MODULE ONE IDEATION --------------
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
MATERIAL SYSTEM
Our material system is panel/ fold and inflatable. Inflatable: The template varies from the final object and We began Module One by examining two objects it is difficult to create curved edges with and inflatable that represented these systems - a coffee filter system. and a floatie. After we did measured drawings of our seperate objects we were able to evaluate the systems in more detail than just observing them. Some of the information we learnt from the
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Panel and fold: You are able to create different types of objects using more or less panels, creating different angles, sizes and shapes.
NOTION OF PERSONAL SPACE
The reading, ‘Personal Spaces’ by Sommer helped us to examine our own perceptions of personal space in our lives and in society. What we individually viewed as our own personal space may not be considered so in other people’s minds.
According to Sommer, ‘personal space refers to an area with invisble boundries surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not come’. This quote indicates that personal space can be viewed as a very private thing and people like to keep unwanted people (or perhaps even the public) out of it.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
From one of the group member’s perliminary idea, we began to explore the notion of personal space in relation to the arms and hands and how this can change movement around a person.
MODULE TWO DESIGN --------------
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
BRIEF
We were primarily concerned with the following issues: - SENSITIVITY - PROTECTION / SELF DEFENCE - HANDS / ARMS AND THEIR ROLES - FORM - MOVEMENT / FLEXIBILITY - INFLATABLE AND PANELISED
The brief for the design is to: ‘Work in groups to design and develop the idea of a second skin. During this module (Module 2), students will focus on the effects that the second skin will produce and explore ideas of personal spaces. Students will use 3D scanning techniques to digitise their body and use the digital model as the context of their design. Students will focus on specific Rhino modelling tools and technique appropriate to their design. At the end of the module, students will make a prototype of their design to test out the effects.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
An aspect of personal space, which we were told to consider, was the fact that it can shift and change depending on the body part and side of the body in focus. Other considerations included the idea that the body is static and that we may want to design a second skin that encloses sound or own space – to “create an atmosphere”. It was shown how different design effects could be achieved by taking a single object and multiplying it (for example a pattern).
PRECENDENT STUDY - PANELING
The Bloomberg pavilion by Akihila Hirata The 'bloomberg pavilion', an outdoor installation designed by japanese architect, Akihila Hirata. The pavilion could be described as a triangular enclosure with a folded sky. The form of pavilion is derived from the structure of a tree. The paneling is comprised of isosceles triangles. And a triangular footprint connects the 'branches' together, and with crisp planar walls begins to unfold at the roof plane into a series of pleats.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
PRECENDENT STUDY - SLEEVE TYPES
These sleeves were created to protect young women’s modesty by being long and covering bare flesh. Thus protecting their own personal space and morals. This idea is also communicated in our own design - however we aren’t covering up bare flesh to ensure people’s morals are intact, instead we are hoping to giver the wearer more personal space.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Also, this idea of a sleeve that is wider at the wrist can also be seen in 18th century fashion. However the sleeves here were much less structured at the wrists, instead the wrists were more flirty and feminine because of the materials used (such as lace).
PRECENDENT STUDY - SLEEVE TYPES
Here are other examples of existing inflatable designs related to clothing (sleeves and other areas). They further gave the impression that sleeves needn’t be a single, uniform form – that it could be composed of visually separate sections but still be one system.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
They also gave us the idea of the type of shape the inflatable components of our design could have.
