Chhen Henry 586676 Part A, B and C

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ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO AIRSEMESTER 1 2014

HENRY CHHEN 586676

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INTRODUCTIONHenry Chhen

Gday, I’m a third year architecture student studying at the University of Mel-bourne. Love studying here. Beautiful city, great building, and the people are unbelievably friendly.

The reason I chose to study architecture is due to lego. As a child I loved playing with lego, and often I would try to create the biggest thing possible. Now all grown up, I still have that burning desire for big, and the biggest thing that can be made are obviously buildings.

Aside from fulfilling an egotistic desire, I also dream of building my own house. A house that serves my needs and reflect my characteristics. And to have something to point to and say to my friends and family, ‘I built that’. Once I achieve that, life would be good.

I am looking forward to studying Studio Air. I heard a lot about the great uses of grasshopper, so I can’t want to test it out and create something mind bogging complex. With computers being one of my main hobbies, the subject is right up my ally. I love playing with Rhino, but I am rather bounded by the skills I have, thus can mainly create rather simple objects. Hopefully once I learn grasshopper, the chains will break.

Enjoy your read.

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CONTENTSPART A: CONCEPTUALIZATIONA.1 DESIGNING FUTURE

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION

A.3 COMPOSITION/ GENERATION

A.4 CONCLUSION

A.5 LEARNING OUTCOMES

A.6 APPENDIX - ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

PART B: CRITERIA DESIGNNTION B.1 RESEARCH FIELD

B.2 CASE STUDY

B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0

B.4 TECHNIQUE: DEVELOPMENT

B.5 TECHNIQUE PROTOTYPE

B.6 APPENDIX - ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

B.7 LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

B.8 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

PART B: CRITERIA DESIGNNTION B.1 RESEARCH FIELD

B.2 CASE STUDY

B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0


B.5 TECHNIQUE PROTOTYPE

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PAST COMPETITION ENTRY ART WIND ENERGY UNIT: ANA PALLARES & JONATHAN RULE

For the 2012 Land Art Generator initiative, participants were asked to create an art installation for Freshkills Park in New York City. The art installation not only had to be aesthetically pleasing, but also had to serve a functional means of producing either green renewable energy or resources. Therefore the design must not have any CO2 emissions, and have the capability of storing or transmit-ting the energy/ resources it creates.

From the list of the 2012 applications, the Art Wind Energy Unit was chosen to be reviewed, as it presented to be the most realistic and reasonable choice. It’s design was not over dramatic, and it prosed functional reasoning to how it generated energy, as opposed to its fellow rivals.

Firstly, the Art Wind Energy Unit generate energy through the means of both wind and solar energy. Through the en-velope, ‘the conical form and open slits concentrate the wind, increasing wind speed of up to 1.4x allowing for more energy to be generated’1.

Inside that form are a series of VAWT wind spire wind tur-bines. Chosen for their light weight design, silent nature, and ability to be grouped, these turbines generate energy from the redirected wind imposed by the conical form.

The envelope acts as a physical barrier, preventing wild-life from entering, and also serves as a means of hosting solar ivy. From these solar ivy, addition energy is generate as the sun is cast onto the installation, whilst at the same time, providing shade for the users. With both wind and sun energy, the AWE is able to generate 29,000 kWh/year

The unit seems to compliment well with the site, but the only concern is that since captures wind, wouldn’t the wind is disruptive to the users who are using the unit as shade? And since it focuses wind thorugh a narrow tunnel, would be it nosiy? Therefore this unit may actually be disuptive to teh site.

1 ANA PALLARES, JONATHAN RULE, Art Wind Energy Unit (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/AWE42016/> [accessed 8 March 2014].

Fig 1: 3D diagram of the Art Wind Energy Unit

Fig 2: Simple diagrams showing how it collects energy and the trans-fer of loads

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Fig 3: The unit in its scenery

Fig 4: Plan views 7

Consist of 3 circuits of photo biore-actors, which are 3 circuits placed in a labyrinth manner around the park. The justification behind having 3 main circuit pipes is to allow the con-trolling and testing of various algae types, and condition of environment to maximise algae growth

In addition to serving as a host for the algae growth, the pipes also have

an interactive mean. People can sit or walk between the pipes, and the children can use the pipes as play-ground equipment.

At night, led are used to light up the pipes. Due to a large range of fac-tors such as algae types, growth stage and density, it produces a wide spectrum of green colours within the pipes, causing a rather spectacular

and inserting night display.

Resources for algae growth are tak-en from local sources. Water is taken from nearby lakes and rivers. C02 is extracted from the local landfill, and waste water which contains the nu-trients for algae growth, is taken from local buildings1. By recycling these by-products of local structures, the growth of algae seems highly justifi-

PAST COMPETITION ENTRYBIO REACTIONS: JOAQUIN IPRINCE LOPEZ

Fig 5: Bio reactions

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able as it takes all waste, and con-verts it into fuel for other sources.

The project has done great research in looking for the optimal algae spe-cies, and finding ways to provided it, but sadly made a design that lacked in design. It simple looks like a com-plex system of pipes in which people pass through. It doesn’t look appeal-ing at all, nor does it seem to convey

a strong message about using algae as green fuel.

There’s nothing really interactive and unique about these piping arrange-ments, thus might not be greatly ap-preciated by the user.

Personally, this design seems to be a waste of space. With such a large area, they should have divided lay-

outs that took advantage of the big space, exposing more algae to the sun, thus more algae being pro-duced. One design feature that could be considered is perhaps a algae green roof that grows algae, used as a shel-ter, and the light going through might get a light green hue, thus making the space more interesting.

1 JOAQUIN LOPEZ, BIO REACTIONS (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/biogrid1/> [accessed 11 March 2014].

Fig 6: Bio reactions

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Fig 7: Side view

Fig 8: Top view

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This design re purpose abandoned viaduct into green energy generating bridges. Using the space below the viaduct, large amounts of wind turbines are added un-derneath the structure, to generate energy as the wind passes through,

Looking very futuristic and sleek, it was purposed by the design team that 26 wind turbines can be added, which can produce a total of 36 million kilowatts of energy a year1. Solar cells will be installed on top to produce an additional 11.2 million kw/h2.

In addition, the large space will also serve as a commu-nal ground. Parks, promenade and greenhouses are in-stalled on top, serving as a resting pit stop for the drivers, and be used as a farmers market.

While the design looks very cool and slick, it does not have a very practical use. It is the sort of design where only the looks and ideas were considered, but the practi-calities were ignored. For instance, the wind turbines are fixed in their position thus cannot attain wind from other directions.

Secondly, adding wind turbines increases the lateral loads imposed on the bridge, as the turbines resist the wind pushing it in order to generate power. The design shows no form of lateral support to resist these forces. It only has long columns, hence the bridge is has a high probably to falling down under medium to high wind. The designers did not address this problem

Lastly, holding public spaces on the bridge is not an area of attraction. People will not simply drive to a busy bridge to go to the market. Making it a rest stop seems under-standable, but it cannot serve as a market.

PRECEDENTWIND TURBINE BRIDGE: FRANCESCO COLAROSSI, GIOVANNA SARACINO AND LUISA SARACINO

1 Lori Zimmer, Wind Turbine Bridge Transforms Italian Viaduct Into Public Space (2011) <http://inhabitat.com/solar-wind-turbine-bridge-repurposes-viaduct-for-public-space/> [accessed 11 March 2014].2 Ibid.

Fig 9: Turbine close up

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Fig 10: The BIQ

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PRECEDENTBIQ: ARUP, SSC STRATEGIC SCIENCE CONSULTANTS AND SPLITTERWERK ARCHITECTS

The BIQ is a carbon neutral apartment, and is the world’s first building to have a bioreactor facade. Not only does the facade serve as shade, insulation and sound insula-tion, but is used to generate algae growth.

To grow algae, the facades consist of an arrangement of hollow rectangular panels, which hold water. CO2 and nutrients are regular pumped into the panels, and the water warmed to optimal temperatures by the sun. Hence with the perfect breeding habit, the algae rap-idly grows in the panels, and once it reaches the opti-mal mass, it gets collected, converted to biomass, and then used to generate electricity for the building. The usage of algae as the source of power is what gives this building the title of being carbon neutral. Aside from serving as the breeding ground for algae, the warm waters from the panels are also use to warm up the hot water system of the building, or cached in the ground using borehole heat exchangers1. CO2 is extracted from the flue gas, which overall reduces the CO2 emissions from the building2. Therefore, aside from nutrients, the building itself can sustain algae growth.

This building is a true inspiration. Aside from the provision of nutrients, it is nearly self supporting. For this assign-ments, we can perhaps design an housing estate/ apart-ments that follow the same principles in regards to the facade. However we can take in the extra step by using the water from the nearby river or the waste water, to pro-vide the nutrients, thus becoming entirely self sustaining. With this, the building can be appreciated for not only its looks, but its proper functionality as well.

In addition the facade does have a few aesthetic appeals to it. With the algae in the glass panel, I imagine it to create a beautiful light green hue when the sun is cast against it. The issue is that the building is too green, and that since it has green walls, the light green light would not be as contrasted as opposed to a white wall. (I would take advantage of the green light rather than hide it)

1 N/A, BIQ (N/A) <http://www.iba-hamburg.de/en/projects/the-building-exhibition-within-the-building-exhibition/smart-material-houses/biq/projekt/biq.html> [accessed 18 March 2014].2 N/A, World’s first algae-based bioreactive facade (2013) <http://gbssmag.com/2013/09/solarleaf/> [accessed 19 March 2014].

Fig 11: Glass wall panels 13

Fig 12:Algae biofuel farm: pipes

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RENEWABLE ENERGYALGAE BIOFUEL

Algae biofuel is an alternative to fossil fuel, using algae as the source of energy. Algae releases CO2 as it burns, but unlike fossil fuel, the CO2 was taken from the atmo-sphere as it grew, thus does not increase/nor decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Algae is extremely flexible as it can grow on various wa-ter sources, fresh water, salt water and even wastewater, with no impact on the water source. In addition, since it is biodegradable, even if there is a spill, it will have no impact on the environment.

The only resources required to grow algae are water, nu-trients and sunlight. The required nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Being said, its best to grow algae in a controlled environment, as growing it out in sea has various effects that could alternate its growth, such

as changing ph levels, temperature, exposure to sun and wave movements.

Algae is the better option to the other biofuel alternatives. It can produce 300 times more oil than crops such as palms or soybeans, and it requires less overall area to grow1. In addition, algae has a harvesting cycle of 1-10 days, and can double its mass in a single day, proving to be far more efficient as opposed to the biofuel alterna-tives2.

1 Tryg J. Lundquist, Production of Algae in Conjunction with Wastewater Treatment (N/A) <http://www.nrel.gov/biomass/pdfs/lundquist.pdf> [accessed 16 March 2014].2 Ibid.

Fig 13:Algae biofuel farm: trough

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Fig 14: The interior of a generator

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RENEWABLE ENERGYMAGNETIC FLUX

It is the fundamental behind majority of generates used to produce energy such as wind turbines, dams and even nuclear power. Magnetic flux refers to a change in a magnetic field, and it is from this change that produces electricity.

When a magnet goes through a wire, it induces its magnetic field onto that wire which produces a cur-rent, referred as an electromagnetic induction. How-ever that field needs to be constantly changing, either in strength or direction or no magnetic field in order to keep producing electricity.

If the magnet remains stationary in front of a wire, it only produces electricity the moment the wire is in the magnetic field. After that no power is produce, as the field isn’t changing, it remains constant.

Therefore the magnet needs to continuously pass through the wire to make power. The faster it passes through the wire, the more electrify it produces. In ad-dition, the greater the strength of the magnetic also means more power.

This is represented by this simple equation

Induced current is proportional to the rate of change of flux.

We see this basic application in application electric power generators. The two basic ways are:

Magnetics are the end of the rotating shaft of the gen-eration. Surround but not touching the magnets, are coils of wires.A coil at the end of the shaft, and this time surround-ed by magnets.

From this, looking at various means of kinetic, gravi-tational or mechanical energy can be used in con-junction with magnetic flux to produce electricity.

http://tlbatkpsby.blogspot.com.au/2013_07_01_archive.html

Fig 15: Simple diagram of an electric generator. The change in flux caused by the rotation of the wire induces current

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Fig 16: Solar trough

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RENEWABLE ENERGYSOLAR HEAT GAIN

1 David Biello, How to Use Solar Energy at Night (2009) <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-use-solar-energy-at-night/> [accessed 14 March 2014].

Fig 17: ivanpah Solar Power Facility 19

Solar heat gain is the collection of heat generated by the sun to produce power. The general way of collecting solar heat is to have an large array of mirrors all reflecting the light to a central point. This central point either contains water or molten salt which heats up and boils, thus spin-ning the turbines and generating electricity.

Molten salt is an energy storage alternate to water. With the heat energy it retains from the sun, the molten salt holds it in for a very long time. This energy storage is extremely beneficial as the retained heat can be used to make power during the night. Thus at daytime, with general solar heat plants, the sun is both used to gener-ate power, and recharge the molten salt to be used at night time. The main requirements of molten salt is that it needs to be heated up to 800 degrees1, which is feasible since the towers (the central point of light focus) from so-lar power factories can reach to over 1000 degrees from the focused light. Sea salt can be used as a substance for molten salt, which is an advantage due to the river being near by.

With solar heat, it does pose two problems. First being that it requires a lot of land to efficiently capture and re-flect the sun to the desirable temperature. Secondly, the focused light can be hazardous to both aeroplanes and birds. Birds found charred to death have be found around the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility.

Considerations need to be taken to account on the de-sign of the mirrors, and how the mirrors track the sun. An automated process needs to be plan that can effectively track the suns direction, and ensure that all mirrors focus their reflections on the central tower.

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Computation is a massive benefactor to the designing world. The tools and flexibility, completely transformed the way we design, how we design, and how we think about design. With computers, designer needs to think more logically and mathematically. With this, they can apply rules to the software program to generate various design idea. Thus as opposed to the tradition means of pen and paper, and physically drawing what the design product looks like, the action can also be mimicked in computation, or designers can apply a series of formulas to generate the same resultant.

What computation bought were designs too complex for our mind to comprehend without aid, and details take would take years to sketch by hand. The bringing of the digital age transcribes the skills bounded by pen and pa-per. With this architecture went beyond designing through composition, and looked into design via generation. It is the creation of design unshackled by limitations held by the world before digitalization.

Aside from a new way of designing, the computer made designing easier. Lines can be drawn straight and precise with ease, mistakes can be quickly removed, alterations added, and various forms of documentations makes com-putation greatly superior to drawings. Drawing lacked the flexibility computation offered.

However with drawback of computation is being over reli-ant on it. Due to the ease of computation drawings skills were left undeveloped, designs were made on the com-puter rather than mentally crafted and some designs lost the appeal of being handmade and human, rather than being artificial. Despite the perks of the computer, peo-ple are degrading in various skills in which the computer compensates for.

