Studio AirHazel Bian

633796

B.1Research field Patterning

Patternnoun.a repeated decorative de-signverb.decorate with a recurring designgive a regular or intelligible form to.

‘Geometric patterns have fascinated mankind since ancient times’ --- Helmut Pottmann

Patterns in architecture are a vast subject, it is a potent device for architectural articulation. It is not only a matter of aesthetics, but also heavily influenced by current technologies. Patterning in the architecture today is no longer just aiming for the decorative but also for it’s functional purpose. Functional approach to orna-mentation is typical in many par-ametric designs, as Patrik Schu-macher claimed that parametric modeling tool today is being able to shift patterning from adaptive compensation to the amplifica-tion of difference.

Fig 1.0Ningxia Exhibition Centre inspired by Isalamic pattern

Spanish pavilion EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan, FOA

B.2Case Study 1.0

The Spanish Pavilion, de-signed by Foreign Office Architects in 2005 World Expo in Japan for Spain has become my first case study building in part B. The most distinguish feature of the pavilion might be its outer facade. The facade is con-sisted of six different tiles, which are based in a hex-agonal grids and all coded with different colors. When these tiles are assembled, they never repeat them-selves and thus producing a continuously varying pattern of geometry and color.

Fig1.1 close up view of the facade

Fig1.2 construction details of the hexagon grids, demonstrat-ing how they are connecting to each other

Fig1.3 overview of the Spanish Pavilion, showing the structure layout of the lat-

B.2Matrix exploration

The explorations of Spanish Pavilion showing above, start from the very beginning by changing the parameters and base geometry shapes I’ve got the first species which is playing around with the form finding process. I then continue exploring with 2D transforma-tion with the original patterns, cull pattern the pattern by points, curves, letters and other different geometries. And then I moved on to 3D exploration and I got more unexpected outcomes.

Selection criteria

[...]when all frontiers have been tamed and developed, when all exotic tribes and species have been winkled out of their hidden crannies and firmly tagged, where after all can one look for the wild, the unknown? When all natural wonders have been scientifi-cally investigated, and all ancient monuments have become tour-ists attractions, where can one seek the numinous, the sacred? In a world contracted by motor travel and telecommunications, how can one experience vastness?Matthews, 2005

Regards to the requirements of the brief, I’ve listed few selection criteria in response to the given brief1 Keep the environmental footprint on the site as less as possible. (considerations could be drawn from material selection, size of the design outcome)2 The form of the design should be coherent to the site but not landmark making. 3 Indication of setting up a tangible/intangible boundary between human and the nature.

The first iteration chosen because of the cell’s organic outlook and the variation. The cell boundaries vary accordingly to the curve I set in the grasshopper. It could be used as the patterning for the plan-tation, more cell boundaries represent dense plantation where plants scattered at the single cell boundary.

This free form iteration is chosen because of it’s looks more dif-ferent from all other variations in the species and meets the selection criteria best. Points scattered on the base geom-etry leading to the irregular cell boundary iteration which I think it’s pretty cool. This pattern could possibly design as the walking track within the site. It could also be used as the base geometry for urban planning in the site.

This is an interesting outcome of the shuffled extrusion. The different height of the extrusions could be used as planta-tion flowerpots for the urban garden around the Merri Creek. Height difference may create interesting mass distribution among the flowers.

I like the last iteration over than the others in the last species, I like how the line flows along the bumps in the pattern, the pattern is lifted up by the guiding lines and creating this visually interesting effect. It could be used as the pavilion canopy or other sculpture forms constructed on the site.

B.3 Case Study 2.0

Art 615 PavilionArt 615 Pavilion is a student project form the Faculty of Architec-ture and Design at Aalborg University Denmark. The Art615 is origi-nally meant as an art pavilion for a crime-related park in Aalborg, Denmark, which the design concept mainly focused on drawing attention from the unsafe park and ensuring the felling of a safer environment for the visitors. In order to achieve the design con-cept, digital design tool such as Rhino and Grasshopper have been used through out the project. The parametric modeling helps to monitor size and spatial arrangement of each panels

Fig2.1 Structure of the Pavilion, each panel is fixed on to the waffle grid behind in delicate angle and thus it appears to be floating from the front.

