Clay_Cuts Research Cluster 5&6
MArch Architectural Design, 2016-2017 The Bartlett School of Architecture | UCL
CLAY_CUTS
Clay Pipe Morphologies
Tutors: Daniel Widrig Guan Lee Igor Pantic Soomeen Hahm Stefan Bassing Adam Holloway TEAM MEMBERS: Conglu Fang Runze Wang Shilpa Mathew Shan Li Yang Liu
PROJECT INTRODUCTION This project aims to draw inspiration from the historical material _ CLAY. We have taken clay as the main material and have learned its properties and drawbacks through physical studies. There are two kinds of processes we are working on. One is robotic cutting where we extrude hollow clay pipes and shape them into different components by squeezing and pinching, and then arrange few selected patterns into a block before cutting them with the robotic arm. The other method is slip casting where we use CNC to cut out the positive section of pipe patterns in foam. Using these foam components, plaster moulds are made for slip casting and clay slip is poured into them. After waiting for 30 mins, we pour the slip out and the remaining slip that is left inside the plaster mould forms the pipe pattern based on the given design and the water content from this slip gets absorbed by the plaster mould, which helps in the drying process of the clay pipe. In our project, we use this system where we are making interlocks among each of these pipe patterns to fabricate them into blocks. After firing the clay blocks into ceramics, they can be joined together with the help of strong glues, silicon, and melted plastic or even concrete.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1
INITIAL ATTEMPTS
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
REFERENCES INITIAL IDEAS INITIAL DESIGN INITIAL METHODS
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INITIAL CLAY PIPE FABRICATION
2.1 REFERENCES 2.2 MATERIAL TESTS 2.3 ROBOT CUTTING TOOL 2.4 ARRAGEMENT
3 Component Strategy 3.1REFERENCES 3.2COMPONENT TRIAL 3.3COMPONENT ANALYSIS 3.4FABRICATION
4 Arrangement Methods 4.1 BLOCK LANGUAGE 4.2 DIGITAL APPLICATION 4.3 FABRICATION 4.4 CONCLUSION
5 MATERIAL RESEARCH 5.1COMPONENT LANGUAGE 5.2FABRICATION 5.3 3D PRINT APPLICATION 5.4 INTERLOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION 5.5 CONCLUSION
6 ARCHITECTURAL PROPOSAL 6.1 CONNECTION STUDY 6.2 STRUCTURE STUDY
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INITIAL ATTEMPTS
1.1 REFERENCES 1.2 INITIAL IDEAS 1.3 INITIAL DESIGN 1.4 INITIAL METHODS
Clay is economical and can be reused for many times. The plasticity of clay is very strong. With the demand for architectural diversity, this traditional material should be combined with emerging technologies, such as robot arm, to maximize their strong points. At the same time, one of the main limitation of using clay blocks are that they are heavy and the chances of cracking while firing is very high.Problem of clay needs to be solved and the limitations of the robotic arm should be avoided. Failure analysis is an important part as well .
[ REFERENCES ]
Regular Use of Clay In Architecture Clay is the world’s oldest mineral building material. Modern clay architectuure uses clay tiles, bricks and plaster, beaten clay, readyto-use clay mortar and other clay products tailored to various functions
1. Japanese Ceramic Tiles 2. Ceramic Tiles 3.Spanish, Practice Mestura Arquitectes’ CEIP, Primary school near Barcelona. 4.Clay Brick, Barcelona.
