STUDIO TUTOR: MIKE & ZAK GROUP 5 GEOMETRY STUDENT: WILL QIAN SM1_YEAR2013
SITE ANALYSIS Wyndham is located between city of Melbourne and Geelong. There are some natural and historical attractions in this city. A lot of events are held here as well as popular arts and culture activities. As it is a coast city, the residents also have some water activities along the coast and it is famous for its long coast line as well. 1 Refer to the statistic of the culture groups, about 15% of migrants are from other counties.2 Therefore, Wyndham is also a place with mixed
cultures. As a city in the middle of Melbourne and Geelong, Wyndham has its particular characteristic but also plays the role of a medium between the other two cities.
Parc de la Villette Paris, 1982-1998
By Bernard Tschumi Architects
From 1982 to 1983, a design competition was held to revive the undeveloped land in Paris. Bernard Tschumi won from 470 entries, includes OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Jean Novel. Differ from others, Schumi focused on the combination of natural and artificial, which forms a state of constant
reconfiguration and discovery. In other words, Parc de la Villette is a project with pretentious culture significance. The proposal of the whole project is to create a park without any clear meanings, ‘one that can be experienced by each visitor in a unique way’ 3.
C.1. Design Concept Parc de la Wyndham For the Western Gateway Design Project, we wanted to explore an ‘artists’ approach for the design. Through the use of our topic of discourse in combination with a geometric design approach, we were able to meet the objectives of Wyndham City and Studio Air. We believe that through the utilisation of a series of artistic/sculptural installations we were able to achieve a design outcome that will arrogantly become culturally significant to Wyndham City. We believe that through the utilisation of a series of artistic/sculptural installations we were able to achieve a design outcome that will arrogantly become culturally significant to Wyndham City. We believe that through the utilisation of a series of artistic/ sculptural installations, we can achieve a design outcome that will arrogantly become culturally significant to Wyndham city. These series of sculptural installations were inspired by the idea of Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette. As a park based on culture and artificial, it is opposed to natural background. A series of folies were used as the final outcomes instead. Through learning from Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette, we aimed to essentially build a drive through art gallery. This art gallery would show the development of an art work from concept to outcome. Considering about the speed of the traffic, and to ensure that driving passengers would view the gallery clearly, we decided to set an appropriate
distance among each part of our folies as required. The process initially began with a quick sketch of the roads of western highway. We manipulated this into a 3D form immediately after this. The idea is based on the requiring an inspiration to start the project just as an artist might use a muse. This is because we wanted to focus on form finding rather than the initial generative form. We plugged the 3D line frame into the grasshopper, and applied pipes to create a more 3D form. The next step was exploring relaxation as a geometric form finding solution. We started to add more “map detail” to form some further sculptures as well as changing the scales of them. Meanwhile, we started to consider about the interaction among each sculpture. Finally we decided to rotate, scale, connect and continue to grow the form and alter the locations due to further form finding. We stopped the process here due to aesthetics, scale and the expression of the link between city – gateway and western suburbs.
Essentially becoming a drive through art gallery of a process of an artists work from beginning to end. thus location of each sculpture has an importance of how they are viewed.
INITIAL FORM FINDING Process begun by a quick sketch of the roads of the Western Highway. This was then altered in a 3-dimensional form.
C.1. Design Concept Design process
Constructability:
next step We then decided to scale this sculpture larger and applying a relaxtion to the form ... we also began to explore the next form that was added and applied the same process.
next step To begin, this form was plugged in to grasshopper and our sculptural series began through applying a 3d structure to this 3d ‘map’ Thus, producing our first sculpture.
next step Here we decided to try to begin to join the geometries together and begin to explore another geometry on the other side of the highway.
Finally we decided to rotate and scale and connect and continue to grow the form and alter the location due to further form finding. This process could continue however, we chose this form as the final outcome as it is interesting aesthetically and has iconic scale for the final outcome. It also, expresses the link between the 3 states - city - gateway - western suburbs.
C.1. Design Concept The renderings here shows diiferent viewpoints of the gallery in terms of using different materials to achieve the better outcomes, which would be the most approriate one for the site. when passengers drive through the gallery; they might find some animal shapes through browsing the sculptures along the high way. The forms of the sculpture contain the culture as well as the natural elements. And they are all outcomes of form finding process of the design. Meanwhile, some interesting shadows would also bring happiness to passengers. Redering with “Environmental friendly� material
Renderings with material of aluminum
C.2. Tectonic Elements ACID EXPERIMENT- METAL TEST Metals: Aluminium, Brass, Galvanized wire
As a process of model making, this metal test will show how different metals would change or be corroded overtime by hydrochloric acid. As a process of model making, this metal test will show how different metals would change or be corroded overtime by hydrochloric acid. First of all, we purchased all the required materials from Bunnings Warehouse.
In order to protect ourselves from hurting by the strong hydrochloric acid, we also got some masks. We also learnt the instruction of the Emergency Response Guide in case we would meet any accidents during the experiment. (We did meet some problems during the experiment, the fumes exhausted from the experiment container during the test. And the lab was filled with fumes. Though we had the masks on, we can still smell it.)
