SHADOW FLUX 2.0 DIGITAL FABRICATION LOGICS IN LOW TECH ENVIRONMENTS
Renato Lemus – Vladimir Soto Academic Advisor: MsC. Arch. Carlos Arzate
Powered by
SHADOW FLUX 2.0 DIGITAL FABRICATION LOGICS IN LOW TECH ENVIRONMENTS
Renato Lemus-Vladimir Soto
In the field of architecture and design in Mexico, with the democratization of digital technologies in both hardware and software, as well as the current low cost of leading digital design and generative modeling tools (Rhinoceros * and Grasshopper **), the design based on organic and capricious forms, has proliferated, especially in schools. However, many students and professionals with little experience who use these digital tools encounter the harsh reality of an economic and technological environment that, in most cases, does not allow to bring to reality those designs generated from the digital board. This paper describes the process of manufacturing a piece of non-standard architecture, from the digital to the real. This structure has been designed from a form finding strategy based on data collection and systematized through digital tools and generative modeling software (Rhinoceros * and Grasshopper **).
The initial design premise was to create a highly disruptive speculation in a historical site. The Plaza de Armas in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, is one of those urban spaces with relevant social roots in the city. It is deliberately sought to provoke the insertion of an unconventional object whose form was produced from the understanding of a logic, which in turn, was a product of the very nature of the place. Thus, the choice was to study and re-configure the Shadow Flow, that is, to map the edges of the shaded areas generated by the surrounding urban elements, in order to generate a point cloud, which is interrelated through heuristic variations, until defining a final object as starting point to the experimentation and digital fabrication.
*© 2014 Robert McNeel & Associates. **© 2017 Created by Scott Davidson.
SHADOW FLUX 2.0 DIGITAL FABRICATION LOGICS IN LOW TECH ENVIRONMENTS
Renato Lemus-Vladimir Soto In a precarious environment where it has not been possible the use of specialized machinery (except for a laser cutter), it has been a great challenge to construct this piece, and in turn, to establish a logic that allows to systematize the construction process. Once systematized, the process could be applied and adapted to build the complete structure.
Given the economic impossibility of using technologies from the aerospace and automotive industry that would greatly simplify the manufacturing, hybrid techniques were developed between the analog and the digital, perfectly viable and nowadays economically accessible. The process of trial and error, as in any experimental exercise, forces the constant reconfiguration of techniques, materials and re design of the target object itself. Therefore, this work demonstrates that it is possible to efficiently use the latest digital tools in environments where there are no economic and technological means to carry out their manufacture. Through the use of low-tech and affordable tools, we have been able to systematize the process of bringing digital design to material manufacturing, with an acceptable information loss threshold.
DEVELOPMENT AND DIGITAL FABRICATION After defining a point cloud interrelationship logic that led to the Form Finding process with generative digital tools (Rhino and Grasshopper), the process was concluded to that point , as a bone structure in the form of an organic mesh that produced a porous cover with variable apertures and a uniform thickness regulated parametrically.
DEVELOPMENT AND DIGITAL FABRICATION
For the digital fabrication model, we decided that the best option was 3-D printing, due to its low information loss threshold, scaled to 1:250
FABRICATION
STRATEGIES
To continue its manufacturing development, a sector has been selected that involves a substantial change of direction in the UV flow, which is analyzed from its topology base, to reveal the more feasible geometric trace to emulate in a Mockup ,with a feasible constructive system.
The selection criteria was based in the section that had stronger recognizable deformations, and therefore represented a bigger manufacturing challenge in the real world.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The most feasible (economically and technically) strategy has been a structure of flat beams (representing armatures in the 1: 1 scale model) covered with a skin.
For this development it was necessary to explore two strategic routes: First, the structure was manufactured in preliminary tests made of cardboard, MDF and steel sheet with the purpose of exploring diverse scales and rigidity possibilities that could emulate its real world behavior.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The selected section has an approximately 8x8 meters Bounding box. For the purpose of this exploration we worked with the following scales: 1:5, 1:7.5 y 1:10 . Working at those scales, was the easiest way to test, manufacture and transport the constructive system.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FIRST STRATEGIES We started with analogic traces and some ideas about the fabrication possibilities, from 3D printing and excavated molds, to a structural core covered with a skin capable of retaining most of the information from the digital model.
