gt_2p creates creates curvilinear table using parametric software

Chilean digital design and fabrication studio gt_2p created this curvilinear table using parametric software. The table is part of a series of furniture created using software called SECTION. The software adapts the parameters of the table according to what material is selected and its associated characteristics. What the software essentially does is create 2 dimensional sectional layers to create an overall shape. The program uses grasshopper to efficiently integrate design and digital fabrication together. It is made of layers of interlocking plywood and a tempered glass overlay.

Its not that hard to make this type of a table using rhino. All it takes is the contour function and a laser cutter, really… I think whats innovative about this project (and overly worded by the firm) is that they are attempting to make a program that can automatically prepare the drawings to be cut for any form that one puts into it, without having wasting time contouring and figuring how one piece ‘locks’ into another.. You simply provide a form, and the program figures out the rest… Now a bad idea, but why limit this to only tables?

SLIDING LATTICE

This screen system is an aggregation of a modular unit based on the four foot by eight foot size of a standard sheet of plywood. In order to reach the full 10’-1” height of the faculty center, there is a 30”x48” stationary shelf put together with slab inserts to connect three sheets to create shelves and add structural integrity. The movable wall is placed on the stationary shelf on a track to allow a shift to create a barrier and allow access into the desk area. The movable wall is three sheets of plywood that is laminated together using wood glue and metal fixtures. The imposition of a rotated grid each sheet of plywood creates a system of apertures which can be both scaled and shifted to create variable sizes and densities of penetration in the screen to suit site and programmatic needs. The gridded apertures are cut out by a water jet cutter.

To meet the programmatic considerations for the faculty center wall installation, we diagrammed areas of acoustic density as well as sight paths. Based on the need for a physical barrier between the hallway and workstations in the faculty center, the plan location of the screen is fixed in the plane of the beam which runs parallel to the hallway. Runners are mounted in this plane on both floor and ceiling in order to be able to slide the screen so that it can function as a barrier while still allowing access. The acoustic and optical considerations are developed in elevation in conjunction with the sectional structural needs of the screen.

The elevation was developed into three integrated zones. Zero to three feet high accommodates an additional programmatic element in the form of shelving. Three to six feet high is the area of highest acoustic and sight line density based on the height of people both sitting and standing, and thus has the smallest and greatest density of apertures. At approximately six feet high to the ceiling, apertures are larger and less dense in order to allow more air and a lesser intensity of sound through the screen. In section, the shelving at the bottom is the thickest accumulation of plies in order to provide surface area for the shelving. The top section of the screen is also thicker than the middle in order to provide the necessary structural integrity at the points the screen is hung from.

New York City and Paris ‘Map Cuts’

http://ffffound.com/image/865d60a38efc2859305ceed21c5cb369ae67eb32?c=4200976

By removing the unnecessary, this New York City map-cut reveals the “paths, nodes, circles, boulevards, parks and streets” of the greatest city in the world.

http://matsysdesign.com/2009/11/19/diploid-lamp-series/

The Diploid Lamp series explores multiple patterns inspired by nature such as scales, honeycombs, and barnacles. Using parametric modeling, scripting, and digital fabrication, the light’s geometry is created, refined, and produced. Each lamp is custom designed and hand assembled from digitally fabricated paper components. The series is composed of five individual lamps and is an ongoing project.

this project really took everything that we touched up on this semester and made it into a project, a very successful project.

interior of a tea shop in Copenhagen, Denmark

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/11/23/t-magi-by-we-architecture/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+dezeen+(Dezeenfeed)

Hey look...this is awfully familiar to my original wall proposal. Great minds do think alike!

and just for kicks...my idea

which lead to...

A Parallel Image

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/12/10/a-parallel-image/
“A Parallel Image” is an electronic camera obscura, made by Gebhard Sengmüller, in collaboration with Franz Büchinger. It is an interactive sculpture which can capture and display images. On one side is a camera made of 2500 photo senser which are mounted on a 1 by 1 meter board. On the other side there is the monitor with 2500 light bulbs to display to image. In between each sensor and light bulb there is a 3 meter long copper wire. The resolution of this sculpture is of course quite low, but the aesthetic of the device is very nice.

