AA Int13 2016/17_PORCELAIN SKINS

PORCELAIN SKINS TRANSFORMABLE MATTER

AA Intermediate 13

KAROLINA LESZKOWICZ Tought by Soomeen Hahm

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MATERIAL EXPERIMENTATION

During last years there is constantly growing interest in using ceramics.

Its because of their unique features like high compression strength, hardness, toughness, poor conductivity and chemical resistance. There are also really interesting in terms of aesthetics. Especially porcelain with its white, translucent surface letting the lighting through.

However the potential of porcelain as a material used in a large-scale objects is not yet fully utilized. Material is mainly used in a form of tiles or panels placed on supporting frame. It would be interesting to get rid of all the supporting and try to applied porcelain in large scale objects as self-existing material.

The project is looking at non-traditional porcelain fabrication method and testing how it could be applied into architectural scale. Porcelain slip dipping is a method based on dipping organic materials in porcelain and burning them during firing process to receive porcelain shell structure.

Those kind of porcelain structures could be controlled by different factors like gravity, the number of porcelain layers applied, material used for dipping, firing temperature etc.. However the process cannot be fully controlled, what may result in obtaining interesting and surprising forms.

During the first part of the project, different initial materials like cotton and paper pulp in different forms were tested in small scale objects and also different factors affecting At the same time polygon modelling method was investigated. It was based on implementing components on the surface and scaling them according to the surface folds and then removing the basic surface and connecting components into actual form. Then porcelain was tested into larger scale to see how material behaves and panelization was introduced as a way to connect smaller objects into larger surfaces.

The project hopes to find a new way of using porcelain in large scale objects and change the way how this material is commonly perceived as a quit weak. Implementation of that fabrication method on compression surface should allow to create very strong and stable construction with no need of frame structure.

PORCELAIN SKINS REFERENCES

Material: Cotton Q- tips

Material: Cotton Q-tips, paper napkins

Materials: Seeds, bones, the fossilized portion of an insect’s abdomen, stalks, acorns, caterpillar tracks, sponges, shells, carapaces, fossils

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Jessica Drenk Created with a non-traditional ceramic burnout technique, the pieces in the Porcelain Skins series are experiments in which familiar, store-bought materials are transformed into shapes that suggest coral, shells, or calcified remains. This process involves dipping groups of cotton material into liquid porcelain, letting the liquidized clay penetrate the surface and then firing these materials and clay together in a kiln.

During firing, the cotton ignites and burns away, leaving only the porcelain as a husk of the original material that shaped it: a skin.

Material: Cotton pads

Therese Lebrun Lebrun’s work recalls things you may have collected on the beach as a child with the look of found natural objects, defying you to think that they were man-made. She molds porcelain around an organic material that burns away during the firing process, leaving hundreds of thin, semitransparent voids clustered around an empty space. Light passes through, from inside to outside, from outside to inside. When the light goes, only empty hollows remain, its edges whitened. The individual elements are fused with porcelain that turns translucent when fired. The pieces are made with small repeated gestures.

AA Int13 Porcelain Skins | Karolina Leszkowicz

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PORCELAIN SKINS

FIRING PROCESS AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES

22 cm 6

68 cm

57 cm

32 cm

Ceramics Studio Co-op - artist-run purpose designed ceramics and sculpture workshop which operates as a workers cooperative.

39 cm

73 cm

Temperature [oC]

e.

1600 1400

Soak

1200 1000 200 oC/h

800 Soak

600

Resting

400 120 oC/h

200 0

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Firing time [minutes]

Porclain firing chart (1240 oC) Dependency between firing temperature and color:

Porcelain properties in comparison to other materials PORCELAIN

METAL

POLYMER

Hardness

1200 C o

1400 C o

Elastic modulus

High temperature strength

Thermal expansion Ductility Corrosion resistance

Dependency between firing temperature and strength:

Resistance to wear Electrical conductivity Density

1200 oC

1400 oC

Thermal conductivity High values

Low values

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PORCELAIN SKINS MATERIAL EXPERIMENTATION Organic materials

Material: Cotton wool Form: Cotton pads Connections: Thread

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Material: Pure cotton Form: Mop strings Connections: Thread

Material: Paper pulp Form: Paper balls Connections: Thread

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PORCELAIN SKINS FINAL FABRICATION METHOD

Fabrication method:

MAKING COMPONENTS FROM ORGANIC MATE-

~6 hours

Cotton wool strips are wraped with thread to create quite strong, but also soft components. Softness allows to achieve porcelain layer without any cracks caused usually during drying process and shrinkage.