EXPLORATIONS Polyhedral skin physical model made of plastic membrane as an initial alternative.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FIRST STRATEGIES
Waffle structure digital model exploration, with the purpose of retaining most of the digital information.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FINAL FABRICATION STRATEGY We decided to systematize the construction of the structure, firstly identifying the axes of the ribs and tracing them so that they follow the direction of each of the "phalanges". Later vertical cut planes were drawn, which intersect with the original geometry, to obtain the correct forms in each direction. Then, perpendicular slices were projected in each of the main structures, also following the shape of the skin, in order to accurately shape the geometry in the other direction. The system was parameterized so that it was easy to change the accuracy of the element.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The angles between the structure axes were achieved by designing a small circular piece with slots in order to force each piece at an exact angle. This system was later simplified with the progressive evolutions and fabrication tests, in a way in which the structural core resulted in an optimized and tested object, easier to manufacture.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The structure system was tested made of MDF using assemblies digitally cut. Then we decided to simplify the system.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
Metal manufacturing at 1:5 scale allowed to adjust the initial strategies, but most than all, it allowed to probe that the steel core was constructively viable. The next challenge would be to develop the correct technique for the skin cover, which gives the final form to the element.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FABRICATION PROCESS DIAGRAMM
The final digital model was designed so that the main axes of the structure were simplified with a straight line from node to node. The sections perpendicular to the structure (slices) were drawn at 90 degrees to avoid having multiple angles and each section of the line was divided into three parts. The main structure, as well as the perpendicular sections that should be of structural plate, will be manufactured in MDF for economic and constructive convenience, since the structural system was steel tested in the previous scale.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FABRICATION PROCESS DIAGRAMM
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
Slide / 01
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
MEMBRANE FABRICATION STRATEGY
The membrane to manufacture was extracted from a section at axis 1-2, and for its fabrication we will use a mold made of MDF serial planes, laser cut.
Then, a previously heated styrene sheet will be shaped , in a way that the sheet “falls” by gravity inside the mold
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
For this membrane, we developed a topography-like digital model for laser cutting, in order to obtain the mold for termal shaping a plastic sheet.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The mold was made as a concave negative in MDF, divided in two sections: top and bottom, so that they can be easily bonded together.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The styrene sheet was shaped against the mold by applying heat with a blowtorch.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
The excessive heat applied burns the styrene sheet in the deeper zones, so it was necessary to open holes to the mold to extract the heat by applying suction in the bottom. Additionally we tested the process with thicker styrene sheets.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FABRICATION STRATEGIES We also tested the acrylic sheet, but due to its stifness it didn´t allow the correct shaping in the deeper zones. So we decided to use the thicker styrene sheet as a final choice.
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FABRICATION STRATEGIES
FINAL
ELEMENT
FINAL
CONCLUSIONS
Although, due to the economic scope, a 1: 1 element was not manufactured, new ways of manufacturing non-standard architecture could be tested and systematized. Given the economic impossibility of using technologies of the aerospace and automotive industry that would greatly simplify the manufacturing, hybrid techniques were developed between the analog and the digital, perfectly viable and nowadays economically accessible. The trial and error process, as in any experimental exercise, forces the constant reconfiguration of the techniques, materials and re design of the object itself. We also believe that one of the main lessons of the process is to have developed and evolved alternative construction techniques of non-standard architecture that have allowed us to make the transition from the digital to the real with an acceptable information loss threshold.
However, developing countries follow the global inertia where new designs are manufactured by robots and last generation 3D printers. In these territories of scarcity and crisis, today the manufacture and the digital design are a hybridization of accessible technology and creativity. Adaptability and frugality do as much as possible with very few resources. Rhinoceros* and Grasshopper** are the strategic tools to shape the imagination. These tools have democratized the ability to create new worlds. But in order to take the qualitative leap to reach reality, the important tool is human imagination.
Renato Lemus Vladimir Soto Morelia, Mich. MĂŠxico 2016
Digital fabrication today has become a standard in the design world. Virtually all objects of industrial manufacture imply a process linked to these technologies to take them to the tangible world and its eventual commercialization. The unstoppable consumerism of capitalism forces us to seduce the buyer with new shapes for the productive chain to continue. *Š 2014 Robert McNeel & Associates. **Š 2017 Created by Scott Davidson.
Powered by