DigiFab

Here is what I was able to get finished for Tuesday. I'm very happy with the way my project turned out, although I think it still needs work. I'm especially pleased with the section and the series of plan diagrams at different elevations. I think the first page's diagrams work, but I would like to spend more time linking project 3 to this one. Part of the problem was sticking to the requirements of 5 items (4 boards and my model).

One of my many goals this summer is to develop my rendering skills. I'm not t0o happy about the renderings. I think they could use a lot of work. But again, time was not my friend.

Well, it's been a pleasure everybody. Thanks for a wonderful semester, and I look forward to seeing what everybody has for project 5. Any critiques or other thoughts of what I have here?

grasshopper assisted skin

At long last, I have created a skin in Rhino. It takes quite a bit of manual labor to achieve but it looks like the results will be worth it. The process involves creating a master surface, projecting gradient lines onto it and then using the resulting curves-on-surface as a framework to build individual surfaces. I then use a grasshopper definition to attach a pre-made component to all of the surfaces simultaniously. More to come....

materiality and structure

The spaces of the workshop are being defined by combination of adjectives like: "collective action" "individual action" "collective meditative" etc. The articulation of these spaces are being created by a combination of architectural manoeuvers including scale, proximity, materiality, and spatial sequencing. The coming together and passing of the rings of wood and of concrete begin to create rich in-between spaces that are occupiable as thresholds, rest spaces, meeting areas, etc. Just as in my original diagrams, I call these spaces the "poches of interest" which allow an experience to occur between the occillation of occupations of different areas of the workshop.

Shop Canopy

This is a bird's eye of my project 5, showing the canopy
over the workshop. I'm working on some interior renderings
and will post them soon.

This is the raw geometry of a dual shell. The shells separate group from the individual and will soon weave with new massing arrangements to form individual spaces suspended in between the shells. The whole concept is about create thresholds of change.

From "chaos" to "tranquility". A duality is sought between controlled chaos and complete tranquility and residual open space becomes the tranquility while transitions are usually chaotic.

Right now these issues are vaguely addressed.

The tectonic representation will use the biological structure while the chaotic nature comes from the enclosure system.

Workshop as Worked Material Exploration

The image below is missing the walls - I haven't decided yet what they're going to consist of. The idea is that the structure creates scape by "working" the traditional factory box that most fabrication takes place in.

i've been struggling with searching for a meaning to my overall form. after a step back (very late) i've decided to go with the idea of 2 minds, individual vs. group, and separating them and using the image of a cell going through division as inspiration for a framing device.

Something's happening, at last: a colonnade?

Microcosm Wallpaper

Here is a jpg 1680 x 1050 px that I made for my wallpaper. I showed you mine now show me yours. If you want, post an image at 300 dpi with the same size and add it to this post. That way we can have a collection of microCOSM wallpapers.

putting yourself in your building

i wonder if this changes how people view my first project 4 iteration. i realized that when i spoke of my space, my model was hardly touched (even though it kept me up for hours). What are a few words that come to mind, cleared now, through time, when you see this image? (try hitting "ctrl - " to see the whole image at once).

"Graduate education is the Detroit of higher learning."

End the University as We Know It
Editorial from The New York Times, April 26, 2009

Architecture Talks_Piano, Zaha, Frank & Nouvel

http://www.charlierose.com/topic/art_design?keyword=architecture

Human brains interfaced with 3d printers..

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/subterranean-machine-dreams-of.html

RP Machine as Seeds for Growing Spaces

This is a conceptual representation of a series of four spaces formed initially around a waterjet cutter. The spaces were generated using the script from proj_02 and manual modelling. The parameters were changed to make a series of spaces with similar relationships to my proj_04 diagrams. Each space is smaller than the one before and less connected to the group/active areas. The structure is made using pipe bending technology. I mapped an image of my proj_01 wax pods onto the skin of the spaces. The panels making the skin could be fabricated with a cnc mold and vacuum formed plastic. I have plans for using proj_03 as a second outer skin that could also peel away from the structure to form covered outdoor spaces. The gyroscoping elements are currently only used to aid modelling but will be developed into structural thresholds locking the pipes together and allowing people to pass through.

The last image is the same model from a different angle. It looks a lot like some of the wax models I made.

Yes I am thinking that this is what the building will look like. This is an incomplete conceptual model but it is the direction I want to go. Am I out of the realm of the plausible?

Finally I got a particle trace to finish in under a day. The combination of curved and transparent surfaces is killing my machine.

On Freedom

Birds flying high:
You know how I feel.
Sun in the sky:
You know how I feel.
Breeze drifting on by:
You know how I feel.
Its a new dawn.
Its a new day.
Its a new life.
For me.
And I'm feeling good.

Fish in the sea:
You know how I feel.
River running free:
You know how I feel.
Blossom on a tree:
You know how I feel.
Its a new dawn.
Its a new day.
Its a new life.
For me.
And I'm feeling good.

Dragonfly out in the sun.
You know what I mean, don't you know?
Butterflies all having fun.
You know what I mean.
Sleep in peace when day is done.
That's what I mean.
Its a new day.
Its a new world.
Its a bold world.
For me.
And I'm feeling good.

(Excerpt from Feeling Good, Leslie Bricusse)

here's a link to some more work going on at columbia in nyc

it's the blog they've been keeping for an introductory to digital fabrication studio offered their now. they're investigating some of the same issues as microcosm.

intro to digi fab

Some interesting work on building blog.."Sand/Stone"

"One of the most interesting aspects of the project, I think, is that this solidified dunescape is created through a particularly novel form of "sustainable construction" – that is, through a kind of infection of the earth. In other words, Larsson has proposed using bacillus pasteurii, a "microorganism, readily available in marshes and wetlands, [that] solidifies loose sand into sandstone," he explains. "

More Photos: 2009 Open House

More Photos on the T: drive.

The Comfort of Determinism

"Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster called destiny."
Thomas Hobbes

Microcosm Open House