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Wire Cutting Reference This research investigates a multi-robotic hot-wire cutting technique that allows to significantly expand the set of possible hot-wire cutting geometries. The aim of this research is to develop methods and techniques that allow to control this cutting technique and to foresee its outcome. Knowledge is acquired directly from the physical form-finding process and implemented in a respective digital model
1,2 Fibrous Concrete, 2013. Design Director: Roland Snooks Project Team: Amaury Thomas, Jas Johnson, Brad Martin 2. Spatial Wire Cutting, 2013 Project Team: ZĂźrich HĂśnggerberg, Professors Grammazio & Kohler, Assistants David Jenny & Romana Rust 3.Ceramics 2.0, 2012 Project Team: Stefano Andreani, Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo Lopez, Aurgho Jyoti, Assistants David Jenny & Romana Rust
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[ INITIAL IDEAS ]
Regular Use of Clay In Architecture The wire and was
initial attempt was cutting small cutting tool. Twisty carving and the cross sections are showed wet, it was easy to cut and the
clay block manually with wavy carving were tried as well. When the clay surface could be smooth
[ Wavy Carving ]
[ Twisty Carving ]
[ Basic Surface In Cylinder ]
A clay cylinder
Create a ruled surface
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[ Basic Surface In Cube ]
Carve inside a cylinder
Carved surface
A clay cube
Create a ruled surface
Carve inside a cube
Carved surface
Robot Cutting Since the manual cutting couldn’t be repeated, the robotic carving was considered necessary. The cutting tool was made of wood and connected to the robotic arm. The clay block should also be a little bit wet, because there is a limitation of the resistane for the robotic arm. Otherwise, the robotic arm will stuck in the clay block
[ Robotic Carving ]
···················· Cutting Tool ·····················Robotic Arm
·······················
Clay
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[ INITIAL DESIGN ]
Robot Cutting Robotic cuttin should follow the ruled surface which contains a series of parallel lines. There are three different kinds of ways to cut with robot : wavy cutting, twist cutting and multiple cutting
[ Wavy Cutting ]
[ Twist Cutting ]
[ Multiple Cutting ]
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Simulation of Robot To avoid any emergency issues , the robot cutting simulation should be checked before cutting the real clay block. Any hitting or wrong route could be found and notified with the cutting simulation
[ Wavy Cutting ]
[ Twist Cutting ]
[ Multiple Cutting ]
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[ INITIAL DESIGN ] Robotic Clay Cutting Options In this process, rulled surfaces were designed to cut out a cube into patterened blocks as shown in the diagram below
[ Option 1 ]
[ Option 2 ]
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Robot Clay Cutting Options The diagram below show various patterned blocks made by cutting rulled surfaces from cubes using the robot
[ Option 1 ]
[ Option 2 ]
[ Option 3 ]
[ Option 4 ]
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[ INITIAL DESIGN ]
Robot Clay Cutting Wall The wall was made of 24 blocks which were cut by rule surfaces. Each block was unique and finally could be connected each other properly
[ Cutting Wall ]
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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14
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24
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[ Cutting Wall Components ]
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[ 1 ]
[ 2 ]
[ 3 ]
[ 4 ]
[ 5 ]
[ 6 ]
[ 7 ]
[ 8 ]
[ 9 ]
[ 10 ]
[ 11 ]
[ 12 ]
[ 13 ]
[ 14 ]
[ 15 ]
[ 16 ]
[ 17 ]
[ 18 ]
[ 19 ]
[ 20 ]
[ 21 ]
[ 22 ]
[ 23 ]
[ 24 ]
[ Option 1 ]
[ Option 2 ]
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[ INITIAL DESIGN ] Aggregation _ Polyhedron In this approach of aggregation, polyhedron was used as a bounding box for the components designed as polyhedron has 14 surfaces and thus can be connected from and of these directions based on the designs creating logical aggregations
[ Hexagon Surface Connection ]
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[ Polyhedron Aggregation ]
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[ INITIAL DESIGN ] Aggregation _ Polyhedron The component was made in polyhedron bounding box. The polyhedron can be aggregated each other by connecting one of the 14 surfaces
[ Cutting Component in Polyhedron Bounding Box ]
[ Cutting Component Aggregation]
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Polyhedron Component Analysis
[ Cutting Component in Polyhedron Bounding Box ]
[ Cutting Component Aggregation]
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[ REFERENCES ]
The above method was unsuccessful as the blocks are heavy and cracking was a major isuue during the firing process. As a solution, as per the reference shown, a new approach was brought in to make the blocks lighter. This was by making hollow spaces in between the blocks.
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Ceramica Cumella 2013 Design Director:Toni Cumella Project Team: Renzo Piano, Kengo Kuma and Amanda Levete.
Ceramica Cumella 2013 Designer: Josep Regas
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[ INITIAL METHODS ] Hollow cube + Robot cutting Due to the weight of clay , PVC pipes were used to make cylindrical holes in order to make the clay blocks lighter. There different diameters of PVC pipes were inserted into clay block, which makes more diversity
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Hollow cube + Robot cutting In this method , we used PVC pipes to make cylindrical holes inroder to make the clay blocks lighter and used the robot to make cuts to see the sections.The methoad was not aesthetically appealing.
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2
INITIAL CLAY PIPE FABRICATION
2.1 Refrences 2.2 Material Tests 2.3 Robotic Cutting Tool 2.4 Arrangement
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[ REFERENCES ] Pipe Extruding + Robot cutting Peter Webb and Gay Outlay & Chris SullivReference showed the project done by Ball-nogues Studio which was an integrated design and fabrication studio for Central Washington University. The stainless metal pipes were crushed into blocks of cubes and were cut using machines to form cubes of interesting sections. Some of these cubes were cut on 2 sides to expose the crushed layers inside while conserving the original crushed edge of the other two outer sides as depicted. Last picture showed their metal piece panel cut from these cubes which were exhibited at Edward Cella Art and Architecture, Los Angeles.
