Diagrams- Serrated Bridge

Wheres the floor?

If I had a wide angle lens, or a taller stool I could have documented the full effect better...

Diagrams_Fungal Ribbon

Operations

Taxonomy

Connection Types

Wire Nodes

Starting with wire and nerve cells

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Nerve cells are interesting to me, they represent the focal point of many smaller strands. I am inspired by their nodal quality and pursued that trait in the subsequent designs.

The site itself is the jig. The jig works by bolting threaded rod into the landscape and wrapping strands of wire around the threaded rod nodes. The wire in this artifact is very diagrammatic and speaks to the intentions of the design, unfortunately the jig provides infinite variables with no inherent organization.

Organizing

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The jig needed to provide organization to this project, so I tried to extract some from the way it is built. First was to limit the wire attachments ponits to one per 1/2" grid spacing, second was to limit the bridge to two nodes.

The parameters and variability in the more limited system were quickly explored using pantyhose which acts as an array of wires.

Toward the end of this series, the bridge element was added as a variable and explored through sketches and models.

Relating platform to structure

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My first move to relate the platform to the underlying structure was to build the nodes into the platform, physically tying the to systems together.

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Prototype 3 sought to further weave the platform with the wire structure; first by separating the spanning elements from the walking surface and second by connecting the walking surface to the wires directly.

Adding Details

The jump for prototype 3 to the final was small, it kept generally the same elements and form while expanding on the connections and detailing.

The truss connector on the bridge now show itself on the platform, acting as the structure for the handrails.

Diagrams

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One cool link.....a must see:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/09/living-growing-architecture.html

if only we saw this three weeks ago.

And oh, they are real bridges too......

Dead Cactus Bridge

Initial Prototypes

My inspiration for this project was dried cactus skin. From an engineering standpoint, cactus skin has the most strength per the amount of material used compared to other natural structures. I think this bridge captures that fact quite well. The hardest part of this project was figuring out how to create a 3 dimensional structure that would span full distance of the gorge.

Bridge over troubled model

There are a lot of photos that I want to post, but I had to edit a bit, so here are the key ones. I looked at plastic tubing as a tensile structure. Starting with tree bark as an inspiration I cut the plastic tubing to create slits that allowed it to expand when pulled. The vertical dowel is both a part of the jig for mass production and a part of the structure. It holds the tube tight when it is cut and also secures the tube to the jig. Once the plastic tubing is cut, I fixed the top of the tubing to the top of the dowel. Now the variable becomes at what increment that bottom of the plastic tube attaches to the dowel.

I HATE BLOGGER!!!!

class discussion....02 March

It was pretty interesting when Zaha mentioned Architecture as a reflection of the momentum created by society. That idea explains her solution for the BMW factory expansion...
It is as if it Architecture is an abstract representation of human beings and the activities in which we are engaged.

To the contrary, I can remember when my arch 100 professor said how "architects influence society, " such as: the power behind 'going green.' Well, they talked about that for the first couple of years even; stressing that we have some sort of power that will effect the way people act and interact in this world.

Guess I never did believe that one......that we can somehow control people to behave in a certain way.

Any takers on the idea that Architecture is an art form?
Something more along the line that what we choose to design is a representation of contrasted to a directional movement ?

I'm curious, what do you think about when working through and making decisions during the iteration process?

Thanks for the reminder on these photos.....
Since we are so close to the completing final project, I figured these images would be perfect.

Just a few photos (from around 80 or so) of my floor plate going together.

note the one at the end...

With a shapes like these, just imagine.....

just one more, to add to the mystery.

More to come in a couple of days after we finish on Thursday.

Surface vs Structure

Do you think scripting can be a tool for structural innovation or just for surface articulation? Any real life constructed examples?

