STUDIO AIR PART B
INGRID AAGENAES 618713 SEMESTER 1
B.1 - RESEARCH FIELD
“FABPOD” - RMIT DESIGN HUB
BY MARK BURRY, JANE BURRY, NICK WILLIAMS, JOHN CHERREY, DANIEL DAVIS,
ALEX PENA DE LEON
The Fab Pod is a meeting room designed with the intention to provide optimal acoustic. The geometry originates from a research done a few years earlier; “The responsive acoustic surface” workshop(1). This workshop was inspired by Gaudi`s use of hyperboloids in “Sagrada Familia”. The geometrical form reduces echo without creating an acoustic dead space(1).
The geometric rules, established by Daniel Davis, guaranteed planar intersections between the hyperboloids. All the hyperboloids are then distributed on a sphere pointing towards the spheres center(1). Several spheres that are intersected is the foundation for the final form of the project. Where the mid sphere is left and the others trimmed away. The shape is panelized using a spherical algorithm created by Davis.
Figure 1. FabPod construction. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www.danieldavis. com/fabpod/
References: 1. Davis, Daniel. FabPod. June 2013. Found at http://www.danieldavis.com/fabpod/
Figure 2. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www.danieldavis.com/fabpod/
Figure 3. FabPod working area. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www.danieldavis.com/fabpod/
B.1 - RESEARCH FIELD
TESSELATION “VAOUSSOIR CLOUD” BY IWAMOTO SCOTT “Can we create objects that assemble themselves - that zip together like a strand of DNA or that have the ability for transformation embedded into them?” Skylar Tibbitis (1)
Self-assembly designs have been related to parametric modelling. With only a few sets of instructions a form can be shaped (2). The Voltadom was an installation created for MIT’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (3). The installation is a creation containing hundreds of vaults, together forming a thickened surface articulation and a range of oculi that penetrate the hallway providing views and light (3).
The curved vaulted surface acts as a surface panel that is created by transforming the vaults into trips (3). This makes it feasible and quite easy to fabricate. The project also shows how a simple algorithm can be used to create a range of different outcomes.
References: 1. Skylar Tibbitis. Ted Talks. https://www.ted.com/speakers/skylar_tibbits 2. Achim Menges. Material Computation: Higher Integration in Morphogenetic Design. John Wiley & Sons, 2 Apr 2012 - Architecture – Page 144 3. VoltaDom: MIT 2011. SJET. Found at http://sjet.us/MIT_VOLTADOM.html
Figure 4. VoltaDom: MIT 2011. SJET. Found at http://sjet.us/MIT_VOLTADOM.html
B.2 - CASE STUDY 1
TESSELATION “SKYBAR TIBBITIS” BY VOLTADOM SPECIES
PATTERN TYPE: HEXAGON
PATTERN ON SURFACE: TRIANGLES
PATTERN ON SURFACE: CIRCLES
PATTERN ON SURFACE: RECTANGLE
HIGH AMPLITUDE
PATTERN TYPE: TRIANGLES PANEL C
HIGH DENSITY
B.3 - REVERSED ENGENEERING
“FABPOD” - RMIT DESIGN HUB
BY MARK BURRY, JANE BURRY, NICK WILLIAMS, JOHN CHERREY, DANIEL DAVIS,
ALEX PENA DE LEON
Figure 5. FabPod. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www. danieldavis.com/fabpod/
For the reversed engineering I chose FabPod because it works with geometric rules in a way that it guarantees planar surfaces, something that is important for fabrication. The use of hyperboloids have created the ability to optimize the function of the space.
Figure 6+7. Hyperboloids and Spheres. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www. danieldavis.com/fabpod/
I had to start of with creating 7 points in order to create intersecting
All of these points became the center of spheres, where the middle sphere is the one to be the cutting component.
All surfaces outside the middle sphere is trimmed, leaving this shape.
Two bounding boxes on top and on the bottom of the middle sphere is used to trim away, leaving 8 surfaces together as one shape.
B.3 - REVERSED ENGENEERING
The edges of the surfaces have to be created
Each of the eight surfaces have to be dealt with separately.
The points on the surface is related back to the shpere centre.
A vornoid pattern is created on each single surface.
This process is repeated in all the surfaces, creating a 3D model.
Cones are created from the vornoid pattern and circles are created and trimmed away in order to create the openings.
Figure 8. Parametric modeling. FabPod. Davis, Daniel. June 2013. Found at http://www.danieldavis.com/fabpod/
SHAPE VARIATIONS
CIRCLE -CONE RATIO
SIZE DIFFERENTIATION
POINT DISTRIBUTION
CIRCLE -CONE RATIO
DESIGN POTENTIAL
POINT DISTRIBUTION The surface gets an interesting look when the points are distributed in lines on one part on the surface and randomly on other parts of the surface. It can encourage different usage of the points.
CIRCLE OPENINGS The circle / cone opening have to be big enough in orger to be used for something (put something in it), but not bigger than the cone.
SIZE DIFFRENTIATION If the circles have different sizes they can easily be u different things. When designing the wall the ratio b smallest and biggest circle have to be carefully selec get a smooth surface.
used used for between the cted in order to
OPEN VS ENCLOSED SPACE The shpere trim method allows for a lot of interesting shapes that can create shelter and openings in an interesting way.