Fig2.2 the lighting effect from the back

Fig2.3 lighting and shadow effect of the Pavilion

Fig2.4 closed up shoot of the panel details.

Reverse EngineeringThe reverse-engineering of Art 615 is divided into two parts, which are the structural frame and decorative panels.structural frameThe waffle grid is the main structure system that holds up the entire pa-vilion. The panels on the Art615 Pavilion are not closely connect to each other, but all of them are properly fixed onto the waffle grid structure and that’s how the pavilion is constructed. Numbers of ribs could varied in turns of changing parameters in the Grasshopper script to best repre-sent the structure skeleton of the Art615 Pavilion.

PanelsThe reverse-engineering for constructing the surface panels of the pavilion is achieved by morphing one surface panel onto the constructed base geometry in Grasshopper. My very first ap-proach to the reverse-engineering was creating the base geom-etry that similar to the overall shape of Art 615 Pavilion in Rhino, referencing into the Grasshopper and then playing around with different possibilities of creating the surface panels.

By comparing my reverse engineering outcome to the original pa-vilion, the waffle grid structures look similar, however, the panels we created are very different. The most important part for the pavilion to be successfully constructed needs to make sure the panels are sitting in line with the waffle grid, so that the panel could be properly fixed onto the waffle system, otherwise the structure is going to fail, also, before the fabrication need to make sure the panels are pla-nar, or it could not be successfully fabricated.

Base surface describes from Rhino

Iteration

Iteration

Iteration

Rhino

Grasshopper/Rhinoscripting

Tweak

parameters

Satisfied structural abilities

Satisfied overall aesthetic

32 vertical studes 4 horizontal studs

Grasshopper structural waffle system connection/interlocking

CNC milling machine

constrains 2.4*1.2m

Dissected 6.5m studs into shorter fragments

Grasshopper puzzle-joint

Metal plate bolted+screwed around joints

Reverse engineering

B.4 Technique Development

B.4Technique Development

an interesting design outcome generated in the technique development, it maintains the similar form of the precedent architecture and by changing the base geometry input into the script, the panels varied from linear lines into dy-namic moving structure. The surface structure panels are more dynamic in the forms and I think this could be an interesting design outcome.

This is an un-expecting design outcome from the script. I like how the cull patterned blocks creating the form and how the light and shadow acting onto it, and actually the result come out form the grasshopper script is far more beyond what I expecting to see. It’s a surprise!

Voronoi has always attracts my attention in the grasshopper exploration, in this case I applied Voronoi into the surface’s bounding box and cull pattern in accordingly, and the outcome from the script is quite different from the oth-er variations. I later on smooth mesh the surface and get this rounded edge cubes.

This is one of my most favorite outcomes from the exploration. I do like how the tubes are twisting to form the shape and how many variation I can do onto it, and I will take it into further development later in the design pro-cess.

B.5Techinique prototypes

Due to the complexity form of the model I later came up with and it’s hard to fab-ricated using common modelling materials, I was planning to use 3D printing as a fabricating method. However, the 3D printer in fablab didn’t work out properly. The program is running but the 3D printer was not extruding any filament.

This is one part of my model, it has more than 400 meshes and will take 5 hours printing time. I will try again in another time and can’t wait to see my first 3D printing model!!

B.6Technique proposal

I revisit the technique development previously and I wish to further develop in what I’ve got from grasshopper. I’m especially interested in the voronoi form and there are some interesting outcomes generated in B4 that I wish to further explorre. So I took the tube structure (the last iteration in B4) and combined with the voronoi transformation to see what other outcomes it can generate.

