Tom Frauenfelder
FabHab
Case Study | Urban Living Analysis
Precedent Study: New Babylon project by Constant in which Research: Static studies of past current and future projected he proposes a nomadic lifestyle and city to suite was of particu- demographics in regards to lifestyle and living. lar relevance for this design project. This nomadic city dealt with the temporal context of an every changing lifestyle. Design Precedent [Background]: Tree branching algorithm iterations explaining process of growth allowed for an initial starting point when ‘growing’ our fabricated habitation.
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Liberated Structural Experimentation
Initial Virtual Model Studies: The analog modelling process was abandoned due to real-world physical restraints. The virtual modelling experimentation liberated previous restrictions and allowed for massive growth within the design process. This example shows the exploration of interlocking structures.
Component System Established: A standardised component system was established to resolve the any potential structural formation. Tree Circulation: Early diagrammatic response to 3D tessellation of tree structure in the virtual environment.
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Parasitic Existence | Interlockign Structures
Potential Component Habitation - Squeeze: Potential Component Habitation - Para: Habitable Large componentry habitation could be erected between components could also reside in a parasitic nature grafting to existing structures forming more culturally beneficial nooks in the envelope of pre exhibiting structures. the Melbourne context. Resolved Single Structural System: Undeformed structural system clearly defining footplates and spaces allowing complete integration to prefabricated structural components.
Complete Structural System: Both interlocking structural systems are present. The first space defining and the second a support system allowing both to deform as necessary.
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Potential Structural Iteration: A completed structural deformation ‘growing’ around and above the Melbourne Arts Centre spire. This was the most resolved application of the process within the project.
Final Structure Post Deformation
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Establishing Envelope | Vista Opportunitites
Possible Program Configuration: A high-density, low-rise, highly parasitic option for a residential application in the Arts District of Southbank, Melbourne. The preference for this particular application was towards generous space and water vistas per property.
Possible Program configuration: A high-density, high-rise, highly self-supporting option for residential program in the Arts District of Southbank, Melbourne resulting in a highly condensed living zone.
Interior concourse perspective: An internal view of a low-rise concourse only rising one storey from ground.
Interior apartment perspective: A typical internal perspective view from an apartment floor in a high-rise solution at least ten storeys of elevation.
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Art’s Centre Parasite
Exterior Perspective of Final Solution: One solution from a myriad of possibilities to encompass the Arts Centre Spire. View taken from Ballet Balcony mezzanine floor 1.5 stories of height.
ArchiNeer
Structural Resolution | Design Precedent
Structural and Design Precedent: Herzog and DeMeuron’s Beijing Olympic Stadium was structurally simplified into a series of mega truss-columns seen above. This concept became the underlying structural resolution of the project.
Segmented Precedent: The New Valencia Stadium design opened the potential of large long-span folds. We incorporated these into water storage panels and a large flexible dynamic roof capable of covering 80% of the structure.
Sketch Design of Truss-Columns: A level of intricacy and Evolutionary Structural Optimization [ESO]: ESO was a delicacy was intended, and achieved through the initial ‘organic’ key driver in the projects process. Allowing accurate ‘organic’ concept. models to be produced by using the minimal amount of material from any given mass.
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Sinouos TC Refinement
Simplified Design Process
Expansion on Singly Resolved TC Sketch Designs: Constant redesign of the initial truss-column Analytical Feedback: Highly accurate structural analysis was undertaken as information was passed from engineer to results were passed repetitively allowing the analytical digital architect and back again continuously. tools to be the critical to the design process.
Analysis Progression: Once the truss-column was resolved the analysis began to expand to two truss-columns, then five, then a quadrant until reaching a total and complete analysis of the entire stadiums structure and all 300,000 individual members as a whole.
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Variability | Structural Hierarchy
Variance Example: The standard truss-column blends seamlessly into an enlarged version in a complete structurally sound solution.
Diminishing Example: Starting once again with a standard truss-column and again seamlessly transitioning into a highly deformed instance of itself.
Layered Structural Solution: Running clockwise from mid-top-left the structure of the entire stadium is established and incrementally developed from primary structure, secondary to tertiary and finally with a ‘scatter’ level of detail to throw the eye equally achieved within the Bird’s Nest.
