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CONCEPT AND WORKFLOW: PARAMETERS IN DESIGN In order to systematically experiment with 3D printing on fabrics, the first step is to identify and define the available parameters in design, both in the computational and physical worlds. Through this, I can then analyze the effect of each element on the printing process and therefore gain control over the final outcome.
DEFINITION OF VARIABLES
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COMPUTATIONAL RULES DERIVED FROM PHYSICAL PRINTS Through many test prints, a set of rules began to emerge defining the typical fabric form based on the initial digital design. These rules allow us to estimate the probable form of the final print and gain control over the design and making process. By applying computational rules to real-world prints, the link between the digital and physical realms is strengthened.
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CONCEPT AND WORKFLOW “According to estimates from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey, 32.2 million American Adults age 18 and older reported experiencing vision loss.” (Facts and Figures on Adults with Vision Loss 2020, n.p.). With such a large population of individuals in the community, there exists very little infrastructure in place for them, specifically in terms of city navigation. As a result, this community is forced to heavily on senses and memory in order to effectively navigate cities. Additionally, the existing guidelines for visually-impaired accessibility provide inadequate instruction for urban scale design, limited to detectable warnings on ramps and continuous paths of travel on sidewalks. Beyond that, existing innovative design strategies for improving city navigation are permanent, static, and unfamiliar. These designs cannot be retrofit into existing cities and are unable to keep up with the ever-changing urban context. With this, the question becomes, “How can urban space be designed for the visually impaired in a way that is changeable, dynamic, and intuitive?”
Dynamic Feedback Haptic Visualization Intuitive Sensing
“Facts and Figures on Adults with Vision Loss.” American Foundation for the Blind, September 2020.
State Communication Unintelligible Noise No Non-Visual Cues
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EXISTING DESIGN STRATEGIES Since the visually-impaired most often require tactile or auditory cues, the most useful tool for them would be one that can communicate in either one or both of these methods. In this case, the visually-impaired could most easily interact with materials, which provide both a tactile and auditory interface, depending on a material’s properties and reflective qualities. As a result, many designers have examined the challenge of non-visual wayfinding through a material lens. The most prominent solution for non-visual navigation is Teddy Koffman’s Tactile City project. This design involves a continuous series of ridges in the sidewalk that allow visually-impaired cane users to constantly read information about the environment, including street addresses, crosswalk locations, and transit stops. The design of this tactile road map is meant to be etched into the concrete while wet, which sets to create a permanent path of tactile information. This approach is mirrored in other precedents, which use similar tactile imprints to construct a new language for its users. While this method works, it is static and permanent, meaning that it can only relay very small amounts of data and cannot begin to capture the real dynamic environment that the visually-impaired encounter on a daily basis.
How useful is static information if the surrounding context is constantly transforming?
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
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Teddy Koffman's Approach to Non-Visual Wayfinding Picture Credits: Chokshi, Komal. “Designing with the Blind in Mind”. Rethinking the Future. 2021
EXPERIENCING SPACE WITHOUT SIGHT The importance of this project intervention lies within the intersection of responsive materials and non-visual wayfinding design. Transforming Chaos into Clarity While there is an abundance of research available on the topic of non-visual navigation, I will never personally know the struggles of the visually-impaired community or their lifestyles. In an attempt to understand a small silver of this unique navigation method, I tried walking down sidewalks while closing my eyes and listening to the sounds I heard around me and the textures I felt underneath my shoes. Through these small experiments, I wanted to more closely understand what non-visual cues currently existed in a standard space and the possibilities of capturing this data and transforming it into something more intuitively legible. I’ve recorded audio from one such experiment seen in the QR code to the right. Please feel free to join me on my journey from my apartment to my studio space. In the future, I also plan to speak with members of the visually-impaired community in order to fully understand the intricacies of this lifestyle. This will provide more clarity on the actual challenges faced, and in turn, may reveal the possibilities for intervention. This can be achieved by learning from experts at the Penn State Student Disability Resource Center and speaking with visually-impaired students.
SCAN ME TO EXPERIENCE A CLIP FROM MY AUDITORY WALK TO STUDIO!
NEXT STEPS
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CONCEPT AND WORKFLOW
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Top image by Jonathan Wong, Bottom image by Puja Bhagat
Image created by both Puja Bhagat and Jonathan Wong
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All content on this page is by Puja Bhagat
All content on this page is by Puja Bhagat
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Base Rhino model and views are by Puja Bhagat, Lumion post-processing is by Jonathan Wong
DIGITAL-PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIP
Image created by both Puja Bhagat and Jonathan Wong
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CONCEPT AND WORKFLOW
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All content on this pa
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FRAME HOUSE HOME DESIGN TOOL
Using the Frame House Home Design Tool, users are able to fully customize a unique home using the system’s kit-of-parts. The tool updates as the homeowner designs, allowing them to see their decisions in real-time. Additionally, the computational framework intuitively considers the constructibility of the home and eliminates the ability to design unbuildable structures. In this way, the design tool seamlessly links the digital and physical worlds and simplifies the housing design and construction process for the homeowner. The Frame House Home Design Tool is coded in Python and operated in Rhinoceros workspace. The user interface runs through the Rhinoceros command line, but is visualized through an overlay for clarity on user choices. Scan the QR code or visit this link to see a video of the Frame House Home Builder tool in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trSXIPQUA3c
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A HOME THAT GROWS WITH YOU Frame House is an adaptable, dynamic system that can change with the users needs. Rooms can be expanded and downsized as the family evolves. Interior partitions can also be rearranged as needed since they are independent from the home’s structure. When parts are no longer needed, the family can either reuse them for another home or donate them to another Frame House user.
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ENVELOPE DESIGN Frame House’s module is designed based on standard sheet materials. With this in mind, envelope materials are chosen on both their weatherproofing abilities and their standard off-the-shelf dimensions.
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FRAME HOUSE BY THE NUMBERS Theoretically, Frame House’s modular component-based frames can make building a house cheaper than building with standard balloon frame construction methods due to the elimination of labor costs, optimization of material cut sheets to reduce waste, utilization of a thickened edge slab, and integration of casework into the kit-of-parts. While this data requires additional research and testing to solidify the actual cost of Frame House, the initial estimates are promising.
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PROCESS MODELS 1/2” = 1”-0” scale component test model
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1/4” = 1”-0” scale spatial test model
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CONCEPT AND WORKFLOW
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All content on this page is by Puja Bhagat
All content on this page is by Puja Bhagat
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Image done by teammates
All content on this page is by Puja Bhagat
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PUJA BHAGAT pbhagat1417@gmail.com (484) 800-1005