Continuing on the development from B4, I decrease the points on the surface so that eliminating the ‘folded’ sections in the tube. The tubes laying below show the final elimination of the points so that can create a smooth curve. Later on I applied weaverbird plugin to play around with different surface meshing pattern.

Once I got bored with the meshes, I again pop the points onto the surface, but this time I used an interpolate curve to draw a line by these points, and then testing the outcome of the new design species.

2 curves are drawn in order to compare the different results from different point selection.

I then testing out the voronoi curved surface variations (voronoi sur-face, cull vornoi surface, framed voronoi surface)

And then going in to voronoi 3D

Rendering effects

My design idea is generated from the bottom up, while I’m exploring the possibility of parametric design and then evaluating whether the design outcomes suits the brief set up before.

[...]when all frontiers have been tamed and developed, when all exotic tribes and species have been winkled out of their hidden crannies and firmly tagged, where after all can one look for the wild, the unknown? When all natural wonders have been scientifically investigated, and all ancient monuments have become tourists attractions, where can one seek the numinous, the sacred? In a world contracted by motor travel and telecommunications, how can one experience vastness?Matthews, 2005

Site visit response: Main attributes on site- Merri Creek, Yarra River, Main Yarra Trail, Eastern Freeway etc. As far as I’ve observed, human activities is very high on the site, which means the wild life activity zoom has been significantly shrunk and limited. In response to this, I think it’s the time human to step a step back, giving back some of the habitat to the nature, keeping this understanding in mind, and with iterations and the devel-opment I’ve been play around with, I would like to construct a structure across the water that only small animals to pass through. I want to bridge a connection be-tween human and the nature on site where human do not predominantly involve, but however holding back and being respect and waiting for the response from nature. (Weather the animals on site are decided to cross the bridge or not)

Two possible outcomes re-spond to the site

B.7 Learning outcomethe learning process is tough but interesting, I’m kind of enjoy-ing the learning process and I thinks it’s always good to learn somethin new when I am still a student, which it eailser to do so and I also have many time to actually learning fulll time. Explor-ing grasshopper reminds me of solving math problem in high school, and I do enjoy the process!

B.8 AppendixI first chose to do the Aqua Tower for my B4 technique development and spend many days struggling how to actually make the extruding balcony extruding out from the building facade during the Easter break. However when I finally worked out how to solve the problem I realise due to the rigid form, and the definition is set to be a high rise building, I found it hard to achieve the later development on the site, as I wish to have some sorts of connections across the water which is hard for a tall and rigid form building to achieve. Thus I switch to another field which has less constrains on the forms. But I still wanna show the work I’ve done before even it’s not in the right track, and I have to say the actual Aqua tower do look elegent.

Ref Image sources art 615 referencehttp://www.archdaily.com/59960/art615-a-pavilion-by-aalborg-university-stu-dents/http://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ycxbFwlc1r6cinno7_r1_1280.jpghttp://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1273777187-dsc-1511-528x350.jpghttps://www.google.com.au/search?q=art615+pavilion&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=1055&site=web-hp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=XlRBVYvjG8GBmQXigYGgAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg-#imgrc=WBQ2uWGbn_6RyM%253A%3B2-s-49BgqfGdmM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcubeme.com%252Fblog%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2010%252F05%252FArt615_Pavilion_Aal-borg_University_students_02.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcubeme.com%252Fblog%252F-wp-content%252Fuploads%252F2010%252F05%252F%3B594%3B430http://meresschoolblog.blogspot.com.au/http://www.stylepark.com/db-images/cms/ceramica_cumella/img/p299004_2200_1515-2.jpghttp://divisare.com/projects/272168-FOA-Alejandro-Zaera-Polo-Farshid-Moussavi-Spanish-Pavil-ion/images/4752656http://divisare.com/projects/272168-FOA-Alejandro-Zaera-Polo-Farshid-Moussavi-Spanish-Pavil-ion