Ddf M3 Refine Journal

DIGITAL DESIGN + FABRICATION SM1, 2016 M3 JOURNAL - The Floating Pob Jiaqi Mo

(716101) Michelle + Group 5

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Introduction In M2, our group was trying to design a sleeping pod that the dynamic shape or structure of the design was embodied by the profiles and sections by using the ‘contour’ command in Rhino. As comes to the design intention for sleeping position, we’d like to use the idea of ‘hugging pillow’ and provide multiple head resting seats for the users. Besides, we adjusted the shape of the skin to further respond the personal space.

M2 Design: Rhino Models

M2 Design: Prototype

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Design development 1+2 M3 Deveopment2

From M2 Design to M3 Deveopment1 -Refine the shape: lift up the down part of the design to further respond to the pillow shape and make the whole piece more unify

M2 Design

M3 Deveopment1

- Get ready for laser-cutter: change the contour line directions to form a traditional waffle grid intersections.

- Shrink the design to a more reasonable size for fabrication and using.

- Extrude the pillow part from surface to a volume form

M3 Deveopment2

Front

Exturde the pillow part

Back

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Design development 3 M3 Deveopment 3 - Trying to experiment the way to contour as I was not satisfy with the traditional ‘waffle grid’ intersection

- Start to contour the top part and under side separately to gain more interesting outcome - Finalised the design of pillow part: extend the ribs to let them go through the slices of the pillow. As a result, this would not only connect the pillow part with the whole piece but also the pillow slices could provide support for the top ribs and achieve a ‘floating’ visual effect.

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Front

Detail of top

Back

Right

Detail of Pillow

Detail of side part

Design development 4 M3 Deveopment4 - When I started to make the notches of the ribs, I realized that the down-side part would not work as the ribs curve in multiple

directions, even they were intersecting at the right angle, thus I have to go back to the original ‘waffle grid’ intersection for the side part

Front

Back

Detail of top

Right

Detail of side part 5

Design development 5 + fabrication of Prototype V.2 M3 Development 5 - Realized the top part of development 4 would not work either - Finalised the contouring way Final Design - Modify all the connecting part of the designt

Back

Front Detail of side part 6

Final design in rendering and the shadow effect

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Reading Response Wk 6 Architecture in the Digital Age - Design + Manufacturing/ Branko Kolarevic, Spon Press, London c2003

Briefly outline the various digital fabrication processes. Explain how you use digital fabrication in your design?

This article introduces different kinds of digital fabrication processes and strategies that would work for digital fabrication: 1. Two Dimensional Fabrication The most commonly used fascination technique that involve various cutting technologies, which are plasma-arc, laser-beam and water-jet. Each technology applies different physical mechanism principles. For example, laser-cutters applies a combination of infrared light and a jet of highly pressured gas to melt or cut the objects. Besides, these different mechanism principles result in the difference acceptability of material and thickness they could cut.

2. Subtractive Fabrication This technique uses electro-, chemically- or mechanically-reductive processes to remove a specified volume of material from solids.

Structural framework for Berhard Franken’s “Bubble� BMW pavilion produced by bidirectional contouring.

(Kolarevic, 2003)

3. Additive Fabrication This fabrication is the process of conversing of milling to form free shape solids by adding material in a layer-be-layer style, such as 3D printing.

4. Formative Fabrication This fabrication aims for reshaping the materials into wanted shape by applying mechanical forces, restricting forms, heat or steam.

5. Surface Strategies Digital fabrication enlarge the ways of creating building surface and also its complexities.

Besides, it allows the structure subsumed into the surface to form the monocoque structures.

6. Production Strategies Contouring, triangulation, use of ruled, developable surfaces and unfolding are the production strategies apply for two-dimensional fabrication. (Kolarevic, 2003)

Pserspective view of M3 Final Design

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For my design, two dimensional fabrication and its production strategies were applied.

Reading applied to design How does the fabrication process and strategy effect your second skin project?

Early stage design developments: from surfaces to contour lines to outcome designs The two dimensional fabrication and its strategies have huge impacts on my design.

