pattern features a large amount of empty space and appears somewhat messy.
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3D PANEL TEST PROTOTYPE & TEMPLATE
This image shows my pattern pieces constructed ontop of my pattern grid. It was difficult to anticipate the scale of the pieces when constructed, thus some are not accurately sized, however the process was still informative to my design process.
This image shows the unrolled surface patterns I created. I created some of each type so as to fully understand and develop the ways they could be constructed.
I discovered that constucting a three dimensional shape in the manner of panel 4 was ineffective as the design became structurally weak. Contrastingly, constructing in the manner of panel 1, 2 and 3 proved more sturdy results. However, in these panels I neglected to include the backing to the outer triangular shapes. This is something I will have to include in my final pattern pieces. In terms of the flat panels, 5 and 6, I learnt that including more tabs, as in 6, was more effective as the surface could be manipulated and attached to other segments more easily.
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WEEK 7 READING: DIGITAL FABRICATION Complete your reading before attempting these questions:
Insert your answer here.... Question 1: What is digital fabrication and how does it change the understanding of two dimensional representation? (Maximum 100 words) Digital production is a generative medium that provides architects and designers alike with the means to narrow the gap between representation and construction. Digital fabrication is commonly a later stage of the digital design process and consists of the use of various digital programs to control the fabrication process. Digital two-dimensional design to an extent replaced analogue design, thus the understanding of how the 2D could be represented was altered.
Question 2: Suggest two reasons why folding is used extensively in the formal expression of building design? (Maximum 100 words) Folding is commonly used in the formal representation of building design, as it is a structurally sound and materially economical way to construct buildings. Folding can also produce aesthetically appealing designs and structures that can span wide areas and be effective at multiple scales. Folding allows for an architect to expand a two-dimensional surface into a three dimensional space.
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EXPLORING 3D PANELLING
This is my final 3D panelled design. I incorporated three different variations of my pattern to represent the blooming of a Waratah flower. I decided to make the flower forms higher at the back of my landscape by altereing the angle of my second point grid. This helps to create a gradual transition between the 3D and flat surfaces. Using curve attractors placed aong high points of the landscape I created a custom variable to my design wherein the more open stages of the flower are placed to the top of the design. As with my choice of the Waratah flower in my design, I again thought about the actual landscape in the removal of panels. The low, central area was chosen as I thought about how water would flow through the lanscape.
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UNROLL TEMPLATE OF YOUR FINAL MODEL
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49
76-80
51
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This is one of my A3 pages which I printed my unrolled pattern segments onto. This page features a piece from each of the 3 types of pattern pieces I created. The long flat panel labelled 76-80 is an example of the panels I placed to the front of my design. Piece 51 is an example of the singular square pieces located throughout the centre of my design. Pieces 49 and 50 are similar to the majority of the pattern pieces my design created. These pieces create the pyrimid-like structures representing the Waratah flower.
PANELISED LANDSCAPE
This photographs depicts my final model under harsh lighting to enhance the shape and depict the negative space and variance in the pattern.
This is a close up of my design in it’s centre. This image highlights the different forms of the pattern.
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APPENDIX
This screen shot shows the grid, points and curve attractors I utilised to create my panels onto my landscape.
This screen shot shows the Rhino document after I had finished unrolling all of the segments of my design.
My model construction process is depicted here. I pritned my pattern pieces onto A3 card, cut them out using a stanley knife and ruler and then gllued the pieces together using Supertak and clips to hold the card together whilst it was drying. 11