Architecture Design Studio: Air

Bart B

Paulina Pytka637869

Case Study 1.0

Use of tension to obtain more from less.

Plasticity and lightweight of lycra allows for efficient digital fabrication.

Unresolved shape until assemlby in atrium space of Customs House Sydney

Result not unlike a spider’s web or coral reef in the way that it responds to gravity, tension and growth.

Maximum space definition with minimal use of material.

Material treated as a design parameter on its own.

Focus on the properties, size and limitations of timber.

Members subject to bending stress analysis concerning wood grain orientation and density.

Members bent along the geodesic lines of a relaxed surface in parametric model.

Focus on filling voids and creating boundaries.

Irregular doubly curved vaults modeled parametrically and unrolled into developable strips to facilitate assembly.

Irregularity of cells explained by an interdependent relationship where each has a boundary responds to its neighbours’.

Highly adaptable and able to multiply to grow as a cell group to fill any given space.

Green Void Gridshell Volta Dom

2

Gridshell definition

3

Each of these series explores a different combination of three starting curves with variations in their division and subsequent offsetting of arcs to better articulate their gridshell form.

Series 1 is the original grid shell.

Series 2 is an alteration of the original to create a stronger sense of enclosure.

Series 3 attempts to create a 3D gridwall.

Series 4 attempts to employ the gridshell definition to create an effect of twisting and subsequently smoothing what would otherwise have been a more geometric, square based form.

Series

Lofted forms

Site satellite view

4

Site boundary

Site plan

5

Residential areas

School

PlaygroundVegetation

Water

Vent

Pit

Legend

Drainage

Path

N

1

2

3

1

2

3

Site model

6

1. A collective spaceBordered by a series of paths as well as being adjacent to areas of high human activity offer the site the potential to be a collective space.

2. Providing directionFollowing the natural valley in the topography, one arrives at a clearing at the edge of Merri Creek. This is an opportunity to define a view as well as guide the viewer towards it in space.

3. Engaging with a natural systemThe topography of the site suggests that it facilitates the drainage of the park. This presents the opportunity to not only shed light on the otherwise overlooked process but also engage with it.

4. Addressing a visual obstructionA sewage vent located at the centre of the open side may, through its incorporation into the design project, be better concealed to shift focus to natural features of the site.

Situation of design

7

Addressing the valley by designing a geometry that reflects it in space and alludes to its greater significance in the natural environment.

Extrusion of topography

Case Study 2.0

8

Open-lattice structure.

Form, volume and structure of the tower are the result of connecting two ellipses, one at ground level and another at a horizontal plane at 450m Each ellipse is divided into 1100 nodes with1100 bracing pieces spanning their distance, along which another 1100 rings are distributed.

A central twist tightens the form and densifies the material.

Canton TowerInterpolating a curve from points, then bending and mirroring it about a plane.

Dividing curves into points with assigned polygonal (triangular) shape and lofting.

Creating a line at the origin of rotating and mirroring plane and dividing it.

Series of circles obtained and lofted with triangular section.

Relocation of points from which original curve was interpolated to obtain hourglass figure.

Size of curves adjusted according to distance between points on origin line of plane and curve subject to translation.

Relocation of points from which original curve was interpolated to obtain union at point

Technique development

9

Specifying 3 curves that are interpolated from points down the valley’s contours.

Employing gridshell definition to find the shortest possible connections for the three curves.

Woven surface result that defines maximum space with minimal use of materials.

Creating curvature that will sit inside the valley to emphasise its form.

Employing Canton tower rotation definition to define space while maintaining openness and minimal use of materials.

Changing the number of steps of rotation to achieve an open versus closed lattice structure.

Changing the plane orientation of mirroring to create different geometries and consider how they would sit on the site.

Prototyping

10

Exploring underlying principles of definition by creative a pipe cleaner curve, copying it and rotating it.

Mirror image created by reversing bending process of original curve, then also rotated.

By regularly intermingling the two complex geometries are obtained.

Looking at methods of assembly for a series of uniform cardboard

curves.

Small incisions corresponding to the thickness of each member

were made in a base plate..

Prototyping [continued]

11

Further exploration into the form of the shell structure.

Selecting an outcome and separating its grouping in rhino, then translating the information into a physical model.

Proposal

12

The proposed system consists of an extrusion of the valley topography, framed by the gridshell geometry resting on the existing vent.

This represents the interaction of the landscape, the hydrological system and the human system that have a combined influence on Merri Creek.

ReferencesArch2o.com,. 2015. http://www.arch2o.com/voltadom-by-skylar-tibbits-skylar-tibbits/.

ArchDaily,. 2010. 'Canton Tower / Information Based Architecture'. http://www.archdaily.com/ 89849/canton-tower-information-based-architecture/.

Designplaygrounds,. 2011. 'Voltadom By Skylar Tibbits - Designplaygrounds'. http:// designplaygrounds.com/deviants/voltadom-by-skylar-tibbits/.

L-a-v-a.net,. 2015. 'Green Void » LAVA'. http://www.l-a-v-a.net/projects/green-void/.

Matsysdesign.com,. 2015. 'SG2012 Gridshell « MATSYS'. http://matsysdesign.com/category/ projects/sg2012-gridshell/.

Smartgeometry.org,. 2015. 'Sg2012 Clusters'. http://smartgeometry.org/index.php? option=com_content&view=ar ticle&id=143&Itemid=149.

Smartgeometry.org,. 2015. 'Gridshell Digital Tectonics'. http://smartgeometry.org/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=134:gridshell-digital-tectonics&catid=44. form.