DIGITAL DESIGN + FABRICATION SM1, 2017 ALUMINIUM RIBBON Sunday Hao Li 852660 Lyle Talbot Group 10
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Contents 1.0 Ideation 1.1 Object 1.2 Object + System Analysis 1.3 Volume 1.4 Sketch design proposal 2.0 Design 2.1 Design development intro 2.2 Digitization + Design proposal v.1 2.3 Precedent research 2.4 Design proposal v.2 2.5 Prototype v.1+ Testing Effects 3.0 Fabrication 3.1 Fabrication intro 3.2 Design development & Fabrication of prototype v2 3.3 Design development & Fabrication of prototype v3 3.4 Final Prototype development + optimisation 3.5 Final Digital model 3.6 Fabrication sequence 3.7 Assembly Drawing 3.8 Completed 2nd Skin 4.0 Reflection 5.0 Appendix 5.1 Credit 5.2 Bibliography
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0.0 Introduction The Aluminium Ribbon is a space, a protection and a second skin. It is designed for defending the dangers and also being an armour to protect the body. It was designed under the skin and bone system, which the strings surface is the skin and the aluminium structure is the bone. The strings create a transparent vision that reduces the offensive sense while the shape aluminium structure visualises the protection. This journal will demonstrate the whole process of designing the Aluminium Ribbon by the steps of Ideation, Design and Fabrication.
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1.0 IDEATION
1.1 Object Umbrella Skin and Bone
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A
940mm
Plan 1:10
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940mm
A
The plan is the view up side down of the umbrella. Instead of the aerial view, I chose to draw this plan because it can show more informations and details inside.
Section A 1:10
The section was cut through the metal structure skelecton of the umbrella. It also shows the view at the back.
570mm
570mm 940mm
940mm
Elevation 1:10
The elevations of the umbrella are the same. It shows the front view when the umbrella is opened.
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1.2 Object + System Analysis
Using different transparency to distinguish the folding degrees when closing the umbrella. In addtion, the diagram depicts the details of the structure.
The linear diagram simplified the movement of the movement of the umbrella.
The arrow diagram shows the rhythm of action when the umbrella is closing.
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1.3 Volume
To model my sketch design, I cut some thin aluminium sheet and bended it into some curvy structure. The aluminium bones combined together to form a space. And I used the weaving technique to apply the strings on the bone, which is the skin of this model. However, this sketch model is not a successful result of the system skin and bone. Because the skin does not function in order to form the structure. The positive outcome I got from making this prototype is the bone. I found out the aluminium has potential to make some curvy and organic structure.
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1.4 Sketch design proposal 1
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Using weaving technique instead of covering with fabric to express the hospitality.
twisting and wraping on the body
- The curvy shapes express the feminism in the design concept. It also depicts the attractiveness. - The design is inspired by the double helix structure form in biology. - Using multiple curvy pieces to create a space that embracing myself inside and also express the sense of welcoming.
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1.4 Sketch design proposal 2
using veiling to cover the face to keep mysterious and autistic.
The three circles can be folded into a thinner object.
- The most important parts of a human body are the head and the chest. This design is aim to protect the parts from outside the world. The design is inspired by the image of the galaxy. The head is like the planet. - Three big circles can help the body keep distance from others. - Using veiling to cover the face expresses the autism of human.
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1.4 Sketch design proposal 3
connection of the structure of the wings. They allow the wing can be folded and expanded.
1. peace mode
2. defensive/attacking mode
- There are two modes in this design. One is peace and another one is defensive/attacking. - By pressing the button, the wings will expand into a defensive and attacking mode. It is a sign of starting a duel.
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From the Module 1 exercise, I have learnt the system of skin and bone. The umbrella is a useful tool to let me analyse how the system works. Firstly, I measured the umbrella. As Heath (2000) mentioned that there are many distinctive method of how to measure an irregular object more accurately. It introduced a better way to measure the umbrella. Thus, the accurate dimensions can allow me to draw the technical drawings. By analysing the umbrella, I have a clear idea of the skin and bone system. However, my first sketch model is not a great piece to demonstrate this system. I tried to use thin aluminium sheet as the bone structure and strings as the skin, but the way I applied them did not meet the requirements of the skin and bone system. In three different sketch designs, I took the idea of personal space into consideration. The feeling and emotion of human are the priority in the design. Thereby, I came out with three designs that follow the system of skin and bone, also engaged the idea of personal space. 17
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2.0 DESIGN Bolun Zheng 837101 Maggie Mengqi Huang 837095 Sunday Hao Li 852660
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2.1 Design development intro
For the personal space design, we mainly combined and refined two previous designs together. We designed the personal space of restriction and welcoming. The twisting and curve structure embraces the body as well as works as buffer. The skin is created with strings, which expresses the transparency as a way to welcome. The curvy bone structure creates the space around the body, which can protect the personal space.