Nevertheless, we did get some outcomes from the acid test. We chose brass, aluminium and galvanized wire as the materials for the experiment. What we did first was to cut a bit of those materials, and put them into the glass container (we add aluminium last as it is active), and then poured some hydrochloric acid into it. The first picture shows how brass and galvanized wire act with acid. There was not a distinct phenomenon of reaction. We put it away and went back to check it after one hour, and we found the colour of the brass changed a little bit, it became darker as well as the galvanized wire. We put a piece of aluminium into the container, and the reaction was really intense. The acid was like boiling water with big bubbles emitted. Meanwhile, the reaction created a lot of heat, and droplets appeared on the glass wall
of the container afterwards. We check the result when the reaction was finished. And we found the aluminium was as a ruined black lamina. In addition, some green stuff appeared on the glass wall, which means the galvanized wire reacted with acid and produced FeCl2. But apparently, the wire did not change a lot. Neither did solder iron or brass changed much. From this experiment, we found the aluminium can be ruined very fast by hydrochloric acid. But does it mean that we cannot use it as the proper material for model making? Absolutely not, get rid of this test, aluminium has many advantages than other materials. It does not rust like iron in natural environment, it is stronger and cheaper than brass. Also, aluminium is easy to get nowadays and is used extensively in our life.
C.2. Tectonic Elements Use Marc Fornes as a modelling precedent
after further research, we found that Marc Fornes4 had very similar designs to what we were trying to achieve through a relaxed geometry (made possible through grasshopper) thus we wanted to use a similar process of minimal surface to thus minimise material usage. Through learning from the photos on their homepage, our team found they used long brass strips and bolts to
assemble their model. And we aimed to make our one with aluminium strips and bolts. However, according to the aluminium is a bit thick that we have chosen, and we found it was hard to bend. As a result, we can only weld each piece. Though welding could be treated as another way of modelling, but it is much difficult than assembling and did not look good in that way.
C.2. Tectonic Elements Detail drawings
We decided breaking the models into strips by unrolling command. The model would be unrolled into a 2d form and we wanted to use thin aluminium sheets and bolts to achieve this as Marc Fornes did.
This drawing shows how evey two pieces of aluminium sheets are supposed to be bolted
These two drawings show how the part of the model would be like made by aluminium strips
Our detail model here shows an alternative approach were the strips could possibly be welded together and thus also using a thicker substrate of aluminium sheeting.
The drawing blew shows how the footing should be like for the project. Considering about the loads and pressures from the top part of the sculpture, we decided to make the bottom part much thicker than other parts. (The joint parts above should also be considered with thicker and stronger material) As each fringe is unsealed, rainwater
would get into the interior of the sculpture during rainy days. Therefore, the footing is supposed to have a drainage system. As the section drawing shows below, there should be some drilled holes along the wall for drainage pipes to go through.
C.2. Tectonic Elements Detail Model 1
As the aluminium was to hard to bend, we decided to use welding method to connect each piece of the panel. Welding seemed to be an all right method to make model. However, it is dangerous when doing the welding, and also the welded parts did not look good.
We did some acid experiment with this thick aluminium panel later on. This time, we assumed if the model was in a acid environment. The drilled holes for bolting was ruined, which means the bolts would go off and the model would collapse in an acid environment.
C.3. Final Model 3D Printing Model
This was the first time to make a physical model with 3D printer. Though the model was really tiny, it still showed the outline of it. The model was too tiny to show any further more detail, but we desired to show the detail by the detail model with large scale. As the objective of our gallery was to show the forms changing overtime and distance, we did not have any ornament on the surface.
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches Grasshopper Progress This grasshopper diagram shows how was our digital model made initially. Generally, this step is to make the 3D lines into 3D pipes. The screenshot on the left shows how the light yellow 3D lines turn into red 3D pipes by using the grasshopper.
Detailed annotations
1. Set multiple curves. 2. Explorde a curve into small segments. 3. Remove similar lines from a list.
4. Represents a collection of 3D lines.
5. Use Exoskeleton to thicken wireframes (make pipes). 6. Set the factors of different componets of Exoskeleton to achieve the most appropriate outcome. 7. Set the outcome as a mesh
Images show how each part of the design looks like with its initial form.
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches Through testing with kangaroo physics engine, we found the outcomes were much more appropriate as we desired for. In other words, the outcomes are approaching our idea of creating
something what will arrogantly become culturally significant to the site. Meanwhile, it can also express our topic of Geometry.
Detailed annotations
Weaverbird’s Join Meshed and WeldReturns a singular mesh object made out of a list of members. The new mesh is lighter, meaning that the footprint of the new mesh is less than the sum of the originals. Extract the end points of a curve.
Mesh EdgesGet all the edges of a mesh.
Create the valid set fro a list of items (a valid set only contains distinct elements).
This slider cahnges how ‘relaxed ‘ the mesh is by setting the goal length for the springs ( a factor of the original length).
