Module 4 - Reflection

MODULE 4 REFLECTION

KEVIN ZHANG | 639878 Semester 1/2013 | Group 2

MODULE 1 IDEATION

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NATURAL PROCESS

The spiralling pattern in the nautilus shell has been chosen to be the base inspiration for the subsequent analytical drawing and ultimately the lantern. The Fibonacci spiral pattern has been chosen as the pattern is very structured and orderly, where the lines and boundaries of the pattern are strikingly visible. As well as this, the pattern has a clear sense of direction, with the formation spiralling towards the centre.

The nautilus shell pattern is based on the Fibonacci algorithm.

The nautilus spiral results form the Fibonacci mathematical analogy and equivalences, which govern its formation.

The Fibonacci spiral is a regularity in nature, and the nautilus pattern chosen is just one example. The formation of the nautilus shell in nature is a direct result of high temperatures and stress, which mold the shell into its shape, and the cooling which sets the pattern into place. The final structure is a result of heating and cooling driving forces which conflict with each other (Ball 2012).

The formation of the pattern originates from the repetition of the move and scale functions. Each of the inner spirals has been scaled from the previous spiral, which is larger, and is moved into place so that it continues to spiral towards the center.

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Figure 2

Figure 1

Figure 3

Through paper modelling and clay modelling, I began to experiment with the various forms that I could derive from the spiral based on my analytical drawing as a foundation. With all the initial models, I focused on emphasising the curvature of the spiral. Through these models, I further explored the concept of the spiral and began to develop a basic form for my lantern based on the what I liked from my inital models. I especially liked the effect of spiralling upwards in my paper model on movement, as well as the upwards spiral in my clay model in figure 2. Although the clay model had a smooth spiral, while the paper model had a step-by-step spiral, I really enjoyed the fact that the spiral in both these models had a sense of direction. However, I found that the clay model in figure 3 had the potential to act as a sleeve for an arm, which I found to be interesting. The analytical drawing on movement derived from the nautilus shell was a crucial base point and foundation for the paper models and clay models, as well as directly influencing my final design.

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Figure 7: Direct Light Lines in a spiralling direction.

Figure 8: Extruded Light Extruded boxes spiralling inwards.

Figure 9: Filtered Light Each section of the spiral is a hole, which gives filtered results.

Through sketches, I liked the idea of my lantern acting as a sleeve so I specifically designed my lantern to match the natural curvature of the arm, with the ends being narrow and the centre being wider. The design still retained the upward spiral as a dominant feature. I also tested out various lighting effects through sketching.

Figure 4: Hand-held Lantern

Figure 5: Leg Worn Lantern

Figure 6: Sleeve Lantern

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ARCHITECTURAL PRECEDENTS

BRITISH NATIONAL WILFLOWER CENTER

VATICAN STAIRCASE II

NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW’S EDEN PROJECT

Fibonacci spiral is evident in the complex building above. Although the structure is not an exact replica of the Fibonacci spiral, it is definitely clear that the spiral has influenced the design and the concept of the building. The dome part of the building spirals out into the rest of the building. The orange spots on the dome form the lines of the spiral which radiate outwards. The entire structure is curved and almost no edge of the building is straight.

The staircase is clearly based on the Fibonacci spiral, which creates a Fibonacci staircase.

The fibonacci staircase, similar to one pictured above, is also an element present in the second paper model. The staircase below can be seen spiralling downwards into a centre point, whereas my second paper model is seen spiralling upwards as it progresses towards the centre. The rails of the stairs serve to outline the Fibonacci spiral structure of the staircase.

Model above is also based on the nautilus pattern which spirals outwards.

Each of the tiles contribute towards the spiralling pattern. The tiles closer towards the centre are smaller than the tiles that are further from the centre. This is an example of complex generative patterning as the main tranformations needed to generate the tiles is scaling and moving.

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IDEATION FINAL FORM

Final Clay Model - Perspective & Front Views Analytical Drawing

Final Design Concept

Sleeve Lantern

The design represents the pattern of motion of the spiral in the nautilus shell. The form spirals toward the apex, which reflects the curvature of the spiral, which spirals towards a centre or radial point. The very consistent nature of the spiral related to the very structured movement in the form of the spiral. This shape has been chosen as it is fluid and adequately represents the fluency of the nautilus spiral. A final clay model was made based on the final design.