Gay Outlaw: Extrusions 2003 Gay Outlaw & Chris Sullivan Gay Outlaw: Extrusions 2003 Gay Outlaw & Chris Sullivan National Craft 2003 Anton Alvarez
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Clay Extruding Stools Design Director: Max Cheprack
Ceramica Cumella 2013 Josep Regas
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[ MATERIAL TESTS ] Bubble Test Air bubbles in the clay needs to be removed before extruding the pipes to avoid the pipes from forming holes and bubbbles. If these bubbles are present in the pipes, there are chances for the dry clay pieces to burst during firing process in the kiln. The simplest way to remove the air bubbles from clay is by hittng and compressing it with hands. Using pugmills to extrude has the same effect.
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Joint Test This experiment was carried out to find the best possible method to connect the wet clay pipes to each other. The best method to connect the pipes to is by scoring the surfaces of connection and applying clay slip.
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[ MATERIAL TESTS ] Pipe Collapse Test - Drying Time Before Extruding The clay pipes tend to sag as we start placing the pipes over each other. This test was done to find the best hour at which these pipes can be extruded and arranged with minimum sagging.
0 hours
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1/2 hours
1 hours
2 hours
3 hours
7 hours
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[ PIPE EXTRUSION ] Tools Using pipe extruder or a pugmill are the easiest method of obtaing hollow clay pipes. By using different types of dies, the section of pipes could be circle, square, polygon or irregular shape.
[ Pipe Extruding Process ]
[ Extruder ]
[ 4 types of Dies ]
[ Extrusion made from different types of dies and section through thier linear arrangement ]
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Arrangements The exruded clay pipes can be arranged in linear pattern or random spegati patern. The basic types of arrangement done with the clay pipes are the following. The random ‘speghatti’ arrangement gives better sections while cutting through them than the linear arrangement.
[ Straight Pipes ]
[ 1 Direction ]
[ 2 Direction ]
[ Spaghetti ]
[ Donuts ]
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[ ROBOT CUTTING TOOL] Robot Cutting Tool Design Based on the size of clay block, the cutting tool should be larger than it and not exceed the maximum load of robot. The cutting tool was made of alluminion extrusion and piano wire with the help of different arroy tool and screws.
[ Robot Cutting Process ]
[ Wire Cutter Tool ] 30mm
1
400mm
2 460mm
3
300mm
6
4
60mm
5
7
60mm
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1. Arroy arms(tool frame)
2. Piano wire
3. Based arroy (connect with robot)
4 & 7. Screws
5. Trangle arroy tool
6. Nuts
Robot Cutting Tool Assembling Process The cutting tool can be connected to robotic arm using four nuts. The original position of the tool should be horizontal and there is a safe distance between clay block and cutting tool.
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[ ARREGATION WITH CUTTING ] Random Arrangement + Cutting The random ‘spaghetti’ arrangement gives better sections while cutting through them than the linear arrangement. Although the arrangement of clay pipes make the bottom layer slightly collapsed due to the wet condition of clay.
[ Random Arrangement + Straight Cutting ]
[ Random Arrangement + Curve Cutting ]
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[ ARREGATION WITH CUTTING ] Vertical Arrangement + Straight Cutting
In order to get more details, the aggregation needed to be cut after fabricating. In the traditional process, potters rarely cut body. However, the clay component arrangement was cut straightly from the four sides with piano wire by hand. Compared with traditional porcelain, such as bowl and cup, the texture and details of our model were all exposed. Clay is dried to a certain period of time inorder to avoid the collapsing property.
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[ CONCLUSION ]
The initial idea was to use a robot to cut a clay block directly. By changing the tool path of robot, we cut the model and got more morphological changes. And finally the components were to be aggregated together to form a chair or an architectural form. But each block was very heavy and bulky pieces of clay block leads to cracking while baking. PVC pipes were put through blocks of clay to makes cylindrycal holes. The reason for using hollow blocks and pipes were to make these individual blocks lighter. Cutting through hollow blocks gave more interesting sections than cutting through solid blocks as well. This method reduced the weight of the clay to some extent while preserving the overall morphology. Three different sizes of PVC pipes were used, which adds more choices of the arrangement of the hole. Nevertheless, this method still had some limitations. Firstly, due to the resistance of the clay, it was necessary to use a great effort when inserting the PVC pipes into clay block and the clay in the pipe is difficult to clean up. Secondly, the arrangement of the tube can only be Horizontal or vertical and can not cross, which leads to constraints for digital design. Finally, clay pipes greatly reduced the overall weight of the whole parts, which is the most desirable result. Because of the flexible arrangement of the clay pipes, there were more variations in details. The thickness of the whole model was uniform. During the firing process, it was also easy to control time and temperature so that the model maintained overall consistency.