PRECENDENT STUDY - PINECONE
After we were told to reconsider our design idea for our final proposal we bgan looking at organic objects that can represent our first design. A pinecone consists of layers, that work together harmoniously to create a shape similar to our own first design. A pinecone is stiff and hard, difficult to break unless you break off one singular component. We believe this represents self defence or protection - one of our design brief constraints - well.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
PRELIMINARY DESIGN IDEAS
Hands are usually associated with intimate interaction with other people such as holding hands with a lover, placing one’s hands over a loved ones’ (family, friend etc.) to offer comfort – all of which are conducted with those who are to some extent “emotionally close” to the person. Other forms of contact with unfamiliar people include handshakes, but these are only momentary and are usually seen as an act of obligation rather than one of desire.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
By making the link between ‘sensitivity’, ‘social norms’ and ‘personal space’, we have come up with a design proposal. Since there is an increasing amount of sensitivity starting from the area below the elbow until the fingertips (most sensitive), we have produced the following structure of the 2nd skin. It would be the narrowest at the top, widest at the wrist area and would be worn around the forearm. Also, it would be worn on both arms.
PROTOTYPING
Â
This is the first model we created, it is an exploration of of the inflatable component in our design. After creating the triangular shape, we learnt that making a template for a desired shape may be difficult, as when it is inflated (see second picture) the shape is warped. This knowledge can be useful when we create firstly our prototype and then our final design as we will understand the difficulties that come with creating an inflatable system.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Above is the panel and fold system that we designed to be on the exterior of the inflatable system. Through making a physical model we realised something that we didn’t incoporate into our design - that you need to create a flat 2D surface with one side with a tab that can be attached to another side to build the final 3D object.
From this exercise, we were further able to see how the appearance of the deflated version of the model differed from that of the inflated version. We also observed that the arrangement of the panel and fold system component may change too as the inflatable changes shape/ form (given that the panel and fold system is attached to the inflatable).
REFINING DESIGN IDEAS
We decided in order for us to further explore our first model in Rhino, we had to explore both the paneling system and inflatable system on their own.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
We changed the object that was panelised (two of the sides verticle to eachother are now holes). Furthermore, we made our second skin longer to now cover up to just beneath a person’s armpit. This means that the second skin would become more like a sleeve and protect the wearer more than before.
However, we are unsure of the final effect. We find it to be too large, clunky and not representative of our ideas as much. In order for us to move forward in our design, we decided to revert back to our original form of one shape.
REFINING DESIGN IDEAS
We decided after feedback from our tutor in the week 5 evaluation that the best way for our design to move forward was to revist our original idea and create two uniform but also singular designs to sit on the arms.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
We felt that this new design is more imposing on a larger scale and the more we re-thinked our design the more we realised we had to push ideas of scale to help us move forward as designers.
There was major difference however between our first design and this proposed design - this final design consists of a folded base and then panelised small inflatable objects. We have decided to change our systems around to get a more puffed out design, whilst still remaining true to our design brief and images that we wish to carry out.
MODULE THREE FABRICATION --------------
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques Q: Describe one aspect of the recent shift in the use of digital technology from design to fabrication? How does the fabrication process effects your second skin project? In design, computer programs such as CAD have moved real-life drawing to computerised drawing, offering clarity and precision. One form of two dimensional drawing has replaced another, and thus the outcomes look generally much the same. Also, CAD/CAM can create objects such as phones or engine blocks using 3D modelling software, and makes a designer’s job easier and more streamlined.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
FINAL DESIGN
Our design relates to our notion of the personal space of the hand and the panel/ fold and inflatable systems. Our design idea is to create one large inflatable second skin that had panelised triangle objects on it that are also inflatable. The outcome would be a design that gives the wearer a level of comfort and also personal space.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
The spikes decrease in size the higher up the arm you go. This symbolises the hand’s sensitivity the further down the arm and closer to the hand. Our design responds directly to our brief of personal space, whilst also encompasing various things we have learnt in both modules one and two.
When we created the prototype, we decided to use less spikes to a) see if using less spikes would still create an effective shape and b) to be more efficient with our prototype
FIRST PROTOTYPE
WIth this prototype we decided to use obaque, black plastic to be dramatic and best represent our ideas. However, the final outcome proved that black was not the colour we wished to move forward, as it looked too emotionally dark, mysterious and perhaps too threatening.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Furthermore, we encountered issues with the soldering iron when we first tried to use and therefore used tape. We found the outcome to look clumsy and unfinshed and resolved to no longer use the type of soldering iron (or heat press) that we were using and instead buy one with a thin needle end.
