mod 4

Kathleen Kopietz

391054

SEMESTER

MODULE 4 R E F L E C T

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2012

GROUP 04

Within this document I intend on guiding you through the processes and explorations that I undertook in the creation of a lantern , specifically concerned with a natural phenomenon.

The process of conceptualising, designing and fabricating this lantern was by no means linear. It was in fact, an inherently winding and at times looping journey, rife with successes and failures. The failures I learnt from and employed that knowledge to achieve better outcomes, a process that I will continue to repeat no doubt through my career, hopefully less times though.

For the purpose of communication I have arranged the stages encountered as coherently as possible, a step by step documentation of how I got from A all the way over to B.

I D E A T I O N

THE TRIGGER

To dive into designing one often requires a trigger. Something that sparks inspiration, reaction and exploration.

The task to choose an inspirational natural phenomenon to follow throughout the term seemed a relatively simple task, yet due to the wide range of possibilities to explore it was a considerable amount trickier than initially expected.

I began with the set readings. I found them very stimulating particularly the Ball reading with passages about the patterns that are inherent in nature. My explorations in this initial stage are for me a way of rationalising some of the images that are explained in the piece. I also collected and collaged in a few things I had seen throughout the week that I felt relevant.

To get a complete grasp on some of the themes discussed in the readings I needed to find a form that embodied some of these concepts. The pinecone is a natural object that has always intrigued me. With its interesting shapes and patterns, it’s articulation often varies over different species, yet is set to continuously adhere to underlying rules that develop its inherent form. It linked into the Ball reading via the passages about how pattern is so unique yet follows guidelines in nature, guidelines that we see recurring. In the case of the pinecone the evidence of a spiral pattern is constantly repeated in every variation.

SPIRAL

One of the natural guidelines applicable to the pine cone that goes beyond purely the shape into the realm of underlying formative processes, and transfers to other natural phenomena pertains to the spiral pattern.

Many natural species have some spiral form built into their evolutionary process sometimes clearly visible other times hidden within.

This formation goes right back to the seminal beginnings of development; the DNA helix spirals around it’s self, the very building block that natural species and us humans share. Scientists and mathematicians alike are all very interested in these spiralling forms. The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical configuration that is used to describe this natural phenomenon.

The use of mathematics to understand and define these occurrences in nature with their differing forms and patterns has given rise to new designing techniques. These techniques rely on such mathematical sequences or rules to build forms.

Parametric design is a new and exciting field that many architects are beginning to employ in their work that has also helped me in developing precedents for my form building.

The Gherkin by Norman Foster became a valuable example of the use of organic pattern/form that was articulated into members of steel and glass to build the interesting and effective form.

TRANSLATION

My focus on form exploration became concerned with the lapse of time and the growth of the pinecone. It changes from a smooth tiny bud into a strongly patterned form by the completion of its cycle of growth. In final stage the cone dries out and falls to the ground, the end of its development.

But even through this stage of death the cone goes through more changes; it turns brown, dries out, opens up, allows for the seeds within to escape thus beginning the cycle again.

All of these processes have been starting points, interesting concepts to pick from, amalgamate, reinterpret and translate into a lantern.

Set on exploring the avenues of growth I was able to focus my energies on these design drivers.

I experimented with different materials in order to achieve unconstrained solutions that expressed my ideas.

Light and panelling were the two issues I had yet to really nut out within my experimentation. The cone entirely opens up when it has come to the end of its growth cycle,I found this mechanism a strong design driver to be employed when creating a differentiation in form. The end picture is just a potential idea deciphering how materials not commonly used to create organic forms can be manipulated into flowing panels and in the middle is simply a look at how light shone through the cones can create interesting effects.

UNIT TO WHOLE

The Dragon Skin Pavilion was immediately a precedent that resonated with me. I found the form to be a stunning example of how shapes placed in a careful computer generated arrangement can emulate a form derived from a natural concept.

For me this design was most inspiring and pertinent to the computer aspect of the project. The design utilised a combination of new materials, contemporary digital design methods and fabrication techniques. This fusion of tools allowed for precision and a very speedy construction phase to be undertaken. It directed my thinking about form building to look at the surface as a series of parts like the individual ‘leaves’ of the pinecone working together to build the form.

Light is also interestingly dealt with, filtering thorough the gaps of the pavilion rather than being directed through particular apertures. Again there is evidence of repetition to create the pavilion, the triangle is recurring defined both by the material and by the negative space the form creates.