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3 Component Strategy > REFERENCE >COMPONENT TRIAL >COMPONENT ANALYSIS >FABRICATION >CONCLUSION
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[ REFERENCES ]
Pipe Design 2016 Pieke Bergmans
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Lisson Gallery 2013 Tony Cragg
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[ COMPONENT TRIAL ] Component Fabrication The clay pipes extruded from the extruder can be easily managed by hand to sculpt the patterns. Each bend or the squeeze made with pipe follows a certain rule. The set of rules was made based on the physical study of the material. They had to be carefully handled else they break off easily as it was still in wet condition for it to be extruded. Here, each type had an identity of its own and creates a unique tubular geometry of single pipe
[ option 1 ]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[ option 2 ]
[ option 3 ]
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Sections of the arrangement made using controlled pipe patterns The diagrammatic representation shows how each bend and squeeze was made. The Figure represented the blocks that are fabricated after each of these single pipe patterns had been arranged and the cut by a robotic arm. The motive of making these single tubular members were to join them to each other using the surface connection method mentioned above to make design walls, columns, etc.
[ option 1 ]
[ Front ]
[ Section ]
[ Front ]
[ Section ]
[ Front ]
[ Section ]
[ Block Section 1 ]
[ Block Section 2 ]
[ option 2 ]
[ Block Section 1 ]
[ Block Section 2 ]
[ option 3 ]
[ Block Section 1 ]
[ Block Section 2 ]
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[ COMPONENT TRIAL ] Component fabrication Process More details could be seen by using 3 sided donut components. However, using 5 sided donut components could make the clay block lighter due to more empty areas
[ 3 Sided Donut ]
[ 1 ] Pinching Pipe
[ 3 ] Donuts
[ 5 ] 2 Sides Cutting
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[ 2 ] Sticking Pipe
[ 4 ] Donuts Assembled
[ 6 ] Fully Cutting
[ 5 Sided Donut ]
[ 1 ] Pinching Pipe
[ 2 ] Sticking Pipe
[ 3 ] Donuts
[ 4 ] Donuts Assembled
[ 5 ] 2 Sides Cutting
[ 6 ] 4 Sides Cutting
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[ COMPONENT ANALYSIS ] Components Joinery Methods The ‘donuts‘ component could have three, four or five sides by pinching the clay pipes different times. 5 sided component allowed more empty space when aggregated.
[ 3 Sided Component ]
[1]
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[ 4 Sided Component ]
[ 5 Sided Component ]
[2]
[3]
[]
[ 2-1 ]
[ 3-1]
[ 1-2 ]
[ 2 -2 ]
[ 3-2 ]
Horizontal Arrangement + Straight Cutting The picture shown interlocking between the controlled pipe components, the way of connection between components and section after straight cutting as well.
[ Interlocking between the controlled pipe patterns ]
[ The connection between the pipes ]
[ Component arrangement before cutting ]
[ Straight Cutting ]
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[ DIGITAL STUDY ] Houdini Simulation Process Houdini was used to simulate the growth process of pipe. With a square as a bounding box, the seed was placed in the center of the cube and simulated the growth.The resulted pipe will fill the entire bounding box
Bounding Box
Bounding Box
Seed
Cube Seed
[ Cube as Seed With Density 0.03]
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[ Frame 1 ]
[ Frame 2 ]
[ Frame 3 ]
[ Frame 4 ]
[ Frame 5 ]
[ Frame 6 ]
[ Frame 7 ]
[ Frame 8 ]
[ Frame 9 ]
Houdini Simulation Process The square seed and circular seed were shown in the picture below repectively. The growth of the square seed was much regular than circular seed
Bounding Box
Bounding Box
Seed
Ball Seed
[ Ball as Seed With Density 0.03]
[ Frame 1 ]
[ Frame 2 ]
[ Frame 3 ]
[ Frame 4 ]
[ Frame 5 ]
[ Frame 6 ]
[ Frame 7 ]
[ Frame 8 ]
[ Frame 9 ]
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[ DIGITAL STUDY ] Houdini Simulation After Cutting The picture below showed the simulation of the growth of different thickness of the pipes. The thickness of pipe influenced the density of the resulted cube. Cutting section had been simulated. Thin pipe brought more details for the cube.