With regard to scripting, I talk about this in Feedback Loop in the chapter Refutation of Arguments against Scripting. This discussion occurs in the section on the Argument from Decorative Effects. However, I think there is a larger question here, which goes beyond scripting: Is contemporary experimental architecture overly concerned with the production of surfaces and surface effects, rather than with structure? Below are some thoughts on this larger question.

How can designers accentuate surface? In what state does the surface aspect of architecture dominate? Surface dominates when architecture contains large expanses of smooth, continuous, opaque areas, whether flat or curved. The typical painted drywall surface (wall, ceiling) is a common example. This is surface accentuated to an extreme. It reduces the experience of wall or ceiling to a thin plane devoid of depth and materiality, and with no way to perceive its structural anatomy or thickness. In a typical drywall house, structure is seen nowhere, and instead, everywhere is pure surface planes. Much Modern architecture accentuates surface. Consider the Barcelona Pavilion: an environment of free-slipping, pristinely smooth surfaces with a negated sense of structure. Or consider the typical curtainwall enclosure: conceived of as a taut, flat, continuous “skin” stretched over a largely hidden structural framework. Post-Modern architecture aggressively sought to detach surface from structure. The surface was conceived of as an impenetrable or distorting veil. Consider Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall or Experience Music Museum, in which there is no intelligible relationship between visible surface and underlying structure. Seeing the surface tells you nothing about what lies beneath. (In his more recent projects such as the Chicago park pavilion, Gehry reveals the structure that holds up the surface, but they remain two completely incongruous sub-systems.)

Despite the widespread efforts to make surface architecture in previous decades, and despite the fact that conservative mainstream designers continue to perpetuate surface architecture today through the conventional curtainwall, these opponents of experimental work like to accuse experimental designers of a surface bias. This is nothing but a smear tactic, since in fact, the trend in current experimental work is to reject surface architecture. This is one way contemporary work breaks with the Modern and Post-Modern past. So rather than have a surface bias, experimental designers today tend to have a strong bias against the surface. Instead, they seek to accentuate structure.

Consider the many recent studies for interior systems: partition systems and ceiling systems. They share a goal: to structuralize the smooth, continuous surface, breaking it down and converting it into a highly articulated structure. When a wall or ceiling gets componentized, and when the joinery between components is articulated, and when the components are given overt materiality, and when, due to this materiality, they have visible thickness and weight, then what was once a thin, intangible surface becomes a deep, tectonic, corporeal entity (i.e., a structure). Experimental designers today have such a strong aversion to the pristine, detached surface that they have devoted significant research to figuring out how to treat every surface as a structure, even in those places where plain surfaces have historically been taken for granted, as in non-structural interior systems. The articulated surface is the structuralized surface. In this work no surface is allowed to remain a surface. Everything is treated as structure.

This renewed love of structure, which is an outgrowth of the renewed love of Nature as a model for architecture, can be seen everywhere in experimental work, at every scale, not just interior partition systems. Consider the Caltrans Headquarters by Morphosis. A taut curtainwall “skin” covers one side of the building, but at its lower edge the “skin” metaphorically unravels, buckling into a folded plate roof structure at ground level to cover a public plaza and bus terminal. Banal surface mutates into complex, multifunctional structure. In this new way of thinking, even when surface remains smooth and continuous, it is used structurally. Consider Richard Rogers’ Law Courts in Bordeaux. A series of smooth-surfaced, conical “barrels” hold the courtrooms, and they are covered by a giant-scale smoothly undulating roof surface. Yet these surfaces are actually crucial components in the structural system. They possess conical and undulating curves in order to enhance rigidity and spanning capability. So to the extent smooth surface still exists in experimental work, it is used for its structural capabilities, integrated into a structural system rather than concealing or subverting it. Norman Foster’s undulating curved roof above the British Museum Court is another example. Its curvature is so integral to its structural performance that a parametric system was developed, which automatically recalculated the size of spanning members whenever the curvature was adjusted.

verti-bridge

some of the initial artifacts....................

some images of the bridge as the model has evolved thru the protyping stages.....................