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2.2 Digitization + Design proposal v.1
The first design of personal space is very generous. We wanted to cover almost full body. The design is like a cloak that protects the personal space. Also, the extension is like a blooming flower, which grant more space for neck and head. The cover of personal space is half open, which allow the wearer to do regular activities.
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2.3 Precedent research
Winde Rienstra 11:11 Collection 2011
The designer used strings to create an interesting pattern on the timber structure. Although the shape of the design is symmetric, the transparent surface that strings created expresses a sense of dynamic. The space around the model depicts a protective emotion.
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2.4 Design proposal v.2
Plan View
Front View
ELevation
Bone Perspective View
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We made some changes to our design. The previous design is symmetric, and we wanted a more dynamic and interesting structure. Also, the later design gave an opportunity to create a more complicated string pattern. The asymmetrical structure gives more developed potential of personal space.
Plan View
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Front View
ELevation
The Strings Diagram
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2.5 Prototype v.1+ Testing Effects
Aluminium: Aluminium is a relatively soft, durale, lightweight, ductile metal.
Acrylic: Poly(methyl methacrylate) alson known as acrylic or perspex is a strong and lightweight thermoplastic.
Plywood: Plywood is an engineered wood that binds resin and wood fibre sheets to form a composite
Material
Young’s Modulus
Ultimate Tensile Strength
(Modulus of Elasticity)
(MPa)
(GPa) Aluminium
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Acrylic
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Plywood
9.8-12
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• The chart shows the modulus of elasticity and the ultimate tensile strength for these three materials.
• The Young’s Modulus is a measure of the stiffness of a solid material. The
We choose aluminium as our bone structure material due to it is a lightweight material and the thin aluminium sheet is easy to curve. For our design, we do need a stable bone structure to support it. Although aluminium is not the bendable material among these three materials, aluminium is a lot stronger than others.
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greater value the
material has means the material has higher stiffness, which is more difficult to bend.
• The Ultimate Tensile Strength is the capacity of a material to withstand loads tending to elongate. The greater value the material has means the material is harder to break.
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In Module 2 exercise, we combined some ideas together to create new design. Our group worked significantly well. We exchanged the ideas and discussed together. In my opinion, abstraction is a model that depicts the design in reality while reduction is a tool that tries to look for the best and the most efficient way to express the information. Abstraction is an expression that describes the most necessary details of the design. It needs to be able to communicate with people, which means it cannot be only literally abstract, but also be commonly understandable. And abstracting models need to be developable; thereby it allows the designer to make further changes of the design. Digital models might have infinitive potentials in terms of designing the impossible. However, abstraction in reality is not as reachable as in the parametric space. Material is one of the most important elements that affect the result of abstracting model. Thus, the designer needs to test different materials and different assembling ways to make a physical model. I believe in the process of designing, we need to use digital tools as an aid tool to help us achieve the design in our minds. To understand the quality of the algorithmic machines instead of relying on the outcome they produce is significant.
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3.0 FABRICATION Bolun Zheng 837101 Maggie Mengqi Huang 837095 Sunday Hao Li 852660
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3.1 Fabrication intro
After Module 2, we found out the aluminium structures are a bit difficult to join. We had some difficulties to satisfy the system of skin and bone. Thereby, we changed our way to design the personal space. Instead of relying on the digital tool to design our personal space, we used paper as a replacement of the aluminium to create many different structures by twisting different curvy shapes. Finally, we chose two structures and combined them together to create our final design. The strings as the skin help to form the whole structure by pulling each piece of the aluminium.
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3.2 Design development & Fabrication of prototype v2
Using paper as the replacement of aluminium to test the structure
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Personal Space Sketch Drawings
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In the process of fabrication, we used CNC milling machine to cut the aluminium sheet. We bended the aluminium into the shape we designed and used bolt to pin join the structure. Due to the inefficiency of using CNC milling machine to drill, we decided to drill the holes
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3.3 Design development & Fabrication of prototype v3 Personal Spce Diagram
The orange part is the main and dominant personal space of the design. As we consider, the upper body is an essential part when communicating with others. And the second skin restricts the physical contact with others in order to create a personal space.