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Physical Model
Lasercut Framework: All 54 individual truss-columns were Papercut Foundation: The foundation for truss-columns was nested and laser cut in perspex and placed to form the basic 12 sheets of 2.2mm thick card stepped to form the sunken framework of the model construction. Real world construction stadium grandstands. would use the samemethodology. Digital Technologies in Model Construction: As mentioned both a lasercutter and cardcutter were used to construct this model. The string was woven and treated by hand, however the process would have been near impossible to correctly represent the project, within the time constraint, without the use of digital rapid prototyping technologies. In addition using machined precision adds a certain elegance that was highly desirable in this project.
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Emotive Awe: From the athletics track the structural elegance and delicacy is clearly expressed. The feeling of stepping onto the playing field was designed with the awe inspiring qualities of emotive space.
‘Trackside’
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VVC
User Interface | Unwrapped Individual
Irrelevant Content Relevant Content Highly Relivant Content
Mid-Semester Week 00
Week 16
Interface Concept: Design initiated from the Quick-Links interface, similar to Blackboard currently being used throughout RMIT, and the students activates logged on such and interface.
Disc Hierarchy: As a student uploads a new piece of content it is logged as a ‘disc’ on the surface of the students tube. The porosity of the disc corresponds with the relevance of the content uploaded; High porosity (weak addition) - Irrelevant content upload and Low porosity (strong addition) - Relevant upload.
‘Unwrap and Scale’ Diagram: In the centre of the spread you can see a tube from plan view. This is an individual student tube extracted from an entire class model. It shows high activity moments where the student has uploaded large quantities of work. These bulges occur mostly pre landmark presentations, and there is generally a lull of activity post landmark presentations.
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Example 01
Example 02
Critial Cross Sections
Sectional Perspectives: These choice views have been presented to show a high varience in student productivity, or lack thereof, throughout a standard architectural design semester. In Example 01 we can easily identify the student producing the most content, and to boot the information is relevant highly increasing the strength of the resultant print. In Example 02 we can see that at the time the cross section was taken the student was producing next to nothing, and then we can see they produce a large amount of content in the following weeks but due to its porosity we can quickly deduce it is irrelevant crap.
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Internal Strength Evaluation
Nervous System: Each instance of a studio model will contain a core. The core is not visible in the print but is the primary structure supporting the prototyped model. The width of the core is determined by student interaction. The theory being that a studio will be most successful when students learn from each other in conjunction with a more individual approach. A model cannot be ‘strong’ without an active class participation.
‘Suckers’: A sucker is the link which is formed between a student’s individual tube and the central core of the studio. These suckers are formed when an active class discussion is had. The suckers are the secret to the health of the studio, both in a real life studio scenario and in the resultant prototype print.
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Seville Biennale | Aggregate Model
The models were exhibited both at the Seville Biennale, 2008 and the Venice Biennale, 2008. I was fortunate enough to accompany the models to Europe. The photograph on the right is me setting up the slideshow that to accompanied the example prints in Seville, Spain.
Aggregate Print: An abbreviated aggregate that encompassed the entire studio was also printer. Here you can instantaneously see where a studio has produced large quantities of work, however you cannot conclude how relevant the work is and who is was generated by. The use if for a mass comparison between studios, i.e. a moderation guide.
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Detailed SLS Prototype
Detailed Plan: From this vertical vantage point we can easily understand the bulges formed from content uploads. This perspective is best to understand the certain fluxes in student productivity throughout any given semester.
Visible Core: This is the only instance in which the core is visible. You can faintly see a solid tube running through the centre of the print. This core represents the underlying strength of the studio, the primary structure.
Weak Structure: In the most upper tube in the image was can see that all the content uploaded by this student is nearly all irrelevant to the progress of the studio, they have also uploaded a large portion. With the very brittle model this area is likely to crack and disintegrate quite quickly owing to this physical representation of individual student productivity as structural strength. For at least this portion of the semester this student can easily be considered unproductive, and attempting to hide behind the mask of insubstantial masses of content.
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IcEmotion
Passion For Space
Emotive Qualities of Natural Ice Formations: There is an inherent beauty with natural ice formations. The intention was to mimic the feeling of passing under a huge mass of ice. To imbue qualities like translucency, mass, temperature, colour, texture, form etc into a successful architectural project was my underlying intention.
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Fundamental Biomimicry
The Process of Freezing: This experimentation was undertaken in my mothers refrigerator. I rashly froze balloons of water jammed together into tubs as a starting point. From this interesting qualities of the process were observed, particularly that or ‘air jets’ as the compressed air escapes during the freezing process.
