Zhuoqi xu part b (jacqui)

STUDIO AIR STUDENT NAME: ZHUOQI XU STUDENT NUMBER: 755991 TUTOR: FINN WARNOCK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART B: CONCEPTUALISATION B.1 Research Field B.2 Case Study 1.0 B.3 Case Study 2.0 B.4 Technique: Development B.5 Technique: Prototypes B.6 Technique: Proposal B.7 Learning Ojectives and Outcomes B.8 Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches

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B.1

RESEARCH FIELD As for research field, i found a few parts that interested me, When I started to do parametric design, rather than only chose one part, we decided to combine different techniques into one design. Under this idea, I selected three categories in research fields, sectioning, folding and patterning..

Strips and Folding: This is an algorithmic technique in which a single surface is transformed into a volumn. It is a succesion of transformation in which the counity of the material is emphasisedยน. The main form of this technique is curve and it is common used in the ceiling design. Meanwhile, compare with other techniques, this can reduce weight and thinness of the ceiling material. In this view, strips and folding is more economical for it can reduce waste when fabricating. In terms of design, for instance, Slicing Opacity Pavilion shows the folding shape for it can be demonstrated from its layers of sections.

From bottom to top, each layer is connected by each other and support the whole structure, in addition, it becomes smaller from bottom to top. On the other hand, during the design process, folding can be changed, added or omitted

Fig 1 Front view of Slicing Opacity Pavilion

1. Nikolas Davies, Erkki Jokiniemi, Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction, 2011, Access 17th March, < https://books.google.com.au/books?id=r4R2Sl_hbTwC&pg=PA405&lpg=PA405&dq=strip+and+folding+architecture&source=bl&ots=0Hv987cS7D&sig=Iv6uldyW4kV8aTXZBljP9Zx4dPM0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ84yeuMnTAhXGjLwKHcq0BeY4ChDoAQhAMAY#v=onepage&q=strip%20and%20folding%20architecture&f=false>.

Sectioning:

Sectioning focus on using pragmatic way to makes the geometries and form of the architecture better fabricating. It often use planes to offset at a specific destance apart². The Institute for Computational Design (ICD) demonstrates an alternative approach to computational design for both physical behavior and material characteristics. This structure is characterized by a shell structure supported by the elastic bending behavior of birch plywood strips. It contains delamination and tolerants higher damage compare to other structures.

Another benefit is its automated and low-cost manufacturing.

This benefit depends on geometry, during the computational design, it reduces waste in fabrication owes to accurate calculation. Meanwhile, during the process of construction, this is a very lightweight system because of storing energy and morphological differentiation of the joint locations. When we use sectioning in the design, it is effective and economical in digital production.

Fig 2 Interior view of ICD

2. Architecture 101: What Is a Section?, architizer, , 2016, Access 17th March, < https://architizer.com/blog/ 5 architecture-101-what-is-a-section/>.

B.2.1

CASE STUDY 2.0

Project: Banq Restaurant Designer: Office dA Date: 2008 Location: Boston

Fig 3 Front view of Banq Restaurant Banq is a restaurant which locates on the base of the old banking hal in Boston.

It gives guests strong impression on its wall and ceilings, they are decorated using smoothing curve shape made from unique pieces of three-quarter-inch birch plywood adhered together in a scenario that likes to a puzzleÂł. This is a good example of using sectioning technique in parametric design with various ways.

In order to create the walls and ceiling into a total effect, firstly, a point grid should be established on the surfaceâ ´, and the locations of points depend on the form of the surface. After that, these points are moved in vertical direction to create different levels in Z-dimension. To setion the urface, perpindicular lines are needed to created on the referenced surface. Finally, using a digraid structure incorporated into curved surface. Digraid structure is important as it allows to adjust when parameter changes.

This project is interesting for its expansion, it is an excellent example of parametric sectioning. I think this unique form of each wooden panel inspires me focus on the lighting effect. and give an idea of making the ceiling fluid and moveable. The whole structure is consist of the load bearing columns, the interior walls and the main structural ribs across each other. Also, this structure is easy to fabricate and covered by a wood-slatted system, which pushes me to use organic materials.

3. BanQ / Office dA , archdaily, 2009, Accessed 20th March, <http://www.archdaily.com/42581/ banq-office-da>.

4. Mihai, Amazing Restaurant Interior Design : Banq Restaurant in Boston, 2009, Access 20th 6 March, < http://freshome.com/2009/11/30/amazing-restaurant-interior-design-banq-restaurant-in-boston/>.

Fig 4 interior view of Banq Restaurant

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B.2.2

EVOLUTION CRITERIA

LIGHTWEIGHT In order to better installation, lightweight structure provides both visual effect and convenience. That is to say material should satisfy thinness and functionality. This inspires us in the context of a ceilikng feature as the perforations would conform to the material qualities of timber veneer. Meanwhile, lightweight also reduce wastes.

LIGHT EFFECT When people insert lights inside the project, it can produce very interesting visuals effects and provide the project with so much more depth and variety. When lights go through the strips, there will be leave different shapes of shadow. In our model, we tried use different colors of lights and block some grids, with different levels of ribs, it showed different levels of brightness.

