Jenny Sabin: Chris Gassaway

This is some work by Francois Roche... he uses scripting to generate his forms and also uses 3d milling/printing machines to physically manifest the generated forms. his website is here.

check it out.

Jenny Sabin: Chris Gassaway

In Fit Fabric: Versatility through redundancy and differentiation, it is suggested that the design of high-rise buildings needs to be rethought.  High-rise buildings,it argues, should be rethought as surface structures. 

Using surfaces solves two problems: stiffness and efficiency. A surface structure acts like a woven basket.  When one area of the weave is broken or acted upon the entire system acts to take the force, torque,etc and the system does not fail... this is in contrast to the central core concept (think world trade center).  Also the redundancy of parts in a surface structure help to streamline production and minimize materials thus increasing efficiency. 

Using structures with cylindrical morphologies is being studied on an architectural-scale by The Emergence and Design Group (Michael Weinstock, Achim Menges, Michael Hensel).  By using different morphologies with different load bearing capabilities a surface structure can be created with multiple load-path vectors.

The research of the Emergence and Design Group shows that a double helix shape with a narrowed waste handles forces well. By relaxing geometrical constraints differentiation occurred between the layers of helices.  These differentiations were used to create the shape of a panel which was tessellated over the entire form. Though the sizes were different the shape stayed the same.  The complex form was then made of only a few panel sizes.

This analysis led to the research of membrane skins. The same tessellated surfaces occur in custard apple fruits. 

Jenny Sabin: Katie Smither

The research.  I was assigned Buckminster Fuller and as it was a large amount of material, I have only gotten through the first 9 pages, but will post what I've read so far.  

The majority of his writing was on synergetics, what they are, how they are relative, and why they are important.  He provides a fixed definition for synergy: the behavior of a whole system unpredicted by the behavior of its separate parts.  For example, a stone wall is synergetic as each individual stone does not purposefully contribute its mass to the stone next to it.  The individual stone does not exert its mass upon other stones, nor is attracted to the neighboring massive stones in order to create the greater entity of a combination of stones.  It is merely a single stone being a single stone, therefore, the whole system is unpredicted by the individual parts.

The issue of the triangle came up when talking about the integration of parts to make a whole system.  A triangle is apparently a single open system as a line cannot close upon itself.  In reality, the line meets three points but when returning to its generation point, the line does not return to its exact starting point in space by melding with the origin line point, rather it sits on top of the the origin, creating a kind of triangular helix.  See the illustration to completely understand.  With this open-endedness in mind, the combination of two triangles does not have to result in two triangles, but rather can form a different system.  By exaggerating the triangle helix condition, a tetrahedron can be formed from the combination of the z-shaped helixes that are still completely triangles, one negatively rotated one positively rotated.  This provides an example of positive and negative versions of a system resulting in a stable form, the tetrahedron, which consists of four triangles.  Thereby proving that two triangles can be four triangles.  See illustration on page f5 of the provided text.

 

The article speaks often of synergy's importance in understanding nature, or the "Universe".  That if one does not completely understand synergy, one does not understand nature.  This is discussed in the condition of objects in space, metals and their alloys, and microbiological structures.  In all of these instances, the idea of synergy allows a greater, superior system to arise out of the unpredicted interaction of individual parts.  When looking at this idea geometrically, it is easy to see how this open-endedness lends itself to architecture, building, creating a limitless structural system.

He also mentions the validity of synergy by stating that it contradicts nothing in mathematics, physics, calculus, or testable experience.  I will try and remember to post anything else important as I continue reading.

????- Well, questions for Jenny.  Why do you think this is so important?  To understand this I mean.  Yes, it gives us the ability to understand structure and therefore emulate such systems in building them virtually or physically, but why do you think that is significant?  What does that give us as people?

????- Along the same lines, do you think this can lend itself to other fields other than those dealing with structure?  So, outside of the mathematic, scientific, physics based way of thinking....what does this offer?

????- Finally, your opinion please.  Metaphysics was mentioned.  If synergy is the unpredicted integration of parts to make a system, what based on this idea, gives the individual parts their characteristics.  The Universe is spoken of as an entity, greater than a creator, above creation, or above non-existing.  If to understand nature or the Universe, you must understand the synergy of systems; that means either everything revolves around the individual parts that do not predict the systems they create.....which means order is created out of chaos and chance......or that the individual parts have tricked us into believing there is not order within the combination to make the whole, when order does indeed come from order or a method of predetermination.  I'm not sure if that made sense, and I know this is kind of a big one, but the article brought it up.  I just want to know what synergy is saying about metaphysics and the existence of the things it speaks of.  