B.5 - TECHNIQUE: PROTOTYPE
PROTOTYPE
I decided to create a prototype showing the cells of the design and how they connect together. As I have been using the same “sphere trimming� technique to develop shapes as the FabPod project, I know that all the surfaces are planar. This is very important because all surfaces have to be planar in order for them to be feasible to fabricate. I chose 5 cells and unrolled and numbered them in grasshopper.
One thing I did not recognize when unrolling the pieces in grasshopper was that two of the circle connections were cutting one of the smallest pieces in half. The numbering system ended up not matching with the actual model. I figured this out after I had sent it off to fabrication, and had to go back and match up all pieces all over again. As I won`t be using the same connections for the final project this won`t be a problem.
CONNECTIONS The connections I used in the prototype is a circle that slots into each piece. The idea was to avoid using glue as I made the slut size the same as the material thickness so they would fit perfectly together. I found out after building it that the connections are not very strong.
The bottom pieces, especially, started sagging as they are carrying too much load. I had to use glue for the bottom pieces in order for it to stand up. I think a fixed or welded connection would be a lot stronger and more suitable for this design.
B.5 - TECHNIQUE: PROTOTYPE
FRONT
MATERIAL I used boxboard for my prototype, but for the final design the idea is to use some kind of wood. This will reflect back to nature compared to a plastic material.
BACK
TESTING WITH LIGHT
B.6 - TECHNIQUE: PROPOSAL
SITE AND BRIEF
MERRI CREEK OBSERVATIONS Along the path next to Merri Creek, not far from the eastern freeway, there is a wall, only about a meter high. This wall explains the history of the Merri Creek with pictures and writing. This site has a rich Aboriginal past (1). The Wurundjeri Tribe was one of the first aboriginal tribes in in Melbourne and settled along the Merri Creek (1). This importance of the site has not been highlighted in a very significant way as the wall itself is not very attention drawing.
One of the main activities along the trail is walking, running and bicycling. As the trail is highly used along the day, at night it is quiet and dark. There is nothing lighting up the trial and is therefore not being used a lot at night. In Norway, the country I am from, where hiking, walking and cross country skiing is a big part of peoples lives, a lot of trails are lightened up at night, much because the sun goes down so early and rises late, especially in winter. In Melbourne it is the same, especially in winter. Will lights along the trial encourage people to use the trail more at night?
References: 1. Park notes – Yarra Bend Park. Parkweb. Found 31.04.15 at http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_ file/0004/315625/Park-note-Yarra-Bend-Park-Aboriginal-History.pdf
PROPOSED SITE MEMORIAL WALL
DESIGN LOCATION I have chosen to put the design along the path, close to the Eastern Freeway. This is an active area for walking and bicycling. There is also a little park next to the path and it looked like they are about to build a viewing platform at the site. The design will be easy to see from the paths around and also an attractive place to relax and spend time.
B.6 - TECHNIQUE: PROPOSAL
DESIGN PROPOSAL
The “FabPod� project used cells within a wall to optimize the acoustic within the design. By exploring with using the same kind of cells and by the use of tessellation I came up with a lot of interesting shapes and forms that can be used on the site. The intent with my design is to create a mini museum in or-
der to highlight the aboriginal history. This will be an enclosed space where some of the cells contains a glass tube with a little item in it, and some of the cells contains writing and quotes. The design will go from
enclosed to open and continue along the path. At the same time the design will provide some lighting to the site where the cones here
will contain lights.
B.7 - LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES For Part B of this subject I have spent most of my time understanding and learning grasshopper; how to use it and a how to get design ideas from digital outcomes. As the brief given is very diffuse and open I tried to get an idea early of what direction I want to take my design. The age of digital tools have the given us the ability to take design to a new level something I have tried to think about during the process. It have taken a long time to understand how to generate a variety of different designs, but I feel like I leart a lot from the reversed engineered exercise. As I have spent a lot of time learning and understanding grasshopper the next step would be to use the different algorithms and specify each part of my script in order to make it fit perfectly into the site. I also want to start bringing the environment in to my design by using wind and sun to generate a specific form and shape for the design. As part B have mainly been exploring and learning grasshopper I am excited to actually bring the design part into the project.
B.8 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHBOOK I tried many times to do the reversed engineering of the FabPod Project and I want to highlight this here in the algorithmic sketchbook because it was such a good learning experiment for me and this is what have helped me the most in terms of learning grasshopper. First I created all 3 layers of the structure (walls, columns and back) as a half sphere. Then I intersected several parts of this structure and tried to trim it. This did not work as grasshopper is not working in that way. I also tried to create the surfaces in Rhino and from there applying cones on to the surface. In this way I lost the planarity of the shape, and they did not connect together.
REFERENCES
ACHIM MENGES. MATERIAL COMPUTATION: HIGHER INTEGRATION IN MORPHOGENETIC DESIGN. JOHN WILEY & SONS, 2 APR 2012 - ARCHITECTURE – PAGE 144 DAVIS, DANIEL. FABPOD. JUNE 2013. FOUND AT HTTP://WWW.DANIELDAVIS.COM/FABPOD/ SKYLAR TIBBITIS. TED TALKS. HTTPS://WWW.TED.COM/SPEAKERS/SKYLAR_ TIBBITS VOLTADOM: MIT 2011. SJET. FOUND AT HTTP://SJET.US/MIT_VOLTADOM. HTML