[ Box as Seed with Different Density ]
[ Before Cutting ]
[ Density 0.08 ]
[ Density 0.05 ]
[ Density 0.03 ]
[ After Cutting ]
[ Density 0.08 ]
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[ Density 0.05 ]
[ Density 0.03 ]
[ Ball as Seed with Different Density ]
[ Before Cutting ]
[ Density 0.08 ]
[ Density 0.05 ]
[ Density 0.03 ]
[ Density 0.05 ]
[ Density 0.03 ]
[ After Cutting ]
[ Density 0.08 ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Fabrication Process Before making component, clay should be hitted on the floor for more than 20 times. A 45cm long clay pipe was extruded out before pinching the pipe from two horizontal directions perpendicularly to each other by hands. Then the pipe was bendinto a circle and stick the two ends of the pipe together by using pure thinner clay
[ 1 ] Hitting Clay 1
[ 4 ] Extruding Clay Pipe
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[ 2 ] Hitting Clay 2
[ 3 ] Drying Clay Chunck
[ 5 ] Metal Tool Cutting
[ 6 ] Clay Pipe
[ 7 ] Pinching Clay 1
[ 8 ] Pinching Clay 2
[ 9 ] Assembled Clay
[ 10 ] Cutting Clay 1
[ 11 ] Cutting Clay 2
[ 12 ] Cutting Clay
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[ FABRICATION ] Bisque Firing Process [he bisque firing can be said to be the process of transforming the clay into a ceramic. Before baking, the clay models needed to be dried for 3-6 days and finished. The knife was used to smooth the edges of the model and a brush was used to brush off the falling powder to ensure the exquisite workmanship .
[ Bisque Firing Process - Temperature Control Schedule ] Stage 1 : 0 -- 300 ℃ Stage 2 : 300 -- 600 ℃ Stage 3 : 600 -- 800 ℃ Stage 4 : Freefall to 30 ℃ （ Present Tempreture )
[ Scraping ]
[ Surport Setting ]
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[ Wiping ]
[ Cleaning ]
[ Placing ]
[ Firing ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Glazing Test - Color and Schedule When getting the baked pieces, glaze should be done before glost firing, which determines the color and texture of the model. There are a variety of glaze methods,such as dipping, brushing and spraying. Dipping glaze method is one of the most common method.
[ Turquoise Matt Stoneware Glaze Powder BP13P ]
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[ Blue Grey Stoneware Glaze Powder BP5P ]
[ Turquoise Matt Stoneware Glaze Powder BP13P ]
Glazing Process Firstly, mix glaze powder with water in the right proportion. Different colors have different proportions, generally close to 1: 1. Glaze also needed to be filtered three times to five times, passing through an 80’s/100’s mesh sieve in order to avoid the undissolved powder. Finger can be used to test whether the concentration is appropriate or not. When the finger dip in the glaze, it can form a thin layer on the finger and drip slowly, which showed that the glaze has been ready to use. Then the whole baked piece was immersed into glaze until it naturally absorbs the glaze to a certain thickness.
[ Glaze Firing Schedule ]
Stage 1 : 60 -- 300 ℃ Stage 2 : 300 -- 650 ℃ Stage 3 : 650 -- 1250 ℃ Stage 4 : Free fall to 30 ℃ At that point, open the kiln.
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[ FABRICATION ] Shiny White Stoneware Glaze Powder BP22P
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[ FABRICATION ] Blue Grey Stoneware Glaze Powder BP5P
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[ FABRICATION ] Turquoise Matt Stoneware Glaze Powder BP13P
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[ FABRICATION ] Turquoise Matt Stoneware Glaze Powder BP13P
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[ FABRICATION ] Green Transparent Stoneware Glaze Powder BP23P
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[ FABRICATION ]
Complete Fabrication Process The whole process of fabrication has few steps. For instance, In order to get rid of bubbles in clay chunck, throwing clay is the first one. It can not only shape clay chunck to fit the extruder more easily, but also fasten the process of drying. Then, those clay chunck should be placed in a vantilated area to be dry enough for 3 or 4 hours. When the portion of water is ready for being extruded and after extruding the tublar shape can be hold by itself. Just in order to avoiding the deformation of the tublar shape. After extruding, pipes should be pinched and squeezed immediately, because if they become too dry to shape, when we make components it will crack easily.
[ 1 ] Pinching Pipe
Next, components have been made should be dried separately before fabricating them into a block. In this case, slip, which is mixed by reused clay and water, is used to join components together. In order to gluing strongly, teeth brush is used to make the surface more rough. So these ‘donuts’ components are fabricated in one block.