AESTHETICS Aesthetics is an important issue in architecture design, it will directly effect people's impression. It becomes a challenge for designer, as shows in this pavilion, it looks simple and spreads from the central point. In this case, we may consider to use simple geometrical shape but create an effect of vividness.

CONSTRUCTIBILITY There are always quite a lot differences between digital models and physical ones. Therefore, we need to consider the process of fabrication in advance which means we may avoid creating too complex panels at the same level.

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B.2.3

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ITERATION MATRIX

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B.3.1

CASE STUDY 2.0 Project: The Absolute Tower Designer: Burka Architects & MAD studio Date: 2012 Location: Mississauga

Fig 5 Outview of the Absolute Tower The absolute tower is one of the famous architectures in Toronto, it wins the first international design competition held in the Toronto area in over 40 years, the architect put forth a radical design for a curving and biologically inspired design. From the out view, it is a central core, a straigntforward and economic structure with a glass facade. I think this is one of the project's successes, to satisfy people's visual requirements.

Another unique feature of the project is rotating structure. The rotating design means that every floor was unique and it requires extensive collaboration among all the construction disciplines throughout the process. The first and tallest tower starts to twist from below and increases its rotation initially by 1 degree to a maximum of 8 degrees rotation per floor for a total cumulative floor plate rotation of 209 degrees. For the second tower, the rotation was 4 degrees for every floor for a total cumulative floor plate rotation of 200 degreesâ ľ.

For ceiling installation, I wanna design rotating shape using grasshopper, this shape looks lightweight, further more, this can connect with lighting effect. When lighting install in the rotating shape, it can reflect different shapes of shadow.

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5. Absolute World Towers, Mississauga, ctbuh, 2013, Accessed 20th March, < http://www.ctbuh. org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildingArchive2012/AbsoluteWorldTowersMississauga/tabid/3840/language/en-US/Default.aspx>

Fig 6 South view of the Absolute Tower

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B.3.2

REVERSE ENGINEERING

Step 1: Using the first definition to create a cylinder surface, with a curve to represent equally space and then generate the project along the curve.

Extruding the intersection events for the brep we set before will get the frame outcome.

Step 2: After copy amounts of curve in the straight direction, we need to rotate them. we input rotate and give an expression of rad.

Step 3: Because the surface is planar we can extract a frame from the surface and use it as the offset plane for its corresponding curve.

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Step 5: Then we need to create a solid with curve to achieve sectioning structure. After finishing all these steps, we can get the outcome.

Step 4: After finishing rotating the curve frame, we need to divide curves into equal length segments in order to create surface. Then create an interplotated curve though the points.

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B.4

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TECHNIQUE: DEVELOPMENT

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B.5.1

TECHNIQUE: PROTOTYPES

Group work is quite an effective way because we can collect every members' idea and combine the design more potential and complete.

In our group, Henry decides to use waffle strucuture, as he did waffle structure last semester, he thinks waffle can be better shown in fabrication and allows the edges of surface geometries.

This can reveal a potential to produce both surface and structure. And I want to do elegant curve shape surface of ceiling. I am focus on the folding, I want to create fold structure which can achieve a fluid and dynamic outcome in an surface therefore to further push the design possibility. Rather than make the flat ceiling, I use curve shape to decorate the surface and try to fit the original site. I wanna use strips form to reduce the thickness of the material, rather than massive structure, I prefer design a lightweight structure. And when I use curve shape for ceiling, there will be different heights to create different angles of shadows and lights.

Finally, we decide to combine our ideas together, on the base of waffle structure, we add folding curves intersect into rhombus grids. Meanwhile, we consider to connect lighting issue into ceiling design, using the broad lighting on the surface of ceiling, then the light can go through the different shapes and sizes of grids which can achieve different levels of brightness.

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B.5.2

MATERIAL TEST

PLASTIC: -Easy to work and shape, we think it should be flexible to make curve on the ceiling.

-Have a low production cost.

- Acceptable acoustic insulation, which can prevent noise from adjacent levels.

-Good thermal insulation, but most can not withstand very high temperatures⁶.

Fig 7 Our intial plastic work

Howevere, when we use plastic to fabricate our madel, the result made us disappointed, because some are not biodegradable or easily recyclable, and if they burn, are highly polluting with bad smelling.

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20 Plastic Properties Table, curbellplastics, 2011, Accessed 20th March, < https://www.curbellplastics.com/Research-Solutions/Plastic-Properties>

Then, we changed to a more organic material-plywood.

PLYWOOD: -Increased stability Plywood offers all the inherent advantages of the parent wood plus enhanced properties in its laminated structure.

-High impact resistance Being a wood based material, plywood has the ability to accommodate the occasional short-term overload; up to twice the design load. This is useful where seismic activity or cyclonic winds can occur. This property is also effective when used as ceiling installation. Plywood's laminated structure distributes loads from impact over a larger area on the opposite face, which effectively reduces the tensile stress.

-Surface dimensional stability The cross laminated construction of plywood ensures that plywood sheets remain relatively stable under changes of temperature and moisture. This is especially important in flooring and formwork construction where moisture exposure is very likely.