The pink part highlights the space we create for protecting the space where to put the important belongs such as cellphone, wallet. So the string pattern is intensive and more complicated.
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3.4 Final Prototype development + optimisation
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3.5 Final Digital model
Plan View
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Elevation
Front View
Isometric View
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3.6 Fabrication sequence
Elastic Strings
The process of fabrication took us a long time to finish. The aluminium is the most inefficient material for CNC milling machine due to it requires a very slow speed to cut it. We started to fabricate it once we got the aluminium pieces from the FabLab. To ensure the distance between each hole, we made a measurement ruler to locate the position of each hole and carefully drilled them on a flat surface. Before assembling the structure, we marked the pin join point first so that we can locate them join point accurately. After last prototype model, we found out the cotton strings we used are not the best option for the skin of the model. Thus, we changed the strings to the elastic strings, which can create an interaction force to each bone in order to form the space.
Collecting
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Labeling
Labeling detail
Drilling
Grinding/Sanding
Assembling
Applying the strings
3.7 Assembly Drawing
Top component
Bottom component
Combine two components
Apply strips
Final
Pin join point
Pin join point
Pin join connect two components
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3.8 Completed 2nd Skin
In the process of designing, using digital fabrication gives us the potential to think about the form of our personal space. But in our system skin and bone, most of the designing comes from the prototype making. After deciding the structures we want, we drew and refined the templates in Rhino and cut it with the CNC milling machine. Because we chose aluminium as our bone structure material, CNC milling machine can cut the curvy shape we need. Nevertheless, we used Rhino to design our skin, which is the strips map to guide us to create the skin on our physical model. During Module 3, we had made three 1:1 personal space models. There were always some new problems came out in each model making. Due to the instability the strings brought to us, the bone structure would change each time we pulled the strings. We tried to remain the strings as stable as we can. However, after replacing the cotton strings with the elastic strings, the condition of our model got improved a lot. Thus, Materials choosing is a very important part of model making.
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Digital Design and Fabrication is a very interesting course that gave me an opportunity to push the boundary of digital designing and fabricating physical model. Compare to physical models or traditional drawings, digital design is a more efficient and potential way to work with. Also the digital design allows designers to try some crazy ideas of designing, designers might get more surprising results from digital design than physical design. However, making physical prototypes is an important procedure in designing. Prototypes help the designers to eliminate the unlimited ideas in the digital world. As Lisa Iwamoto (2009) mentioned the term “design intelligence�, the whole process from digital to physical pushes designers to keep thinking and designing. When we tried to design some form in Rhino, we might not get the same result in the real world. For our bone structure, by using cartridge paper as the replacement for aluminium to create lots of curvy shapes and bend them into different rigid and organic structures. After combining the structure together, we model the digital model in Rhino. And we used Rhino to create the string pattern, which help us to apply the strings on physical model. With the help of Rhino and prototypes, we can accomplish the final personal space model. In the process of designing, I have been researching many precedents about personal space. The first design was too similar to one of the precedents, which is not appropriate. After discussing with my group, we redesigned a unique model. Similar to designing architecture, the design should be more than functional. Designing the second skin, I took practicality and human feelings into consideration. Thus, the design is wearable and conceptual. Group work played a significant role in this subject. Communicating with others is an important social skill. For architects or architecture students, group work is very often. I am glad that I have two amazing teammates Bolun and Maggie. We worked together well and efficient. We learnt different skills from each other and solved the problems together. Moreover, my tutor Lyle helped a lot in terms of designing strategies and materials. He inspired us about the development of aluminium. In FabLab, I have learnt some technical skills such as using drill and using CNC milling machine to make physical models. After undertaking this subject, I believe now I have a better skill on either digital design or making physical models. Digital software offers a tool to express the concept and design the idea, while fabrication is a way to examine the idea and the design.
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4.0 REFLECTION
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5.1 Credit
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5.0 APPENDIX
5.2 Bibliography Heath, A, Heath, D, & Jensen, A 2000, 300 years of industrial design: function, form, technique, Watson�Guptill, New York. Iwamoto, L 2009, Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques, Princeton Architectural Press, New York. Scheurer, F & Stehling, H 2011, Lost in Parameter Space: Architectural Design, John Wiley&Sons, New Jersey.
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