FILEFRONT FILES

GRASSHOPPER AND RHINO ZIP : http://www.gamefront.com/files/20411981/Z3334844_RHINOGRASSHOPPERFILES.zip

IMAGES OF PHYSICAL MODEL

GRASSHOPPER/ILLUSTRATOR LASER CUTTING

These are just my illustrator files of my waffle pieces.


Below is a screen shot of the baked pieces in rhino

GEOMETRY DEVELOPMENT

TEXT - FINAL POSTER

FUNGI

I have developed the idea of my design through the organic shape of FUNGUS.
Fungus is a member of a large group of organisims which include microorganisms such as yeasts and moulds.
After researching about geometry of Organic Architecture, Fungi, “aka” Mushrooms,” I believe has the geometry of providing shelter, where some species have a beautiful layered texture, similar to the waffle system. This has given me the result to which I had decided that using the waffle system to build my geometry will be the best fitted for my laser cut model.

I had also wanted to use the shape of a mushroom, for its natural curves, in which I had discussed in my previous essay, that curvilinear systems bring a whole different meaning to the traditional rectilinear designs of architecture, through the meaning of Organic Architecture. Organic Architecture bring together the human habitation and the natural world through design that is so integrated with its site, that buildings, furniture and surroundings become unified into one.

After I had finally found a way to form the geometry of a mushroom, I also wanted to add another piece to the model. A piece in which the model shows a representation of sheltering. Because my shape was very curvy, It was really difficult to intersect my pieces together using grasshopper. I had found that It would not extrude pieces if the design if the shape was presenting very close pieces of geometry. I had Actually formed my final shape through Rhino, lofted and capped the geometry into grasshopper and started to work on –the script from there.
For my 12 iterations, I had mainly changed the amount of struts in the mushroom waffle, where the more struts, provided more shelter, and the less struts, provided less shelter. I found that the more struts had a better effect in my geometry, where it looked more of a fuller mushroom, and displayed the layers of patterns some mushrooms may have.
For the site, I had chosen to place my model in “The toaster.”
The reason why I had chosen this site was because the “Opera House” also originates near this area. The Opera house is also a great piece of Organic Architecture, which blended in with the natural skirts of the city. I had wanted to place my model looking out towards the water, as if it was growing and living near the waters edge, and “The toaster” is the perfect location.

FINAL POSTER

Here I have developed my final poster. I did not want to crowd the poster with an overwhelming background, as said in my draft poster. Chose a plain black background to contrast with the colours and each of my iterations. Amongst the iterations are also the wireframe renders of the city found from the 3ds file given to the students.

Photomontage

The site I had chosen to build my model is the "Toaster". I took the 3ds model of our city and photomontaged my model into the site it belongs to, to have a feel in the scale and its shelter. This will be part of my poster.

DRAFT POSTER

In my draft poster, I want to have quite a plain background to accentuate all my 12 iterations, where my best renders will be scaled a bigger size, and some smaller renders placed around near the bottom.

12 ITERATIONS

The below script is the waffle tutorial I had followed from digital toolbox on youtube which is found on my previous blog.
Their are two main pieces in my model, so therefore I have two geometries, with the same script which do the same thing by waffling.
I have circled the bigger geometry in the red circle, and the smaller geometry is circled in orange.

Below are my iterations I have made by moving around the distance of the sliders which activate how many struts is needed to make my model.
As you can see in the picture below, i was testing out how the geometry will shelter with less struts. The bigger geometry has less struts, where the smaller one has around 20 struts each direction.

Below is a snapshot of the bigger geometry this time with more struts each way.

This picture below demonstrates the gaps when their are less struts to form the geometry


The picture below demonstrates the struts that form the bigger geometry but only in one direction





Below are renders, where I had played around with the thickness of the struts

GRASSHOPPER TUTORIALS

First of all, I had drew up some shapes in rhino and decided to play around with the form of it.
I had used the lines in rhino, and lofted them up to get a geometry in Grasshopper as shown above. The rest of my script I had found a waffle system tutorial, so instead of using Jeremys file, I wanted to see if I could do this one. It is a great tutorial over all, but towards the last few videos, it did not work with my geometry. This is where Jeremy had helped me out.


So below are the tutorials I had found to waffle a basic shape like a sphere.

CHOSEN THEME

The theme I had chosen for my design is MUSHROOMS.

As I was playing around with geometry in grasshopper, I ended up creating a shape similar to a shape of a mushroom. I then thought this was a great idea, for mushrooms are very organic and curvilinear, and also have a shape of shelter.


As I continue to look at the mushroom form and its patterns, I realised it has a type of waffle like system I would be able to use to process my model for laser cutting.

I like the way that they all hurdle and bunch up together like an umbrella sheltering a person.
It gave me an idea of creating a mushroom type building in the pattern of a waffle representing its repetitive layers.

SOURCES OF IDEAS

SHELL FORMS

As we looked through slides in the lecture of examples of laser cut models, The shell caught my attention straight away. All I could think of was using the waffle system to form the outside curves all around a spiral to get it looking something like the above photo.
I had used the sin function to create a spiral through grasshopper, managed the spiral, but the outer curves I just could not figure out.


I then attempted to try out something like the picture above, but something a bit more hollow.. the same thing happened and I just could not figure out how to do it.
I chose the shell form though because the natural shape of a shell is very curved, and spiraled, which is a great system of curvilinear geometry to form a model so organic.
I had decided not to choose the shell in the end.

IMAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS

My favourite Architect, and one of my favourite of his : Bart Prince, The Price House, Corona Del Mar, California, USA

Neil M. Denari Architects, Extension to the Alan Voo house, Los Angeles, USA.
Bart Prince, The Price House, Corona Del Mar, California, USA

SOURCES ON ASPECTS OF DESIGN, AND COMPLEX GEOMETRY

21^st Century Design – New Design icons from mass market to avant-garde. Marcus Fairs. Foreword by Marcel wanders.

2006. Published by Carlton Books Limited 2009

The design in architecture has changed over the years dramatically. It is the most visible of all designs and has left the rectilinear type of style of twentieth-century Modernism and is more of an ongoing plastic approach to form-making that has produced buildings that resemble blobs, gherkins or clouds.

The use of advanced computers and technologies has helped dramatically to design and build these radical forms that would have been too difficult a few years ago.

Architecture . Geoffrey Makstutis. Published in 2010 by Laurence King Publishing in Association with Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Published in 2010 b Laurence King Publishing in Association with Central Saint Martins College of Art & design.

With Discussing the design of a project, architects will often refer to the concept. This is a term they use from science and it refers to an abstract idea, which is in turn associated with a representation of the idea. As concepts are the main reason of meaning, they are used in design to drive the decision making process. If the design is to maintain its relationship with the concept, then the design decisions must make logical sense in relation to that concept. Architects use concepts in order to attempt to bring other disciplines, influences or methods into their design process.

COMPLEX GEOMETRY

Buildings For tomorrow, Architecture that changed our world – Thames & Hudson, Paul Cattermole. Published in the United Kingdom in 2006 by Thames & Hudson LTD.

Nature is clearly a source of perpetual inspiration, capable of being interpreted into remarkable slender concrete columns and swooping shells, a guiding force that can be either adapted, or absorbed, but very rarely ignored. Complex geometry is figured out through engineering achievements, feeding them back into the built environment with houses that perform like jet engines or take on the form of vast mathematical models.