[ 4 ] Pinching Pipe
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[ 2 ] Pinching Pipe
[ 3 ] Pinching Pipe
[ 5 ] Pinching Pipe
[ 6 ] Pinching Pipe
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[ FABRICATION ] Assembling of Donut Blocks with Cut and Uncut Surfaces In fact, the continuity should be taken into account at the beginning of making a continuous column in one direction or an entire wall with a continuous pattern. In this process, a 30×30×90cm column was fabricated by being split into three parts in vertical order, each is 30×30×30cm .
Column
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Split a column into separate blocks
Make the column parts in vertical order
StepN+1: Keep the top from the N block, and arrange donut components on top of that
Step4: Keep the top from the second block, and arrange donut components on top of that
StepN+2: Cut the top
Step8: Cut the top
StepN+3: Separate the two for the next block
Firstly, donuts components should be arranged in a block which is in 30×30×45cm. Then, a 15cm top of the block from the height of 30cm needed to be cut before separating the two parts for the next block. Therefore, the ‘cap’ from the block below can be used as the base of the upper one. As the result, the pattern of the column can be coherent. And also, this method can be used horizontally to make a continuous wall .
Step9: Separate the two for the next block
Step4: Keep the top from the first block, and arrange donut components on top of that
Step1: Arrange donut components into the first block
Step2: Cut the top
Step5: Cut the top
Step6: Separate the two for the next block
Step3: Separate the two for the next block
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[ FABRICATION ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Assembling of Donut Blocks with Cut and Uncut Surfaces In order to aggregate lager scale of modle, seperate blocks needed to be made. Some sides of the blocks were cut and the others were uncut, which makes the cutting pattern continuous. The uncut surfaces made the block different from all exposed block.
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[ FABRICATION ] Design Implementing Inter-lock System This was achieved by designing each block of circular pipes with some of the pipes being projected where in the consecutive block has to space for this pipe to be slid in creating an interlock system. After baking the clay blocks into ceramics, they can be joined together using this system with the help of strong glues, silicon, melted plastic or even concrete. The picture shows the two blocks of clay pipes before baking representing the interlock system.
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[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[ Component1 ]
[1]
[2]
[1]
[2]
[1]
[2]
[ Component2 ]
[ Component3 ]
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[ FABRICATION ]
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4 Arrangement Methods >BLOCK LANGUAGE >DIGITAL APPLICATION >FABRICATION >CONCLUSION
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[ ARRANGEMENT METHODS ] Controlled Arrangements Pipe arrangement can be controlled using vertical sticks and arranging the clay pipes around them. The number of sticks used can be varied based on the patteren we want to achieve. Using this method of arrangement, we can control the design of each block.
[ 9 Sticks ]
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[ 16 Sticks ]
Controled Arrangements More sticks could get more details when cutted. 16 sticks can better control the pipes and get more diversty. If more empty space were needed, the number of sticks should be reduced.
[ 9 Sticks ]
[ 16 Sticks ]
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[ ARRANGEMENT METHODS ] Controlled Arrangements There were two types of options. One was with each layer just having a single pipe and the other one with more than one clay pipe in each layer. In the pictures depicts these two options. The number of sticks used can be varied based on the pattern we want to achieve. Using this system of arrangement, the design of each block can be controlled .
[ Stick Arrangement + Straight Cutting _ One Pipe ]
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[ Stick Arrangement + Straight Cutting _ Two Pipe ]
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[ ARRANGEMENT METHODS ] Catalogue of Pipes Using the method of sticks and board ,we are able to achieve various patterns with clay pipe . The clay can be arranged around the sticks and this method allows us to make replcas of selected patterns. The four patterns used are the following.
[ Pipes with pinched corners ]
[ Component 1 ]
[ Component 2 ]
[ Component 3 ]
[ Component 4 ]
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[ Pipes with squeezed surfaces ]
[ Component 1 ]
[ Component 2 ]
[ Component 3 ]
[ Component 4 ]
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[ BLOCK LANGUAGE] Combination of Different Blocks There were some options of blocks which made by two or three kinds of components. The same kind of components was arranged side by side or two different components interlocked each other.