Step 1: Making surfaces

Surface Strategies My design was started from the dynamic surfaces that were created by random curve lines that I was experimenting in Rhino. Digital software allows me to create such free-form but aesthetic surfaces that prevents me from being restricted. Besides, though these surfaces are not fully self-support structurally, it dose form a semi-monocoque structure that the structure of my design embedded into the surface.

Production Strategies Contouring is the key tool for me to convert the surfaces into real ‘profile and section’ design and a further development point for my design in terms of function(light control and view blocking), aesthetics and fabrication.

Two Dimensional Fabrication- Laser-cutter Laser-cutter makes my design come true in reality. Due to the organic form, large scale, huge amount of intersections and extremely high accuracy it required of my design, there is no doubt that laser-cutter is the most vital part of the fabrication.

Step 2: Contourling

Step 3: ExturdeCrv

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Reading Response Wk 7 Digital Fabrications: architectural + material techniques/Lisa Iwamoto. New York: Princeton Architectural Press c2009

Describe one aspect of the recent shift in the use of digital technology from design to fabrication?

UC Berkeley students with Lisa lwamoto, Digital Weave, 2004.

Thanks to the rise and development of digital fabrication techniques, more and more ‘crazy’ form designs that used to be regarded as ‘impossible’ now become possible and even normal. For example, the digital soreware commant ‘contour’ makes it very easy to obtain each parallel profile sections of the design objects and thus available for the laser cutter or other two dimentional fabrication.

Nevertheless, those traditional drawing and making processed are still exist in the industry, though thei’s disadvantages are getting more and more obvious comparing with the new digital fabrication process in terms of material, size and posobility.

Like Michael Speaks said (Iwamoto, 1969), making now becomes the part of design.

Making and design are no longer being seperated and now they interac with each other.

1. Rhinoceros model of overall surface enclosure.

3.Ribsprofiles laid out for water-jet cutting.

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2. Section cuts shown in plan.

Reading applied to design Referencing from the lectures and readings, what is the implication of digital fabrication on your design ?

As mentioned in the reflection for week 6 reading, Rhino comment ‘Contour’ and two dimensional fabrication laser-cutter are the key point and condition for making my design come true.

Laser-cutter Laid out Template for M3 Final Design

Laser-cutter by no means speed up my fabrication process and save me from monotonous cutting works. Nevertheless, it still resisted the way I want to contour and how the skin ribs intersect with each other due to laser-cutter’s two dimensional essence.

As it can only cut two dimensional patterns, my design basically have to restrict in intersecting at a right angle. Due to this reason, I had changed my design and tried different directions of contouring to make my design looks good but still available for laser-cutter.

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Prototype development Test Out 1: Material Using mountborad and polypropylene to test out the top part. It turned out that the notches works. However, mountboard is not rigid enough and easy to shake.

For the final model: mountboard was replaced by MDF.

Test Out 2: Pillow Part This part was not work as the MDF ribs were very hard to go through all the perspex slices. The reason behind that was the size of the holes on the perspex were excatly the same as the size of MDF ribs. This works in the rhino but not the reality.

For final model: the holes on perspex wee offseted into a slightly larger size.

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Test Out 3: The Hanging Part The middle part of the top ribs are designed to placed on top of the polypropylene and are not self-supported. Before fabricating the whole piece, few ribs were used to test out and it worked.

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Prototype development Test Out 4: Material Colour For the polypropylene, I was not sure for the colour. So I print both of the white and clear polypropylene to test out. It turns out the white one makes it more pop out as it gives more contrast with the MDF colour and makes the layers more clear.

For the final model: Go for the whie olypropylene.

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Prototype optimisation

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Prototype optimisation

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Assembly Drawing The top handing part: MDF The top part: white polypropylene

The top part: MDF

The base part: MDF

The connecting part: MDF

The side handing part: MDF

The horizontal side part: white polypropylene 20

The horizontal side part: MDF

The side part: MDF

The pillow part: Perspex

Fabrication Sequence

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Appendix Architecture in the Digital Age- Design and Manufacturing/Branko Kolarevic. Spon Press, London, c2003 Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques/ Lisa Lwamoto. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c 2009.

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