MODULE ONE: IDEATION STUDENT JOURNALS SEMESTER1 .2013 VIRTUAL ENVIROENMETN
KEVIN YE
Dancing plants In the first week, we learned that The beauty of nature has its own logical rules. We tried to expand our understanding of how materials and structure work together, and as well allow us to explore new ideas and patterns of our owns.
Pattern Formation in Nature (Philip Ball)
In order to get a better understanding of my pattern and other natural patterns that I might be interested in the future, I did some farther reading after reading Pattern Formation in Nature. The shapes of Nature patterns are basically impacted by their gene and are not easily changed. However, there must be a reason why their gene grow or develop into this form. Some scientists suggest that the reason these small plants grow in a divergent structure is to get more sunlight and also get enough leave superficial area in order to breath. Others suggest that they grow in that way just because of the environmental issue which force them to change. But it does not matter what reason it grow in this way, the main aim is to survive in this big competitive environment and they do want to multiply.
Although these nature patterns looks so intricate, they still follow some rules which just like Philip Ball wrote “simple, local interactions between many components of a system – a form of physical computation that gives rise to self-organization and emergent structures and behaviors.� It takes hundreds and thousands of years to transform these plants into these shape we see today. They have gone trough the challenges of climate and geographical changes, also the threads of nature disasters. These factors could be in both physical area and chemical area. A little change of the outer environment could make a huge difference to their gene from generation to generation. I try to transform these changes into my model making process which myself could imitate these factors and come up with my own patterns based on the plant pattern I chose. The methods could be scaling, copy and rotation. In the next few weeks, I may explore new ideas into my design which combine all of these element into one pattern.
Examples of applying nature patterns into building designs
Water Cube, China The Water Cube design was chosen from 10 proposals in an international architectural competition for the aquatic center project. Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness. The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs. This design was inspired by the cell's structure and also soap bubble. It has used the methods of copy, rotation and scaling to form basic patterns into an finished work.
Light
The designers also considered the light effects that material and design creates. Relating to the light effect that soap bubbles creates, it also used the methods of 'Extruded'. The light comes direct through the frame and also create lights in a certain form.
Nature Process
Outline of the pattern and simplify it
We observe nature pattern based on their shapes which start at a point and increase in radius when following a certain rules. In the following pages I will describe the steps of how I observe the rules of the pattern and how I develop it into my works.
Process...
Step one: Using Masking Tape to tape down my black and white image on to the table. Step two: Using tracing paper to draw out the balance, movement and symmetry form of the image which is shown next couple pages.
Exploring the nature pattern's BALANCE, MOVEMENT and SYMMETRY.
After these exploration, I moved on to the studio making process which transform this 2D image into 3D form using paper as material at this first stage.
I followed the brighter spaces as the parts extruded the pattern into 3D form. This design is a more general transformation which doesn't have much light effects.
Digitally model using Rhino Inserting my image into Rhino software and modeling it into a 3D form using the method of extruding.
Pattern 1: For this hexagon shape pattern I only used the method of copy and rotation. This patten is basically using hexagons, and is similar with the first paper model I made.
Pattern 2: This pattern I used the methods of copy, scaling and rotation. This arrow shape based pattern is more similar to the second paper model I did which gives a better sense of transformation.
Then I moved on to the next step and tried an new idea which is using rotation and scaling to create a new form of patter which gives viewers a better sense of 3 dimensional feeling I cut out paper in a triangular shape and fold it from an angel, it makes it stands up and create a depth to block the light and create a 3D feeling when viewers see it.
Then I increase the scale after every triangle and I connect it to the smaller triangle at the smaller ones' midpoint. Then I just keep the rule and repeat.
Then I tried to display my design directly into the Rhino software which is shown on the right. But I felt like its hard to use this pattern to form a surface because the effects of light it provide is too dull. Then I tried to extrude the pattern with an angle which created the effect bellow. (start from the small triangle)
Using the methods of rotation. I created this ball shaped lantern which the light comes out from the empty spaces but also the holes on its edges.
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Arm-attached lantern style which is about 15x15x50cm. Triangle pattern related creating variable light effects. (extruding, layer, diffusion)
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Twisted cone-shape lantern with triangle patterns (like leaf) Flexible Empty spaces inside (could put bulb in side or attached to arms) Diffusion or extruded light effect.
Use the pattern on the left (twisted cone) as a basic pattern and copy it and rotate to create a ball-shaped lantern with spaces in side. This ball-shaped lantern could be hold or hung or attached to the users arm ( users' hand go through the lantern).This lantern could use the method of creating extruded light and also diffused effect. I could also create more layers of the lantern to create even more effects. These farther decisions will be made in next module.
Direction: After 3 weeks' exploration and inspiration, I hope my lantern can create different light effects combine extruding, layer and diffused effects. Because I like the shadow it creates and the light comes through transparent materials. The pattern I use will always focus on triangle but the way I put them together is variable. I hope my lantern could have some flexibility which makes it have different ways to hold it or hung it. However I wish it still have some structure which could hold its form and keep the light bulb a distance from the person who use it so the heat does not harm users.
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