Stanley_Computational Design Portfolio by Stanley H. Ni

Portfolio

Stanley H. Ni

01 Möbius Bench Hangzhou & Shanghai, 2018 Robotic Fabrication Workshop Group Work Team: Chidi Wang, Jingyi Wang, Chenxian Wu, Jiale Qin Instructor: Shu Chuan Yao, Hao Meng, Lin Chen Contribution: Research, Material Experiment & Design

Möbius Bench Project explores how the advanced fabrication techniques affect the design process, and aims to find a universal workflow of metal casting with robotic rod cutting technique. Started from the investigation of cutting edge robotic fabrication techniques and traditional metal casting methods, we came up with the workflow that combines the advantages of both fabrication methods, with Grasshopper scripting, to build a metal bench.

HENGRONG NI

Möbius Bench Robotic Rod Cutting, Shanghai, 2018. Photograph: ROBOTICPLUS.AI

Robotic Rod Cutting Workflow

GH Scripting of Rod Cutting

Möbius Bench Project explores how the advanced fabrication techniques affect the design process, and aims to find a universal workflow of metal casting with robotic rod cutting technique. While the conventional machines rely on straight wires and are thus limited to creating piecewise ruled surfaces, users are now able to produce the complex double-curvature surfaces by synchronizing two industrial robots, with the EPS foam cutting plugin in Rhino3d Grasshopper, developed by ROBOTICPLUS.AI.

Flexible rod cutting requires knowledge from different fields, including mathematics, physics and computer science. In this project, the whole digital definition was from studying the elastic features of a rod, and metal blades to define the parameters. The geometry was divided into several pieces to be fabricated individually before assembled together. Each pieces were then exploded into several surfaces, which were the input data for the Grasshopper scripting. The Grasshopper scripting of EPS foam cutting has 4 main parts: input surface analysis, rod curvature simulation, cutting process settings and robots settings. First, the input surfaces were analyzed and calculated into the paths for rod simulation. Then the paths were translated into the movement of the robots. Finally, the fabrication process settings were added and the KRL files were generated to both of the master robot and slave robot.

This project started from the investigation of cutting edge robotic fabrication techniques, as well as traditional metal casting methods. During the research phase, discussions were developed around the potentials of fabrication techniques within the discipline of architectural design. Projects like Structural Stripes by THEVERYMANY and the Stressed Skins by CITA deepened our understanding of the materiality of metal, and we came up with the workflow that combines robotic rod cutting and sand casting.

Define Boundary-Box & Divide Input Surface 1

Simulate Rod Curvature to Generate Path 2

1 Output KRL File 2

Advanced Settings for Cutting Process Robotic Rod Cutting, Zhejiang University

3 4

Process Research

Design

Simulation

Rationalization

Robotic Rod Cutting

Assembly

Casting

Sanding

Fabrication Process Settings

Tool Case Study

Material Experiment

Rhino

Grasshopper + Millipede

Output

KUKA Robots

Glue

Foam Pieces

Foam Model

Sand Mold

Sand Paper

KRL Method

HENGRONG NI

C# For GH

Initial Design

Improved Form

KRL Files

Raw Metal Result

Final Result Möbius Bench

Experiments & Design

Final Product & Further Discussion

Before designing the final product, there were two key questions: how to cast metal from the foam model, and what are the formal limitations of the rod cutting technique?

Never before have there been so many techniques and methods at our disposal, where lies the potential to push the boundaries of architectural design. To explore the potentials of each advanced technique requires the contemporary designers to comprehensively understand its advantages and limitations, and use their design skills to bring different disciplines together in the design process.

A material experiment was conducted to figure out the first question. Learning from the traditional sand casting method, we proposed a similar method that lets the melted metal directly burns and replaces the foam model, since the foam models could be quickly fabricated by the rod cutting technique. The experiment succeeded and therefore we could start the fabrication process.

Although the project was limited with double curvature surfaces this time, there’s the possibility that more complexity might be achieved by using multiple double curvature surfaces to fabricated more complicated geometries. Till now, there’s already a research developed in ETH Zurich, RoboCut: Hot-wire Cutting with Robot-controlled Flexible Rods, that used surface approximation to achieve great freedom of shape.

After communicating with the software team, we were informed that we could only use double-curvature surfaces in the design process, which set the formal limitation for this project. Then we came up with the design of Möbius Bench, and used Grasshopper Milliepede plugin to analyze the structural stability and optimize the form.