Computation increases the range of design objectives with ease. Referred as parametric modelling, this tool uses parameters to create the model. With these param-eters, they are not permanent, thus their variable can be altered, and this alternation will be reflected in the model. For instance, if one of the parameters for scale was one, I can change it to two, which would make the model overall double in size.

Therefore a massive range of models from a singular base can be made with computers. Its as simple as changing one variable, record the alteration, keep/ change the vari-able, apply a new variable, etc, and through thus pro-cess, a final design can be made, based on the various desired alterations made on the base model.

Aside from changing the design, computers can be used to test performances as well. The digitalized model can be process through a large range of stimulation such as sun, wind, earthquakes and testing of dead loads. These virtual tests provide results for how the model may per-form in such situation, giving designers great insight.

Finally computers change architecture in how materials are used. Incorporation with 3d printing systems, com-plex patterns and details can now be made with ease. In the past, architecture was largely limited to the skill of the labour, and the technology they had to craft. An object too complex, cannot be comprehended by past technol-ogy, and cannot be built by hand. Now with 3D printing, despite the complexity, majority of design ideas can be made, and even in a large factory production setting. Thus with this flexibility of 3D printing, design limitations have been greatly reduced.

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION

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COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUESGEA GONZALEZ HOSPITAL FACADE

The façade of this hospital was cre-ated through the use of both Autocad and rhino. Inspired from sea sponges and corals1 , the forms and patterns were first laid out in a 2d manner on Autocad. Once the pattern was at the configuration the architects desired, they then transposed the 2d drawings into Rhino to gener-ate its 3d form. In addition, each of the cells in the façade had its own different and unique configuration,

thus with each unique cell design, Rhino was chosen as it could the complexity and demands of the task.

What makes this façade so interest-ing, is that it neutralizes emissions, retains air toxins and has anti-micro-bial properties. Thus when air pass-es through the façade, the façade cleans it before entering the hospital.The façade is made of a lightweight plastic material called Prosolve

370e, which is coated in titanium dioxide. When the sun light hits the façade, the light excites the elec-trons in the titanium dioxide, which breaks down the nitrogen oxides and other compounds in the air into water and calcium nitrate (an ele-ment found in fertilizers). The buy product is then washed off by the rain or wiped off with a damp cloth. The coat is expected to work for 5-10 years, and then requires a respray.

Fig 18: Gea Hospital Facade

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Aside from cleaning air, the façade also directs light into the building, and slow wind flow to generate tur-bulence which distributes pollutants better across the facades surfacev .

From looking at the design, de-spite being first made in Auto-cad, it looks feasible to do in rhino.

This project may prove inspiring to my work due to its use in captur-

ing wind. The patterns are not just randomly generated. The shape, sizing and form all were carefully considered to created a surface that captured the wind, and gener-ate turbulence within it so that more air passes through its surfaces to be filter. This idea of smart design can be played onto my assignment by designing patterns that serve as both aesthetically pleasing and serves a definite functional purpose.

In addition, the design was ex-tremely logical in terms of consid-ering the weight, making it a light weight structure for ease of construc-tion, and ease of maintenance .

1 Shonquis Moreno, Fighting a Megacity’s Pollution, Mega Style (2013) <http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-technology/fighting-a-megacitys-pollution-with-mega-panels.aspx> [accessed 18 March 2014].2 Ibid.

Fig 19: Pattern close up

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Built to house debates regarding the future of housing, architects Kristoffer Tejlgaard and Benny Jepsen not only designed a building to a serve as a space, but also de-signed the building to be involved with the debate.

The building is of a de-constructed dome. The geodesic dome was chosen as the primary design as it has all the advantage of being rationally and mathematically gen-erated, but it lacked the qualities of good architecture1. Therefore to change it into good architecture, niches, crevices, corners, opening and hiding were added, but done in a way that respected the properties of the dome2. To find these architectural features, the dome was de constructed, and could be split up, scaled or cut among its surfaces to generate these characteristics.

The building relied on a system of nodes in steel, which connected to wood to form a complex lattice structure.

This lattice served as the skeleton of the building, will gave a great range of flexibility towards the design of the structure. The lack of columns meant larger space, there was no need for load bearing walls as everything was supported by the lattice, thus windows and openings could be placed anywhere.

The triangular beams members are clearly the result of using computation design technique. Manually calculat-ing each member by hand is far too time consuming, and has high risk of errors as opposed to using the comput-er. In addition, the architectures were able to alter their model with ease, being capable of editing various points in their design to generate a desire outcome. Thus from this building shows how useful computation is to design.

COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUESTHE PEOPLE’S MEETING DOME: KRISTOFFER TEJLGAARD & BENNY JESPEN

1 N/A, Peoples Meeting Dome / Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen (2012) <http://www.archdaily.com/276056/peoples-meeting-dome-kristoffer-tejlgaard-benny-jepsen/> [accessed 19 March 2014].2 Ibid.

Fig 20: The People’s Meeting Dome 24

Fig 21: Interior

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A.3 COMPOSITION/ GENERATION

Composition refers to the organization of building ele-ments; the placement of rooms, function, space and ma-terials. It was the layout that created the design. In this architectural sense, design through composition is the reuse of pre-existing materials and resources. Comput-erization broke the bonds of the architectures mind. It drove to infinite possibilities unimaginable to the human mind. With computation, humans can design both means of composition and generation.

Generation refers to the actual creation of a design. It is the creation of brand new forms and exploration of al-ready conceived geometry1 , all through the various tech-niques of computing. Rather than draw straight on, the completed outcome in traditional sense, different input and variations2 are applied to a computerized formula to produce the form.

As stated previously, what computation bought were de-signs too complex for our mind to comprehend without aid, and details take would take years to sketch by hand. The bringing of the digital age transcribes the skills bound-ed by pen and paper. With this architecture went beyond designing through composition, and looked into design via generation. It is the creation of design unshackled by limitations held by the world before digitalization.

Computation bought a new way of ‘architectural thinking, that ignore conventions of style or aesthetics altogether in favour of continuous experimentation based on digi-tal generation and transformed of forms that respond to complex context or functional influences, both static and dynamic’.

Algorithmic thinking

‘A finite procedure, written in a fixed vocabulary, governed by precise instructions, moving in dis-crete steps and that sooner or later comes to an end’ -David Berlinski

Algorithmic thinking refers to the mathematical thought process used to produce and comprehend designs through computational aid. It allows ‘designers to work in intuitive and non-deterministic ways’3 . Algorithm itself is a set of instruction written in code to be understood by a computer4 , in which both architects and engineers use ‘for conceptual design and generation of buildings’5 .

Algorithm is the mathematical or logical exchange be-tween the computer and designer, and by understand-ing the maths process, can we understand what is being built in the software, how it is being built, various input we can apply to customise that item, know how to modify the code and to speculate on future design potentials’6 .

Parametric modelling

“Parametric modelling introduces fundamental change: ‘marks’, that is,parts of the design, re-late and change together in a coordinated way”7 -Robert Woodbury Parametric modelling is 3d computer modelling where mathematical principles (parameters) are used to define

1 Branko Kolarevic, Architecture in the Digital Age (UK: Taylor & Francis, 2005), p. 22.2 Ibid. p.17 3 Maria Bessa, ‘Algorithmic Design’, Architecture Design, 79.1, (2009), 120-123 (p. 123).4 Brady Peters, ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architecture Design, 83.2, (2013), 8-15 (p. 10).5 Bessa, 1216 Peters. 107 Daniel Davis, Chapter 2 – The Challenges of Parametric Modelling (2014) <http://www.danieldavis.com/thesis-ch2/> [accessed 23 March 2014].8 Daniel Galorath, What is parametric modeling? (2011) < http://www.galorath.com/index.php/company/books/what-is-parametric-model-ing/> [accessed 23 March 2014].9 Rivka Oxman, Robert Oxman, Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2014), p. 8.

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a 3d object. There parameters are generally dimensions which can affect any of the models characteristics such as features, materials, surface and textures. This plays great flexibility as the change in parameters is reflection upon the change in the model. For instance, parametric modelling can be used to subject ‘in certain situations to the rigors of a pre-defined and proven mathematical model’8. Therefore models can be stimulated to various desired testing, making the testing of design easier.

Parametric modelling is best seen in the work of Micheal Hansmeyer. Micheal Hansmeyer is a digital architecture who creates impossibly complex but buildable objects through the means of parametric modelling.In his work, mesh grammars, he demonstrates the complex-ity and power of parametric modelling. Using a simple and primitive dome as the supporting base, Hansmeyer continu-ously folds the domes, altering the parameters and condi-tions to create a large array of unique geometric shapes.

Each shape is unique as it has it own parameters adjusted to it. Through the alteration of folds, and repeating such pro-cess over and over again, the result is remarkably unique due to the repeated pattern of personalized alterations.

Hence this project shows the power of parametric modelling. Despite making a model fold over itself, which is generally a simple step, by doing this a thousand and more times, crafts a incredibly complex object. And complexity isn’t a issue towards it construction, due to the 3D printing, Hansmeyer was able to produce some of his work such as his columns.

Fig 22: Samples of Hansmeyer’s domesIts incredible to think that these beautiful, and highly complex objects

were made from the same simple action repeated a thousand and more times. If such beauty can arise from a rather insignificant action, perhaps

we also process the capability to doing such as well in Grasshopper.

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Scripting culture

Scripting is essentially writing an advance computer language to create a certain program, or a mod to pre-existing soft wares to generated desirable customizable outcomes. The customizing effect is greatly desired for designers but it requires learning a programming lan-guage, and these languages play part in algorithmic thinking.

With scripting, it allows designers to generate programs or extensions, that either didn’t previously exist, strings together multiple actions to make the process faster, or handle task outside the main programs protocol. Hence scripting is useful to a designer, as the designer essen-tially creates a personalized tool to help with his produc-tion.

Scripting is best described by Oxman as:

‘The growing capability for scripting the al-gorithms of a mediated variability that can be selectively studied for performative behaviors such as energy and structural performance pro-vided a new creative professional profile’1 .

Herzog & de Meuron

Herog & de Meuron is an architectural firm that embraces the scripting culture, using it side by side with their work. Scripting is a significant part to the firm as it allows them to ‘find the right tool, and develop the tool to make the concept work’2. As scripting and other program is a highly

skilled computer task, the firm has it’s own digital team, called The Digital Technology Group, which specializes in computer-aided design (CAD) management, build-ing information modelling (BIM), parametric design and scripting,visualization and video, and digital fabrication3.

By having it’s own computer specialized team, the ar-chitects can use them to help create custom tools and scripts for particular jobs. The Digital Technology Group consults with the designing team, to ‘grasp the idea the office’s designers are trying to develop and then write a specific tool for it’4. Doing do ensures that the tools are right for the job, and is made so that the designers them-selves can easily understand and use5.

Another perk of the Digital Technology Group is the various stimulations they can create to test the designs. ‘When considering aspects of performance in the ar-chitectural design process, feedback from engineering consultants is sometimes slow, and there is a need for feedback that is quicker and simpler’6. Thus the group creates tools for the architects to stimulate the results themselves, thus allowing the architects to react much faster to design iterations7.

From this it shows the perks of understanding script-ing and employing its uses in design. With Herzog & de Meuron, they have their own specialized computer team, which craft custom tools and scripts for the designers to use in response to various design requirements. In addi-tion these tools are crafted for that particular need, and to the user, making it easier for the architect to understand and use.

1 Rivka Oxman, Robert Oxman, Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2014), p. 8.2 Brady Peters, ‘Realising the Architectural Idea: Computational Design at Herzog & De Meuronmputational Design National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 56-61 (p.58)3 Ibid. p.594 Ibid. p.595 Ibid. p.596 Ibid. p.607 Ibid. p.61

SCRIPTING CULTUREHERZOG & DE MEURON

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Fig 23: The facade was generated by a program built by the Digital Technology Group. Randomization was used to make the initial design, which was later improved upon.

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Fig 24: The National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters

Fig 25: Top View

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GENERATIVE APPROACHESTHE NATIONAL BANK OF KUWAIT HEADQUARTERS: FOSTER + PARTNERS

1 Dusanka Popovska, ‘Integrated Computational Design National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 34-35 (p. 34). 2 Ibid. p.343 Ibid. p.344 Ibid. p.345 Ibid. p.356 Ibid. p.357 Ibid. p.35

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Designed by Foster + Partners, the National Bank of Ku-wait Headquarters, Kuwait City, is a prime example of a building designed through parametric modelling. With Foster + Partners specialist modelling group (SMG) be-ing involved in the early designs, they were assigned to develop a parametric model that ‘would integrate different performance parameters and would be able to explore complex geometrical solutions for the building’1. The team used Bentely Systems’ Generative Components as the primary parametric modelling tool2 .

The design was driven by the response to the local cli-mate3 . The tower had shading fins on the eastern and western façade, while the north was opened up to bring in natural light and views4 . This showed that parametric modelling is not only used to form a complex design, but also used to generate a response to the nature.

The primary elements of the geometric shape of the design are the fins, profile of the edge, the cladding be-tween the edge, and the arches that formed the north fa-çade5 . These primary elements formed the overall basic shape of the parametric modelling. Then through exten-sive testing and modification, the final design was drawn through the initial basic shape.

Parametric modelling offered great flexibility to the design team as it allowed various parameters to greatly adjust the overall design. With this, the team generated a great range of building shapes. These shapes were then stimu-lated against environmental factors such as solar, wind and acoustic, rendered and made into physical proto-types. Hence through this continuous testing, simulating and building, the perfect model was built that adhere to the desired design ideas, whilst performing both structur-ally and sustainable.

Parametric modelling also offered flexibility to the engi-neers as well. The model contained full geometric de-scription of the construction build-up of the builds, and also embeds engineering input through linking to data spread sheet6 . In addition, in the model, the section pro-files for the fins were fully adjustable to allow design in-vestigations7 .

This building shows the great importance of parametric modelling. Without parametric modelling, the perfection of the design might not have been conceived. With para-metric modelling and its ability to adjust majority of its pa-rameters, the designers were able to test a vast range of ideas with ease, and furthermore stimulate these designs environmentally and structurally. With each design made, the preferred elements could be recorded and placed in the next design. Thus slowly with idea, and taking in its preferred element and adding it in to the next design, the final design was perfected through this large range of testing. Parametric modelling allowed designers to test and modify their ideas with ease, which is why it is such an important tool for designing today.

Fig 26: The various models produced from alterations made to the parametric model

Fig 27: Sudpark Baufeld

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Sudpark Baufeld by Herzog & de Meuron is another ex-ample of architecture that uses both scripting and para-metric modelling. The design intent of this building is ‘to render the historical character of the differently shaped windows in the Gundeldinger Quarter in a contemporary architectural idiom’1. Aside for making in aesthetically pleasing facade, the windows are designed in such a way to ensure openings for natural light, offer views, and giv-ing niches for storage2.