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COMBINING COMPONENTS

~1 hour

Organic components are connected together with thread to create overall shape of the form. During this part of the process, both exterior and interior future shape could be partialy controlled.

DIPPING FORM IN PORCELAIN SLIP

~2/3 hours

Form is then dipped in porclain slip multiple times to achieve certain strength of the form. Dipping is really important part of the process, as during this time most of the mistakes could be made.

HANGING FORM UNTIL IT IS DRY

~3-4 days

Hanging the form in a specific position results the final shape of the form. Gravity is causing the porcelain leaking, what forms the exterior. During drying and shrinking cracks may appear on the surface, what causes the weakness of form.

WAITING IN A QUEUE TO BE FIRED

FIRING FORM IN A KILN

~ 1- 1,5 week (ORGANIC MATERIAL FROM

When the form is dry it is still quite fragile before firing process and it usually takes quite a lot of time to wait in a queue to be fired.

This time could be reduced, when own kiln is used.

THE INSIDE BURNS OUT)

Firing process itself is long and divided into periods of higher and lower temperature. Resting after firing usually takes a couple of hours, as the final form must slowly come back to the room temperature.

~1 day

FINAL SHELL STUCThe organic material from the inside is burned during firing, what results in getting specific shell structure as a result of process.

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PORCELAIN SKINS MODEL

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PORCELAIN SKINS MATERIAL EXPERIMENTATION Organic material

Material: Cotton rope Connections: Thread

While using cotton rope as a basic natural material, all of the porcelain skins cracked.

It is because cotton rope was to hard and during the fabrication process, when porcelain start drying, molecules could not get closer to each other. Even if the models cracked, the porcelain after firing process still stayed in placed and created quite strong structure.

Models tested different connections between string to possibly create different spatial conditions inside the models.

One of the models surprisingly created different texture on the outside surface, than the others. It was created from a little bit different material, what effect this kind of dot like texture.

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Connections details

Connection diagrams

Model

Models

After firing

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PORCELAIN SKINS PATTERN ANALYSIS

Pattern analysis On the surface of model black dots in different sizes appeared during the firing process.

The dots were analysed in terms of the distance between material organic inside and the surface of porcelain.

The bigger distance is, the darker color are the dots.

In the next step, the possible arrangement of organic material inside porcelain shell was specified.

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PORCELAIN SKINS

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PORCELAIN SKINS

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DIGITAL EXPERIMENTATION

PORCELAIN SKINS REFERENCE

‘Teasel Exposed Interior’ 2012

New Year’s Best Dream, 2015

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‘Teasel Exposed Interior’ 2012

Detail

Formed Shards, 2012

Nuala O’Donovan

Porclain Sculptures Artist uses the characteristics of irregular fractal patterns in nature as constraints or guidelines. Patterns are regularly irregular, patterns and forms are self-similar. Her pieces are constructed slowly over a period of weeks or months. Each element is built individually by hand. The finished forms are the result of an intuitive response to the direction the pattern takes.

’Coral, Structure and Surface’ 2012

Zemer Peled

Formed Shards Zemer Peled sculptural language is formed by surrounding landscapes and nature, engaging with themes of nature and memories, identity and place. Her works are formed of thousand of ceramic shards constructed into large-scale/small-scale sculptures and installations.

Detail

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PORCELAIN SKINS AGGREGATION MODELLING

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PORCELAIN SKINS MODELLING METHOD

3D MODELLING PROCESS:

Starting from a simple, divided mesh and creating nCloth

Creating wrinkles on the nCloth by placing constraints points on the surfaces and manipulating nCloth parameters

Seeding simple geometries on the surfaces of nCloth

DIFFERENT PARAMETERS:

Surface is too flat, no difference between interior and exterior

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Surface is to spiky, not really similar to the porcelain shell

Creating curves in the places, where the surface is folding

Scaling geometries using as a parameter the distance between curve and geometry(the smaller distance the smaller scale of geometry)

Holes on the interior surface are not really noticeable

Connecting and smoothing elements

Strong difference between interior and exterior, the most similar to actual physical models

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PORCELAIN SKINS DESIGN PROPOSAL - OBJECT

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PORCELAIN SKINS DESIGN PROPOSAL - OBJECT