Diagram: Robotic Rod Cutting,by ROBOTICPLUS.AI

HENGRONG NI

Möbius Bench

02 Forbidden City Un-Forbidden Beijing, 2019 Making Discourse Project Individual Work Instructor: Carl Lostritto

This project explores how temporary architecture react to social events, by generating forms from traditional architecture with tectonics of new material. With deep concerns for the disadvantaged people in society, this project proposes temporary shelters in the Forbidden City, for the homeless tenets forced out of their homes during the gentrification campaign, with forms aimed to deconstruct the hierarchical nature of traditional Chinese architecture. On Nov 18th, 2017, a fire broke out in an illegally constructed apartment in Beijing and killed 19 people, followed by a city-wide 40-day gentrification campaign, where tenets of illegal apartments were asked to move out in a very short period of time. After thorough research of traditional Chinese architecture, forms of different hierarchies were extracted and mixed together through a series of fibrous morphology studies. This project is aimed to show the potential that, design enables advanced technology to promote more social-political engagement of architecture.

HENGRONG NI

Forbidden City Un-Forbidden Why Parts of Beijing Looks Like a Devastated Warzone, Beijing, 2017. Photograph: Bryan Denton

Formula of Juzhe

Project Diagram

The formula on the right is developed by me, from analysis of construction diagrams in the Yingzaofashi, an architecture guidebook written 1000 years ago.

Event

举折

Formula of Juzhe

L: half the length of the section. H: the height of the roof. m: number of beams under one side of the roof.

(Developed by me)

Fire Accident

Illegal Apartments

Event

Gentrification

Tenents

While it became an aesthetic feature of traditional Chinese architecture later, this method was created with functional concerns.

AESTHETIC INDIFFERENCE

Homeless

First, it enables the rain and snow to slide off faster from the roof, as the top of the roof is steeper. Second, it creates more space below the periphery of the roof, because the bottom of the roof is smoother.

悬山顶

(5th)

扶脊木 Ridge 望板脑椽

Proposal

Site

Wooden Tectonics of Traditional Chinese Architecture (Ranked 5th 悬山顶 as an Example)

Design Studies

Proposal

Shelters

Forbidden City

AESTHETIC INDIFFERENCE Technology

Function

Dignity

The aesthetic feature created byJuzhe is that, it makes the towering roof look more majestic, as well as more elegant, as if the roof is floating on the rooms below.

Design

Cultural Material

花架椽

Traditional Chinese Architecture Roof Forms

檐椽飞椽博缝板

Emporer

Extract

Commoners

Hierarchies 小连檐

Majestic

Humble

大连檐

脊瓜柱角背

Aesthetics

With Ridge

Study 1 : Offset

檐檩

三架梁

燕尾枋

金瓜柱

檐垫板

M √

穿插方

随梁枋

檐枋

Juzhe

Ridge Wooden Tectonics

抱头梁五架梁

Deconstruct

No Ridge

Mix

檐柱

Structure

Metal Frame Study 2 : Reverse

Scafolding

Glass Fiber

Reinfrocement

Carbon Fiber

Structural Layers

Material

H/40

H5 = a5 * H

H/80

3 Reverse H4 = a4 * H

H3 = a3 * H

H2 = a2 * H

H1 = a1 * H

L HENGRONG NI

Reverse

H/20

H= 2/3 L

H/10

Offset

Computational Winding Method

Bio-Inspired Fibrous Tectonics

Robotic Filament Winding

Technology

Robotic Fabrication Study 3 : 3 Reverse

Design Studies Forbidden City Un-Forbidden

09 11

Fibrous Tectonics Morphology Because natural and human-made fiber composites share many physical properties and structural logic, many studies of the application of FRP in architectural design are related to biology. This project, however, proposes a new approach of culture and aesthetics. With the frames extracted from traditional Chinese roof sections, the morphology studies of FRP are aimed to generate new forms that resemble the traditional forms from some perspectives, while breaking its the hierarchical taboos by combining different typologies. Three studies are developed step by step to explore the possibilities of fibrous tectonics. While the frames ensure the resemblance to the traditional Chinese architecture, different computational methods of the lay-up and filament-winding process of FRP lead to surprising formal results. For example, in the first morphology study, t represents the offset value of the FRP lay-up, resulting in different curvature of the roof, as demonstrated in the diagram below. {𝑎𝑎! }