As stated on Herzog & de Meuron’s website, ‘the façade consists of 12 freely combined window shapes, which fuse into meandering, right-angled windows designed to match the scale and daily activities of human life. At selected places in the building, the façade is extruded inwards, creating sills that can be used, for instance as seating. Casing runs all around the windows on the out-side’3.

To create the random arrangement of the various sized windows, the architects, in conjunction with the CAAD chair at Federal Institute of Technology, used both para-metric modelling4 and scripting. Randomization was first used to generate the initial pattern5, then developing developed, the parameters were altered to created the desired outlook and performance without hindering that randomized look.

For this building, a script was used to help check the data. First the database was produced, collecting information such the sizing, the type, and the amount of particular windows. Rhinoscript was used as the spread sheet for the collected information. In addition, Rhinoscript was also used for production drawings. With these collection of information, a script was made to ‘re-generated a com-plete facade from the production information and spread-

sheets as a way of checking the data’6.

This shows how useful scripting is to the production of design. With their own personalized script, not only was it something they are familiar with, hence everyone in the team and understand and use, but it was used to double check error and of the various facade design made by the parametric modelling. The scripting basically runs with the database it was given, compare it with that of the facade design by the parametric modelling and enure that all the windows are at the right size and position. This makes data checking much easier for auto- correction.

Basically this building demonstrates the ease of scripting and used in conjunction with parametric modelling, can create a building with ease, that fulfils all the requirements. Scripting in this scenario checks if the requirements are fulfilled. Hence with benefactor, scripting seems to be a must for any parametric modelling.

GENERATIVE APPROACHESSUDPARK BAUFELD: HERZOG & DE MEURON

1 N/A, Südpark Baufeld (2012) <https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/201-225/214-suedpark-basel.html2> [accessed 22 March 2014].2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.4 Ibid.5 Brady Peters, ‘Integrated CoRealising the Architectural Idea: Computational Design at Herzog & De Meuronmputational Design Na-tional Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 56-61 (p. 59). 6 Ibid. p.59

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Fig 28: The spreadsheet the script used to regenerate the facade design.

Fig 29: Al Hamra Firdous Tower

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GENERATIVE APPROACHESAL HAMRA FIRDOUS TOWER: SKIDMORE, OWNINGS & MERRILL

This tower was also designed through an algorithmic de-sign process1, but unique in its own sense as the form was developed through a subtractive process, similar to that of ‘chiselling out the parts that are not needed from a block of stone’2. So rather than design the object itself, the architec-tures worked on what to remove, which creates a ‘phenom-enal artefact that has a perpetual dialogue with its missing counterpart’3.

In addition,through parametric studying, the geometry is based on a set of criteria based on the environmental factors such as solar exposure and wind loading4. This makes the tower unique as the design follows only the site conditions. As stated by the project development manager Farid Abou Arraj:

‘The tower responds to its context and cannot be repeated elsewhere’.

For instance, complex environmental software was used to race the path of the sun, and with the results, adjusted the curvature of the wall to match the trajectory5. As a result, the most efficient sunshade through out the day, and through the years.

The rain screen walls and stone panelling followed a refer-ence geometry which was rationalized through a computa-tional process of point clouds and scripting6. The algorithmic approach created a’ rule based framework for a series of in-terconnected and interdependent processes to occur’7.

Fig 31: The 3D rendering allowed the designers/ engineers to see it’s structural constraints.

1 Gary Haney, ‘Al Hamra Firdous Tower - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’, Architecture Design, 79.2, (2009), 38-41 (p. 39). 2 Ibid. p.393 Ibid. p.394 Joann Gonchar, Build it bigger, season 4, episode 2: Kuwait Tower (2011) <http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfo-lio/2012/05/al-hamra-firdous-tower.asp> [accessed 25 March 2014].5 Danny Forster, Build it bigger, season 4, episode 2: Kuwait Tower (2010) <http://www.dannyforster.com/item/bib-s4-e2> [accessed 25 March 2014].6 Gary, p.397 Gary, p.39

Fig 30: Geometry formation diagram. Used to aid in the subtrac-tive process

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CONCLUSION

From looking at the past portfolios of the land art genera-tor initiative, I gained a slight understanding on how to design a structure that could generate various forms of energy.

The Art Wind Energy Unit showed me how its shape can be used to its advantage to funnel in wind and concen-trate it through turbines to produce power. In addition, they showed good justification in the use of materials, and detailed diagrams showing how it works. They pre-sented a realistic argument with evidence to prove their claims, and in conjunction with their diagrams, was a very persuading piece. Hence from this, I want to somewhat mimic what they do. I want to have diagrams as detailed as theirs’ to show the functionality of the design. I want to show a list of materials, with reasoning to why they are used, to show the audience that research has been made, thus there is credibility in the work. And finally I want to show the maths, present how much energy the design can make, again for the justification and because maths is fun.

The other precedent, Bio Reactions, was not as persuad-ing as the first. I choose to study this as I was interested in using algae as bio fuel. The information was great, but the design looked poor and confusing. It seemed to be a maze without correct logic to why each element is placed there.

Many of the designs did seem impractical and were de-signed solely based on looks rather than the production of energy. To me, production of energy is the most im-portant. Designing a space that looks good, but has low gains goes against the idea of sustainability. It essen-tially is wasting space which could have housed a more productive unit.

For computation designed buildings I looked at Gea Gon-zalez Hospital and the peoples’ meeting dome. From looking at these two buildings taught me the realism of

3d modelling to product an actual product. That despite its complex look, it can be both be easily formed on the computer, and installed by hand. The energy I studied is algae, magnetic flux and solar heat. In its simplicity, it was the growth of algae to create biofuel, using kinetic, gravitational or mechanical energy to cause a magnetic flux to make power, and using the heat of the sun to boil water thus making power.

I want to create something that works day and night, and uses multiple energy sources. By having multiple energy sources, production of energy can be continuous. For in-stance, have solar panels for the day, and wind turbines for the night. Also the output of some energy sources can be used as resources for other energy source. For exam-ple, the waste water from collecting algae cause is used to extract hydrogen, to produce hydrogen fuel cells. Thus I want to create multiple energy sources that work with each other, overcome each of its weakness, and can continuously produce energy. So the current Idea I’m thinking of is a solar heat and algae configuration. Solar heat evaporates the water from the nearby river; the evaporation is captured and used to farm algae. The left over salt from the river is collected, concentrated and also exposed to sun. This molten salt then serves as a battery for night-time use.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

The past few weeks were extremely fruitful for me. I learnt so much in particular to the usage of grasshop-per, which has greatly altered how I would generate and produce designs. In the past I was greatly restricted to what I could do on rhino. My skills in Rhino determined what I could design. In order to be realistic and practi-cal, I developed ideas that I could easily create. Ideas that were too complex required too much manual work or too time consuming were simply abandoned. Now with my basic understanding of grasshopper, my boundaries were lifted. For instance, in the past I created simple sur-face patterns, and some instances, even manually input-ted patterns of these surfaces. Now with grasshopper, I can create complex patterns with ease, and have them altered with various input, which cannot be done in Rhino alone. In addition my design mind set has changed as well. Now I can think more mathematically and applies these formulates to a design. In the past I simply crafted the model on Rhino. Now I can input formulas that create those models for me.

With this new knowledge, I could improve the model I made in Virtual Environments. For my model, I used sim-ple rectangular patterns for form and openings. I simply trimmed a rectangular hole, and applied that to the entire surface of the model. Now with this understanding, I could have made a different pattern, perhaps a more complex opening, or even a 3d mesh. My imagination bounded by my experience with Grasshopper.

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ALOGRITHMIC EXPLORATION

For this piece, I wanted to create a interesting surface that had a 3d pattern. So i first made three boxes stacked on top of each other on grasshopper. With the box created, I then made a large curved surface, subdivided the points, and ap-plied the box on top those points. The height of the boxes is dependent on its location along the y axis, and I multiplied these variables to gain a more exag-gerated effect.

Making the boxes was the most interesting aspect. I had fun developing these 3 boxes from using only one curved crafted on rhino. The rest were made entirely on grasshopper. From making the boxes, I learnt about the proprieties of dupli-cation. Initially I used duplication in grasshopper to get two points to loft. What I didn’t know is that duplication holds two same points which cannot be lofted. From this I found out that you can use the past input (before it got changed) and the changed input to loft together, rather than make a copy of the past input that wasn’t used.

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This piece was purely a mistake, but the resultant was great. From doing what I assumed a simple task on grasshopper, I had a general idea of what the end result would look like, but I had a miscal-culation and accidently created a beautiful mess.

My initial plan was to create a simple surface, make contours on it ,project a copy of those contours in the x/y plane and have those two contours loft together. Instead, the contours lofted with itself, and lofted with each other, which made this surprising result.

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For this experiment I decided to combined the things I learnt from the videos transform menu and creating a grid shell. I ideally I wanted to create a grid shell that had long skinny column protru-sion of various heights. So using what I learnt, I made the dome, divide the surface into various surface boxes and used a skinny column as the geometry of the box morph.

The pattern wasn’t what I desired it to be. The columns were short and fat, opposite to what I wanted. So I made the surface be divided into much smaller points, which somewhat fixed the issue to a small extent. This is where I meet the limitation of my desktop computer. When I tried to divide the surface even more, and increase the change in height in the columns, my computer lagged greatly.

Thus I reached the limitation of what my computer can do. It wasn’t want I imagined it to be, but my goal was far too complex to create.

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Ana Pallares, Jonthan Rule, Art Wind Energy Unit (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/AWE42016/> [accessed 8 March 2014].

Brady Peters, ‘Algorithmic Design’, Architecture Design, 83.2, (2013)

Brady Peters, ‘Realising the Architectural Idea: Computational Design at Herzog & De Meuronmputational Design National Bank of Kuwait Head-quarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 56-61 Branko Kolarevic, Architecture in the Digital Age (UK: Taylor & Francis, 2005)

Daniel Davis, Chapter 2 – The Challenges of Parametric Modelling (2014) <http://www.danieldavis.com/thesis-ch2/> [accessed 23 March 2014].

Daniel Galorath, What is parametric modeling? (2011) < http://www.galorath.com/index.php/company/books/what-is-parametric-modeling/> [ac-cessed 23 March 2014].

Danny Forster, Build it bigger, season 4, episode 2: Kuwait Tower (2010) <http://www.dannyforster.com/item/bib-s4-e2> [accessed 25 March 2014].

David Biello, How to Use Solar Energy at Night (2009) <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-use-solar-energy-at-night/> [accessed 14 March 2014].

Dusanka Popovska, ‘Integrated Computational Design National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 34-35

Gary Haney, ‘Al Hamra Firdous Tower - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’, Architecture Design, 79.2, (2009), 38-41

Lori Zimmer, Wind Turbine Bridge Transforms Italian Viaduct Into Public Space (2011) <http://inhabitat.com/solar-wind-turbine-bridge-repurpos-es-viaduct-for-public-space/> [accessed 11 March 2014].

JOAQUIN LOPEZ, BIO REACTIONS (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/biogrid1/> [accessed 11 March 2014].

N/A, Biodiesel in Australia (2013) <http://inhabitat.com/solar-wind-turbine-bridge-repurposes-viaduct-for-public-space/> [accessed 16 March 2014].

N/A, BIQ (N/A) <http://www.iba-hamburg.de/en/projects/the-building-exhibition-within-the-building-exhibition/smart-material-houses/biq/projekt/biq.html> [accessed 18 March 2014].

N/A, Peoples Meeting Dome / Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen (2012) <http://www.archdaily.com/276056/peoples-meeting-dome-kristoffer-tejlgaard-benny-jepsen/> [accessed 19 March 2014].

N/A, Südpark Baufeld (2012) <https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/201-225/214-suedpark-basel.html2> [accessed 22 March 2014].

N/A, World’s first algae-based bioreactive facade (2013) <http://gbssmag.com/2013/09/solarleaf/> [accessed 19 March 2014].

Maria Bessa, ‘Algorithmic Design’, Algorithmic Design, 79.1, (2009), 120-123

Rivka Oxman, Robert Oxman, Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2014)

Shonquis Moreno, Fighting a Megacity’s Pollution, Mega Style (2013) <http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-technology/fighting-a-megaci-tys-pollution-with-mega-panels.aspx> [accessed 18 March 2014].

Tryg J. Lundquist, Production of Algae in Conjunction with Wastewater Treatment (N/A) <http://www.nrel.gov/biomass/pdfs/lundquist.pdf> [ac-cessed 16 March 2014].

BIBLIOGRAPHYText References

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Fig 1 - 4: ANA PALLARES, JONATHAN RULE, Art Wind Energy Unit (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/AWE42016/> [accessed 8 March 2014]

5 - 6: JOAQUIN LOPEZ, BIO REACTIONS (2012) <http://landartgenerator.org/LAGI-2012/biogrid1/> [accessed 11 March 2014].

7 - 9: Lori Zimmer, Wind Turbine Bridge Transforms Italian Viaduct Into Public Space (2011) <http://inhabitat.com/solar-wind-turbine-bridge-repur-poses-viaduct-for-public-space/> [accessed 11 March 2014].

10: N/A, World’s first algae-based bioreactive facade (2013) <http://gbssmag.com/2013/09/solarleaf/> [accessed 19 March 2014].

11: Axel Schies (2013) Fassade BIQ Algenhaus, Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/70267331@N07/8595564221/in/photolist-e6yvM8-e6yvQ2-7Qh-NXH-dTYF5b-e61CU6-95Zyh9-jmCx4c-fwWvt5-8PAf2Z-f1cqKx-f1s4of-f1cMWR-dqe3RJ-8nKCa7-f1s6mE-89LWxZ-e67hv3-e67hw3-8tugau-bAJ9zW-gYjEqE-cDjxw5-cDne7y-8DVkRV-8ppWyc-8ucwE7-8taeBi-8xLhEg-dBu4YY-dy2eWf-jaXfcq-916wrr-czYrnC-bkJrN3-9M8x1a-81Mfzn-aiaedy-8EGVgi-9ToRxt-9ToRtx-9epbXw-9zwKXZ-9zwL1T-h7jFxk-84zAyd-fPJe9x-fQ1L1U-7Cmjwh-mhSPma-cZ5bbG-9YhmKx (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

12: N/A (2009) Algae Biofuel, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/asu-gios/5165237138/ (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

13: N/A (2013) New ISU production facility delivers made-to-order algae, Available at: http://www.news.iastate.edu/media/2013/06/TNHN.jpg (Ac-cessed: 19 March 2014)

14: Shane Gorski (2008) Generator, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shanegorski/2357984096/ (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

15: Sandi Nugroho (N/A) Dasar AC (Alternating Current), Available at: http://tlbatkpsby.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/dasar-ac-alternating-current.html#comment-form (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

16: DiiDesertEnergy (2009) Concentrated Solar Power, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/diidesertenergy/5552605259/ (Accessed: 14 March 2014).

