Fabrication by Sam Xie

DIGITAL DESIGN & FABRICATION SM1 2017

M3 JOURNAL - FABRICATION

Claire Qu & Sam Xie

835967 & 833508 Tutor Group 7 with Amanda Masip

Introduction

From the beginning Our prototype for the previous submission was composed of individual fabric rolls, stiffened in the fan section with tinfoil. The idea was to panel the rolls densely, modulating from stiffer rolls in the fan section to softer ones in the body. We were encouraged, after the Module 2 presentation, to revert to a more logical fold pattern for our design, creating folds from regular pinches in a single piece of fabric like we did in one of our initial experiments (fig. 1). From there we progressed to a design very similar to our final 2nd skin design, which incorporates several pleated pieces of varying sizes layered to map out the personal space boundaries of the wearer (Claire). The pleated body pieces should be soft and slightly irregular, in contrast to the fan piece, which should be rigid.

Design development

Design difficulties

Catalyst for change

• pinned at one point - resulted in extremely thick end, difficult to work with • not voluminous enough - looked too much like a dress • no device for stiffening fan element • no cohesion - pieces were entirely separate and randomly fixed to each other • did not stay on the body - resulted in design of back section

From the list of design difficulties (left), we decided to utilize some previous folds which we had experimented with initially (left). We developed an algorithm to allow for a more consistent fold. This was introduced to combat the random nature of our design and give it more procedure. This new fold will limit the number of attachment points while also allowing more folds to be seen. Such a new implementation also meant that we had to re-think our effects testing and temporarily halted development of the reflective effects while we focused on improving the fundamental design.

Design development + fabrication of Prototype V.2

Progress Thankfully with suggestions by our beloved tutors, this design improved and is steadily reaching the aspired design and closing the gap between prototype and the digital design. However, it is still far-cry away from conception as there are still some teething issues with the prototype. Firstly, as the number of folds increase, it seems to clump together near the attachment point, this is especially noticeably unviable in the large prototype. Secondly, as the size increases, the folds do not stay fold and spread out vertically, leaving an impression of a clumped-up dress. Thirdly, especially prevalent in the larger design, the folds are not systematic enough and do not produce an even enough of a fold per fold. Later on, we address these issues and reason why such compositions of the design have changed. The digital model was also crucial in developing this new folding algorithm and by going back and forth between prototype and digital modelling, we are able to iterate on design flaws.

Reading Response Wk 6 Architecture in the Digital Age - Design + Manufacturing/ Branko Kolarevic, Spon Press, London c2003

Utilisation of digital design There are several processes through which an object can be digitally fabricated, including 2D cutting, 3D cutting, formative, and additive techniques. In 2D cutting, a sheet of material is cut in two axes, and in 3D cutting, in 3, 4, or 5 axes (includes rotation of the material or the drill bit). Formative processes create forms by applying pressure to sheets of material to deform them in the desired manner. Additive fabrication takes sections of the 3D model and reproduces them in layers. In our design, digital fabrication was used create the shapes of the folded pieces, and to indicate fold lines and connection points. Because the FabLab was unwilling to cut felt - the primary material from which our 2nd skin would be made - we instead had laser cut card templates made, with holes indicating the pinch pattern. The templates were traced onto the felt, and the felt pieces were cut out, ready to be folded and assembled. The role of the laser cutter in our project was as a device to allow the digital model of our design to be accurately translated into physical pieces; no digital processes were used in the assembly of the 2nd skin.

Reading applied to design Fabrication strategy The digital modelling process was first and foremost a visualisation tool for our project. The irregularity and complex curvature of our designs were difficult to visualise entirely in 2D mediums such as simple diagramming. Using Rhino to develop our design allowed us to experience to a degree the reality of our 2nd skin before we made any prototypes; the way the folds would fall, the way the pieces would flex and bend around the body, and the entire look of the design from all angles - these were the main things the digital modelling process allowed us to visualise. The use of the laser cutter allowed our digital design to be directly translated into a physical model through the creation of templates. The templates allow for the pieces cut for assembly of the 2nd skin to be more accurately created than if the process were to be solely manual; exact lengths, fold placements, and changes in width of the felt pieces could be specified and easily reproduced with the use of the template.

Reading Response Wk 7 Digital Fabrications: architectural + material techniques/Lisa Iwamoto. New York: Princeton Architectural Press c2009

Recent shifts from design to fabrication The development of 3D modelling software enabled architects to design structures with complex, curved surfaces. In order to realise these designs, new approaches to construction, such as tessellation, were conceived. Tessellation is the division of a curved surface into a mesh of flat geometries for ease of construction. An example of a design which applies this technique the Huyghe&Le Corbusier Puppet Theatre by MOS. The irregular, curved form of the puppet theatre is created by the tessellation of flat triangular panels. The shift has allowed the realisation of innovative ideas from architects as there is no longer a reliance on mass production of generic parts. The ability to generate custom parts for designs empowers designers to consider more wild designs. The increase of use of this technology has been seen already throughout the world, from truly unique and aspiring structures to bizarre studios. The relationship between technology and humanity is a symbiotic one, and one that will only bode well for the future.