The design is heavily based upon the analytical drawing on movement. The analytical drawing shows a higher order of analytical drawing as outlined by Kandinsky in 1928. According to Kandinsky, the third stage of analytical drawing emphasizes the radical and freer aspects of the second stage and ultimately is a more abstract solution. The objects are almost only outlined using the tensions between forces and the construction limits itself. The third stage also consists of a variety of clear and concealed construction possibilities and exercises the concise, exact expression of the individual tensions.

The third stage is evident in the analytical drawing for movement as most of the fine details, such as the secondary inner spirals, have been omitted and there is a focus on the tension lines. The tension lines for the inner spirals as well as the tangent forces are present.

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MODULE 2 DESIGN

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CONTOURING + DIGITISING

20cm

Orthographics views of the final clay model were taken and imported into Rhino. These were then scaled to the appropriate size.

Because my form was very sturctured and very naturally rounded, I opted to go with the third contouring method to draw my form in Rhino. Five curves were used to outline the outline of the form and contours were projected from te curves. The contours were then lofted to achieve the basic form.

60cm

Luckily, this was the correct method of contouring as the overall form, as shown to the right, was successfully implemented into Rhino. The very structured curving of the form was accurately reproduced, which only the third contouring method could achieve.

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PANELLING PRECEDENTS

ABOVE: RMIT ON A BECKETT STREET

ABOVE: RMIT ON SWANSTON STREET

I really enjoyed the rectangular style panelling on the windows, which provides shade to the residents inside as well as projecting an aesthetic shadow pattern on the window.

However I found the pattern would be too repetitive if it was repeated throughout the whole of my lantern. I did really like the rectangular panels, but I decided that another panel would have to be incorporated into my lantern in order to give it more variety, without it becoming too repetitive.

The RMIT building on Swanston Street featured triangular style panelling, which I really enjoyed and thought would go well on my lantern. I also found that the repeating triangular patterns went the exact same direction all throughout the outside of the building, making it very structured and orderly. As my lantern already had a very structured shape, I thought about how changing the direction of the triangular pattern would give my lantern an element of irregularity.

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PANELLING EXPERIMENTATION With my basic lantern shape, I explored various types of panelling.

My inital panelling experimentations are shown in the top row. I found that some panelling options worked, while others did not. I found the 2D panelling presented a very stripped down model, and was too smple to be a viable option. On the other hand, the 3D and the finned edges panelling achieved much more complex design, which I found to be attractive. However, I found that these panels were extremely bulky and the overall shape of the lantern was lost amidst the panelling.

2D: Boxes

3D: Custom Curved Triangles

3D: Partition

I then developed 3D rectangular and triangular base patterns, inspired by my precedents. I decided that one pattern would follow a curve attractor. From these base panels, I produced several variations of the lantern. I was particularly looking for a variation where the spiral, modelled by the curve attractor, was most prominent.

Panel 2

3D: Custom Variation 1

3D: Custom Variation 2

3D: Custom Variation 3

3D: Custom Variation 4

Panel 1

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FINAL DESIGN I found that my final design made better use of the capabilities of Rhino. I bascially was not happy at all with my previous designs, which prompted a complete redesign of my panelling.

I found that my previous designs simply did not have a complex or interesting design, and the panelling was too uniform to create any interesting lighting effects, which resulted in an unaesthetic model.

Although there is no difference in shape between my previous models and my final model, the use of custom 3D panels and having a secondary spiral feature ultimately makes my final model more interesting and aesthetic. Also, the variation in panelling gave variety in the lighting effects, which I found to be quite desirable.

Perspective Plan

Panel 1

Bare Lantern Shape

Panel 2

Top Plan

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MODULE 3 FABRICATION

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EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC VIEW

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CONSTRUCTION

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PROTOTYPE

Preliminary lighting and shadow effects showed lighting patterns created by the panels.

Initially, I started making the prototype with normal PVA glue. However, I found that it would take very long to dry and even after drying, the joins were not held strongly enough by the glue. I therefore switched to using UHU All-Purpose Adhesive which gave stronger and faster results. I found that the use of bulldog clips, to hold the joins together as the glue dried, gave clean results and made the glue easier to work with. The dashed lines meant that I could fold the pieces into the desired shape and I found that large tabs made it easier to assemble and glue together.