17: BrightSource Energy (2013) 3921_Ivanpah_mingasson, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brightsourceenergy/8721377254/ (Ac-cessed: 14 March 2014).

18: Elegantemebllishments (2012) Gae Hospital , Available at: http://elegantembellishments.tumblr.com/post/33433133362/a-prosolve-de-pollut-ing-facade-is-installed-at (Accessed: 18 March 2014).

19: Shonquis Moreno, Fighting a Megacity’s Pollution, Mega Style (2013) <http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-technology/fighting-a-mega-citys-pollution-with-mega-panels.aspx> [accessed 18 March 2014].

20: Erin Tallman (2014) THE FUTURE OF HOUSING: THE GEODESIC DOM, Available at: http://trends.archiexpo.com/projects/the-future-of-housing-the-geodesic-dome/ (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

21: Cortesía Tejlgaard (N/A) Retrospectiva Glocal | People’s Meeting Dome | Kristoffer Tejlgaard y Benny Jepsen, Available at: http://glocal.mx/diseno/retrospectiva-glocal-peoples-meeting-dome-kristoffer-tejlgaard-y-benny-jepsen/ (Accessed: 19 March 2014).

22: Filip Visnjic (2012) Retrospectiva Glocal | People’s Meeting Dome | Kristoffer Tejlgaard y Benny Jepsen, Available at: Mesh Grammars: Stud-ies for a Dome by Dillenburger & Hansmeyer (Accessed: 23 March 2014).

23: Brady Peters, ‘Realising the Architectural Idea: Computational Design at Herzog & De Meuronmputational Design National Bank ofKuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 56-61 (p.59)

24 - 26: Dusanka Popovska, ‘Integrated Computational Design National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 34-35

27: Aquillar (2012) Sudpark, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94915335@N00/8062981520/ (Accessed: 22 March 2014).

28: Brady Peters, ‘Integrated CoRealising the Architectural Idea: Computational Design at Herzog & De Meuronmputational Design National Bank of Kuwait Headquarters’, Architectural Design, 83.2, (2013), 56-61 (p. 59).

29: Constructivo (2013) Al Hamra Firdous Tower, Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/constructivo/12824377063/ (Accessed: 25 March 2014).

30 - 31: Gary Haney, ‘Al Hamra Firdous Tower - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’, Architecture Design, 79.2, (2009), 38-41 (p. 41).

Images

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PART B

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DESIGN INTENTIONAlgae biofuel is the selected renewable energy source. As quoted by astrophysics Neil Degrass Tyson, photosynthesis is absolute best means of converting light to energy, thus algae is the perfect for tap-ping into this resource.

As mentioned before (in part A), the advantages of algae are: - it is carbon neutral - It is quick and easy to grow - Its grow rate exceeds that of other biofuel plants - The fuel is stored energy, providing flexibility as opposed to pure energy (electricity) - Algae in its entirety can be completely harvested for various means

Resources generated through algae1: - Lipid oil. Through extraction it becomes biodiesel - Carbohydrates. Through fermentation becomes bioethanol - Protein: Cattle feed or plant fertilizer Therefore with algae as our energy source, considerations for our choice on precedents and parametric techniques need to be based on:

1) Ability to house the algae and water 2) Provide maximum surface area for full sun exposure 3) Provide addition spacing for utilities such as pipe works and struc-tural support systems 4) Generate some aesthesis influenced by algae eg: let light pen-etrate through the algae for visitors to experience the green light hue.

ALGAE BIOMASS

1 Dr Ronald Halim, Personal interview, The University of Melbourne, con-ducted 29th April 2014

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Figure 1: Magia En Hydrodictyon, Proyecto Agua, 2009

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T E S S E L L A T I O NTessellation: The arrangement of patterning shapes which fit together with no gaps or overlaps.

From these tessellation principles we found it to be perfect as the mate-rial system for our energy source. With the rule of no gaps in between the patterns provides maximize the surface potential for sun exposure, greatly benefiting algae growth.

Figure 2: Metamorphosis III, M.C. Escher, 2010

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T E S S E L L A T I O N

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Figure 3: Ravensbourne, AZPA, N/A

Figure 4: Detailed window section, Zaynab D. Ziari, 2010

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B.1 RESEARCH FIELDARAVENSBOURNE COLLEGE: FOREIGN OFFICE ARCHITECTS

The following precedents will be examined to understand the variation in tessellation patterns, how the patterns are generated, and the functionality of the pattern. This research analysis will exposed the adaptation and limita-tion of such pattern arrangement.

The Ravensbourne College has a tessellation pattern façade surround the entire building. The pattern shapes are inspired from ‘gothic rose windows and follower pat-terns’1, but is an abstract form of the source rather than an imitation. From analyzing the pattern, there seems to be four various shapes; triangles, rhombus, and two different five sided polygons. With these four different shapes, not only goes the pattern conform to the rule of tessellations, which are no overlays and no gays, but also bring great flexibility of generating window openings.

The size, amount and position of window openings are based on the interior room function and its orientation2. For instance, the north façade has more window open-ings to allow greater amount of light penetration as op-posed to the south façade3. Due to the five shapes and non-periodic tiling nature of the pattern, seven different size windows can be built. In addition, different amounts of windows can be placed without interrupting the pat-tern.

This tessellation shows the strength and flexibility this pattern configuration can bring based on the choice of the geometric shapes chosen for the pattern. As shown in the Ravensbourne College, the choice in the five shapes allow the architects to design seven different sized win-dows, and allows them to have various amounts of win-dow penetration without breaking the rules of the pattern itself.

1 Zaynab Ziari, Ravensbourne College by Foreign Office Architects (2010) <http://www.dezeen.com/2010/09/13/ravensbourne-college-by-foreign-office-architects/> [accessed 1 April 2014].2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

Figure 5: Open House London 2013_Ravensbourne College 3, Benjamin Johnson, 2013

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Figure 6: Voltadom, Sumit Singhal, 2012

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VoltaDom is an art insulation that populates the corridors of two corresponding buildings on the MIT campus. It con-sists of ‘connecting vaults of various sizes, paying hom-age to the vaults we see in great cathedrals’1. The vault is made from a white translucent plastic, and in conjunction with the holes in the center of each vault, brings in a beau-tiful white glow from the interior. On the exterior reflects the shiny surface of the plastic.

The VoltaDom explores the notion of surface paneling in Architecture whilst maintaining the ease of construction. It devises a complex look, due to the numerous amounts of vaults and all in its own unique form, however in ac-tuality is very simple to make. Each vault is essentially a deformed cone with an opening where it apex would be. Therefore its unrolled version would be a simple strip2. This makes mass production of different cones quick and easy to install.

The vaulting pattern of the piece is that of tessellation. Again there are no overlays and gaps between each ele-ment. However what makes it different to tradition tessel-lation is that it does not use shapes that fit perfectly with one another, instead the cones are forced together in a tight space to ensure that there are no gaps, and then the overlaps are trimmed off.

The materials used for this project are plastic and metal bolts. From the metal bolts, it can be assumed that the plastics are highly elastics (wanting to go back to its origi-nal form) when folded to a cone shape, thus require these bots to hold this shape as other substances such as glue and tape are too weak. Therefore consideration must be made in regards to the pattern form itself, and the bonding substance, to be able to withstand forces imposed towards deforming plastic.

B.1 RESEARCH FIELDVOLTADOM: SKYLAR TIBBITS

Figure 7: VoltaDom, Igor Motov, 2011

1 Skylar Tibbits (2011) voltaDom: MIT 2011, Available at: http://www.sjet.us/MIT_VOLTADOM.html (Accessed: 14th April 2014).2 Ibid

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CONICAL

SPHERES

OPEN CONICALLOW HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITY

OPEN CONICALMEDIUM HEIGHTLOW - MEDIUM DENSITY

OPEN CONICALLOW HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITY

OPEN CONICALHIGH HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITY3D POPULATE

CLOSED CONICALMEDIUM HEIGHTLOW DENSITYHIGH OVERLAP

CLOSED SPHERESMEDIUM DENSITY

OPEN SPHERESLOW DENSITY

OPEN SPHERESHIGH DENSITYHIGH OVERLAP

CLOSED SPHERESHIGH DENSITY3D POPULATE

B.2 CASE STUDY 1.030 ITERATIONS

CLOSED LARGE SPHERESLOW DENSITYQUARTER OVERLAP

CLOSED LARGE SPHERESLOW DENSITYLARGE OVERLAP


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OPEN CONICALMEDIUM HEIGHTLOW DENSITYHIGH OVERLAP

OPEN PATTERNED CONICALMEDIUM HEIGHTLOW DENSITY

CLOSED LARGE SPHERESLOW DENSITYSMALL OVERLAP

OPEN SPHERESHIGH DENSITY

OPEN LARGE SPHERESVERY HIGH DENSITYHIGH OVERLAP

OPEN LARGE SPHERESLOW DENSITY


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LOW HEIGHTLOW DENSITY

LOW HEIGHTLOW - MIDDLE DENSITY

VARIOUS HEIGHTSLOW - MIDDLE DENSITYLARGE OVERLAPS

LOW HEIGHTVERY HIGH DENSITY

SPHERE AND CYLINDERLOW HEIGHTLOW DENSITY

SPHERE AND CONELOW HEIGHTLOW DENSITY

CYLINDER AND CONEHIGH HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITYNO OVERLAP

SPHERE AND CONELOW HEIGHTLOW DENSITYNO OVERLAP

DOUBLE CONESLOW HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITY

CYLINDERS

HYBRIDS

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DOUBLE CONESLOW HEIGHTMEDIUM DENSITY

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i

Through creating sequences of geometric variation,we were trying to create a pattern that was highly complex, interesting and extremely different from the original. As encouraged from the tutors, we wanted to make something that pushed the bounds of the algorithm. Thus the major changes we applied was changing the original shape, increasing the population and density, and chang-ing the point population from 2D to 3D.

The patterns created, generally were porus in nature and tightly bounded. There-fore, in terms of architectural features, they can serve as roofs and shades. The holes allow light penetration, and the patterns would serve as the main surface.

These four iterations have been chosen as they satisfy the following five criteria:

1: Conforms to the rules of tesselations2: Can be further developed in grasshopper3: Can be unrolled/ physically produced4: Is different from the original algorithm5: The surface can be used for algae growth

These four iterations are considered to be more successful than the orders as they are quite different to the original mesh produced by the VoltDom grasshop-per definition, and have gone through significant changes in their algorithmic sequences. They also followed the generative computive process, where the designs were not pre conceived. Thus production of the iterations were gener-ated through random testing and alterations with no though on the end products.

In terms of using it for the chosen renewable energy source, the surfaces for each the iteration can be used to house the algae. The holes on top, in particular to the conical shaped patterns allows light to penetrate through, which shines underneath the algae, thus increasing growth rate. In addition, the holes allow services to go through such as pipe works or structural support.

B.2 CASE STUDY 1.0

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Atmospheric tesselation is a temporary light installation exhibited in the streets of Wellington. Built to enhance the urban experience of the pedestrians, the installation has both spatial and aesthetic features1. It can be configured to serve as a space architecturally as well as be con-ceived visually with the usage of motion detecting lights.

Inspired by naturally occurring tesselation such as turtle shells and giraffe skin, the designers wanted to apply a biometric surfaces on a curved geometry2. Thus they used voronoi tesselation to generate a complex surface with an organic array of shapes, similar to plant cells and cellular bone structure3. This is developed with the plug in ‘Grasshopper’, in which the designers created a para-metric script that generate the pattern and allows altera-tions be made towards the geometry4. Another perk to the usage of grasshopper is that the final files used to laser cutting is updated in conjunction to the changes made to the parametric script. Regarded as ‘file to factory’ project,

this live update feed greatly decreased production time of unrolling, and alters when geometries are too complex for it to resolve5.

The skin of the installation is made from high density polyethylene (plastic found in milk jugs) and the frame made from lightweight plywood. These are materials are used in digital fabrication, where the plastic is laser cut, and the wood CNC cut. Afterwards the materials are as-sembled by hand.

With our group’s interest in algae biofuel, we chose this precedent as our case study of reverse engineering as it presented opportunities appropriate for our energy source. As mentioned before the usage of tessellation grants maximum surface area exposure towards the sun. The 3D projections also increases the potential surface area and can also serve as both pods for algae growth and storage. The spacing between the pods, can serve

B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0ATMOSPHERIC TESSELATION: CHRIS KNAPP, MICHAEL PARSON

Figure 8: Atmospheric Tessellation by Chris Knapp, Brendon Doran, 2013

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as the service area for input and output pipes, and also be where the structural framing are located.

In addition, the ease and type of assembly is something we may apply as well. Unrolling the pods and surfaces, and building these separately seems to be the most ef-ficiently and logical way to build these 3D tessellations.

1: N/A (2013) Atmospheric Tessellation, Available at: http://lux.org.nz/atmospheric-tessellation/ (Accessed: 10th April 2014).2: N/A (2013) WGTN LUX 2013: ATMOSPHERIC TESSELLA-TION BY CHRIS KNAPP & MICHAEL PARSON, Available at: http://www.illumni.co/wgtn-lux-2013-atmospheric-tessellation-by-chris-knapp-michael-parson/ (Accessed: 9th April 2014).3: N/A (2013) Atmospheric Tessellation, Available at: http://lux.org.nz/atmospheric-tessellation/ (Accessed: 10th April 2014).4: N/A (2013) WGTN LUX 2013: ATMOSPHERIC TESSELLA-TION BY CHRIS KNAPP & MICHAEL PARSON, Available at: http://www.illumni.co/wgtn-lux-2013-atmospheric-tessellation-by-chris-knapp-michael-parson/ (Accessed: 9th April 2014).5: Ibid

Figure 9: Geometry, Nicole, 2013

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B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0REVERSE ENGINEERING

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

A triangle was first created on rhino to serve as the base. Then with the usage of voronoi, move, scale and loft, the general protrusion

was made

The pattern was applied to a surface using boundary box. However the pattern surface generated was found to be largely deformed and have spacing in between, thus not following the tesselation prin-

ciples.

Triangular was used to gen-erate a grid to tessellating triangles. The issue with us-ing this was that it couldn’t be applied on a 3D surface. In addition the triangles were too perfect, they couldn’t be stretched and compressed as found in the Atmospheric

Tesselation

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STEP 5

STEP 4

The surface was divided into point lists. These point lists were essentially moved con-nect and make the triangles. Whilst the definition looked similar to the precedent, and followed the principles of tes-selation, it was very complex, thus was very slow when al-

tering the parameters.

The lunchbox plugin was discovered and its paneling tool was using to make quick and easy triangle patterns. The definition computed faster than the previous and offered a wider range of flex-ibility in terms of alterations.