Reading applied to design Implication of digital fabrication Because the material of our design is fabric, many of the constraints associated with digital fabrication, such as the need to create developable surfaces, do not apply. For example, a simple pinch of a fabric will doubly curve naturally. Following the digital fabrication process was more of a matter of visualisation and precision in fabrication for our design; its irregularity would have made it difficult to visualise and document using manual methods, and more difficult to accurately translate into its physical form.

Prototype development Improved folding algorithm As the previous method of folding did not prove sufficient enough for a consistent and cohesive design, we needed a new, more coherent algorithm for folding. It was through our digital modelling that we uncovered a way to fold it in actuality. A section was divided up into six mini-sections and was marked according to this set of rules to ensure that a fold will only fold up to a certain line. As the design has now changed to incorporate a rounded array away from the center, this meant that previously, we only had one anchor point and therefore one hole to account for, in this design, there will be difficulty anchoring the point. We needed to have a hole that traversed through the insides of the folds, hidden from view, that would allow a wire to pass through and allow the form to be held. These holes were then generated for the design in a way that would allow the holes to be hidden from view. The image below briefly describes such algorithm.

Wire Chambers

Combining pieces

On the far right, we propose two chambers.

The pieces are to have a wire that runs through the underside which continues throughout two chambers.

The figure 8 chamber is to allow for attachment of the arm piece and the front flaps. It is designed in a figure-8 configuration to stop slippage from the body. It will run around the neck and the shoulder of the user.

The chambers are described on the left. The image below describes how the wire is to run through one piece.

The second chamber runs around the body and allows attachment of the rest of the pieces. These chambers will be connected to form a sort of wearable structure.

Prototype optimisation A journey through the details Because of our change in design, the aluminum duality was disbanded and we needed to incorporate a new effect and detail that would complement this. Through prototyping we of many details but many of them fell short of the aesthetic quality we were after, or had some large problems in the implementation of the details. We explain why we decided on the decision of each detail.

The first image on the left is an example of an interesting design where it was not possible to implement variance. As we were looking for some variance in the design, the foldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attachment points (where the sticky tape is) were to increase in attachment points as they go along the structure. Yet as this happened, with an increasing amount of attachment points, the amount it would stretch would decrease, leading to a clumping of the design. So, we could not continue with this detail.

This design was created in an attempt to both allow the folds to be stabilized and create an interesting detail. The idea would be that as each hole is cut, the loose part would fold back and would be sown onto the fan to the back, allowing an attachment point for both the fan and detail. In the end, this was not viable because of the sheer number of holes that needed to be sown and cut.

This final design was considered near the end stage as it was simple yet provided variance in our design. Like the previous design, as each fold is parted backwards, it allowed an attachment point to the fan to allow a double usage of a sow. This was, however, more effective as there were less parts to sow and we were able to include a contrasting layer underneath that would be exposed when folded backwards. (Inspired by Appendix 1.0)

Machine driven production

835967 Claire Qu

Sheet 05 of 10

From the digital design to fabrication, it was almost impossible for product like ours to simply unroll and print. Further investigations had to be done to optimize our design for fabrication processes. Being that the design was paneled in a polar array, when a single piece of the fold was unrolled, it produced an arced projection. Through mathematics, we were able to approximate the folding to be combined into a single piece to be able to fabricate. With foresight, it was important to distinguish where to fold, so with the algorithm developed, we incorporated it into the fabrication blueprint in alternations. The holes also had to be added to the blueprint to account for the wire and was also alternated throughout the blueprint. As some pieces were too large for the laser cutter to cut and could not fit, some parts had to be reduced in size and in turn, had to account for the part in which it splits and joins. Pieces were also labeled according to their position on the body and the number if they were to be split to fit. In the case of fabrication, the etches and holes were optimised only for paper as it was the only material that was available to fabricate which had the closest properties to our target material choice.

Prototype optimisation Material Choice In the beginning stages of our development, we experimented with different materials that would be candidates for the final prototype. By experimenting early one, we had a good idea of what materials are similar to eachother.The prototyping in such materials that did not provide enough structure, we knew we could not have thin materials for the final design. Felt was chosen for the final design as it proved to be flexible enough while also having an amplified rigidity when folded. Interestingly, we decided to use paper to quickly prototype the entire structure as it was affordable and quick to fabricate. As paper generally holds its shape relatively well when fold, we could use tape to hold its form while we decide on how we will join pieces together. By the use of this prototyping material we were able to identify design flaws and therefore work to progress our design much quicken than if we had hand crafted a fabric version as a whole.