This precedent I felt nicely encompassed some of the ideas covered in the mathematics in design lecture. With the information about parametrics and the beauty that it can develop.

The experiments that I proceeded to undertake were very focused on surface treatment. With the design drivers of growth, the life cycle and cycle into death along with the Fibonacci sequence.

CYCLICAL MOTIVATION

I completed a myriad of potential solutions to fulfil my concept of mapping the growth cycle of the pine cone. I tested the concept in chicken wire, with metal shim and florist wire and also undertook some trials in plasticine and paper.

Each material taught me something new about the ways that materials react and I was able to achieve different iterations on the same concept purely driven by the material that they were articulated in.

All of this exploration aided in my bedding down of a strong interpretation of the concept of pine cone growth. It was not until quite late in the design process that I actually had realised that the way that I was conceptualising growth had one major flaw.

Time is not linear nor is growth, it does undoubtedly move forward however that forward motion is part of a path that winds, slows down, speeds up, ebbs and flows. This moment of re-perception resulted in the development of a form that was very much so concentrated on the continuous nature of time and the growth cycle.

The final image depicts a diagram of the growth of the pine cone realised as a constant repeating phenomenon that I sort to emulate in this circular form.

FORM AND CONTEXT INFORM FUNCTION

How do forms and contexts (of use and resources) influence each other?

The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919 and forever changed the way we approach design. Wassily Kandinsky was a lecturer at the institution his teachings of analytical drawing at the school expressed the importance of “training the eye to see”. Students were taught to see “both the evident and the hidden relationships among forms, relationships parallel to underlying natural principles.”

The structure of form is made up of simple forces or tensions that can be broken down and diagrammed by the trained viewer. It is this process of understanding that allows the designer to successfully fulfill a specific need. This era of the Bauhaus saw rise to the modernist period of the 1930s one that was driven by the mantra “Form follows function”.

The phrase was taken to imply that decorative elements, “ornament” specifically, was superfluous in design. Thus the modernist period saw the development of clean, uncluttered and elegant designs that were purely based on the function that they were to fulfil.

The influence of this movement can still be witnessed today in contemporary design and architecture. With the development of digital technologies it is a stream of design that has been further interrogated with new and complex softwares. Optimisation can be undertaken within the design process to ensure that the fabrication and building processes are as to the point as the design.

Parametric designing entails the definition of certain categories that can be in control of the outcome or iteration specifically as a response to the site/ context that the design will pertain to.

These new forms of further exploring the design process and outcome are seeing the development of many designs that have such precision in their applicability to their use and resources for fabrication all stemmed from a concept put forward in the 1930s.

The form that I created is inspired by a natural process, its surface treatment was additionally inspired by the process. This inspiration came about as a direct response to “seeing” the mechanisms underlying the natural process that in turn I have learnt will achieve the best functional outcomes.

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REFOCUS

Following on from module 2 I had to make some serious decisions about form. I had immersed myself in testing various types of panelling arrangements and perforation possibilities yet I was still unhappy about the form that those panels would be applied to.

I kept returning to the initial design drivers that I had identified in the previous modules especially the concept of growth and change over time. While considering this again, with the help of fresh outside opinion, I had a light bulb moment pertaining to this drawing that I had done right before launching into virtual modelling(see left). This drawing shows one thing that I had forgotten in my conception of growth and time. These complex concepts are nonlinear, they change, ebb and flow, speed up and slow down, twist and turn and are also continuous.

Having redefined this integral concept that I was basing my whole design upon I was able to move forward and design a form that would fulfil this redefinition accordingly. Fitting tightly with my initial concept.

INTO THE VIRTUAL

The translation of my ideas on paper into the virtual world has been the most challenging aspect of this designing process.

Learning the software while simultaneously attempting to achieve solid, finished designs has been a task with many iterations each and every one teaching me a new and valuable lesson.

In search of the best way to panel and develop my new found form I performed a series of trials each developing the concept a little further each time.

Initially I was inspired by my precedents focussed on surface treatment to experiment with different perforation models, I created several different units with which to panel and applied them to the surface.

Using grasshopper to morph the geometry onto the surface has proved quicker and easier for me than using panelling tools, however I have found that it lacks the random arrangement that I would like to achieve.

This is something that I became somewhat frustrated by , the lack of random variation in the surface made it into a banal,uninteresting expression, one that in my understanding failed to encapsulate the unpredictable nature of the concept that I was mapping.