Basic models created using nCloth and sculpting:

Models with applied method:

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PORCELAIN SKINS PUZZLE ALGORITHM

Starting with randomly created seeds

Creating circles with the midpoint in the place where seeds were created

Parameter: Radius of connection part

Radius

Creating the initial shape of the puzzles 34

Filtering the outside edges

Radius

Filtering out the smallest edges

Voronoi pattern is created at the intersection of circles

Deforming the edges of each part with sinus function

Deforming the edges by dendritic solidification algorithm

Created puzzle pieces

Parameter: Number of created seeds

Radius

Number of cells

Creating the joints

Number of cells

Number of cells

Joining and preparing pieces

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PORCELAIN SKINS

PANNELING - MATERIAL CONSTRAINTS Interlocking puzzles algorithm Algorithm 1:

Amplitude = 0

Amplitude = 0,3

Algorithm 2:

Radius = 1

Creating the initial arc 36

Amplitude = 1

Waving middle segments of the edges of each cell

Creating the initial shape

Radius = 0,5

Amplitude = 0,6

Radius = 2

Connecting all the lines int new outline of each cell

Radius = 3

Orienting arcs depening on the initial cells shape

all the lines into ne of each cell

lls shape

Width= 0

Width = 1

Width = 2

Width = 3

Rounding the outline

Arranging all arcs around cells shape

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PORCELAIN SKINS

PANNELING - STRUCTURE PROPOSAL

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PORCELAIN SKINS REFERENCING

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NADER KHALILI Sandbag shelters

SuperAdobe is a form of earth bag architecture developed by architect and CalEarth founder Nader Khalili. Using long sandbags (“SuperAdobe Bags”), barbed wire, on-site earth and a few tools, Khalili devised a revolutionary building system that integrates traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements, and passes severe earthquake code tests in California.

This technology has been published by NASA, endorsed by the United Nations, featured in countless world media outlets, and awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. It comes from years of meditation, hands-on research and development. Inspired by traditional earth architecture in the deserts of Iran and adapted for modern usage. Simplified so that anyone can build.

Long or short sandbags are filled with moistened earth and arranged in layers or long coils. Strands of barbed wire are placed between each layer of sandbag to act as both mortar and reinforcement. Stabilizers such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added. Similar to how a potter stacks coils of clay to make a vessel, builders stack coils of earth for make a structure.

The SuperAdobe building system can be used for structural arches, domes and vaults, or conventional rectilinear shapes.

The same method can build silos, landscaping elements, or infrastructure like dams, cisterns, roads, bridges, and for stabilizing shorelines and watercourses.

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PORCELAIN SKINS REFERENCING

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JAN DE ROODEN The fired mudbrick house project

SuperAdobe is a form of earth bag architecture developed by architect and CalEarth founder Nader Khalili. Using long sandbags (“SuperAdobe Bags”), barbed wire, on-site earth and a few tools, Khalili devised a revolutionary building system that integrates traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements, and passes severe earthquake code tests in California.

This technology has been published by NASA, endorsed by the United Nations, featured in countless world media outlets, and awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. It comes from years of meditation, hands-on research and development. Inspired by traditional earth architecture in the deserts of Iran and adapted for modern usage. Simplified so that anyone can build.

Long or short sandbags are filled with moistened earth and arranged in layers or long coils. Strands of barbed wire are placed between each layer of sandbag to act as both mortar and reinforcement. Stabilizers such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added. Similar to how a potter stacks coils of clay to make a vessel, builders stack coils of earth for make a structure.

The SuperAdobe building system can be used for structural arches, domes and vaults, or conventional rectilinear shapes.

The same method can build silos, landscaping elements, or infrastructure like dams, cisterns, roads, bridges, and for stabilizing shorelines and watercourses.

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PORCELAIN SKINS PROCESS

Building construction frame

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Filling with organic material

Pouring porcelain

Building kiln

Firing

Deconstructing kiln

Final structure

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PORCELAIN SKINS BUILDING PHASES

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

prepare workshop for later works

produced in the building

Pottery zone and kilns are built to start the production by the locals and

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Exhibition zone is built to attract people and to exhibit porcelain

PHASE 3

Pools zone is built to provide social function of the building for locals

PHASE 4

Restaurant zone is built to provide more complex function of the building

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PORCELAIN SKINS VISUALIZATION

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