Light+Sound

Through an analysis of the light and sound conditions of the faculty center a wall surface was generated. This surface was then perforated with continuous parallel apertures of varying densities. While the form of the surface itself responds to mappings of the existing lighting and sound conditions, the variation of apertures respond to programmatic needs as well as the opportunities in blocking or allowing of views. Some of the possible functions of the wall are portfolio storage or bookshelves. Books can be arranged by the user in order to block unwanted views or create privacy.

PTG Curtain

The curtain wall is understood to be a non load bearing vertical surface that usually partitions space. In the Faculty Center at Woodbury University, there is no boundary between the pedestrian traffic and the diligent working staff. This is partially due to the lack of any vertical partitions in the space. This creates a problem of distraction.

The concept is to interrogate both the curtain wall and material to achieve new attitudes towards design intent. Horizontal bands of PTG plastic are fastened together and stacked vertically to create a pliant partition. The common notion of a hard curtain wall is contested two fold; primarily due to the softness of boundaries and secondly due to interaction/operability.

“...old materials are deployed to affect in new ways the old perceptions of space, precisely because of the expectations of how the familiar materials should behave.”

-Manufacturing/Material/Effect

Mobile Wall Panels by morphogenesis

Indian Design firm Morphogenesis created this art retail store in New Delhi using movable wall panels design to increase display space. These fretted panels create spaces of retail that could house the complete array of art works. Through these flexible sliding panels, one big room was split into 6 smaller rooms. The entire setup has 14 movable and 3 fixed panels creating display areas. The panel system is in many ways similar to the proposal made by Marianne and Britt in our class. I would imagine that the best way to make the panel would be by means of the CNC machine, but I don't know if the straight edge look can be achieved with the CNC machine. The article can be found here.

Hands on computer modeling

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/8404/lumino.html


As interfaces for the digital realm become more and more sophisticated, the user gains ever greater control over the construction and crafting of the project. If you build a model by hand, but it resides in the digital realm, could it be considered "hand crafted"? These distinctions between hand and digital construction could perhaps become blurred through the use of digital interfaces like the Lumino shown here. Cubes filled with glass fibers that allow light through can be stacked and moved to control a tabletop computer. Current applications of the Lumino blocks include a construction kit, control knobs for tasks like photo editing and playing simple games like checkers.

Curtain Door

http://www.arplus.com/9855/ar-emerging-architecture-2009-winner-3-of-4-curtain-door-surat-india-by-matharoo-associates/


A design successfully incorporating a sinusoidal curve: "At 5.2m high and 1.7m wide, the door is comprised of 40 sections of 254mm-thick Burma teak. Each section is carved so that the door integrates 160 pulleys, 80 ball bearings, a wire-rope and a counter weight hidden within the single pivot."

Having begun to explore Grasshopper and the design opportunities inherent in the program, this door (though it may or may not have been designed using Grasshopper) points to design options which might incorporate that affect of transformation by rule set. Rather than simply stop the design at a certain point on the slider within the digital realm, users can adjust the "slider" - whatever that may become, pulleys or otherwise - to fit their own circumstances or moods in the physical world.

felt and fabric walls

Anne Kyyrö Quinn is a London based designer that creates felt and fabric walls, resembling art than conventional fabrics. Her scultural approach developed a new genre of interior textiles that is based on a three-dimensional structure than smooth surface ornamentation.

Lumiwood

Rita Baek is a designer with a background in jewelry design gave her the opportunity to work with a experimental approach to designing a lampshade that was delicate and respectful to the material. They were made with folding veneer laminated on canvas with a light filtering through the thin veneer.

Branching Morphogenesis

The project discusses the part-to-whole relationship that is generated with branched structures formed with interacting lung endothelial cells within a 3D matrix environment. The time lapses manifest into five vertical, interconnected layers made from over 75,000 cable zip ties.