VARIATION

Finding that this form embodied all of the design drivers previously highlighted I investigated it via a series of iterations.

I soon came to realise via a few physical tests that building the highly perforated trials I had experimented with would be highly problematic to construct. The members of some sections of the lantern at 1:1 scale were too flimsy and required stronger, more flexible materials to build them with - a requirement that was outside the bounds of the brief.

My testing was thus refocused on previous forms that were concerned with testing triangular panels, rectangular quads, diamond shaped panels and the frequency with which they would be articulated over the surface.

I came to the realisation that I really enjoyed the more angular panelled iterations because they took the form out of the realm of blobby and made it a more dynamic angular shape.

FORM AND PERFORATION

Turning to another precedent to aid in perforation formation I looked at 10 Hills Place by Amanda Levete Architects, in London.

High quality ship building techniques have been employed to express the sculptural facade of this inner city office building.

It is a building inspired by Lucio Fontana’s ALA art work with its slashed scores, but articulated in the built world with a great deal more fluidity, less anger and a considerable amount of pragmatism.

The clever creation of the apertures ensure that light is transferred into the belly of the building, a feat traditional office windows would struggle to achieve.

It proved to be a useful precedent for the stage of developing perforations that successfully deal with the presence of light.

Instead of getting light in I wanted light to emanate out, visible in the picture of the office on a dark day. Translated into paper the cut would need to be slightly more geometric and potentially with more of a hinge, so that the aperture can be covered.

My trials taught me that a triangular cut would achieve this most successfully and elegantly.

MEDIA SUPPORTING DESIGN

How do different media support different kinds of design enquiry and refinement?

In contemporary architectural design the use of digital media as a generative tool for the derivation of form and its transformation is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of design. This development of a “digital morphogenesis� is a radical movement away from the century old traditions of hand designing and drawing, this type of designing is instead delving into the world of calculation and generative logic. Rather than drawing an overall form that is to be altered and iterated via a series of changes, designers are beginning to script an internal generative logic which then produces, in an automatic fashion, a range of possibilities that the designer could choose form. This much more dynamic formula of designing is replacing static conventional methods resulting in the emergence of complex curvilinear geometries and repetition with the most subtly articulated differences. The development of NURBS geometries allows for whole complex forms to be manipulated through their control points innumerable times without radically changing the form, We saw evidence of this exciting new style of design first hand with the inspirationally complex digital artworks of Jon Mc Cormack. His works have been scripted on such an intricate level that their emergent outcomes mimic the most complex of all life forms; us.

Simple geometric lines can be scripted to learn how to interact with other lines to build scenes with extreme depth, intricacy and unpredictably. This very new form of design enquiry is pushing the results beyond what is expected. It is encouraging designers, architectural and artistic alike, to harness the phenomenal technology that we are exposed to, the results emerging are beyond this world.

Digital technology allows for a myriad of iterations to be created with greater ease. Each of these trials can be stored for later use, utilised in conjunction with other trials or discarded but learnt from. The refinement process thus expands, but can easily be documented with each trial collated into a matrix that maps the transformations of an idea into the physical world.

In my project the development of my style of designing has taken a most radical turn. Originally I had considered computers as a representational tool rather than an avenue to head down for generating the full design. My perception has somewhat changed from this view what with the introduction of Rhino and Grasshopper into my toolbox. As a result of this subject I have been able to perform, on my own, to a much less complex level this generative design technique. In Rhino and Grasshopper began to drive the designing that I was doing in unexpected directions. Due to the function of the programs I created forms that I had not anticipated and built patterns that I was unsure of how they would appear applied to the surface.

These unknowns became a constant source of excitement spurring me on increasing the amount of explorations I did and helping me develop more knowledge of the software in order to execute my ideas and hopefully the emergent outcomes in a more refined manner.

FABRICATION

SOFTWARE SKILLS

Moving from the virtual world into the physical began with the unrolling process. I envisioned that the lantern would be approximately 400mm in length, a size I had tested and decided would successfully articulate the shape and be intimate enough to express the lighting well. I then joined each segment together and unrolled it as a strip.

When I learnt that the unrolled templates fitted comfortably on a 900 x 600 sheet I was a little surprised. However in the haste to get it ready to print and built, I assumed that it would turn out alright. The segments were arranged in a fashion that logically explained which segment was which to me and sent off to Fablab.

This first trial was devoid of surface treatment not due to a conscious decision to eliminate it but due to my inability to achieve the effect that I desired with my current skills of the software.