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B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0DIAGRAMMATIC STEPS

- CREATE A SURFACE IN RHINO TO SERVE AS THE BASE FOR THE TES-

SELATION

- DIVIDE THE SURFACE INTO TRIAN-GLE PANELS AND SUBDIVIDE THESE PANELS INTO QUADRANGULAR

CELLS

- GENERATE THE CENTRAL POINTS OF EACH CELL, AND SCALE THOSE CELLS USING THOSE CENTRAL POINT AS THE REFERENCE. LOFT THE NORMAL AND SCALED CELLS.

- LOFT THE TOP SCALED CELLS AND BOTTOM SCALED CELLS. FINALISE PATTERN BY PATCHING THE TOP OF

THE CELLS.

- MOVE THE SCALED CELL IN THE DESIRED PROTRUSION DIRECTION

AND SCALE IT AGAIN.

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FINAL RESULTS

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10: Geometry, Nicole, 2013

Figure 11: Pattern close up

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B.3 CASE STUDY 2.0REVERSE ENGINEERING OUTCOME

The final outcome of the reverse engineering project was quite successful. After several attempts of finding the right way to properly divide a surface into triangles to host the 3D protrusions, the solution was within the plug-in Lunchbox. The 3D protrusions themselves were made with voronoi to create the central division, and through a series of scaling, moving and lofting.

The reason the reverse engineering outcome was successful as it; conformed to the rules of tesselation, could be applied to a range of surfaces, and it looked quite similar to the prec-edent as shown on the images to the left.

However the main difference is was that the triangles used for the surface division are right handed triangles as opposed to the equilateral triangles used in the precedent. By using dif-ferent triangle types the protrusions looked different as well. In the precedent, since the base triangles are equilateral, all three protrusions within those triangles were divided evenly, thus had the same appearance and size. As opposed to the reversed engineered outcome, with the triangles being right angled triangles, the protrusion within it were not divided evenly, thus causing different sizes and shapes. In addition to led to a more stretched hexagon pattern of the voronoi spac-ing, in which was a equal triangle in the original precedent.

Now with a satisfied outcome, the next step will generating a outcome that responded to the sun. Having the protrusions face the sun path, and perhaps based on its location will de-termine its sizing. Hence the protrusions will be optimized to accelerate algae growth. Also the form need to be worked out to host these patterns.

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TRIANGULAR SUBDIVIDE

HEXAGON

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 1Z FACTOR : 1PATCH DISABLED

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 1.56Z FACTOR : 1PATCH DISABLED

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1.560BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.162Z FACTOR : 1PATCH DISABLED



TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.241BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.769Z FACTOR : 4PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 24V DIVISION: 25LOFT BY EXTRUDE

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 1Z FACTOR : 1PATCH ENABLED

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 3.400BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.264Z FACTOR : 1PATCH ENABLED




TOP SCALE FACTOR: 2.000BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.908Z FACTOR : 2PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 1V DIVISION: 5


TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1.0BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.7Z FACTOR : 1PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 8V DIVISION: 20PARAMETER (T): 0.8

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 7.0BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 1.3Z FACTOR : 3PATCH DISABLEDU DIVISION: 10V DIVISION: 15PARAMETER (T): 0.9


TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.600BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.869Z FACTOR : 4PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 13V DIVISION: 15PARAMETER (T): 0.1

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.1BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.3Z FACTOR : 2PATCH DISABLEDU DIVISION: 13V DIVISION: 15PARAMETER (T): 0.1 AND 0.3


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TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.6BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 5PATCH DISABLEDU DIVISION: 8V DIVISION: 10PARAMETER (T): 0.75

TOP SCALE FACTOR: -0.6BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 6PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 6V DIVISION: 8PARAMETER (T): 0.75

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CONSTANT QUAD SUBDIVIDE

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 1BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 1Z FACTOR : 1PATCH ENABLED

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.853BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.964Z FACTOR : 6PATCH DISABLEDSUBDIVIDE: 2





TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.795BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.914Z FACTOR : 2PATCH ENABLEDSUBDIVIDE: 2

TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.427BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.583Z FACTOR : 2PATCH ENABLEDSUBDIVIDE: 2

CHANGING DEFINITIONS

TRIANGULAR PANELSTOP SCALE FACTOR: 1.0BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.7Z FACTOR : 2X FACTOR: 6PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 1V DIVISION: 3PARAMETER (T): 0.8

TRIANGULAR PANELSTOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.488BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.846Z FACTOR : 2PATCH DISABLEDU DIVISION: 1V DIVISION: 3

SUBDIVIDE QUADTOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.3BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 7PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 3V DIVISION: 3SKEWED QUADS (T): 0

TRIANGULAR PANELSRevSrf 3: REVERSE UVTOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.3BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 7PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 2V DIVISION: 1SKEWED QUADS (T): 0

TRIANGULAR PANELSTOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.488BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.846Z FACTOR : 2PATCH DISABLEDU DIVISION: 1V DIVISION: 3

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TOP SCALE FACTOR: -0.432BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 2.000Z FACTOR : 8PATCH DISABLED





SUBDIVIDE QUADRevSrf 3: REVERSE UVTOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.8BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 7PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 6V DIVISION: 2SKEWED QUADS (T): 0

SUBDIVIDE QUADRANDOM QUAD PANELS: 1TOP SCALE FACTOR: 0.3BOTTOM SCALE FACTOR: 0.9Z FACTOR : 7PATCH ENABLEDU DIVISION: 2V DIVISION: 1

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Three definitions were created to generate a large variation in pattern generation. The original definition from reverse engineering posed no flexibility in producing large range of patterns. The other two definition stemmed from the original, the only difference is that they both have difference forms of surface divisions, one being hexagon cells, the other triangular panels.

Referring to Kalay’s two search techniques1:

(1) producing candidate solutions or consideration(2) choosing the “right” solution for further consideration and development.

These two points were applied in the evolution of the iterations. For instance, in the ini-tial iteration responses, it was found favorable to have large pods, thus adjustments were made in later iterations that had larger extruding pods. In addition, logically more surface area was exposed when the head of the protrusion was smaller that the base, thus more experiments were made developing more pyramid shaped protrusions.

Adjusted selection criteria for the betterment of algae production:

1: Conforms to the rules of tesselations2: Can be unrolled/ physically produced3: Is different from the original algorithm4: The 3D protrusion are exposed in a sense that further maximizes surface area5: The 3D protrusions can be used as pods to house and grow algae6: Spacing between protrusion is large enough to have pipes or structural support in be-tween7: Is aesthetically pleasing/ interesting


1 Kalay, Yehuda E. (2004). Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), p.18

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Initially the primary criteria for the form was:

1) To be longitudinal from east to west for maximum solar gain2) To be a cave like structure so people can go inside experience the algae light radiance3) Consist of various curves for a more interesting surface

Initial form modelling was made with small pieces of paper. The paper were twisted, curved and bent which then was translated into rhino. With these paper influenced models, the virtual model was further experimen-tation on, adjusting various control points to generate different surfaces. As shown to the left, the small surfaces evolved towards a cave light structure. The idea of developing a separate branching grew. However it was decided to abandon the cave structure criteria, and instead a less enclosed surface was found to be more favorable. This was so that the design was more spacious, and the green hue light wasn’t too concentrated.

With the cave like structure, it was believed that the visitors may experience too much green, as the only light source was those that went through the algae pod. By having a more opened space, outside light can mix in with the interior, thus creating a more balanced appeal.

In the end, this simple twisted surface below was chosen. The simplicity of the form meant that it ease of assembly. The curves served as the interesting fea-ture. It’s extremely open, which was a desired feature found later on in form ex-perimentation, and its rectangular in size. Being rectangle meant the maximum sun exposure to what the site offers, as the site shape itself is rectangular.

Final Form

Form

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B.5 TECHNIQUE PROTOTYPEPAPER MODEL

The building technique for the precedent Atmospheric Tessellation, where the 3D patterns and structure were made separately, was tested on these two simple hexagon patterns. Each of the protrusions of these patterns were separately unrolled on rhino and printed on paper. Then they were all manually cut out and stuck on paper.

The simple models were made with ease, and faced no complications, thus this method was applied to the larger scaled models that will be printed off through the laser cutter.

Figure 12: Printing layout, Henry Chhen, 2014

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Figure 13: Narrow top hexagon patterns

Figure 14: Wide top hexagon patterns

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Figure 15 -17: Prototype 3 80

Prototype 3: Quad subdivide

The quad subdivide turned out to look really cool. Its Z structure and black color gives it that engaging appeal. The model it self was extremely flexible yet rigid at the some time, and could be compressed or stretched out. However the only issue would be the difficulty of producing this in a large scale model. With the aim of fabrica-tion to be quick and smooth, this on the other hand was difficult and took a long time to do.

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Prototype 4: Constant quad subdivide

This is a series of inverted pods on a quad divided surface. WIth its largest face facing upwards, it has maximum expo-sure to the sun, however with the loss of the sides being blocked by it. The model itself was very weak as it relied pure-ly on the paper underneath to hold it, as opposed to the others, where the pods are held together (in this one the pods are isolated). However, the large spacing in between each pod allows pipes, services or each structures to go through, whilst being hiding it at the same time. This may be a desirable feature later on the development of the design.

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Prototype 5: Hexagon cells

Despite being simple in design, this model was very pleasing to look at. The one feature that it has, in which the other models lack is that it had a interesting bottom side as well. So people from below can look up to these marvelous cof-fers high above them, in which will also be filled with algae. The hexagons themselves can house the algae quite well, and they don’t seem to overshadow each of its neighbor. Furthermore, the structure is surprisingly rigid and flexible. It can hold quite a load whist still retaining its shape. From producing this, all this beneficial aspects it contains (espe-cially with the amazing underneath coffees) is playing quite advantageous for this to be our choice in patterning.

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B.5 TECHNIQUE PROTOTYPELIGHT EXPERIMENT

Figure 24: Prototype 4, Constant quad subdivide

Using green cellophane and shining light through en-abled us to visualize what our design may look life if it were to shine through the pods. Obviously the light pro-duced here is too artificial, consist ant and green to what the real one would look. The real ones will have a greater variance in green hue and would most lightly be light in

colour. However, the light does convey through the pat-terns nicely, giving these rather cool futuristic appeal. For the real study however, we want to grow enough al-gae and place that in actual water tight prototype pods. This will give us a more realistic study, and provide

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Figure 25: Prototype 5, Hexagon cells

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B . 5 F A B R I C A T I O NNo complications were met during the making of these models, thus the building method will be kept and used for latter models. In addition due to the ease of construction, no alterations are made towards the definitions.

Each model was quite rigid and strong, however when experiencing downwards force from the top, it will start to sag. Hence considerations need to be made in figuring out how to increase its strength. Once solution is making the base surface thicker, and supporting that with structural members such as wires, mincing real time support beams and columns.

Aesthetically, these patterns were quite pleasing, in particular to the light experiment. Seeing the green light effect against the shadow was beautiful and is a effect we want to employ. The model themselves were nice, clean and interesting to look at. The one that stood out most was the hexagon pattern. Not only did it look good externally, but it had a extremely in-teresting layout underneath it, similar to coffers found in buildings. From this, it was decided that the tessellation hexagon will serve as the primary pattern for the final model.

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B.6 TECHNIQUE: PROPOSALALGAE PROCESS DIAGRAM

The site provides great advantages to the growing of algae due to the availability of local resources. As shown in the diagram above, both seawater and sewage water from the local waste water plant can be used to grow the algae. The waste water contains nitrate, phosphate and various material compositions necessary for algae growth1, therefore external fer-tilizer is not needed. In addition CO2 can be tapped from local workshops and from the waste water plant.

The climate is also suitable for algae growth as well. The site can receive up to 17 hours of sunlight, with the light reaching up to 25 degrees, all appropriate settings for algae. However Copenhagen is quite cool, and whilst algae can survive in 5 degrees, some form of insulation or barrier must be considered to keep the water in optimal temperature (22-28 degrees).

1 Dr Ronald Halim, Personal interview, The University of Melbourne, conducted 29th April 2014

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LAGI SITE

LOCAL WORKSHOPS

LYNETTEFAELLESSKABETWASTE WATER PLANT

(Right) Figure 26: Location of local resoruces used to grow algae

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1: Pods full of algae

2: The algae are collected through neighbouring pipes. These pipes then transfer the algae towards the processing room.

3: Once all the algae have been collected, the pods are filled with water from the local sea and waste water plant.

4: The pods are full of nutrient rich water and are ready to grow more algae

B.6 TECHNIQUE: PROPOSALPOD SYSTEM DIAGRAM

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The chosen extraction system is the single step oil extraction by Origin Oil. Current algae processors such as solvent extraction are either energy intensive, uses hazardous chemicals or is costly to run, thus defeating the purpose of using algae as a green fuel alternative1. The main reason we chose this system is that it has no of these drawbacks, but is still equally or more efficient than the current processes.

This extraction process only requires low voltage, which can be generated through solar panels, and CO2, which can be harvested from local workshops. This makes this process entirely carbon neutral.

As shown in the diagram, this system works by breaking down the algae with electromagnetic pulse and increasing the acidity of the water with CO2. This is then collected in the gravity clarifier. In this chamber, the oil released from the broken cells float on top of the water, and the biomass sinks to the bottom.

1 N/A (N/A) OriginOil’s Single-Step Algal Oil Extraction, Available at: http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/extract/extract.html (Accessed: 20th April 2014).

EXTRACTION PROCESS

27: OriginOil’s Single-Step Algal Oil Extraction

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B.6 TECHNIQUE: PROPOSALALGAE COLOUR TEST

We wanted to gather algae samples in order to un-derstand the colour variation of various species, the colour in different growth stages, and the hue pro-duces when the light goes through it and the its rate of growth. Thus we collected algae samples from ponds, lakes and labs and attempted to grow some in our own backyard.

The first image to the left is samples we either grew in our backyard and gathered from local lakes and ponds. The samples we collected did have algae in it, but it cannot be seen in this photo. Due to the lack in algae mass, we couldn’t really study the light and colour.

The second image is the algae species chlorella vulgaris that we received from The University of Melbourne lab. With this we altered the intensity of the algae concentrate to mimic that of its growth stage. The various green hues can be seen behind each sachet. From this we can see that each stage produces a rather soft translucent green glow that can be used to light up the internal space of our design. However the more mature algae stage pro-duced rather dark green, thus consideration must be made on the placement of mature algae stages within the pavilion in order to not create dark/ dead space.

The last image uses food dye. We weren’t satisfied with the range of green we gather, thus decided to artificially produce our own. Each sachet is unique in terms of having different amount of green dye added, and having other colours added to it as well such as blue and yellow.

Figure 28: Home grown and pond/ lake gathered samples

Figure 29: Chlorella vulgaris at different intensities

Figure 30: Food dye

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Pods

Acrylic Plexiglas shall be used to create the pods. It is essentially thick clear plastic.