Digitally Fabricated City

Jorge Ayala did a one-year research in the Pearl River Delta in the South of China, proposing a digitally fabricated city. The exploration index suggests existing tissues of topography, spatial orientation, rain flows, extreme flood scenarios, wind, soil condition, and residual spaces on site.

Rotary Weaver

ToMoCo owns a rotary weaver, which there are two in existence, which they repurposed to create a carbon fiber A-pillars. The only one of the two weavers that looms dual-tube carbon fiber components.

DIYLILCNC

Two Chicago-based artists, Chris Reilly and Taylor Hokanson, teach at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, have completed a do-it-yourself lil’ CNC. They offer an open-source set of plans that make the CNC mill cost $700 to make.

pAlice

SOFTlab participated in Random Number's SYSTEM:SYSTEM exhibition with their installation, pAlice. pAlice is made with 2,400 laser cut triangles and over 3,600 custom connections using a custom written MEL script. The piece connects all openings in the room with a singular surface, giving the viewers a reference to the exterior of the room without access to it.

experiencing void

De Smedt has a proposal for the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. The proposal is a massive web that is climbable that would be hung down through the central core of the museum, that occupies void and becomes experiential.

Flexible Wall

A prototype of a flexible wall that 'breathed' like the gills of a fish in response to changing information, demonstrating the potential of architecture to adapt to shifting conditions and to alert humans about them.

BanQ

The project reuses the an old bank building with an idea of adding new program and a new surface without affecting the existing structure.

Aqua Tower

The building shape was inspired by limestone formations around the Great Lakes area.

The form has a sculptural composition but at the same time it has a very rational and well developed floor plan of a standard skyscraper. The curves that create the balcony maximize the views of the the building and at the same time provide shading for the floors below.

Performative_Facade

"Marilena Skavara’s ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ explores the functional possibilities and performative characteristics of cellular automata (CA). In addition to the unique emergent behaviour of CA, a neural network enables a further computational layer to evolve CA behaviour to the context of its surrounding environment. Building upon the early work of Conway’s ‘Game of life’ and Stephen Wolfram’s extensive research on the wider implementation of CA, Skavara’s facade becomes a living adapting skin, constantly training itself from the history of its own errors and achievements."

This is a room divider/shelf. I thought it was relevant to our wall project.

Edible Wall

Perhaps Galina would like an edible wall installation next to her desk. She could grow herbs and even fruits and vegetables for faculty members' lunches. Terry could have a raspberry plant growing through her wall partition, supplanting the ubiquitous dish of candies on her desk. If the faculty center acquired a fish tank, as every institutional lobby building type should, the fish poop could feed the plants while the plants filter the fishes' water. To complete the loop, we will punch a skylight in the center of the ceiling so that a solar panel can run the vertical farm's water pump. Inka Biospheric Systems' Sun Curve (its vertical farm + fish tank + solar power design) has a battery which can even store enough power to run Galina's laptop, or charge her cell phone. Digital fabrication can be implemented to mill the lattice work for vine tendrils to grow up the wall. The extreme functionality as well as increasing popularity of "green" and "sustainable" architectural elements today makes the edible wall a clear choice to enhance Woodbury's image as a cutting edge institute for architectural learning.

http://dirt.asla.org/2009/11/19/edible-walls-grow-in-popularity/
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/vertical-farm-fish-tank.php

Memorial Tree

The memorial tree was completed by australian architects M3architecture.

The tree marks the site where the first Australian Labor Party was established in 1891.

The tree is enclosed inside a wooden structure that supports 18ft timber pieces hanging from it. the finishes render the original tree shape that existed in the site. The installation uses a controlled grid that supports the timber pieces. Each timber has a unique cut at the tips that suggest the direction of the original surface that was used to cut the pieces in 3d environment. Installation time and costs and methods are not explained although much respect to the contractor that took upon this endeavor.

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