Thanks and talk to you later!

Katie 

Quesions about "Nonlinear System Biology and Design-Surface Design"

I have some questions about Jenny Sabin's article, which is "Nonlinear System Biology and Design-Surface Design".

1. What is the "3D scissor mechanism" and how to correlate with retractable roofs, chairs?

2. The concepts and techniques of Surface Design are used to aid the analysis on the relation between "mammary epithlium" and "Tenascin-C (and laminin)". Why use the digital algorithms (Delaunay Tessellation and the Voronoi diagram) to form the model? Could you explain why this surface can reflect the information of mammary epithelial tissue contour? Is it an assumption or a principle in medical field?

3. In the comparison between two cases (one is normal control, another one is exposed to both lamini and tenasicin-C), I am wondering whether you need to consider and establish the algorithmic "lamini and teasicin-C".

Thanks!

Julian

Rebargroup: Sloan Springer

I found this somewhat randomly this week...its called burble, by haque design+research in london. Its essentially a mass of interwoven balloons with led lights, made on-site by the public, and can become so large as to interact with urban skylines. Pretty interesting approach.



http://www.haque.co.uk/burblelondon.php
http://www.haque.co.uk/openburble.php

Extreme Textiles--A Transformed Architecture

The essay titled “A Transformed Architecture” by Philip Beesley and Sean Hanna presents developments of textile-based building concepts and related examples of architectural projects. They claim the textile-based structures revolutionize the architecture to achieve the goals of lighter, stronger, more responsive, and more efficient. A range of examples, including some familiar buildings such as the Swiss Re Headquarters by Foster and Partners, is used to demonstrate the ideas for the incorporation of textile technologies in the building of lightweight floating cities.

Philip Beesley and Sean Hanna, in the beginning, discuss the origin of textiles-based construction, which exists in the settlement in the Paleolithic age. That is, the first building materials to emerge were not masonry, but textiles. Also, the present technology emerging returns to these traditions and share many of the underlying principles from ancient woven construction concepts like wattle-and-daub and thatch because these ancient integrated fabric can provide excellent tensile strength and then still suit lightweight building systems today. Further, the fabric is constantly evolving such as new fibers composed by glass and carbon.

In the following contents, authors explain the textile systems’ efficiency compared with traditional construction and described two methodologies for analyzing textile systems. Traditional buildings are quite vulnerable to shifting and buckling forces; that is, wind and earthquakes (lateral and upward-pulling pressures) increase the challenge of traditional buildings. However, thin and continuous strands of resilient material in textile systems can easily handle these tensile and even more complex forces. On the other hand, Buckminster Fuller and John Argyris invented Synergy in the 1940s and Finite Element Analysis in the 1950s respectively. These analysis methods play the key underlying role in analysis and design fabric structures.

In the last part of the essay, the four textile examples with innovative insights into designing are offered for demonstrating the textile-based buildings’ benefits. The first project, Peter Testa’s Carbon Tower, is built of carbon fiber and composite materials. In this forty-story office building, the main structure is woven together and achieves an unparalleled synergy of elements. The Carbon Tower offers the efficiency on dealing with forces, the saving expense of transportation on light materials and the potential to last longer and require less maintenance. The second example involves Michael Maltzan’s Lenoa Drive Residence consisted of stiff and light materials based on carbon-fiber textile. The project provides a possibility of serving a family’s daily life. Inflatable and rigidizabale structures are discussed in the third work developed at ILC Dover and Vertigo. These rigidisable structures, like Airbeam, flexible epoxy-coated fiberglass, shape-memory polymers, can offer far more strength and possible uses with readily changing shape than other existing inflatable structures. The last study relates to Floating Cities based on geotextiles, which are landscape-engineering technologies that are literally woven into the earth. In this field, the textile systems are used to prevent soil erosion or protect embankments (or slopes) or cultivate and reposition plants. This technology affects scales from artificial landscapes to entire cities.

-Julian Wang

Profile-Julian Wang

Field: Architecture in PhD program.

Interests: Sustainable design, biomimicry, urban design, music, Chinese painting, reading fiction.

I wish my research will relate to bio-adaptation and kinetic architectural design. The natural models have much interesting inspiration, like adaptive movement of mammal's hair for responding the different exterior temperature, changing posture of certain leaves for absorbing or avioding sunlight......whether we can transpose these biological adaptation to architectural needs. A surge of possibilities accompanies this concept. I need to consider the representation and modeling the responses of buildings or its materials related to a selected natural model. That's why I am interested in this project.