I quite liked the lighting effect for my prototype. I found the detail in the shadows from an internal LED source as well as an external light source quite complex and intriguing.

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PROBLEMS WITH THE PROTOTYPE

Above: Dashed lines not cutting through

Above: Large holes at joins

Above: Rough Edges

There were a few problems that were identified when the prototype was completed. Because I only used the default setting of having 4 dashed lines for every fold lines, the completed model was very rough (above photo) and the dashed lines clearly subtracted from the elegance of the overall lantern. Also, the force settings used on the card cutter were too low, resulting in some of the dashed lines not fully cutting through (top right). This meant that it became harder to fold the pieces into the desired shape.

Above: Open top

Because of both the coarseness of using only 4 dashed lines for each fold line as well as the dashed lines not cutting all the way through, I found that there were very large holes where the pieces joined together (centre right). The last problem was that I unintentionally left the top open (bottom right). I realised that the lights inside would be visible to anyone looking inside. However, on second thought, I decided that it would be better to have the top open, rather than capping it.

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FINAL MODEL - UNROLLING & REFINEMENTS

Out of all the shifts caused by digital fabrication outlined by Iwamoto (2009), I found folding to be the most important fabrication process for the construction of my lantern. When folds are introduced to a flat object, the material gains stiffness and rigidity.

The advantage of folding that affects the construction process is that out of many other fabrication techniques, folding arguably gives the greatest potential for variety, as it is capable of manifesting a wide range of forms.

The flexibility offered by folding is desired in my lantern as the final three-dimensional shapes that constitute the lantern are generated from a variety of different creases, that only folding can generate.

With my final model, I went back to Rhino and tweaked and adjusted my cutting file layout.

I adjusted it so that only the inside lines were dashed lines, while the fold lines for the tabs were score lines. I also increased the number of dashed lines for each fold line to 8 dashes.

These adjustments would ultimately lead to a cleaner, and smoother model.

I also found that with my previous prototype, it felt very uniform and the spiral was not emphasised enough. I felt that my lantern needed a little more variety to it.

For the rectangular panels, I used a light cream ivory card and for the triangular panels, I used a normal plain white ivory card.

This way, the spiral effect would be shown by a plain white colour while the rest of the lantern would be light cream. This would give the model a sense of variety and irregularity to a very structured shape. The two different types of card do look very similar as I do not want the two halves to contrast with each other too much.

Therefore I decided that for my final model, I would use two different types of card for my model.

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FINAL LANTERN I found that the final model was much smoother and detailed than my previous prototypes. The increase in dashes and the addition of score lines reduced the roughness of the model and made it more elegant and stylish.

However, I did notice that because each piece had more dashes and score lines, the final model was reduced in structural integrity compared to my previous prototype. I realised that although my final model was better aesthetically and was more elegant, it was also weaker and could be compressed much more easily.

This related back to the week 7 lecture where Ben Gilbert stated that engineering took out the elegance of architecture and that there was a trade off between the elegance and the durability of a structure.

I decided that the elegance-integrity trade off was a compromise that I had to make.

Also, the difference in material between the top half and bottom half was not visibly distinguishable under normal light from an external source.

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LIGHTING EFFECTS

Six LED lights were arranged on the inside of the lantern. The lights were arranged in a parallel circuit and connected to four 3V batteries. The lights were placed to follow the triangular panels on the lantern.

I observed that the difference in material was much more visible when the lantern is lit. There is a distinct difference in colour between the triangular and rectangular panels. This means that the variety and the irregularity that the two materials provided is more visible in the dark and when the lantern is lit. Therefore the features and effects of the lantern can be fully experienced when the lantern is acting soley on its LED lights.

Overall, I enjoyed the kaleidoscope patterns generated by the lighting effects.

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MODULE 4 REFLECTION

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REFLECTION

For me personally, I grew in the digital age, so it was hard to imagine what life was like before the invention of digital business and manufacturing. My upbringing meant that I was constantly surrounded by digital technology and because of this, I did not really notice how the development of digital technology overtime affected daily life and daily business. However, it is clear to see from Rifkin’s text (2011) that digital technology has sparked a revolution in the way that we do business. Rifkin focused on the various new businesses that have emerged and have been made possible due to the invention of digital platforms such as the Internet. He also focuses on the fundamental characteristic that the Third Industrial Revolution (the digital revolution) entails a shift from the analog processes and business from the Second Industrial Revolution, which were wasteful, into the new digital enterprises, which are seen as innovative and efficient.