[ Pinched Pipe Aggregation Blocks ]
[ Type 1 ]
[ Type 2 ]
[ Type 3 ]
[ Type 4 ]
[ Type 3 ]
[ Type 4 ]
[ Blocks Made of Combination of Pinched Pipes and Surface Squeezed Pipes ]
[ Type 1 ]
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[ Type 2 ]
Catalogue of Pipes
[ Before cutting ]
[ Before cutting ]
[ After cutting ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Combination of uncut pipe patterns and cut donut blocks
[ Column Designs ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] [Structural Study Unlike clay block, when pipes were cut, due to the thin wall of pipes, it was easy for robot to make the component deform, which results in sticky. At the same time, excessive cutting destroyed the original shape. In addition, the cut of the components was much less interesting than the ‘donuts’ cut, because they are arranged relatively neatly and there were interlocking between each other, cut didn’t be needed any more [ Column Designs with Cuts ]
[ Column Designs without Cuts ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Design Implementing Inter-lock System One option of joining the clay blocks to each other was by using this method of connection with different diameters. Clay pipes, few of bigger radius and few of smaller radius were extruded and were arranged in such a way the smaller pipes will slide in through the larger pipes. To strengthen the joints, concrete or silicon can be added as well during the sliding process. The picture below shows the steps of clay blocks being connected through the hollow pipes of different radius.
[ Interlock Step 1 ]
[ Interlock Step 2 ]
[ Interlock Step 3 ]
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[ Support part ]
[ Adding a top ]
[ Bottom ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Design Implementing Inter-lock System This was achieved by designing each block of circular pipes with some of the pipes being projected where in the consecutive block has to space for this pipe to be slid in creating an interlock system. After baking the clay blocks into ceramics, they can be joined together using this system with the help of strong glues, silicon, melted plastic or even concrete. The picture shows the two blocks of clay pipes before baking representing the interlock system.
[ Components ]
[ Interlock Step 1 ]
[ Interlock Step 2 ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Design Implementing Inter-lock System
[ Components ]
[ Interlock Step 1 ]
[ Interlock Step 2 ]
[ Interlock Step 3 ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Design Implementing Inter-lock System
[ Components ]
[ Interlock step 1 ]
[ Interlock step 2 ]
[ Interlock step 3 ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] [Design Implementing Inter-lock System
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Architecture Application
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Combination of uncut pipe patterns and cut donut blocks These columns were made of uncut pipe patterns and cut donut blocks. This was a combination of two types of models. Although they seemed to be two different systems, it can be cleverly combined together.
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Introducing Curved Structural Pipes
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5 MATERIAL RESEARCH > COMPONENT LANGUAGE >FABRICATION >3D PRINT APPLICATION >INTERLOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION >CONCLUSION
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[ COMPONENT LANGUAGE ] Catalogue of Pipes Sometimes the pinched clay pipes can bring changeable details, but pipes with too much pinch will make the two walls sticky. In order to make the pipes not only have a perfect corner, but also avoid adhesion, slip casting method considered necessary. Once the molds were obtained, the pipes with same shape can be duplicated. The speed of molding is relatively fast and the thickness of the tube can be controlled by controlling time. Here were many options of the component for slip casting. [ Square Pipes ]
[ Component 1 ]
[ Component 2 ]
[ Component 3 ]
[ Component 4 ]
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[ Square Pipes ]
[ Component 5 ]
[ Component 6 ]
[ Component 7 ]
[ Component 8 ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Pipe Patterns + Moulds
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[ Component 1 ]
[ Component 2 ]
[ Component 5 ]
[ Component 6 ]
[ Component 9 ]
[ Component 10 ]
[ Component 3 ]
[ Component 4 ]
[ Component 7 ]
[ Component 8 ]
[ Component 11 ]
[ Component 12 ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Mould Design
[ Positive Mould ]
[ Negative Mould ]
[ Enclosing Mould ] [ Mould A ]
[ Enclosed Mould ]
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[ Positive Mould ]
[ Negative Mould ]
[ Enclosing Mould ] [ Mould B ]
[ Enclosed Mould ]
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[ 3D PRINT APPLICATION ] Aggregation Study To understand the fabrication of component better, the 3D printed components were used for aggregation according to the digital design. There are 12 kinds of components to be used. Through the structural study, a coloumn and a chair could be acchieved. They interlock each other well without any glue.
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[ FABRICATION ] Mould Fabrication CNC milling was attempted to make foam components. After finishing, they needed to be sticked on the bottom of the wood frame. It was easy to separate the mould and foam if soft was wiped everywhere in the frame before puring plaster. After waiting for 30 minutes, the mould was dried totally.
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[ 1 ] Pinching Pipe
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[ FABRICATION ]
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[ FABRICATION ] Slip Casting Making the other half of the mould was the same process. Keys should be drilled to make the mould fit properly. it took 30 minutes to let the slip close to plaster mould dry enough to get the proper thickness. When pouring out the slip, it should be repeated for three times following by the pattern to ensure no slip left in the moulds.