Rebargroup: Ricardo Solar

I though this video was interesting, they're utilizing an existing structure to make a more 'playful' environment. It is something to keep in mind when designing our installation.

'this project is a study into different ways of bringing play back into public space.

it focuses on ways of incorporating incidental play in the public realm by not so

much as having separate play equipment that dictates the users but by using

existing furniture and architectural elements that indicate playful behavior for all.'

Rebargroup: Ricardo Solar

Profile: Michael Wilson

Field of Study:
Grad - Landscape Architecture
Undergrad - Parks & Recreation Administration


Special Interests:
Brownfield redevelopment
Ecological restoration
Sustainable design
Being outdoors
General recreating (climbing, biking, etc.)


Talents/Secret Powers:
3D modeling and rendering
Photography
Sketching
Fixing things
I can accurately describe almost all tastes and smells
Movie quotes
General problem solving

Blocker Green Space: Michael Wilson

I thought this space was interesting because there is a sculpture in the middle of it that people often sit in. I thought maybe we could replicate that sort of shape into similar seating structures located around the existing sculpture.

Rebargroup: Barrett Davis

Under the bridge: the passageway from the Kyle Field to the Student Recreational Center.

There are two entrances to this area but everyone gets bottle-necked through the overpass. An undulating, perforated structure hangs from the ceiling. I don't believe we can hang anything from it; however, we might be able to mimic the material somehow?

Typically cyclists will zoom and weave through the area while pedestrians attempt to maintain a comfort level of not being hit. Sometimes there are groups of people that congregate near the walls and host dance sessions. At other times, cyclists do tricks. People avoid "happenings" with a great distance considering the wide space available.

We would have to make it where we either take up an entire line or have it to where we would have them zig-zag and get in closer proximity than they are usually afforded. Granted, with the bikers speeding through one might have to take in account their safety. However, we might as well just slow them down anyway.

I wonder if we could setup little stations or pillars. Or if we could play off the idea of having trolls under the bridge - much like with fairy tales and fables of yore.

Reed Seal, Kyle field(N. side)

Here is what I feel is the best paved area. In the event that it is rather rainy and we don't want to go with grassy areas. The first image is the seal outside the reed building and the rest is in the distance in front of Kyle field. I feel this would be an ideal paved place because of the large amount of foot traffic going to the Rec and West side garage. Other than football, and camping out to purchase tickets this space is rarely used and often passed by. The pictures were taken at a low traffic time, but you can see in the second picture how the couple is just bypassing the space on their left (Indicated in the following 2 pictures) to follow the road.

Jenny Sabin: Mike Droske

Olafur Eliasson: Vibrations

"Physics has found no straight lines - has found only waves. Physics
has found no solids - only high-frequency event fields.
THE UNIVERSE IS NOT CONFORMING TO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL
PERPENDICULAR-PARALLEL FRAME OF REFERENCE. The
universe of physical energy is always divergently expanding
(radiantly) or convergently contracting (gravitationally) ." -Buckminster Fuller


Everything we know of is a process. Physics has shown that there are no solid, discrete objects.
Within time, everything changes. Time itself is an individual phenomenon, restricted to our own perceptions, our own lifespans. Our individual perspectives differ, and time, likewise, is relative.

Eliasson suggests that "every space and every situation contains in itself the potential for reevaluation and renegotiation." People, given the proper tools, should be able to engage the space that surrounds them. Buildings and landscapes shape our environments-but we can likewise shape our environments-indeed- our presence itself does this.

In addition to the three spatial dimensions, there is time, the fourth dimension. There is also individual observation and participation within these dimensions, or, Eliasson puts it: Your Engagement Sequence (YES).

In the vast interrelationship of waves that comprises our universe, every action and engagement we have with our surroundings is a two-way transaction. Eliasson is fascinated by this transaction-this is what constitutes our individual engagement with the universe. The ability to see oneself from a third-person point of view- for example, "the ways in which the visitors [to an art gallery] may experience themselves experiencing the artwork" helps people realize the role they play in the larger patterns of society, and helps put their individual experience into perspective. A work of art will affect different individuals differently, and it should be allowed to. When art is intended to have a general, universal effect on everyone and doesn't allow individual interpretation-this ignores the basic facts of the universe.

Profile: Ricardo Solar

Field: Environmental Design (architecture), will start Graduate school next fall.

Interests: Architectural Design, Furniture Design, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Graphics in general...Music.

Talents: Drawing and painting, Building stuff, pretty good with photoshop and most architecture rendering tools...and I play a little guitar.

Website: www.ricardosolarart.com