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Forbidden City Un-Forbidden

03 Altered Efficiency Shanghai, 2020 Individual Work

This project is a critique of the inhumane algorithms in current efficiency-oriented delivery apps. A lattice window for pure aesthetic purposes is designed to be a symbol of humanizing the digital labors in an ideal post-Internet society. A heated discussion was sparked that delivery workers have become a high-risk occupation, as delivery workers are encouraged by the delivery apps to risk their lives to increase their efficiency. With the idea that the pursuit for aesthetics is what distinguishes human from machines, this project analyzed the aesthetic aspect of minimal surfaces, and made them into pure ornaments for the aesthetic experience of the delivery workers. By portraying an utopia where ornaments are carefully designed to provide aesthetic experience for digital labors, this project emphasizes the concerns for humanity in the development of technology, calling for a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and power in the future.

HENGRONG NI

Altered Efficiency Delivery Worker in Heavy Rain, Shanghai, 2020. Photograph: Hengrong Ni

“Altered Efficiency”: Lattice Window Generated by Minimal Surface

Group A

A-1

A-2

A-3

A-4

A-5

A-6

Group B

B-1

B-2

B-3

B-4

B-5

B-6

B-7

B-8

B-9

B-10

Why did the algorithm create such an evil system, where delivery workers are encouraged to risk their lives to increase their efficiency? By designing a lattice window purely for aesthetic experience, this project questions the ethics behind the efficiency-oriented algorithms in delivery apps, with the idea that the pursuit for aesthetics is what distinguishes human from machines. The patterns of traditional Chinese lattice window and the minimal surface are combined together to a metaphor of “Altered Efficiency“. Historically, the grids on Chinese lattice windows were used to hold the oiled paper, letting the light in while keeping the privacy and warmth. Later on, as people add more ornaments and put it in the gardens, the lattice window became a pure ornament for aesthetic purpose, without the oiled paper on it. Minimal surfaces are part of the generative design toolbox used by modern designers because they unlock nature’s maximum structural efficiencies. Similarly, this project turns minimal surfaces, generated from Chinese lattice window patterns, to a pure ornament, for the aesthetic experience of the delivery workers, the humanized digital labors.

1. Chinese Lattice Window

2. Extracted Geometry

7. Naked Points As Anchors

8. Kangaroo Mesh Relaxation Simulation

The method to generate minimal surface from Chinese lattice window patterns is a 2D to 3D process realized by mesh relaxation, as demonstrated in the diagram below. The geometry is extracted from the patterns of Chinese lattice window patterns and creates the basic meshes. Then some meshes are added or deleted according to different needs of the study, and all combined into one mesh. With the Weaverbird and Kangaroo plugins for Rhino/Grasshopper, the mesh is “relaxed“ into minimal surface, whose grids are eventually made into lattice window. 3. Extrude + Top & Bottom Surfaces

4. Delete Or Add Meshes

Group C

C-1

C-2

Group D

D-1

D-2

Group G

G-1 (C-1)

G-2

C-3

C-4

E-1

E-2

G-3

G-4

C-5

C-6

9. Mesh Frames Extraction

Group E

Group F

F-1

F-2

10. Mesh Pipe & Subdivision

G-5

G-6

5. Combine To One Mesh

6. Weaverbird Subdivision

11. Analysis & 3D-Print Result

Altered Efficiency

HENGRONG NI

Altered Efficiency

04 Architectural Works Diagrams & Mappings Physical Models & Digital Renderings

Immersed in architecture discipline for 8 years, I developed a keen sense of spatial matters and a well-rounded skill set for design. Making physical models is one of my strengths: hand-making, laser-cutting, 3D printing, and robotic fabrication. It is my dream to apply my architecture skill set to interdisciplinary works to stimulate creativeness in the development of advanced technologies. In my spare time, I like to explore different computational modeling softwares like Blender, C4D, Grasshopper 4 Rhino, Houdini Engine...

HENGRONG NI

The Cooperators

Diagrams & Mappings

Entrance

60°

55°

50°

45°

40°

35°

30°

25°

20°

15°

10°

5°

Changing Rooms

Entrance

Changing Rooms

Barber Shop

Warm Pools & Sauna

50m Swimming Lanes

Cafe & Dinning

-1F Plan 1:500

Physical Models

Renderings