Jasmina McKenna Student No.
537565
Semester 1/2012
Group 1
Module 1, Week 1
Module 1, Week 1
Motion Pattern:
The Falling Leaf
The Spider Web A well woven spider web is vital for the spider’s survival. Rather than attacing its victims physically, the spider’s strategy to get nourishment is much more elegant. By creating the fine woven web, all the spider needs to do is to await the victim to get entangled in its threads.
When we watch leaves falling in autumn we can identify a certain pattern, in which they glide through the air until they reach the ground. The fall is almost a pendular movement: Due to its shape and light weight the leaf sailes through the air in a zigzag pattern. It is set into the most aerodynamic position to allow for an easy glide.
Module 1, Week 1
The Growth of Bamboo
As a type of grass the bamboo is characterized by its rapid growth. Each new blade shoots out on top of the previous one in a manner that could be compared to an extending monocular. The bamboo sprout is a good example for the occurrence of fractal patterns in nature. Short video showing the growth of Bamboo, by BBC: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FfDOMwFX5Hg
The clay model-making exercise has helped me to get a feeling for volume and form. While 2D drawings help to analyse inspirational objects and patterns, 3D model-making allowed me to further abstract the inital form as modelling with clay is restricting in some way. I had to abandon any kind of detail - a task I struggle with in hand drawings.
Clay Models Falling leave Bamboo
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upper model bottom left
Rhino Tutorial - Screen Shots
Rhino Tutorials - Screen Shots Rhino Nurbs Exercise
The exercises helped to get an initial understanding of Rhino functionalities. It allows the designer to virtually produce every imaginable shape or form without having to physically construct it. Being limited to 2D hand drawings may result in restrictions of his or her imagination. It also allows the designer to precicly define proportions and sizes, thicknesses etc. .
Module 1, Week 2
The Pouch
The Spider’s Prey
When the spider’s prey entangles in the web it is impossible to escape. As the spider notices its catch in the strings, one might imagine that the spider’s slow motion approach is a way to torture the captured victim. The spider enwraps the insect with such elegance and diligence that its handling seems almost benign. It could even be compared to a mother who holds her child with parental affection. The lantern’s form will be similar to the shape of a pouch that is held close to the body to represent the spider’s intimate handling of its victim. Spider spins its prey
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=PasIcWofgwE&feature=related
With this model I want to communicate the idea of the lantern as a pouch hanging from the holder’s shoulder. The bendability of paper allowed me to easily represent the cocoon-like sac created by the spider to store her prey. The finely woven pouch again shows the spider’s conscientiousness in handling her catch, which reminds me of a mother caring for her child.
Clay Model Spider Web Pouch
Front elevation
Side elevation
larger trapezes
smaller trapezes
Ideas for Shape and Form
The ‘pouch’ is to be hooked over one shoulder while one arm will support the bottom of the lantern. The shape of the pouch consists of trapezes of different sizes that resemble the forms within the spider web. Furthermore, it has a similarity to a baby sling that enables the parent to carry the child as close to the body as possible. The direct contact creates not only a physical but also a psychogycal closeness.
These models show the surface pattern of the trapeze elements that make up the lantern. Each trapeze will be cut into horizontal sections that alternately fold inside and outside. This allows the light to give the surface a variety of interesting shades.
Photograph of spider web: Paolo Portoghesi
Inspirational Artists
Frei Otto, experimental tensile structure
Zaha Hadid, Guangzhou Opera House/ China
Photograph by Russel Watkins after the flood in Pakistan, 2010 Spider webs have been used as inspiration for shelters and overarching constructions. In architecture they appear both as fragile and impressive designs. The web embraces and covers up - and marks the spider’s ‘possessions’.
Tomas Saraceno, Spider Web Installation
Ben van Berkel, UN Studio, Frankfurt/ Germany This architect uses hexagonal forms that he derives from the shapes of the spider web. People can sit within the web like the spider’s prey or like a collective of raintrops.
Work by Zaha Hadid
By looking at these artists I was able to gain some ideas for the shape and form of my design. Zaha Hadid is known for her organic architectural style. She is known to use simple geometrical shapes that assemble a complex whole. Her works are great examples for the fractal structures discovered in natural pattern. Ben van Berkel mainly inspired me through the creation of smoothly formed surfaces that give the design a sense of fluidity.
John McAslan + Partners, London, King’s Cross redevelopment, 2012
Reflection - Module 1 While in architecture each pattern requires a patterner who precisely plans each element of a pattern shape, patterns found in nature form “naturally” following underlying principles. Even though these natural patterns seem to happen randomly and spontaneously they can be ascribed to mathematical analogies. Although there is no universal theory of the formation of natural pattern, the reoccurrence of certain basic shapes show that they underly a common scheme. It is also to be noted that complex pattern systems break down into relatively simple pattern elements that add up and attach through repetition. Philip Ball’s ‘Pattern Formation in Nature’ had a significant impact on my perception of nature. Each natural phenomenon can be deconstructed until one discovers the core principle of re-occuring micro-shapes. It seems that I am now only beginniing to be aware of these phenomena, which surround us without being recognized.
On Analytical Drawing Clark Poling
On Pattern Formation in Nature Philip Ball
Kandinsky, a Russian painter and theorist at the Bauhaus, played an influential role in the teaching and understanding of analytical drawing. With his abstract drawings he investigates the objects from a compositional point of view and how they structually relate to each other. Analytical drawings from the Bauhaus focus on the tensions between the framed elements rather than the exact depiction of the seen. Through a series of drawings the motif progressively becomes more abstract following a set of principles concerning balance, parallels and major contrasts. The ability to abstract is one of the most important skills a designer and architect must have. A good design is an abstract representation of the analogy that was chosen as inspiration. For me personally it was extremely helpful to abstract not only by drawing but also by modeling as clay forces you to simplify shapes and details.
Orthographic views show aspects of 3 dimensional objects in 2 dimensional form. Even though they do not comply with the 3 dimensional reality, these orthographic representations provide precise information about the object. Orthographic views enable us to visualise information needed in the design process, especially when materializing the virtual object. Other architectural drawing methods also inform us about form, size, texture, material, environmental context, building interiors and space division of architectural objects. All of these methods facilitate the understanding of 3 dimensional forms using explanatory 2 dimensional model drawings.
On Orthographic Terminology Rendow Yee Francis D.K. Ching