MICHAEL KINARD SELECTED WORKS
Advanced Composite Design Instructor | Jefferson Ellinger
UNC Charlotte | Fall 2013
A collaborative project to design, streamline, fabricate and install a composite interior wall system to the UNC Charlotte School of Architecture. This project involved fiberglass construction, CNC 3 axis routing, pattern/mold making, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
An interlocking tab system was developed in order to simplify the installation process as well as hide all the connection seams. The goal was to have the components integrate into a cohesive overall wall system that exhibits the form of the components rather than the detail of their connection. Every side of the hexagon has a tab to facilitate all six of the possible orientations.
Milled MDF patterns.
Pattern rough path milling.
The initial tabs [left] were designed and almost produced. Before sending out the patterns to be molded, we realized that there was an issue of how the components would slide together. We were able to resolve this issue by trimming the tabs so that they slid past the others with no collision.
Pattern finish path milling.
After receiving the finished fiberglass components, the installation process began. The entire installation took only two hours due to the design of the interlocking tab system. Because of the lightweight nature of the components no substrate reinforcement was needed. We installed it directly into the sheetrock in the School of Architecture lobby.
Pre-finished pattern with tabs.
Sanded/Finished patter ready for molding.
Completed fiberglass component.
Solar Decathlon 2013 UNC Charlotte | 2011 - 2013 A collaboration between multiple disciplines within UNC Charlotte to design, innovate, construct, transport and operate a house that meets the strict standards of the DOE Solar Decathlon Competition. UNC Charlotte was one of 20 teams in the competition and the only team that utilized Geopolymer Fly-Ash Concrete as its main building material.
3” exterior concrete
6” interior concrete Radiant heating and cooling mat
6” EPS Foam
The UNC Charlotte Solar Decathlon house was atypical due to the fact that it was built completely out of concrete. Specifically Geopolymer Fly-Ash concrete. A large portion of time was spent developing and understanding this new building material that we were working with. Fly-Ash concrete does not cure in the same way that Portland Cement concrete cures. Typical concrete hardens quickly due to a chemical reaction that causes it to produce a lot of heat and rapidly harden. Our fly-ash concrete needed to be heated for upwards of 48 hours to reach its full strength. Because of this restraint we had to design panels that we could pump very hot water through for 48 hours. To achieve this we embedded tubing within the walls that would be tied into a residential hot water heater to cure the concrete, and would later be used to heat and cool the walls through the use of thermal mass and radiant heating and cooling.
Layer1: Formliner and radiant tubing.
Layer2: 3” Fly-Ash concrete whythe
Layer3: 6” Foam insulation and electrical comp.
Proposed formwork design method
Layer4: Beka radiant heating & cooling manifold
Final formwork design method
Layer5: 6� Interior fly-ash concrete whythe
Cured concrete test wall with facade details
Elevated Urabanism SCI-Arc | Fall 2014 Elevated Urbanism is a mixed use building in downtown Los Angeles. The objective of this studio was to use digital patterning and projection methods to begin to selectively de-familairize parts of the building. The process was a mix between strategic collage and projective de-familiarization.
The site was a full city block in downtown Los Angeles. The large site and program inherently led to a massive building. My goal was to begin to carve away at the mass of an extruded city block to create a less visibly dense mass. Once the overall mass was finalized, different projections were applied to the surfaces in order to subdivide the mass and skew the envelope of a traditional office building. The project evolved into a collage of familiar and unfamiliar building elements that were derived from digital patterning and traditional office tower vernacular. Parts of the building are supposed to be recognizably familiar while other parts are meant to be uncomfortable representations of the relationship between the familiar and the foreign.
Orbit Partner | Edward Winn SCI-Arc | Spring 2015 Using robotics, Edward Winn and I developed a series of experiments that manipulated the physics and material properties of wax. The resultant objects from the experiments are products of controlled variables combined with un-hypothesized phenomena. The robots facilitated precise toolpath movements that led to the resultant form of the object.