Create Hooke’s law springs
Boolean ToogleActive kangaroo physics engine/ stop engine
Mesh outcomes of relaxtion
Kangaroo Physics EngineShows the dynamic relaxation outcomes through time changing.
TimerProvides a mechanism for updating solutions at specified intervals.
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches
LEFT
RIGHT
left
right
LEFT
RIGHT
left
right
FRONT
front
FRONT
front
BACK
back
BACK
back
TOP
top
TOP
top
The different outcomes produced by different grasshopper components
LEFT
RIGHT
FRONT
BACK
TOP
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches TOP VIEW
FRONT VIEW
RIGHT VIEW
The picture above shows 3D line frames in different views Those are the initial generated 3D line drawings, which are the outcomes of our proposal ‘going no way’ as what Tschumi did in Parc de la Villette.
Our team record the change every 2 second, and we were aiming to find the most relaxed form or the best outcome through doing grasshopper relaxation. We record 10 times of each part, and we use different colour to distinct the different outcomes in different times. The matrix on the next page is the top view of all the outcomes.
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches In order to see the distinctions much more clearly, we overlap the first five together as well as the last five ones. As a result, the distinctions can be recognized easily now. We were quite happy to see the differences among each form. Some of the forms are exagger-
ated relaxed, which looks fragile and fatigue. We deemed those forms were not good to be regarded. The algorithmic sketch on the next page shows the records of another 10 outcomes in different view point.
C.4. Algorithmic Sketches
Another one algorithmic sketch of another record. We found the more times we recorded the outcomes, the more better ones we would get.
Another sketch shows the distictions between each two
C.5. Learning Objectives and Outcomes Use Boat making process as another method to make the model
A traditional boat is usually made by wooden frame and then planking with wooden boards. The first step of the boat making process is to set up the frame work of a vessel. The stem post, the bow frame, the centre frame, the sternpost and the stern frame have to be located first before any further assemblies. And all before that, a keel, as the most important part of a boat is required. All the process starts as the keel is set. The rest of the process is to nail each other parts onto
the keel under the sequence, as from one end of keel and the other end, then the stern post, and center frame later on, the stern frame afterwards, and bow frame at last. After all above has been done, timbers need to be nailed on the skeleton.5 When the framework is complete, a very crucial process is to plank boards on the exterior of the framework. The boards have to be nailed as tightly as possible. 6
C.5. Learning Objectives and Outcomes
As the boat making process, we make the detail model into skeleton and then lay each part on the plane surface. And we sent the file to Fablab to cut the pieces out. After that, we started our model making as how people make a boat. We treated the longest piece as the keel and add other parts on to it in order. After finishing assembly, we covered the frame with aluminium sheets.
C.5. Learning Objectives and Outcomes Throughout the whole semester, I learned a lot of skills of using rhinoceros plus grasshopper plug in and other tools. It is quite interesting to learn some new words of architecture which I had never touched before, such as the computational architecture, parametric modelling as well as build my own idea about what architecture discourse is. Learning different elements of architecture through reading did enlarge my knowledge with some modern technologies. Different from other design studios, this studio requires students to learn from alternative readings and precedents, and find the useful information which might benefit us during the design process. Though, through learning from other architects, we might meet some questions as we might get stuck by some new architecture elements or new technologies. As when I first saw the dynamic modelling tool, I was amazed but also was curious about how it works. Thus, though I did meet some problems when I was learning, but more questions make me more active to learn from new things to find the solutions for the formal questions. As when I first touched grasshopper at the beginning of the semester, I can only follow the tutorial and make stuff step by step. To me, grasshopper is really new, and I was not satisfied with it at the beginning. But as the more time I spent on it as well as learning some advanced skills through search, I became more and more satisfied with it. And when I
made some new models through exploring grasshopper, I was really happy with that. In terms of studying the digital model making, prototype modelling and tectonic elements, I realized the interaction among them as well as the importance of each process of design. A deign might fail due to its initial digital model making when it lacks the connection to the concept. Prototypes are very important to test your design. As we might find the disadvantages or faults of the design through making prototypes, we can avoid the failure instead of finding it when we doing our final model. And learning from tectonic elements does bring us more critical thinking, as the design has to be buildable in real life. Meanwhile, in order to design a good project for a site in this studio, we have to first learn the site background well. After that, we can come up with our design concepts which should be appropriate and relevant to the site. As if we cannot explain how the design concept is related to the site, then we are designing something for somewhere else. Also learning well from the site, we can come up with more ideas as well as make our concepts stronger and more appropriate for the site.
REFERENCES 1. http://www.experiencewyndham.com.au/leisure__recreation 2. http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/living-in-victoria/melbourne-and-regional-victoria/melbourne/wyndham 3. http://www.architectural-review.com/archive/1989-august-parc-de-la-villette-by-bernard-tschumi-architects/8630513.article 4. http://theverymany.com/constructs/11-ireneneuwirth/ 5. http://www.petitemartinique.com/boat_building.htm 6. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/general_metal_working_machines/39256-brass_vs_aluminium_vs_steel_questions_questions.html