MATERIALITY
For our second prototype, we decided to use clear plastic to create the inflatable. We chose to do this for several reasons; firstly, the clear plastic reveals the arm inside, symbolising the vulnerability yet also the protection that the inflatable offers. Also, the clear plastic is a metaphor for a barrier that can’t be seen all of the time, like personal space, yet is ever there.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Over the course of creating our second prototype we tried to use different types of clear plastic such as dry cleaning bags and then finally book covering plastic. We encountered some issues when using the thin dry cleaning bags, the seals were messy and there were a lot of holes in them when using the soldering iron. The book covering plastic was more sturdy and easier to use. Although the dry cleaning bags were a lighter plastic and could create a inflatable that had a lot of movement.
PROCESS
Here, we are cutting out the panels individually, using a paper template. We were sure to leave an edge around the line of the panel so we could solder the plastic together accurately.
This is how we joined the panels together using a soldering iron.
This is a photo of joining the edges of the spikes together using the soldering iron.
Using a larger soldering iron, we were unable to create neat enough seams to attach the spikes to the panels and therefore used tape also to supplement the remaining panels.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
This is an attempt at using the soldering iron to create holes in the plastic for the air to travel through. Also, this would hopefully join the spikes with the panels.
PROTOTYPE ATTEMPT TWO
Some issues we encountered: Using the soldering iron at times was difficult as the one we used to try and attach the triangles was too hot and temperamental. Therefore, the next time we create our prototype we will use a smaller soldering iron to ensure we can attach all of the triangles properly and not have to rely on tape to attach the last few triangles.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
This time around, we used what we learnt when we made our last prototype and decided to use a soldering iron as our preferred tool. Our tutor told us that this tool would enable us to get the most accurate and clean seals in the inflatable and thus we decided to no longer use a heat clamping tool to make our seals.
PROTOTYPE ATTEMPT TWO
We decided that the plastic we used was too rigid, and also that we needed a better process to attach the spikes. Furthermore, we resolved to make our design larger in size to exaggerate our ideas of protection, defence and the importance of the hands.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
PROTOTYPE ATTEMPT THREE
Our design has changed this week, however slightly, but we have encountered some issues relating to materials and thus have been limited in our dimensions. Originally we decided to enlarge our design by at least 150% but the only thin enough plastic that was available was not available in this size. Thus we had to modify our design once again. However, this deisgn still produces the desired effect and is more exaggerated than our previous inflatable.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
PROTOTYPE ATTEMPT THREE
In this prototype, we resolved that there were too many panels, creating a bubble shape, which didn’t fit our organic form. Here we used 6 panels and therefore decided for our final model that we should only use 4 with 5 spike on each.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
The plastic that we used here was celophane and was much lighter and deflated and inflated better than the book cover plastic. However it was too small for a larger model so we decided to search for another type of plastic.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
FINAL - ISOMETRIC DRAWINGS
DIMENSIONS - 1200 MM X 600 MM WIDTH OF OPENING - 7CM
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
FINAL
Our final design has four panels, with five spike on each panel.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
It is three times larger than our first prototype and we feel that the effect therefore is greater.
PROCESS
In order to attach the spikes with a soldering iron, we had to use a MDF board between the spikes and the plastic in certain places.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
Cutting the excess
We used a hairdryer and two plastic tubes attached to it to inflate the models.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
We found that the more air we pumped into the models, the more the seams were under pressure. We also noticed the change in form depending on how much the models were inflated.
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS S2 2013 HARRIET CRAIG, YINGLI LIU, ABBY ZAPLAN
This change in form is a metaphor for when you become more threatened or scared when someone becomes closer to you in your personal space. You can image that if someone was too close to you, you could inflate the model greater as a warning sign.