[TOOLPATH IN PLAN]
[WATER LINE]
[SPIRAL TOOLPATH]
We created an environment in which we could document the effects of the different toolpathing operations. The toolpathing yielded different results that were filmed and photographed. We compared results and made modifications to achieve the resultant images. Our goal was to take a basic primitive shape and to register fine articulations from global movements. The process was intentionally rudimentary so that we could understand the variable in play and the resultant consequences. The object (sphere) attached to the robot would be heated by a heat gun to begin to melt the wax. Upon the wax melting the object would lowered into the cold water, slowly, performing a series of movements at the waterline. The heat combined with the tool path and the cold water created the resultant objects. The water would cool the melted wax as it met the waterline and therefore, depending on the orientation of the object, yield different results.
Orbit v2 Partners | Edward Winn & Bailey Shugart
SCI-Arc | Summer 2015
In the second phase of this project we further explored the effects of various toolpathing on a simple primitive. Combining wax casting and 3D printing we created spheres in which to manipulate via robotic movement. In this scenario we inverted the typical relationship of the toolpathing to produce objects effected by global object oriented movement.
The objects we started with were 1/8th spherical objects that combined wax and 3D printed objects. These objects were attached to a robotic arm and pivoted would their center points so as to follow the natural curve of the object. The movement of the object rather that the movement of the tool (heat gun) allowed us to have an interesting control over the entropic behavior of the melting and cooling process. Rather than having a singular gravitational vector we changed the objects relative gravity with every movement allowing for controlled entropy of the wax. The series that we created was our final exploration of this object oriented toolpathing and yielded much different results than our first exercise. We were able to control the variables much easier and begin to predict some of the phenomena that we encountered previously by now having a dynamic control over the objects relative orientation. The final objects demonstrate a progression of experiments that culminate with an object that shows the level of control we had over material and force.
Animate Architecture Instructor | Marcelyn Gow
SCI-Arc | Fall 2014
This project revolved around the technique of transforming a flat image to a complex 3D architectural object. The relationship of the image to the object is manipulated through the use of animation and projective geometries. The resulting object is a multiple resolution interpretation of the re-animation of the object generated from the image.
The initial object is created from a relatively simple extrusion of the alpha channels of images procured from the site in which the object is situated. The now three-dimensional image becomes an object that can be analyzed and manipulated to further justify its process as a re-animation of an image. The object is reduced to a series of sections both transverse and longitudinal. The sections become a second layer of imaging in which to reconstruct the object. The images are placed in sequence and played on a monitor. The monitor, now attached to a robotic arm is moved in a linear path and recorded via long exposure photograph. The result is a visual re-interpretation of the object that shows how time and proportion can affect the representation of the same object.
Pause in animation
Interpolation between sections
Linear interpolation at 5 frames per second
Sections created by cutting frames from animation
The Bamboozler Partner | Edward Winn
UNC Charlotte | 2013
As part of UNC Charlotte’s Research Through Making Grant, the Bamboozler was an experiment in digital and analog fabrication methods to create a sun shading system for the School of Architecture. Our research focused on the relationship between digital fabrication methods and historically analog building materials.
Flat packed joints cut on plasma cutter and folded to desired angle
The goal of the project was to create a prototypical sun shading system for the UNC Charlotte School of Architecture. The Bamboozler was an experiment utilizing both digital and analog fabrication methods to understand the consequences they had on the overall aesthetic. My partner and I were interested in bamboo as a material because of its versatility as well as its historical use as a raw building material. We decided to use the cross cut sections of bamboo as a shading system. The varying diameters of bamboo as well as the wall thicknesses allowed for the screen to have a variable or pixelated array of light and shadows behind the screen. The array of bamboo cross sections are held together by a larger truss made of larger bamboo segments. We wanted the truss to be parametric so that the whole system of screens could be unique if desired, rather than an aggregation of similar units. This led us to create a joinery system that was dependent of the overall system design so that one unique screen could be placed in line with another unique screen without conflict. We created individual joints dependant on the angle of the adjacent segments. The joints were then digitally “unrolled� in order to create cut files. The joints were CNC Plasma cut and tac welded to create the tube joints. Throughout the process of construction we discovered areas of the project that would need refinement, as well as the features and aesthetics that we liked and would want to remain in future models. Because of the nature of the grant, we had limited time and money so the prototype never moved pass the first stage of design iterations. We walked away understanding how the relationship between material and fabrication method is crucial to creating an understandable design logic as well as a clear aesthetic.