In terms of design, the digital age has had a huge impact, with the inventions of digital design software being crucial in the design stage. Now, it is almost impossible to imagine architecture without the use of

software such as Rhino 3D, Google Sketchup, Autodesk Revit etc. Digital technology and fabrication has yielded a wealth of architectural invention and innovation. Many of structures that are seen today would not have been possible without the implementation of digital software. Rifkin (2011) also talked about the invention of 3D printing and how it has begun to revolutionize the manufacturing process. Essentially the idea behind 3D printing will shift manufacturing from large-scale analog methods in factories to many small-scale home methods. Although not exactly 3D printing, the past 11 weeks of work has definitely experienced the small scale manufacturing. The concept of 3D printing has been experienced in the past 11 weeks through the ideology and design of the lantern on the computer, the printing out of the lantern on the CNC cutting and the fabrication of the lantern, even though the actual prints were not 3D. It will not be long before small-scale manufacturing dominates the manufacturing industry.

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REFLECTION Deamer & Bernstein (2008) focused on the certainty and risk when evaluating the separation of design and production. Digital modeling and simulation have the ability to model 2D and 3D objects precisely and accurately. However, when these objects undergo production, the precision is compromised due to manufacturing imprecisions. This can be seen in the manufacturing of the lantern. Deamer & Bernstein (2008) stated that modeling, simulation and optimization software can predict virtually any physical or environmental behaviour of materials, systems and buildings. However, in the design of the lantern, the behaviour and outcomes of the material used could not be accurately predicted using Rhino 3D. Therefore, a trial and error type of fabrication method had to be implemented during the prototyping stage.

Because of this, there was always a degree of uncertainty and there was limited predictability of the outcome. Due to the lack of knowledge in fabrication process, the uncertainty associated with the design was quite large and therefore always contained an element of the risk of failure. This could be seen in the first prototype where the uncertainty as well as the risk was high and predictability of the outcome was low. Therefore, it was not surprising that the prototype failed the replicate the digitized design.

However, with the production of more prototypes, the knowledge was gained in terms of what went well and what did not in the fabrication. This decreased the uncertainty and the risk, as well as increasing the predictability of the outcome. The conclusion can be made that when Deamer & Bernstein’s reading is applied to the evaluation of the design to production process, the prototypes helped to decrease the rick associated and increase the certainty of the outcome.

Throughout the semester of Virtual Environments, I acquired a new set of skills and learnt to look at design in an entire different scope from the beginning of the semester. It gave me an insight on the key important aspects in the process of design and the development from idea to fabrication. Although I already had some experience in digtal modelling before virtual environments, I found the subject to be a challenging continuation of digital modelling as it required me to learn a new set of skills, such as using Rhino 3D, in a short space of time.

However, the importance of digital modelling cannot be overlooked and the skills gained in Virtual Environments will be helpful in future projects.

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REFERENCES CONTEXTUAL: Poling, Clark (1987): Analytical Drawing In Kandisky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus Rizzoli, New York, pp. 107-122 Ball, Philip (2012): Pattern Formation in Nature, AD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 82 (2), March, pp. 22-27 Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques / Lisa Iwamoto. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c2009.

The third Industrial Revolution / Jeremy Rifkin. Palgrave Macmillan, C2011.pp107-126 Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture/ Philip Bernstein, Peggy Deamer. Princeton Architectural Press. c2008. pp 38-42 VISUAL: British National WIlflower Centre: http://inhabitat.com/british-national-wildflower-centre-ian-simpson-architects/ Vatican Staricase II: http://apartmentsilike.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/spiralstaircaseimg_6991.jpg Nicholas Gramshaw’s Eden Project: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_d042CW4fZzk/SpWDp63vUXI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/ IAcMpJSwzSo/s400/Eden.jpg RMIT Academic Building on Swanston Street: http://www.lyonsarch.com.au/assets/Learning/RMIT-SwanstonAcademic-Building/_resampled/SetWidth853-120814-rmitsab-001.jpg