The red lines are etch lines and the black are the tabs. When printed it was evident that my tabs and overall form was very very small and was thus quite difficult to work with.

My following templates were constructed with the knowledge that I had gained from the previous print out and this time my perforation cuts were included. In the interim between the time I had tested the first and this print out I had discovered a method of successfully applying the pattern while achieving the pattern I desired.

L TO R

PROCESS FOR PROTOTYPE

First the model was cut out from the sheet laser cut from the FAB LAB. I added extra card onto some of the tabs just to ensure that they would stick properly. Step two required the pattern of perforation to be drawn on to the interior of the segment before being cut and stuck together. To make sure that I knew where all of the segments would be arranged I formed up all of the pieces using bulldog clips and pliers to hold them in place. Satisfied with the arrangement I cut the panels and began to glue them all together. While cutting and gluing I was also making sure that I built around the lights so that they would fit snugly inside the lantern. As the form began to build up into the smaller sections gluing got trickier as the pieces were small and not terrifically easy to squeeze together.

It was not until right at the end of building when popping in the final segment that things really got tricky. The final segment would not fit snugly into its junction. Somewhere between computerland, Fab-labbing, and my constructing there was an error and I had to improvise by squeezing the whole form in order to get the final piece to match up.

It was not perfectly articulated in the end however it was together thanks to some hot gluing in the right spots and some specific squeezing.

From this prototype I learnt the hard way how to execute processes better and what would be required to achieve a good finished model for the final stage.

LIGHT AND SCALE

The led lights create a really strong shock of light when turned on and filtrate out through the form even better than I could have hoped.

Some of the cut flaps are closed, some wide open and others somewhere in between. I was quite happy with the way the lantern looked in the dark.

I decided from my experience with the prototype that a scaled up version would create a much stronger overall impact.

WHAT NEXT...

From the prototype I have learnt a huge amount. The processes that I need to employ in order to achieve the end form seamlessly include; - the alteration of the form in the virtual world - Creation of bigger tabs - the addition of the perforation pattern - scaling the whole thing up because it is too small - careful construction with the use of stronger glue All of these processes along with the careful construction, now making sure that I go from the smallest sections into the bigger sections and ensure that the perforations are handled with extra care and not creased or crumpled.

559.81 mm

733.63 mm

PLAN VIEW

SECTION AA

ORTHOGONALS

249.53 mm

71.80 mm

SIDE VIEW

First step I took was to scale the form up so that it would be a more appropriate size, once satisfied I was then able to apply my cuts to the surface and prepare the rolled out segments for Fablab. Tab sizes were increased using the Grasshopper script and I made sure that I double checked the pattern for any defects - ie pattern overlap.

595.84 mm

209.23 mm

After learning from the prototype I was able to combat my failings head on and had a much greater understanding of what would be required to achieve a successful model.

AA

FRONT VIEW

The final dimensions of the lantern are pictured here on the most informative orthographic views.

The large base lends itself well to becoming a form that can sit /stand or remain interesting when hung from the ceiling and the paneling can be customised to achieve a greater or lesser amount of light according to how many panels are directly open or closed.

CONSTRUCTION

To achieve a cleaner more finished result for my final model I carefully constructed the Fab Lab cutouts in exactly the same way as executed before with the prototype but with a much greater deal of confidence due to the new size, revised tabs and the use of a different adhesive that was a lot less conspicuous.

I found that the fold lines and cuts worked well together popping the peroration cuts out neatly without any added folding and again made sure that I built the form up around the light source.

One little addition to the process was the gluing of the battery pack top the wall of the lantern to ensure that it would not move around sloppily within the cavity .

LATE AT NIGHT

The final result of all of the designing iterating and testing is depicted in these pictures.

I ensured that the lantern would function at night by taking several shots in different locations and found that when hung held or placed near a white wall/floor the shadows were expressed the strongest.

FABULOUS FABRICATION

How do different types of fabrication technologies make possible as well as constrain what can be constructed.?

Air Space Tokyo, Japan; by Faulders Studio is an interesting building that shows how digitally enabled design and fabrication can create striking outcomes.

The cellular design and double layers of the facade by Faulders are generated with the site’s rich bio history in mind. All those layers of original vegetation are represented in the two 20cm thick “skin”. Framing and blocking out the sun the vorenoi panels are layered to create depth and achieve these attributions more effectively.

The building has been realised thanks to the ‘file to factory work flow’1 the digital continuum that is becoming common practice with new today’s new technologies.