Wearability It was through prototyping the while attire that it was discovered that our design was not well optimized for wear-ability. It did not really sit together as a whole and would hang off each other. It also proved that the wire structure became overly convoluted and undesirable. It showed that the wire structure would only be good for temporary measures and did not have enough simplicity for its wear-ability factor. Although we used a paper prototype to quickly fabricate the entire structure, we opted to go with felt for our final material choice.

Prototype optimisation Together as one It was realized once we set up our prototype that it lacked cohesion. As from the previous image, it can be seen that the pieces would hang and did not seem as part as a whole. There appeared to be a sense that the prototype lacked though in combining each piece together, although the methods of attachment were also insufficient, we believe that if we invested the remaining time to further develop such attachment, there was a inherit lack of through put into the design stage to account for wear-ability. Therefore, it was back to the drawing board for us, as we needed to morph the previous design to a design with continuity in mind. Although this idea was suggested early on, it was until now where we saw the use for such design.

Fast deployment It was a difficult decision whether we wanted to refine our previous design to fit the needs of wear-ability or to re-model and re-design but the choice was clear. The re-modelling process was daunting considering the lack of resource, time, the difficulty of such task and at times there was disbelief and doubt as to whether we’d finish. Luckily a deep investment of time went into this process to spearhead our development further along than what we would have before. The redesign was first sketched out in concept in the previous page and then was ‘boxed’ out in rhino to verify the shape of the proposal. The boxing out process was vital in allowing curves to flow along a desired path to allow paneling and unfolding. The idea was generated through traditional methods of level design where designers would first block out a level in rectangles before integrating texture-less assets and polishing. Once ‘boxed’ out, the lines were implemented to follow the curvature of the box. When lofted, this forms the foundations of the design, being the visible surface of the design and measurements. By unrolling the lofted surface, this gives the surface only of the final product, so there needed to be a way extend the unrolled surface to allow for folding. This proved especially difficult when the width would vary according to the parameters set. It was then when we split up the unrolled surface into parametrized chunks and experimented with various tools until the spiral tool was deemed suitable. Some misjudgment occurred when stressed which lead us to believe that the final product had to be only two times in length, which resulted in lost time, which was crippling. The fabrication template was then remodeled with triple the length of the unrolled surface with variance. The next page shows the final result.

2nd Skin final design

The final result is a second skin with continuous folds that wraps along the body with varying widths that adapt to your personal space bubble. With an emphasis of asymmetry and continuity, the second skin blurs the boundaries of vulnerability and safety while challenging the certainty of our personal space.

Fabrication Sequence Trace out printed stencil with markings onto fabric to be ready to cut.

Fold such fabric according to the algorithm provided.

Insert a contrasting piece beneath the folds.

Sow bottom according to algorithm.

Use adhesive to attach contrasting layer to fold.

Combine all pieces into one with single piece of wire running through.

Assembly Drawing Fragments to a whole

Folding the details

Each cut fragment is to be connected through stitching through hidden compartment.

Each individual piece is to be fold in such a way to produce a overlapping fold in that no cross section is to have a layer more than 3 bands thick.

Assemblage of compartments are as shown on the left. Pieces that fit in a laser cutter (less than 850x560 mm) will be labeled on each trailing edge in alphabetic-numerically.

The algorithm designed to facilitate this and produce a polar array of such folds which would allow curvature around the body.

Trailing edges are to be connected in chronological order as it flows throughout the piece. For example: A1 flows to A2 which connects to B1 which flows to B2 which connects to C1 etc. The figure on the left is in that order with the A pieces at the bottom, B above that, following to the top with piece K. It is important to flip pieces that are printed upside down to ensure the circular nature of the connections to prevent any S shape configurations. The circular nature allows the design to snake around the body and hold itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s form and framework.

To maintain the shape, each piece is sown together with another to produce such continuity. To transform it to the desired shape, structural integrity is managed through a solid, yet flexible, wire which runs through the holes that are to be cut. The wires will be hidden under the folds with one side having parting exposure which will be hidden under an additional layer of fabric sown on top.

Additional detail is to be produced with a parting of folds to reveal some internal structure (as shown on the lowest right image). This will also be kept in place by sowing in a proprietary function which will keep all folds in place.

Creating the form Although it is not recommended to assemble such piece like shown in the right, the image shown gives a sense of where each piece is placed in relation to each other. Once the pieces are connected, it is recommended to fold the entire piece to this form given to the right, making sure each piece is correctly in place, relative to one another.

2nd Skin

Appendix 1.0