Virtual Environments Week Four Design Robert Williams
Lecture Response For my proposed form I took inspiration from the growth of a pineapple plant and the position of the pineapple as it grew. Transfering this process gave meaning to my form and allowed me to intergrate it with the preexisting conditions of the human form effectively. I also merged two previous ideas together to create the singular form: The way the pineapple bush seperates in the middle to let the pineapple emerge is used except its the head that the form is parting to allow. Connecting the torso with the form mimicks the growth of the arm from the torso and branches out like the fingers from the palm in the human form. This use assimilation with human form could also be seen as implementing the ‘resolution’ strategy, with the human body uniting the two concepts to form a new entity.
Thomas Heatherwick Talk Discussion
Source: Thomas Heatherwick, Kuala Lumpur Platinum Park Residences, Heatherwick Studio, accessed 5th April 2013, < http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread. php?t=1600839>
I found the apartment blocks in Kuala Lumpur really clever in that by taking away parts of the base or giving the towers a ‘small bottom’ and then placing these parts at the top of the building it provided more ground area around the tower as well as more space at the top. The unique shape of the apartment blocks interrupts the usual skyline of tall, straight buildings in that area and changes the realtionship between the buildings and the environment. Another aspect of the design is the utilisiation of the roof area by turning it into rainforest. Heatherwick changes it from being ‘dead space’, to reconnecting with the natural landscape around it. So rather than a collection of rooms clustered together at the top of the towers that are claustrophobic, the roof top rainforest cures this as it expands across the entire area, allowing for inhabitants to experience these wide open spaces. Another achievement of this design is that the towers do not take over the landscape rather they become a part of it.
Lost in Parameter Space Response Abstraction is the action of reducing infinite complexity to a more managable description of an object. A model is an example of an abstraction, with a perfect model being one that uses as little information as possible to describe an object. When abstracting detail in an object it is the systematical development of a general solution suiting all individual components that is used. For the analytical drawings of my base pattern, the second drawing would be an abstraction because it holds the basic information to describe the shapes present whilst removing unnecessary lines as shown in the first drawing. Hence no important detail is lost and no one gets distracted by unnecessary detail. Reduction is finding the optimal way to transport this information by rewriting the description and not altering the content. Much like the Kandisky approach, it is how to represent an object in the most effecient way. This can be achieved by removing rendundancies; information that appears more than once.
Simplified Lantern Mock Up Having thought about the lighting effects that I wanted to achieve I made a paper model to see what kind of result I would actually get. I decided to base this model on the growth in the hand to see how individual ‘fingers’ work with the lighting and how the projections would work together when the ‘fingers are grouped. Since the form is made up of the individual ring components I represented these joined rings by cutting holes into opposite sides of the ‘fingers’. Below are shots of the projections achieved from the direct cuts into the paper. I was using a small LED torch, with the light travelling along the whole of the shorter ‘fingers’, but not quite reaching the end of the longer one. I then wanted to experiment with how the projections would appear when the individual ‘fingers’ were joined together. The formation (far right) I used is a simplified version of the original plastacine model which reflects the outward growth of the pineapple plant.
Further Exploration and Development On the far right are the projections created as a group of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fingersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. There are some defined shapes as well as some layered effects which is promising but I felt that too much light was escaping between the bottom of the model and where the torch is positioned.
I tried to improve this by attaching paper around the base of the group to direct more of the light up into the formation. It seems to actually restrict the light escaping too much and reduces the capacity to project light.
I then thought maybe the paper was too thin a material to effectively guide the light into the group, so I placed a strip of thick card around the original paper cyclinder to try and improve the results with some success.
Exploration Continued I then extended the model further by adding a piece extending along the arm. Again I simplified the form to run straight up the arm rather than twisting around as shown in the previous plastacine representation. I did not intend for the paper model to be appear 1:1, I have just made the extension to long in taking inspiration from my earlier sketch (right). Overall the form is in the wrong proportions to the body, needing to be bigger. However this gives an idea of how the lantern may be wired with LEDs in future fabrication. It also shows I would need to have at least one LED in each ‘finger’ and many along the extension for it to be effective. As a result this would mean a lot of wires and lights which will make it complicated like Paul suggested in the last tutorial.