Systems Integration Studio Instructor: Jefferson Ellinger
UNC Charlotte | 2013-2014
As a final comprehensive studio project my task was to design an office building that integrated some sort of advanced building performance system into the overall design scheme. My research dealt primarily with solar thermal heat collection on the building envelope.
As a final comprehensive studio project my task was to design an office building that integrated some sort of advanced building performance system into the overall design scheme. My research dealt primarily with solar thermal heat collection on the building envelope. The goal was to develop a modular building unit that would perform efficiently to produce energy to service the building while also maintaining its functionality as a design element. I learned a lot about system integration and prefabrication in this studio. The unit I designed consisted of a solar thermal evacuated tube system affixed to a floor to ceiling glazing unit. The unit was repeated along the facade of the building utilizing the building envelope not only as a rain screen but as a way to generate energy to reduce the overall building energy needs. I found my solution to be have several benefits but also room for improvement in both the design of the unit as well as the efficiency of the system. I took away a valuable lesson of the pros and cons of an aggregated system. When aggregating the system you decrease the variability between elements thus making the system more “automated� and decreasing the likelihood of inefficient performance. There is a downside to some aggregations. In my case I devoted more energy to researching the system as a performance element rather than a design element. This shows in the details of the project. The system performs well environmentally, but breaks no new ground as a design feature. My goal moving forward is to balance this relationship between building performance and building aesthetic.
Male/Female mullion connection facilitating modular construction
Cast-in-place concrete floor with radiant tubing embedded
Castellated Beam - Allowing for ductwork/electrical to run throughout the ceiling plynum Acoustic Ceiling Tile
Solar Thermal Manifold: Cold water flows in and passes over a heated copper pipe. Hot pipe heats the cold water.
Evacuated Solar Tube: Copper heat tube inside evacuated tube increases in temperature heating a glycol/water mixture within the copper tube creating steam. Steam collects in the bulb at the top of the tube and water from the manifold flows over the bulb heating the heat transfer fluid.
Pixelated Topography Instructors: Casey Rehm & Marcelo Spina SCI-Arc | Summer 2015 Where the natural meets the synthetic there is typically a rift. The goal of this project was to unify the built and natural environment through two methods of form finding. The first being a top down, monolithic approach. The second a systematic assemblage. These two systems work in unison to create a project that has a symbiotic relationship to its given context.
This project addresses the natural topography found in the California desert. The specific site I chose was a cliff side. The rationale behind this decision was to start with a very monolithic condition and begin to disrupt it. Pixelated Topography is an investigation into the repercussions of both a bottom up and top down approach to the design process. Top down being monolithic, and bottom up being an assemblage of components. This combination proved to be useful in understanding how to “pixelate� this previously untouched cliff side. A site mesh was generated by scanning the cliff side. From this mesh, voxelization data was derived resulting in a 3D array of different sized voxels (3D pixels). The multiple scales of voxel created, allowed for higher resolutions in certain areas and lower resolution in other areas of the cliff. Balancing the relationship between high and low resolution voxels and the natural cliff led to the resulting massing. The mass registers itself as both foreign and native to the cliff side. The components are derived from the natural geometry of the cliff side yet do not carry the same organic language as the rock-face. It is hard to tell whether the monolithic cliff side has been made increasingly more monolithic or is becoming corrupted by the massing. When comparing the short range and long range elevations of the project one can see how multiple resolutions of the project begin to cloak it. The mass almost fades away in the long range elevation while in the short range elevation it is much clearer.