The reaons this was chosen over glass are2.

1) Light weight2) Used for large scale aquarium tanks2) Flexibility in producing various shapes and forms3) Extremely strong and nearly shatter proof. Therefore is perfect for public spaces4) Extremely durable overtime. Glass requires silicon sealing which has a life span of 10-15 years. Acrylic Plexiglas can last a life time5) Easy to adapt. Holes and other modifications can be added to it. This material is extremely appropriate for this design. The bene-fits it beings are advantageous towards the pods construction, as opposed to using glass. It poses such flexibility, that the designs of the pods are not limited by the material.

Structural support

The structural support for this designs needs to be light, strong, water proof and be able to withstand both compressive and ten-sile forces, thus stainless steel is chosen. Despite being expen-sive, it’s benefits outweighs the cost. Stainless steel doesn’t cor-rode, which is very important due to large exposure to water.

1 Dr Ronald Halim, Personal interview, The University of Melbourne, conducted 29th April 20142 N/A (2008) Reefscape Australia Acrylic, Available at: http://www.reefs-cape.com.au/Acrylic_Aquariums.html (Accessed: 3rd April 2014).

Algae

The main species of algae grown in the site will be the chlorella sp as it is the one of the most popular choice for algae biofuel1. However other algae species will be used for a wider variety of colour. In particular to breeding bioluminescent algae for the pa-vilion’s night time use.

MATERIAL SELECTION

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B.6 TECHNIQUEv: PROPOSAL FINAL PROPOSAL

‘To create a pavilion that incorporates algae biofuel energy in an integrated and localized manner with the site. It will provide both an experiential atmosphere for the users of the site as well as an informative one, through a process of enquiry by design.’

This design is innovative as uses Grasshopper to generate both the form and tessellating pattern em-bodies architectural qualities whilst adhering to the LAGI brief. In addition, the idea of pods structures is quite unique as other algae generating ideas and buildings studied have all used panels, pipes or open ponds.

With the pods each hosting various stages of algae growth, ideally it’ll create a wide vari-ety of green hues within the building when light shines through it. Not only do the visitors bask in these array of green light, but they can interactive with the pods. The pods can serve as chairs, tables, and even as a climbable playground for children - all serving as public furniture. Aside for designing aesthetically, focus on the functional response have been one of the primary focus. The pods and its tessellating arrangement have been chosen due to its potential for maximum surface to sun exposure, allowing greater and faster algae growth rate. The form as well was generated to ex-posure the pods to the sun path direction.

Figure 31: model perspective

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Figure 32: Site view

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Figure 33: Render of current model on site 98

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B.7 LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMESOur presentation went surprisingly well. As remarked by the tutors, we were convincing in our design intentions as we were able to properly justify our energy source and showed how it relates to our design. We received a lot of constructive feedback from them which helped us greatly and sparked our creative drive. Here are the few main points we were told to work on:

1) Use the sun path definition on grasshopper to fig-ure out the height, sizing, angle and arrangements of the pods for maximum algae growth 2) Have the patterns at various heights, but the heights must be optimized in a way where it doesn’t over-shadow neighboring pods 3) Use the various stages of algae growth to create bands of random colours. We need to study the stages of algae, the time it takes to get to each stage and what it looks like. In addition we need to figure out how to trans-port these stages into different pods. 4) Taken into consideration the approx. volume on the total pods. This will help determine the processing plant size. 5) The entire does not need to entirely covered in the chosen pattern

From this, we now strive to optimize our patterning to gain the best algae generating output. This involves heavily studying the sun path and adapting various pods to its optimal properties, which in all hopefully develops a more randomized pattering layout. We also plan on studying different shapes in finding which would have the maxi-mum exposed surface area to the sun.

For using the various growth stages of algae to produce colour, one of the idea we had is to have horizontal bands with the earliest algae batch at the top, and the most ma-ture/ ready to harvest at the bottom. This is a logical ar-rangement as it grants maximum sun potential to induce large growth in the early stage pods; in addition, the ma-ture pods that are ready to harvest can be kept at the bottom with the least sun exposure as it doesn’t need it.As suggested by the tutor, a patterning layout can be ap-

plied with each algae growth stage. For instance, have the young pods appear at every fourth pod etc. Thus we need to figure out which area we can have this sort of pat-terning that isn’t detrimental to the algae growth potential.

Objectives:

2) As shown in B.2 and B.4, parameters of the defini-tions were greatly altered to generate various forms of de-sign. This involved changing numerous numerical factors such as scaling and the height/ movement of points, and also changing the definition itself by adding and replac-ing various parameters. Changing the definition achieved more unique responses, for instance in B.2 using the Vol-traDom definition, we change the shapes from cone, to cylinders, spheres and a mixture of the three. We even changed the 2D populate to 3D, generating a pattern of various heights with significant overlaps and gaps.

For B.4 in our own reversed engineered definitions, we altered the surface division to generate more varied re-sponses. Thus we used constant subdivide, hexagon cells and triangular panels.

From the matrices we developed, from the initial itera-tions, we learnt what parameter did what, then altered those with results that we favored. For instance, in our own definition, we altered the top scale factor altered the sizing of the 3D pattern top, making it smaller or wider. We favored having smaller tops as it looked more inter-esting and it exposed more surface area, thus we contin-ued exploring in that direction.

3) B.5 was a success for us in terms of model making. We followed the method that was used in our precedent and received no complication. From the models pro-duced, they were tough, rigid and flexible; however put-ting downwards pressure on it did make it sag. To counter this, we are thinking of applying a thicker base surface, and support that with wires which mimic our intended support structure. 5) We were able to anticipate some of criticism from the

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tutors. Due to a lack in time, we weren’t able to properly experiment with the various green algae light and how it affects our model both externally and internally. However the tutors did make us aware of considerations we did not think about, which will greatly help our design processes.As mentioned before, our presentation went well as it was convincing. This is due to conducting a lot of research in regards to algae and how the site can be used to harness this energy. In addition we spoke to the algae biofuel re-searcher Dr Ronald Halim and Simon XXX (he wanted to stay confidential), to understand how the process works and how we may utilize it on our site. We even proposed our design intention, in which they said was quite fea-sible.

7) Referring to B.2, B.4 and my algorithmic sketch-book, we were able to successfully utilize grasshopper. Through the images and notes we put aside in this re-gards, we recorded what alterations we made to produce the iterations, thus demonstrating our understanding on how these changes affected the data flow in grasshopper to produce such results. Learning how the parameters manipulated the model, we

In B.4 we were quite successful in reverse engineering our precedent. The patterning looked very similar; how-ever there was one major difference. The major differ-ence was that our precedent used equilateral triangles for paneling, where as we used right handed triangles. We were unable to produce equilateral triangles thus ended up using right handed triangles.

During this process of reverse engineering, working out how to make the 3D protrusion was, the greatest difficulty was working out how to put that protrusion on the surface. Thus we experimented with a great range of surface divi-sions such as point list, triangulation, and boundary box to no avail. From conducting a lot of research we finally found our answer in the plugin Lunchbox, and success-fully generated a similar surface pattern to our precedent.

8) We engaged in a lot of self-directed learning in the algorithmic construction, primarily in the reverse engi-neering aspect. We watched tutorial videos outside the weekly task, browsed through the grasshopper forum, attended the grasshopper help class and experimented with various definitions. Despite trying to make a rather simple 3D tessellation we went through a lot to develop the pattern we desired. This is all evident in B.4 and in my algorithmic sketchbook.

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B.8 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

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This was one of tutorial task assigned to us where we were asked to make a random algorithmic model and apply it on the actual site. Initially I wanted to used what I learnt in tessellation and apply the VoltraDom definition on a surface I produced. Despite hav-ing no error displayed, I could not generate the VoltraDom pattern on to the surface. Thus I abounded that definition and applied the boundary box technique for pattern generation. For the boundary box I applied a simple cube as the reference model to simply see if this definition worked.

The resultant transcended my expectation and created this beautiful mass of extruding arrays of rectangular prisms. I did not expect to see a basic cube generate this fabu-lous pattern. This is a case of purely coincidental design, again proof that with genera-tive design, results can’t always be predicted and random changes in the parameters can generate unexpected results.

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Kalay, Yehuda E. (2004). Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), p.18

Skylar Tibbits (2011) voltaDom: MIT 2011, Available at: http://www.sjet.us/MIT_VOLTADOM.html (Accessed: 14th April 2014).

N/A (2013) Atmospheric Tessellation, Available at: http://lux.org.nz/atmospheric-tessellation/ (Accessed: 9nd April 2014).

N/A (2008) Reefscape Australia Acrylic, Available at: http://www.reefscape.com.au/Acrylic_Aquariums.html (Accessed: 3rd April 2014).

N/A (2013) WGTN LUX 2013: ATMOSPHERIC TESSELLATION BY CHRIS KNAPP & MICHAEL PARSON, Available at: http://www.illumni.co/wgtn-lux-2013-atmospheric-tessellation-by-chris-knapp-michael-parson/ (Accessed: 9nd April 2014).

N/A (N/A) OriginOil’s Single-Step Algal Oil Extraction, Available at: http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/extract/extract.html (Accessed: 20th April 2014).

Zaynab Ziari, Ravensbourne College by Foreign Office Architects (2010) <http://www.dezeen.com/2010/09/13/ravensbourne-college-by-foreign-office-architects/> [accessed 1 April 2014].

DiagramsAlgae process diagram by Nicola Leong

Pod system diagram by Henry Chhen

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text References

Primary ReferencePersonal interview with Dr Ronald Halim and Simon XXX, researchers in Algae Biofuel, The University of Melbourne, conducted on the 29th of April 2014

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1: Proyecto Agua (2009) MAGIA EN HYDRODICTYON, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/microagua/3654846926/ (Accessed: 9th April 2014).

2: M.C. Escher (2010) Metamorphosis III, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/berkshiremuseum/5277249069 (Accessed: 14th April 2014).

3: AZPA (N/A) Ravensbourne, Available at: http://www.archello.com/en/project/ravensbourne# (Accessed: 15th April 2014).

4: Zaynab Ziari, Ravensbourne College by Foreign Office Architects (2010) <http://www.dezeen.com/2010/09/13/ravensbourne-college-by-for-eign-office-architects/> [accessed 1st April 2014].

5: Benjamin Johnson (2013) Open House London 2013_Ravensbourne College 3, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96149591@N04/9999814124 (Accessed: 1st April 2014).

6: Sumit Singhal (2012) VoltaDom, Available at: http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2012/06/20/voltadom-by-skylar-tibbits/ (Ac-cessed: 14th April 2014).

7: Igor Motov (2011) VoltaDom, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/71411059@N00/5701612763 (Accessed: 14th April 2014).

8: Brendon Doran (2013) Atmospheric Tessellation by Chris Knapp, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brendonkeryn/9105223983 (Ac-cessed: 9th April 2014).

9 - 10: Nicole (2013) Geometry, Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/13554544603 (Accessed: 9th April 2014).

11: Render close up on pattern by Henry Chhen

12: Rhino print layout by Henry Chhen

13: Narrow top hexagon pattern by Henry Chhen

14: Wide top hexagon pattern by Henry Chhen

15 - 17: Prototype 3 Quad Subdivide by Alice Khoury

19 - 20: Prototype 4 Constant quad subdivide by Nicola Leong

21 - 23: Prototype 5 Hexagon cells by Nicola Leong

24 - 25: Green light test on models by Alice Khoury

26: Resource location plan by Henry Chhen

27: N/A (N/A) OriginOil’s Single-Step Algal Oil Extraction, Available at: http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/extract/extract.html (Accessed: 20th April 2014).

28 - 30: Algae sample photoes by Nicola Leong

31: Rendered model by Henry Chhen

32: Rendered model on plan by Henry Chhen

33: Rendered model on site by Henry Chhen

Images

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PART C

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CRITERIA

First addressing the criteria and feedback from the interim presentation and design guidelines to properly devise a working concept.

INTERIM PRESENTATION FEEDBACK

- Optimization and justification of pattern form and shape- Develope an overall form that responds to the site- Devise a colour layout based on the various stages of algae growth

Lagi Design Guidelines

- Copenhagen has the goal to become the first carbon neutral city, thus the design must also be carbon neutral to reflect that goal”

- Be a public art installation that has large scale clean energy generation which can distribute clean energy into the electric grid at a utility scale (equivalent to the de-mands of hundreds or thousands of homes)

- Prove that clean energy can be beautifulHave an ecologically positive impact over its life cycleShould aim to challenge/ teach the visitors on green en-ergy

Site limitations

- Southwest of the site has a water taxi terminal- There are plans to develope the water way to the south with houseboats- Boat access to the north must be maintained

C.1 DESIGN CONCEPT

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The Little mermaid

Optimal placement

Cannot build

Cannot build

Site analysis

Based on the site limitations, the algae pavilion can only be built on the far east side in order to have access to water, and some parts of the pavilion sits in the water. This is optimal placement regardless as it gives full view of the shore. The people visit can clearly see the little mermaid on the opposite end, and enjoy the general water vista.

Figure 1: Site map 109

Design conceptTo create an algae pavilion where the algae is used to generate energy, generate aesthetic purposes, and inform the public about the potential of green energy. In terms of energy, the algae will be grown in pods decorating the top of the pavilion which will then be collected and extracted into lipid, carbohydrates and protein. The fuel converted from these resources can be used for cars, or further be converted into electricity.

In terms of aesthetic, the various green hues of the algae will be taken advantaged of. Firstly, algae in mix with water is translucent, hence when sun passes through, it generates soft green light. The public can then bask in this light when visiting the pavilion, cre-ating an surreal experience. Furthermore, as algae grows it becomes denser and produces darker green light. This can be employed having different stages of algae growth within the pavilion would produce an ar-ray of green hue lights.

For educational purposes, we envision the algae mak-ing process to be visible to the audience, so they can understand how it works, how it can be used to make energy, and even have them make it themselves at home. The pods can demonstrate the ease of growth, and the different growth stages. The pipes can show the required inputs for growing algae such as water and nutrients. In addition, we plan to have some form of tank that collects all the algae and show the break down process, showing the lipid and biomass that is extracted. Aside for housing and growing the algae, the pods can also serve as an interactive item for the public as well. For instance, by having the pods on the ground, the pods can then serve as tables and chairs for the public to rest on. By having them on walls, the pods can then serve as climbing elements for the children.

In response to the interim presentation, various tools from grasshopper will be used to analyses, improve and find the best design for the pavilion which also pro-viding factual justification for their choices.

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The primary design intent we envision is to have the audience bask in the various hues of green light as they walk underneath the large canopies.

The pods aren’t only used to grow algae, but can also be interactive pieces as well. With pods on the ground, people can use it as seats or tables, thus serving as a social interaction ground. They can be physically touched and closely observed, granting curiosity and discovery especially among children.