[ 1 ] Cleaning Moulds
[ 3 ] Pouring Slip into Moulds
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[ 2 ] Banding Moulds
[ 4 ] Pouring Slip out from Moulds
[ 5 ]Opening Moulds
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[ FABRICATION ]
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[ INTER-LOCK METHOD ] Rule of Inter-lock Inter-lock system with componenfts which we create, combined only with a set of one or two components could interlock in a most table configuration. Different permutations of the interlocking sets of components were then analysed and selected to generate different type of growth behaviours. [ Single Component]
[ Component A ]
[ Component B ]
[ Component C ]
[ Component D ]
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[ Inter-lock process ]
[ Inter-lock process ]
[ Inter-locking of components ]
[ Sticking Surface ]
[ Aggregation ]
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[ CONNECTION LANGUAGE ] Rule of Inter-lock Inter-lock system with componenfts which we create, combined only with a set of one or two components could interlock in a most table configuration. Different permutations of the interlocking sets of components were then analysed and selected to generate different type of growth behaviours. [ Single Component]
[ Component A ]
[ Component B ]
[ Component C ]
[ Component D ]
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[ Inter-lock process ]
[ Inter-lock process ]
[ Inter-locking of components ]
[ Sticking Surface ]
[ Aggregation ]
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
Interlock - single pipe component1
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Interlock + Surface connection
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
Interlock - single pipe component2
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Interlock + Surface connection
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
Interlock + Surface connection- pipe component 1
Interlock + Surface connection- pipe component 2
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Interlocking of blocks
Stacking blocks by surafce connection
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
Self Interlocking components
Type 1
Type 2
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
Surface connection
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Interlock
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
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[ INTER-LOCK AND SURFACE CONNECTION ]
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A1
B1
C1
D1
A2
B2
C2
D2
Rule 1 - AA
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[COMPONENT LANGUAGE ] [ Rule of Combination ]
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[ AGGREGATION STUDY ] Chair Design Initial experiments were done to design a chair using the aggregation studies of the different components developed previously. Chair was designed from blocks and chairs are assembled to draw comparison between the design feasibility.
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Chair Design Implementing Inter-lock System Pipe arrangement can be controlled using vertical sticks and arranging the clay pipes around them. The number of sticks used can be varied based on the patteren we want to achieve. Using this method of arrangement, we can control the design of each block.
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Table Design Implementing Inter-lock System Pipe arrangement can be controlled using vertical sticks and arranging the clay pipes around them. The number of sticks used can be varied based on the patteren we want to achieve. Using this method of arrangement, we can control the design of each block.
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ] Interlock Columns
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[ ANALYSIS OF COLUMN ] Method of Design Pipe arrangement can be controlled using vertical sticks and arranging the clay pipes around them. The number of sticks used can be varied based on the patteren we want to achieve. Using this method of arrangement, we can control the design of each block.
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Interlock Column AD RC5+6 Material Consequences | UCL 175
[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
Interlock Column with Straight Pipes
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Interlock Column with Curvy Pipes
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
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[ DIGITAL APPLICATION ]
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[ AGGREGATION STUDY ] Rule of Aggregation This aggregation follows the rule of generating boxes based on a points grid. The number of points, which as the central points of bounding boxes, has a wide range. And then, by setting curves in that grid, different layers of box can be culled by distance to the curve. At the end, bounding boxes can be replaced by 5 or more designed clay pipe blocks.
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[ AGGREGATION STUDY ] Rule of Aggregation
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[ AGGREGATION STUDY ] Rule of Aggregation
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6 ARCHITECTURAL PROPOSAL > CONNECTION STUDY >STRUCTURE STUDY
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[ CONNECTION STUDY ] Rule of Connection
[ 1 Components ]
[ 2 Components ]
[ 3 Components ]
[ 4 Components ]
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[ CONNECTION STUDY ]
Design Implementing Inter-lock System Another approach was to test the connection process after firing the clay pipes. This method was successful for joining as it makes the system stable. It was impossible to join the dried clay pipes or blocks that are not fired to each other with concrete as the water content in the concrete gets absorbed by the dry clay. The different types of connection method are shown in the pictures. First attempt tried was to connect the pipe blocks to each other by introducing concrete slabs in between each block as depicted in the picture. This method can be used once each of these blocks is fired and glazed separately. The connection was made by making cuts on the surface of connection before firing them. Once fired, these pipes can be joined to each other by pouring concrete through the pipes. The pipes acted as a mold to form a solid connection of concrete through the openings made. This was the most successful method of connection. The picture shows the method joining pipes vertically by pouring concrete. Reinforcement can be added to increase.
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[ Structural Connection Methods ]
[ Connection Using Concrete ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ] Staircase with Straight Pipes and Pipe Patterns
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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[ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION ]
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Clay_Cuts Research Cluster 5&6
MArch Architectural Design, 2016-2017 The Bartlett School of Architecture | UCL