Simplification Thinking about Paul’s comment of not making my lanternt too linear and having looked ahead at what is required in creating a contour model in Rhino and the panelling tools available, I realised that I had over complicated my design and decided to bring the lantern back to a much simpler representation. I brought the ‘fingers’ growing from the palm back to one expanding mass of cubes representing the rings, with a single line of components running along the outside of the arm (not twisting around). At the shoulder a similar expanding mass but with smaller growths suggesting ‘finger’ like forms protruding alongside the head (like the original sketch) From this I created a singular volumetric form (far right).
DigitisationContour Method 3 Variation
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Front
I found drawing the contour lines onto the model quite difficult and so the lines aren’t as neat as I would like but I when I cut the model into sections it clarified the lines, finding that not all the lines were necessary; especially around the protruding ‘fingers’ at the top.
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I used the Curve: interpolate points function to trace over the sections.
I placed points along the side view of the form to help achieve the right spacing.
Then used those points to move the traced sections into position.
Here I used the ‘Loft’ function to create the surface of the form.
A rendered view of the form.
Fully renedered view with the ‘fingers’ still detached.
Design Problems and Resolution After attending the Rhino Tech Session it became clear that I did not have the knowledge to complete my digital model to the standard I would like. I did recieve instruction but when I tried to recreate the process shown I was unable to. I had particular trouble trying to connect the extra ‘fingers’ coming off the form. I was also told that my lantern needed to be more within the brief and that my current form extended too far up the arm to the shoulder. Having taken these factors in and the time constraints I decided it would be more productive if I brought my form back closer to my original concept of growth from a point, up and outwards. Now having tried to complete the week’s excercises I understand the difficulties that I faced and will try to avoid these through designing a simpler form that communicates this idea of growth in the most direct way.
The extra ‘fingers’ were created separately because of the serparate contours.
Unable to make the ‘finger’ hollow so light would pass through it. I was shown how to do this but I was unable to repeat the process successfully.
Development of New Form With a direct approach in mind I revisited this earlier sketch (left). Having tried to digitise something a little too complicated for my skill set, I thouht a singular organic form was best. This earlier sketch demonstrates this growth through the expanding spiral up and around the arm. This simple representation of growth is what I would like to replicate but in a smaller size to reduce the overall complexity. Having reflected on what I has done so far, I feel that I had overcomplicated my form; went for too much and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really consider the constraints that I brought with me, like my own skills and time.
In these sketches I tried to keep it simple. The first is another version of the form modelled above but smaller and with only two twists. The second and third relate more to the pinapple plant and the pineapple growing from the centre of the mass. The fourth utilises scale to show this growth by starting thin at the bottom and being the thickest at the top. The fifth is simplification of the fourth starting in the hand.
Scaled and Orthogonal Views This is my simplified form represented in 1:5 scale. I feel it is the best option in terms off depicting growth in a simplified form which will be easier to digitise and fabric. Because of its simplicity it leaves pleanty of options to be manipulated using the panelling tools plug in.
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Sliced contour sections
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Digitisation of New Form I traced the sections and arranged them using the points that I had marked in the plastacine. This was much more effective and easier to do because of the simplified shape. I ‘lofted’ the curves that I had traced but found in transferring the sections into Rhino had displaced them a little and had taken away some of the curvature of the form. I re-adjusted the positioning of the curves and created a more realistic representation of the original model. Below are basic examples of different 2D panelling shapes used on the form and variations of the ‘faces’ present.
Limited Exploration of Panelling Tools To the left are examples of elipse patterns that I created. Unfortunately I cannot work out how to make them a surface correctly as I would like to achieve direct lighting effects. The bottom screen capture is my attemot to create a 3D pattern to give some depth to the surface of the lantern but unfortunately I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t create it by following th primer. Again my current skills limit my results.
Above left was the pattern I was trying to make 3D with different openings around the form as a development. An idea for the elipse pattern was for the shapes to increase in size as they went up the surface of the form to emphasise growth.