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Pattern analysis Finding the best pattern shape for algae growth

Total surface area Each shape pattern was made with the same width and height. The total surface area to find the shape that has the maximum area exposed to the sun. Thus the larger the total surface area the better.

Circular prismTSA: 0.351 m2

Square prismTSA: 0.354 m2

Triangular prismTSA: 0.368 m2

Tri grid prismTSA: 0.316 m2

Hexagonal prismTSA: 0.640 m2

The hexagon prism has the largest surface area out of the patterns, nearly doubling its rivals, thus grants maxi-mum sun exposure for algae growth.

Shadow analysis

The grasshopper plug-in Ladybug was used to determine each of the shapes pattern shadow qualities. To make this analysis as realistic as possible, the actual Copenhagen sun data was employed. With this analysis, the darker the area the greater the shadow, thus it can be seen that the hexagon patterns have the least amount of shadows. As opposed to the other shapes’ patterns, each of the prisms in the hexagon pattern generates little amounts of shadow and does not overshadow its neighbors.

Verdict It can be concluded that the hexagon prisms are best suited as the surface tesselation for the pavilion. It has the largest amount of exposed surface area, generates the least amount of shadows, and does it overshadow its neighbors, thus is the shape that has the best exposure to the sun. Using this shape grants the maximum potential for algae growth.

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Circular prism

Square prism

Triangular prism

Tri grid prism

Hexagon prism 113

Prototype development Finding the best pattern shape for algae growth

Inital surface form: Grid shell

Unsure what the overall shape of the surface should look like, it was decided to simply base it on the boundary of the Lagi site. This only served as the initial base and would later be altered and improved on through generative means of additional analysis plug-ins for grasshopper. With the outer boundary set to be similar to the Lagi site, the points were mostly placed at random intervals. These points serve as the center of the curved top (the highest ceiling point), thus some were place purposely near the edge of the boundary to create large entrances and wider openings for the public. Using voronoi to divide the surface, and karamba to apply forces onto intersection points of the voronoi, the surface was formed. With this surface, our hexagon and the pre-existing structural algorithm in the bubble form finding defini-tion was applied to it to see what it would look like. The only issue with the pre-existing structural algorithm was that it generated triangular steel support rather than the desired hexagon shape, which of course be addressed.

It was decided that grid shell with structural support underneath was the best choice for the pavilion building type. Looking at past examples, the general concept of grid shell generation looked similar to our part B pavilion design, provided a good base for different sorts of testing, could be altered with ease and contained the curved surfaces desired in part B. Thus to develop our surface, we used the Bubble form finding definition provided by karamba, and altered it to suit our design.

Boundary and points Converted surface

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Prototype output

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

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Form development and solar analysisThe form was further developed through a series of solar analysis. Using the prototype model as the initial surface, the grasshopper tool Ladybug was applied to check its solar potential.

As shown in the legend on the left, with red meaning the most solar exposure, and blue meaning either little or none, the surfaces were then consciously changed to grant it as much exposed surface area to the sun as pos-sible, until the perfect surface was formed. There is a perfect representation of Kalay’s two search techniques:

(1) producing candidate solutions or consideration(2) choosing the “right” solution for further consideration and development. As such, the form was continuously improved on to generate the best outcome.During these changes, additional adjustments were also made for purposes outside best solar potential, for factors such as looks, interesting appeals, and realism (dimensions and height).

Series 1 Series 2: Changed the boundary from straight to curved under tutor’s rec-ommendations and to make the form more interesting

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Solar analysis legend

Maximum solar

potential

Zero solar potential

Series 2: Changed the boundary from straight to curved under tutor’s rec-ommendations and to make the form more interesting

Series 3: Changed the orientation from east to west, to north to south, to respond better to the site and have greater access to sea water

Resultant surface

The final surface derived from solar analysis testing. Primarily altered to have as much solar exposure as possible, additional changes were added to it to make it more realistic and interest-ing. Dimensions were constantly monitored to ensure the siz-ing and heights were as realistic as possible. Openings were purposely made much larger, and some to have overhanging points for better aesthetic qualities. Final change as mentioned were the orientation. The initial surface lined from east to west.

This final surface lies north to south. Primary reason is from the Lagi brief criteria. With external plans occurring on the north and south water exposure of the site, only the western boarder can be properly used. Thus the pavilion is to align with this border, to allow intake of seawater without it being in the way of the city’s plans. In addition, it has much better vistas, as the pavilion incor-porates the of the sea and the coast.

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East elevation

West elevation

North elevation

South elevationTop

112.5m

10m

112.5m

10m

65m

65m

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1 cm in diameter CHS 2 cm in diameter CHS


The primary issue with this algae pod design is the weight of the pods. Being filled with water each pod is extremely heavy, therefore the structure needs to be strong enough to support the entire weight. With this, the grasshopper plug-in Karamba is used to test the strength of the structure and find the correct dimension of the steel elements.

Firstly all the steel elements are converted in circular hol-low sections (CHS) as it is the easiest to modify and ren-der as opposed to a universal beam. Then the entire

load force is calculated and applied on the members. The stress imposed by the load is repented as colours as shown on the legend. It is ideal to get as white as possi-ble as it means there are no stress occurring on the steel elements, thus is able to withstand the presented loads. The diameter of the CHS is slowly increased by 1cm until the entire structure is close to being pure white. From this it was found that having 8cm in diameter CHS is enough to support the entire weight of the pods.

Structure analysis

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Structure analysis stress legend

No stress Excessive downwards

stress

Excessive upwards

stress

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Hexagon structure system

The steel hexagon members consist of 8cm in diameter cir-cular hollow sections (CHS) connected to central steel nodes. The steel nodes all contain screw holes, and the interior of the CHS is threaded as well. This allows a threaded rod to act as a connection means between the rods and the nodes. This simple structure connection joints allow easy and quick erection. Furthermore it’ll cut down on cost and building time as it is extremely easy to manufacture, composing zero com-plex parts. However it is highly recommended for the joints to be welded together to ensure a rigid connection.

Steel node Threaded rod that screws in both the steel node and inside the steel

circle hollow section member

Structural layout

Joint detail

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Threaded rod that screws in both the steel node and inside the steel

circle hollow section member

Circle hollow section. The walls of the inside hollow section contains threads for the rod to screw through

Connection joints

Joint detail

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Pod system breakdown

Pods are joined to-gether by 8 plexiglas panels

In between each spac-ing of the pods are pipes, which allows transfer-ring algae between pods

Hexagon steel structure sits directly beneath the pods

The input and output pipes that connect underneath the pods. These pipes bring in water, algae and nutri-ents to the pods, and also take the grown algae away.

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As it takes algae 7 days to fully mature and be ready to be harvest, it has been decided to arrange the pods in 7 sec-tions, each section being a horizontal band as represented in the diagram. The highest pods will have the initial growth stage, and as the algae grows per day, it shifts down to the lower section accordingly. Final and ready to be harvested algae will sit at the bottom pods. By having the algae more in that manner allows efficient algae growth. The starting

algae will need the most amount of light, thus will be at the top. The matured algae requires less, thus will be at the bottom. In addition, by allowing the algae to move down-wards, means gravity can be used to push the algae down, thus no electricity is require for pumping purposes. From these reasons, assure that this algae growth arrangement is the most efficient.

Algae growth stage diagrams

Day 1: Initial growth stage Day 2

Day 5 Day 6

Day 3 Day 4

Day 7: Complete growth and ready to harvest

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Column design

Rather than have traditional load bearing columns, it was decided to have columns that were part of the ex-traction process. Instead of being simple solid mass, these columns would be see through in nature, show-ing its role to the visitors and informing them how this algae process works.

The column design is based on the single step oil extraction method for algae. In essence, the extractor which sits on top of the column, re-ceives the algae and breaks it down using elec-tric impulses and acidifying the water with CO2.

The broken down algae, oil and water will shift via gravity into the plexiglas column tank below. Due to the nature of each element, the oil will float up, being in the top later, the water in the middle, and the algae biomass will sink to the bottom. Each layer will have a pipe output that transport the lipid and biomass to-wards the collection tanks, and the water back to the sea.

Aside from having an educational purpose, the col-umns will have an aesthetic one as well. With 3 layers of extraction matter, shows 3 layers of different trans-lucent colours (yellow, blue and green). As such the columns are extremely unique and would be interest-ing to look at. In addition, based on the algae output, the actual quantity of layers will change. For instance, if the algae processed had more water in it, the water section of the columns will be much larger, and the other two layers will shrink. Thus, the sizing layers will always change and will vary between each column. As such, the lack of conformity, and the translucent colours will be the primary appeal of the columns.

Since the columns will be hollow tanks, they serve not load bearing purposes. To counter this issue, the structural performance will be relied on the hex-agonal steel mesh instead which wraps around the columns. It continues the conformity of hexagon pat-terns, and also make the columns more appealing.

Algae input

Extractor

Electricity input

CO2 input

Lipid level

Water level

Biomass level

Lipid output

Algae biomass output

Hexagon steel structure

Water output

Column diagram

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Waste Water inputSea water input

Water pump

Used water output

Lipid under-ground storage

Biomass storage

Algae pods

Process column

Process diagram

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SITE PLAN

SEWERAGE PLANT

THE LITTLE MERMAID

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West elevation

East elevation

North elevation

South elevation

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7 Plexiglas column tanks to house extracted algae matter

Steel hexagon mesh to serve as the primary load bear-ing element for the columns

Steel hexagon structure that supports all of the pods

The pods that decorate the surface and house the algae.

Pavilion breakdown

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Solar and shadow analysis on final design

Out of curiosity, the solar and shadow analysis was applied to the final design. The results were rather interesting and are dis-cussed below

Solar analysis

Despite being the same surface that was finalized in the previous solar analysis, having the pods of the same height provided differ-ent and rather confusing results. With the pods it showed areas of poor exposure to solar radia-tion, which contradicts the results of the first solar analysis. Fur-thermore areas without solar radiation are on the same surface as areas with solar radiation, which doesn’t make sense. The sur-faces are generally flat with dips, thus the solar exposures should be conformed within the same region. Therefore the results from this test are rather misleading.

Shadow analysis

This analysis also has its flaws. The results from this testing con-tradicts that of the solar analysis. It shows areas that receive con-stant shadowing through out the day, yet in the solar analysis, those areas still have solar exposure. This shows that careful consideration must be taken when selecting tools to conduct test, in order to evaluate real results. Regardless, from looking at this analysis , it is evident that there are many dark areas. This is problematic for a more efficient de-sign. Being said, it could be an accidental design intention. These dark spots could be areas where algae doesn’t grow, breaking the green pattern conformity of the pavilion.

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Solar analysis on final form

Shadow analysis on final form

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- APPLY POINTS ON THE OUTLINE OF THE LAGI SITE AND APPLY POINTS

WITHIN THE OUTLINE

- APPLY POLYLINE THROUGH OUT-LINE POINTS, THEN CONVERT IT

INTO A BOUNDARY SURFACE.- APPLY VORONOI ON INNER POINTS

- WITH KARAMBA, USE ASSEMBLE MODEL AND APPLY GRAVITY LOAD OF -1. DISASSEMBLE MODEL AND

USE DELAUNAY MESH

- BAKE AND APPLY LADYBUY FOR SOLAR ANALYSIS. ADJUST TO OPTI-

MAL PERFORMANCE

- DECONSTRUCT MESH AND RECON-STRUCT MESH USING ASSEMBLE

MODEL POINTS AS VERTICES.

- APPLY HEXAGON CELLS ONTO SURFACE. SET U AND V VALUES AS

50

- SCALE EACH CELL BY 0.8, USING HEXAGON CELL CENTERS AS THE

CENTRAL REFERENCE POINT

- MOVE THOSE CELLS 0.5M IN THE Z DIRECTION. RE-SCALE CELL BY 0.8

- PATCH TOP OF SECONDARY SCALED CELL

- LOFT ORIGINAL CELLS WITH FIRST SCALED CELLS. LOFT FIRST SCALED CELLS WITH SECOND SCALED

CELLS

- APPLY HEXAGON STRUCTURE ONTO SURFACE. SET U AND V VAL-

UES AS 50

- MOVE HEXAGON STRUCTURE -0.4M IN Z DIRECTION

- GRAFT AND PIPE THE CURVES IN THE HEXAGONAL STRUCTURE WITH A RADIUS OF 4CM (RESULTANT

FROM STRUCTURE ANALYSIS).

- NOTE* KARAMBA WAS USED FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS BUT NOT USED TO CREATE THE STRUCTURE. PIPING WAS A QUICKER AND EASIER

OPTION

- SPLIT VORONOI INTO CURVE SEG-MENTS.

- CONVERT VORONOI SEGMENTS AND BOUNDARY SURFACE INTO DE-

LAUNAY EDGES

SURFACE

PATTERN

STRUCTURE

DESIGN DEFINITION WORK FLOWDIAGRAMMATIC STEPS

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PATTERN

SURFACEbase for pattern and structure

STRUCTURE

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Fabrication

It was decided for our prototypes that we fabricated a few pods using 3mm transparent perspex. Transparent perspex was the closest material to our ideal material of Plexiglas, and is waterproof, thus can be used to contain water with algae. As such it also grants us the closest visualization to what the working pods would look like. Being 3mm thick, it is very difficult to cut, so it had to be done with the laser cutter. A pod was unrolled in rhino

and copied multiple. As the material is 3mm thick, ad-dition rods were made to fill the joints where the edges connect. We decided to go with a straight joint as op-posed to the puzzle joint as suggest by other people. Despite puzzle joint being stronger than a straight joint, it has a higher probability to leak, which was why it was not chosen.

C.2 TECHTONIC ELEMENTS

The pods unrolled on Rhino to be sent to the Fablab

Building the prototype was successful. It was easy to construct and deemed water proof as it had no leaks, Therefore no changes are required. When it was under load (from pushing it with our hands), the pod held itself, thus the joints provide sufficient structure and rigidity. As

such, the puzzle joint is not needed. These pods uses small amount of materials, are easy to assemble, works both structurally and as a water container unit. It can be mass produced with ease with low cost, thus this meth-odology can be applied in a large scale factor.

Conclusion of prefabrication

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Perspex pieces are glued together with zap a gap glue and held with tape as it dries. The rods were not needed in the end to act as joint fillers .

Perspex pieces cut off and aligned accordingly. 7 piec-es are used in total to cre-ate a singular pod

Once all has dried, the pod was filled up with algae and water. There was no leakage at all. It provided a realistic look to what our pods would look like, in which we deem satisfacto-ry. The colour of the algae, the material and shape of the form all seem to com-pliment well with each other.

After the has dried, and the pod can hold its form, addi-tion UHU glue was added in the joints to make the pod more water tight.