-High strength to weight ratio With high strength and stiffness to weight ratios, plywood is very cost effective to use in structural applications.

-Panel shear The panel shear of plywood is nearly double that of solid timber due its cross laminated structure. This makes plywood a highly effective material to use in gussets for portal frames, webs of fabricated beams and as bracing panelsâ ˇ.

7. Plywood, woodsolutions, 2011, Accessed 20th March, < https://www.woodsolutions.com.au/ Wood-Product-Categories/Plywood>

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B.5.3

IDEA SYNTHESIS

When we finish model making, we want to test the light effects. Waffle grids are cut into different sizes. Meanwhile we find the shadow in plywood model is more thick and darkness than plastic. We think this result reflects the depth variable of sectioning.

Then we discuss that under different situations, people have different requirements on lighting. For instance, in front of the screen, the lights should be a little bit darker than other spaces. So we add some block on the grids.

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Meanwhile, we find it is hard when using strobes and continuous lighting sources, especially if a halogen and pulse lamps. The greater the depth and the narrower the grid repectively, the narrower the lighting spot.

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B.6

PROPOSAL

Sometimes, when we get a design task, we often lask reasons for why we were doing things.

While running an algorithm that generates ideas which approximats a curve is intersting, it may lack meaning and for purely an aesthetic motive.

However, our case study had generated an interest which had a profound aspect on our direction. A ceiling installation certainly provides the opportunity to play with light and shadow effects.

We consider under different situations to create different levels of brightness to satisfy different requirements. Different level of ribs can effect different angles, and then guide lights into virable shadows.

By using the proposed technique of sectioning and folding, we will further develop the concept of the lighting effect on lightweight ceiling design. We hope to generate a piece of architecture that respopnds to the guests' requirements towards lighting.

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B.7

LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

During the past four weeks working on part B with my group, we develop a design concept, grasshopper technique etc, it is an exicting experience for me to enjoy the whole process, from generating ideas to physical model making. I think my knowledge and skills for digital model making had improved.

Feedback from presentation is that our model is massive and kinds of basic. This may due to we did not think deeply and were restricted to simple geometric design. Also, the material we chose was not lightweight enough. For the follwing tasks, I think much more exploration needs to be done not only for materials but also for structural itself. we will continue focus on our concept and connect with real life.

Because actually in real life, we should not only consider about digital technique, grasshopper is only the starting point of algorithmic design.

We need to consider the connection with walls, visual effect ect.

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B.8

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ALGORITHMIC SKETCH

B.9

REFERENCE LISTS

Architecture 101: What Is a Section?, architizer, , 2016, Access 17th March, < https://architizer.com/blog/architecture-101-what-is-a-section/>.BanQ / Office dA , archdaily, 2009, Accessed 20th March, <http://www.archdaily.com/42581/banq-office-da>.

Facts about plywood and lvl, ewpaa, 2012, Accessd 21st March, < http://www.ewp.asn.au/ library/downloads/facts_about_plywood.pdf>.

Mihai, Amazing Restaurant Interior Design : Banq Restaurant in Boston, 2009, Access 20th March, < http://freshome.com/2009/11/30/amazing-restaurant-interior-design-banq-restaurant-in-boston/>.

Nikolas Davies, Erkki Jokiniemi, Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction, 2011, Access 17th March, < https://books.google.com.au/books?id=r4R2Sl_hbTwC&pg=PA405&lpg=PA405&dq=strip+and+folding+architecture&source=bl&ots=0Hv987cS7D&sig=Iv6uldyW4kV8aTXZBljP9ZxdPM0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ84yeuMnTAhXGjLwKHcq0BeY4ChDoAQhAMAY#v=onepage&q=strip%20and%20folding%20architecture&f=false>.

Plastic Properties Table, curbellplastics, 2011, Accessed 20th March, < https://www.curbellplastics.com/Research-Solutions/Plastic-Properties>.

Plywood, woodsolutions, 2011, Accessed 20th March, < https://www.woodsolutions.com.au/ Wood-Product-Categories/Plywood>.

FIGURE REFERENCES Fig 1: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Slicing+Opacity+Pavilion&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjpx93lvMnTAhWIVbwKHWJgDG8Q_AUIBigB&biw=1355&bih=691#imgrc=AP5Uax2VX7kXuM:&spf=204 Fig 2: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=ICD&hl=en&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYiq3KvcnTAhXMjLwKHWyDBXkQ_AUIBigB&biw=1355&bih=691#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=icd+pavilion&imgrc=LNsHMoIaLnWGhM:&spf=384 Fig 3&4: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=sN2%2fJ1Kt&id=B7F25B168EF066D645D399F1B27DADCBDAD144F4&thid=OIP.sN2_J1KtE2JZVYOQ9_ANPAEsCb&q=banq+resranrant&simid=608035128520675087&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0 Fig 5&6: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=X%2b4lEfnw&id=E4927D550EDF342ECD2E5910E16534DD0C2E0CAA&thid=OIP.X-4lEfnwkSdK-yGrZf0TWADgEs&q=the+absolute+tower&simid=608044092120827188&selectedIndex=4&ajaxhist=0

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