Fluid Shards: Shards from the balloon ice experiment were frozen with water in a container and began to form fluid ice structures at different moments in the freezing process. This is communicated in the two lower images of the page.
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Digital | Analog | Backagain
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Introverted GC Model
Extreverted GC Model
Failure and Resolution: The parametric process was a failure. Not due to a lack of want, but more a lack of technical skill. I was however able to create an undulating surface similar to that of my ice models. From there I was able to sketch over the print and manually design my form. I continuously repeated this process until the end of the esquisse. This was my first exposure to using the digital process, and luckily for me it failed. I incorporated these technologies as design tools, not design resolutions, and from that moment onwards those tools have served me well.
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Ground Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
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Chilled Form
Formal Outcome: The achievement of this project was the application of both digital and analog process. However the failure was the focus I placed on the digital. This form, that could only be generated digitally, became the forefront of the project far to quickly. As you can see from the rectilinear planning on the previous page only the form was considered in this project. It is important to be aware of your process, and to have intention and control throughout.
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Framed Mass
Iced Interior: I believe this project to be of great success and also great failure. It is clear I have successfully mimicked the spatial qualities of passing under a large mass of cold translucent ice. However it is also clear, if not more so, that I have failed to achieve a good architectural project, this outcome is disconnected an insubstantial, not by design, and most clearly understood by the application of a staircase and linear mullions in this perspective view.
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Caciitua
Extreme Enviromental Conditions
Super Chilled Winds: The prevailing winds on site can reach up to 250km/h and a windchill factor of -80* celsius and beyond. These ever present winds are harvested to control the structural system.
Blending Waters: The site is located 100km’s offshore from the north coast of Alaska into the Beaufort Sea, right where the arctic tides and the warm current of the Bering and Pacific Sea.
Spring: Winter brings over 3 months of pure darkness every Summer: 2 months of pure light, and a still unfrozen sea. Large year as the sea freezes solid. This satellite image is from Spring, icebergs float freely in the summer period as the temperature when land is visible from outer space. of the area early ever rises above freezing.
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Identifying Dynamic Movement
Dynamic Model Construction: Many iterations of physical models, of most our own invention, were tested as a way of dynamically controlling, resisting and reacting to the harsh environmental forces on site.
Tensegrity Theory: Tensegrity was in theory the perfect way of resisting said forces and allowing freedom and control for the user.
Understanding Tensegrity, or not?: Humans have an inherent ability to understand object in a tactile fashion. In most circumstances this interaction is not entirely necessary, however in the case of tensegrity it is near impossible to comprehend until first creating your own simple models. These is a selection from a large series of tensegrity models built to understand the forces required to use tensegrity as a structural system. It is also worth understanding the human skeletal system is a tensegrity system capable of resisting great force.
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Virtual vs. Physical Tensegrity
Understood?: After understanding the theories of tensegrity it was time to virtually replicate the theory to further design. Many tensegrity maps were generated in tensegrity simulation software, but simply collapsed when simulated. Only the most simple of tensegrity maps/models would equalise.
Analog to the Rescue: The digital realm had failed and a myriad of complex tensegrity models were developed to understand how this structural system might generate habitable space, as well as performing to force requirements.
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Qualative Analytical Results: As well as a representative design and communication tool the virtual world promises accurate simulations of real world situations. If this software we can gauge an understanding of the unknown, and how it will truthfully react. In this example a range of surfaces were blasted with snow particles (from real site data) and the attempt to collect snow in these ‘pillows’ to retain he snow and insulate the building during winter. Virtual Analysis: Other analytical tools at every students fingertips allow for a range or structural analysis. Here is an example of a stress analysis on an early form.
Harvest Component: This would be the component unit that would allow the user to dynamically adjust the structural system from within, disregarding the environmental forces acting upon the building.
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Analytical Qualative Feedback
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Componentry | Spatial Deformation
Standardized Components
Typical Assemblage of Components Standardization: Like in the initial project, FabHab, a minimal amount of structural components have been generated that can be mass produced at minimal cost. The entire structure is made up of these 3 components interweaving into all crevices of the building controlling its adjustments and usability.
Structural Deformation: These 2 simple diagrams begin to explain the incredible amount of freedom a tensegrity system can generate. In this iteration of components the building can flux up to 300% of its original state. In this particular example tension members can easily remain rigid allowing for a stable floor or work surface.