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Detailed model

The large pipe between the pods transfer the algae betwen pods. The smaller pipes below are the inputs and outputs

The large pipe close up showing how it connects into the pods

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Column model

Lipid (Oil)

Water

Biomass

Small detailed column model made to show the colours and layers of the extracted mat-ter; lipid, water and biomass. Column is made from a small clear acrylic tube, with ends sealed with acrylic and su-per glue. Biomass is tissue soaked in algae water, and the oil is vegetable oil.

Steel structure support

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Rhino model for 3D printing

Due to the complexity and small sizing of the pods, it was decided to only print the sur-face. Since the model was to be made in a 1:1000 scale, the each pods would be ap-proximately 0.6 mm in size. The minimum threshold for 3d printing is 2 mm, thus is far smaller than what the printer is capable of. With the surface it required alterations before it could be printed. All gaps were filled, then the surface was offset by 3 mm to create the thick-ness. Afterwards the model was converted to a mesh model, exported as a STL file, and sent to the fab lab.

Structure

The structure was not 3d printed as it was too small for the printer. The size of the steel mem-bers and the gaps in between were again much lower than the printers minimum threshold. Therefore it was decided that the easiest way to make it was to by the smallest metal mesh and mold it to shape. As such, the scale is not accurate but it does convey its intention, show-ing the purpose of the structure and what it may look like

3D printed model

It took between 4 - 7 hours for the model to be completely printed.Once it was out all we needed to do was scrap off these sup-porting elements that held up the canopy. We were surprised at how it actually looks. I orig-inally pictured a flat piece of flimsy plastic, but it came out great, properly showing the curved canopy elements. With its white creamy colour it even looked similar to the Sydney Opera House.

C.3 FINAL MODEL

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FINAL RENDERS

These final renders were created using a proper render software called ‘Blender’. This program offers greater flexibility in renderings compared to V ray as it allows better control of the lights, envrionment, and texture, thus offering more realistic renders. V ray generally generates cartoonist renders, and has little support, as it is only a plug-in, and not a full dedicated render program. The pri-mary aim for these renderings were to make it as realistic as possible. Seamless texture packs were applied for

realistic concrete, water and grass. Water modelling was added to create the ripples. Surface reflection, light rays, gloss and refraction were all factors taken into consider-ation towards the production of the glass looking pods. The only issue we had was creating the desired green light hues for the interior space. The light that passes through the pods in the render don’t get into the interoior space. Regardless we were very happy with the overall output in terms of realsitically presenting our ideas.

Plan

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South elevation

West elevation

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C.4 Additional LAGI brief requirements

Description

The algae pod pavilion is an outdoor art installation that brings together the use of art, public space and algae technology. By harnessing the power of the sun and the local sewerage plant, the pavilion is able to grow algae, generate fuel and electricity, with the only output being filtered water which goes back into the sea. Aside from the fuel the algae produce, the pavilion also takes advantage of the algae’s’ translucent green colour. Since the algae are housed in pods which sit on top of the pavilion, sunlight filters to become vari-ous tones of green hue based on the maturity of the algae. These assorted lights ornate the interior space, generating a surreal experience for the visitors. In addition the pods also serve as interactive devices for the public. With the pods that sit on the floor, it can serve as seats or tables. The pods on walls can become climbing equipment for the children.

Technology use

The technology used to generate green energy will be algae. Algae is a great energy source as it is easy to maintain, easy to grow, uses local resources (sea and waste water), and everything about it can be utilized. It is high in oil content (lipid), which can be made into biodiesel, the leftover carbohydrates can be made into bio-ethanol and the protein can be fed to plants or animal.

Another great potential about algae is that it is stored energy. Once the oil and carbohydrate is extracted and converted into fuel, it doesn’t lose its energy value and can be used at any time. As opposed to electric-ity, that are no means of proper storage (batteries loses energy over time) and generally needs to be used immediately. Thus algae bring in the flexibility of stored energy.

Chlorella vulgaris is the main algae species used for this pavilion. Reason being is that it is one of the most popular species used for growing biofuel as it has high oil content and is easy to maintain. However, other species will be incorporated such as bioluminescence algae to illuminate the pavilion at night. In terms of structure, it will be a simple screw in connection. The nodes and the hollow inside of the circular steel members are ribbed so a threaded rod can screw in between them and connect the nodes and mem-ber together. This ease of connection makes building quick and easy.

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Environmental impact statement.

The algae pavilion is extremely beneficial to the environment. It relies purely on local resources, the sun, water from the sea, and waste water from the local sewerage plant, thus being entirely carbon neutral. The algae also filters the water is it housed in, thus the only output from this pavilion is cleaned water which goes back to the sea.Algae pose no threat to the natural environment. Being a simple organism, if a disaster were to occur such as an algae spill, it could easily be cleaned up, or even be left alone where it can dispatch and deteriorate over time. Algae concentration has not short or long term ill effect on human health or the environment.

In terms of material, plexglas is stronger, more durable and has a much higher lifespan than glass, thus needling less repairs and replacement. As such it has an overall lower embodied energy amount compared to glass. For the structural support, recycled steel will be used.

Materials

Primary materials used to produce this design are:*note: as the pods all differ in size, the actual length of the steel members will vary

- 34209 8cm in diameter, with 0.4cm in thickness circular hollow section made from recycled steel (hexagon mesh)- 14 10cm in diameter, with 0.4cm in thickness circular hollow section made from recycled steel (structural boundary)- 34209 7.6cm in diameter threaded rods- 23418 15cm in diameter steel nodes- Plexiglas of various sizes-Clear PVC pipes

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ENERGY PRODUCTION

There are 11,703 pods in the pavilion

A single pod holds approx 76L of wa-ter which can make 53g of dried algae. This in turn produces:

= 0.0106 L lipid = 21.2 g carbohydrate = 21.2 g protein

MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN 7 days for algae to mature and be ready for harvest. Pods have been ar-ranged so that algae can be harvested everday

Daily production

17.73 L of Biodiesel which can fill near-ly half a diesel car

35.47 L of ethanol which makes up to 3547 L of petrol (10% of petrol is etha-nol1)

FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL



FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL

FEED FEEDFEED FEED35.47 Kg of animal feed or plant fertilizer

*based on the average 40L diesel car

*35.5 100L fuel barrels

*4.5 10 Kg bags of feed

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Electricity production: Converting fuel into kWh

422 kWh of power can be converted from the diesel and ethanol daily2

Which is enough to sustain 33.3 average Copenhagen household for a day3

Daily production

Overall annual production

6,471 L of biodiesel12,946 L of bioethanol12, 946 Kg of animal feed or plant fertilizer

154,030 kWh of electricity can be converted from biodiesel and bioethanol annually

*Estimates that the average Copenhagen household uses 11 kWh a day

*Each bolt represents 100kWH

1 http://www.biofuelsassociation.com.au/ethanol-in-australia2 http://greenecon.net/ethanol-benefits-and-issues/energy_economics3 http://subsite.kk.dk/sitecore/content/Subsites/CityOfCopenhagen/SubsiteFrontpage/LivingInCopenhagen/ClimateAndEnvironment/Copen-hagensGreenAccounts/EnergyAndCO2/Consumption.aspx

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C.5 LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMESOur final presentation went relatively well. We re-ceived good feedback, but also a lot of constructive ones, suggesting we could have further improved, em-phasis, or add on to our designs. Our strongest point was breaking down the component. How we got to our design through the various tools of grasshopper. There was more I wanted to do but due to time and computer restrictions, we were held back. The primary feedback we received were:

1) Expand the site. Take advantage of the land. Current design is too small, and people aren’t willing to walk that far to the pavilion. 2) Focus on the experience underneath the canopy. Show the different green light hue through the renders 3) Further take advantage of the site. Since pigs are one of the largest exports in Denmark, and one of our outputs are animal feed, we can incorporate a pig farm with the pavilion. 4) Explore other scales and arrangements with the form to see what other kinds of experiences that can be achieved

The primary issue with the scale of our design, that I sadly forgot to mention in the presentation was the com-puter’s limitation. We had to make our design smaller than usual due to the lag it had with over ten thousand pods scattered on top. By adding more pavilions, or mak-ing it larger is going pass what our computers are ca-pable of. Our current design is the maximum in which our computer and the university computers can handle. Therefore as much as we wanted to expand our struc-ture, or add more pavilions we were at our limits. Even using the proxy tool provided by Vray, to ‘ghost’ the pa-vilion and make multiple copies is too complex for the computers to handle.

Being said, I agree with the comments that we need to explore the experience that can be given with the pods. Make pods that can be tread on, tall pods for people to

walk in between, climbing pods, the possibilities are end-less.

Being said, the one dilemma is achieving desired outputs through generative designs. Generative design is to have an algorithm and by changing its parameters, create an interesting, random and unintentional product. By having desired aims does it not strive away from this approach?

Objectives:

1) Through this subject and learning about grasshop-per and the array of tools it has granted me the ability to interrogate the brief with digital technology in mind. As shown in C.1, analysis tools can be employed to study the brief.

Furthermore the brief can be used to formulize and algo-rithm to create generative designs. The guidelines and rules imposed by the brief can be parameters of the gen-erative definition.

2) I was limited in the scope of design based on my computer skills. If I couldn’t make it, or if it was too com-plex, it would often be disregarded. Now with grasshop-per, I have the solid understanding of performing com-plex task with ease. Designs that require vast repetitions, rather than do it manually, I can generate a definition for to perform such process. This is evident in my hexagonal pattern definition, in C.1, where it was used to create ten thousand pods of the same shape.

3) My skills in computation has exponentially expanded since the introduction of grasshopper. With tools such as ladybug and Karamba, I could perform testing that could be used as development and justification of my design matter. Even with fabrication, grasshopper makes this process easier. Even though it was not evident in our model, I have watched tutorial videos where grasshopper was used to create tabs for laser/card cutter assemblies. Again in the

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past I created these tabs manually myself, but now it grasshopper, it makes this process much easier.

4) By developing a physical model, it informed us of how the model would look and sit within the site. With the model being 112m in length, we assumed that would be enough for the site. However once we placed the mod-el in the physical site we made, it did look rather small. Therefore we should have tested more prototypes in re-gards to scale to generate the correct form. In terms of an architecture and air relationship perspective, it showed that despite being computer generated, the model did seem to fit seamlessly within the site, suggesting that pure computation design can be appropriate for real time living.

5) As mentioned in the past objectives, the ability to make a case of for proposal can be achieved with the analysis tools provided by grasshopper. For instance, to prove that the structure can actually support its weight can be demonstrated with the plug-in karamba as shown in C.1. Therefore various use of analysis tools can be used to provided justification in the design choices.

6) Part A outlines basic architectural projects that uti-lizes computational concepts to develop their design. Part B.1 and B.2 provides a deeper analysis by under-standing how the tesselation pattern was applied to the project, and how the project was assembled through the use of fabrication. This led to Part B.3, which was revers-ing engineering one of the chosen projects, and then ma-nipulating that definition to a pattern that we desired.

7) A basic foundation on understanding computational geometry, data structures and types of programing has been developed in this course. For this design, we went through various programing to achieve different design goals. For the generating of the surface, we learnt about using real time forces and applying it on a mesh to create point loads which pushes down on the mesh to create can-opies. For the pattern, we learnt about applying a tessela-tion rules and manipulating in a way to create the shapes

we want. For the structure, we went through Karamba to understand the stress load it goes through in order to make a realistic structure that can actually support the pods. Various grasshopper analysis tools have been applied as well, with its data collected and used to further improve and justify the design.

8) In all, this subject taught me a lot about the advan-tages and disadvantages of Grasshopper and its various plug ins. With Grasshopper it allows the creation of gen-erative design, leading to exciting unexpected results. Furthermore it can be used to perform repetitive manual task on Rhino, such as putting tabs on unrolled forms, or generating a sequence of repeating patterns.

The primary disadvantage is the massive learning curve behind it. Things that seem basic may require watching lengthy tutorial videos, or downloading additional plug-ins and then learn about those. It also doesn’t allow desir-able precise self control. For instance, if a small point on the grasshopper model needs to be change, sometimes a complex algorithm must be devised jus to control that small either. Thus often the easiest way is to simple bake it on Rhino and edit from there. Once ever once the ob-ject is bake, it looses the properties of flexible change given by its definition.

Another disadvantage is the inconsistency and perhaps lack of formal evidence given by analysis definitions cre-ated on Grasshopper. This is shown in C.1, where the Ladybug solar definition contradicted it self. Despite and surface tested being flat, it showed one area to have full solar radiation and its neighbor with none. Thus one needs to be extremely careful with data analysis.

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MULTI PAVILION

Responding to the crit Multi pavilion (above)SInce our model was too small for the site, it was suggested that we could have simply multiply our existing pavilion and align it with each other at various heights. This was done in the rendering above, but was extremely difficult to do. As men-tioned before, just one pavilion was enough to slow down the computers, thus having five was extremely time consuming. Despite using the proxy tool in V ray to create a ghost of each pavilion, even though it helped dramatically, the computers was running extremely slow. As such, it was difficult to make alterations towards placement a height with the pavilions. Furthermore rendering with V ray took much longer than usual, being an 2 hour job. Regardless it does fill the site and to a degree it does look interesting. the pavilions need to altered more to break the consistency between them all.

Pig farmAnother comment made was using pigs for our site. Since the pavilion can produce food the animals, it was suggested to use have pigs, as pigs are one of the largest meat producers in Denmark. Thus a simple pig farm was put in front of the site to see how it looks. It time was given, more work would have be applied to make this farm more realistic. However just from this simple render seems like a fun and interesting proposal to be taken,

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PIG FARM

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N/A (2014) Energy Economics, Available at: http://greenecon.net/ethanol-benefits-and-issues/energy_economics (Accessed: 20th May 2014).

N/A (2013) Ethanol in Australia. Available at: http://www.biofuelsassociation.com.au/ethanol-in-australia (Accessed: 20th May 2014).

Sidst Redigeret (2012) Copenhagener’s energy consumption, Available at: http://subsite.kk.dk/sitecore/content/Subsites/CityOfCopenhagen/SubsiteFrontpage/LivingInCopenhagen/ClimateAndEnvironment/CopenhagensGreenAccounts/EnergyAndCO2/Consumption.aspx (Accessed: 20th May 2014)

Diagrams

Algae growth stage development by Alice Khoury

Column diagram by Alice Khoury

Connection joint by Henry Chhen

Hexagon layout by Henry Chhen

Joint detail by Henry Chhen

Process diagram by Nicola Leong

Process system breakdown by Alice Khoury

ImagesFigure 1: Site plan, photo, N/A, Lagi design brief (2014) <http://landartgenerator.org/designcomp/> [ac-cessed 6 May 2014].

All rhino screen grabs were taken by Henry Chhen

All model photography were taken by Nicola Leong

All V ray renders were made by Henry Chhen

All realistic final renders were made by Henry Chhen and Alan Lancaster

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text References

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Documents

Chhen Henry 586676 Part A, B and C