Gantenbein Winery is another example of the digital translation of ideas designed on computers into the physical world. The innovative use of materials in this winery is striking, the construction method is equally intriguing hence its addition here.

Mark Burry in his article Scripting Cultures highlights how technologies created in the computational realm are helping to re-appropriate old techniques.

This segues quite well into how this winery has been built with the humble brick along with some very advanced technologies to define its placement in the construction. Although it may look like it took years to conceive and create the help of scripting driving the design process allowed for this winery to be built within a period of only three months.

T he fabrication was the most interesting part and by no means a common method either. Firstly a photograph of a basket of grapes was taken and abstracted somewhat to get the best result. Then it was used to map the orientation of each brick.

The team then employed a robot which they programmed to construct the panels out of individually laid bricks. The angles at which the bricks were placed by the robot were determined by the brightness of individual pixels of the photograph of grapes and when built are constantly altering the overall facade as a result of the sun hitting the edges of the bricks.

The seventy-two panels that make up the facade were built off site a constraint that was adhered to due to the robotic machinery that needed to be within a controlled environment in order to perform well. The panels were delivered on site via a truck and lifted into place with a crane. Brick is a useful material as it naturally tempers the peak outdoor temperatures, leaving it cooler inside for the barrels of wine. 2 It is a project that just shows how one can innovate by using old traditional materials configured with the use of digital fabrication techniques to develop a new and interesting design.

My design was not nearly as complex as these projects, however the capacity for its development further can be aided with the knowledge that digital fabrication techniques are increasingly making the impossible possible. Simple things such as precise large scale pattern cutting with CNC milling machines, the prefabrication of certain elements off site to mathematical precision saves valuable construction time, labour and is achieving outstanding results. If given more time I would have liked to learn how to achieve more interesting patterning configurations with the computer, that could then be unrolled and digitally cut to be fabricated, definitely an aim for the future.

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Overall this process of designing and learning a new software along the way has been invaluable. I am not afraid of Rhino anymore, something that you would definitely not have ever in a blue fit have heard me say 11 weeks ago. Attempting,on a modest scale, the utilisation of digital media to generate a host of different possibilities some of which have been documented while others discarded has been a truly satisfying development.

Mark Burry explains in Scripting Cultures the importance of scripting in present day architectural endeavours “Scripting liberates designing by automating many routine aspects and repetitive activities of the design process.�

Many contemporary architectural firms employ computational techniques for the liberation from said routine aspects and repetitive activities and have found that it has become a tool vital in their designing practice. The use of the computer has developed from its use as merely a drafting tool for representation to a utensil that can develop and drive designs via utilisation of scripting techniques to create innovative works.

Computers can allow for repetition, consistency and precision, they can speed up processes and extend others. I have found first hand the successes and shortcomings of he technology over my exploration for this design. Overall it has been a positive experience, one that has taught me a great deal with a myriad of examples and iterations with which to show this.

REFERENCES Ball, Philip (2011): The Shapes of Things. In Shapes: Nature’s Patterns, Oxford University Press, pp. 1-35 http://www.archdaily.com/215249/dragon-skin-pavilion-emmi-keskisarja-pekka-tynkkynen-lead/23-pekka-tynkkynen/ http://www.strangebuildings.com/gherkin-building-london-uk/ http://plus.maths.org/content/perfect-buildings-maths-modern-architecture en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser www.hundertwasser.at/index_en.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conifer_cone http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/fibslide/jbfibslide.htm http://www.3villagecsd.k12.ny.us/wmhs/Departments/Math/OBrien/fibonacci2.html http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/environment/webstuff/pinecone.html http://www.amandalevetearchitects.com/news/hills-place-complete/ http://www.archdaily.com/215249/dragon-skin-pavilion-emmi-keskisarja-pekka-tynkkynen-lead/23-pekka-tynkkynen/ Poling, Clark (1987): Analytical Drawing. In Kandisky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus , Rizzoli, New York, pp. 107-132. http://faulders-studio.com/proj_airspace.html Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 62 1. Burry, Mark (2011). Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming (Chichester: Wiley), pp. 8 - 71 2. Brownell, Blaine (2012). Material Strategies: Innovative Applications in Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press), pp. 30 - 31 Tierney, Therese (2007): Abstract Space, Taylor & Francis (e-book via Library) Dahan-Dalmedico, Dahan (2011): Mathematics and the Sensible World: Representing, Constructing, Simulating, AD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 18 (4), July/ August, pp. 18-27.