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EARLY SUMMER
SUMMER
EARLY AUTUMN
AUTUMN
EARLY WINTER
WINTER
EARLY SPRING
USER POPULATION total population less permanent staff seasonal population
17 3 14
15 3 12
13 3 10
15 3 12
17 3 14
19 3 16
21 3 18
19 3 16
ACCOMMODATION no. of room types: accomm. type A accomm. type B accomm. Type C
3 3 2
3 2 2
3 2 1
3 2 2
3 3 2
3 3 2
3 4 3
3 3 2
0.75 0.75 0.5 0.7
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.7
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.6
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.7
0.75 0.75 0.5 0.8
1 1 0.9 0.9
1 1 1 1
1 1 0.9 0.9
1 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.75 0.6 0.7 0.5
1 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.5
1 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.5 1 0.7 0.5
1 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.5
1 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.75 0.7 0.7 0.5
1 0.9 0.9 0.9 1 1 0.9 0.9
1 1 1 1 1 0.3 1 1
1 0.9 0.9 0.9 1 0.6 0.5 0.9
SCALE DATA ground floor program: vehicular access docks plant/equip. store arctic survival training atrium first floor program: communal spaces (yearly): living kitchen communal spaces (seasonal): library teaching & seminar rooms laboratories & write-up arctic survival tutorial room
programme_iterations.RVB
SPRING
EARLY SUMMER
SUMMER
EARLY AUTUMN
AUTUMN
EARLY WINTER
WINTER
EARLY SPRING
The Balancing Force: Depending on the season the building has different programmatic needs. In winter, when the sea is frozen solid, more activities such as research and training can be performed in the environment and the immediate population will rise. However in the summer, no research can be performed in open water due to whale migration and the population will shrink to a small fraction of its once dense state. A script was authored to generate volume dependant of the program and the requirement. This ‘force’ of program pushing outwards fights with the environmental forces to form a momentary equilibrium in the architecture.
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Programmable Program
SPRING
In winter the exterior environmental forces peak and have the most effect on the building, however so does the internal force of program. In this example shown the building is at its highest possible formation, no deformation of the structural system is occurring. It is in this state the aerodynamic edges and grooves are evident allowing wind, snow and water to pass over, through or around the building with minimal force exerted on the structure
Winter Equilibrium
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Here in the ‘break-up’ season the ice begins to impact upon the building with huge forces. This now has a dramatic affect on the formal state of the building, as the program is no longer determines the state of the building, rooms begin to shutdown to preserve energy and mearly become unused of storage. This allows the building to begin to deform based the surrounding environmental conditions. The building forms peaks to absorb large ice impacts and begins to further deform in an aerodynamically efficient style to reduce the affect of additional forces.
Spring Equilibrium
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Here in its summer state the building has further deformed to its minimum scale of existence. The harvest components are completely open attempting to gain as much super chilled air as possible for future structural iterations. The edges and pillows are undefined as the need to control the airflow across the structure has diminished due to the fact the structure itself is in an incredibly efficient aerodynamic state. The surface has now formed usable platforms a hull like shape for ease when towing.
Summer Equilibrium
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Flexible Space
Interior Skin | Structure | Exterior Skin
Interior Perspective along Gangway
Emotive Interiors: The surface qualities on the exterior of the structure are also applied inside due to the direct connection and integration with the tensegrity component system outlined in the diagram above.
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01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | First Floor Plan - Winter
First Floor Plan - Breakup Season
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Communal Lounge Kitchen Support Space Seminar Room Library
First Floor Plan - Summer
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Laboratory Lab Support Laboratory Seminar Room Arctic Survival
Perspective Section
Transition Typology: Seamless transition through space due to flexible movement of sinuous surface.
Bow Impact Zone: Pocket of void space designed, at the nose of the building, to absorb large impacts and forces.
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Compressive Space: All spaces within the structure are designed to contract even minimally. These are examples of completely contracted spaces. They are used as storage only and require no energy consumption.
Ergonomics of Surface: Throughout the entire structure ergonomic protrusions and extrusions of surface begin to generate usable surfaces, such as a table, chair, bed/bunk, shelving ect. This is controlled by the micro tensegrity grid running throughout the structure - diagrammatically represented in this section.
Performative Arctic Survival: The Arctic survival space has a perforated skin allowing to reacted to outside conditions and mimic them in a safe training environment.
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Endnote
Tom Frauenfelder