Rhino: Goat

Has anyone had a chance to use goat yet?

If you have, don't be shy - I am curious regarding the output and your thoughts. Thanks!

spulenkorb

Team Members: Ryan Collier | Michael Tomaso | Gabriel Esquivel

The project was awarded an honorable mention in the REPEAT competition organized by TEXFAB November 2010.

There is a vast precedent in fabrication projects that deal with the idea of weaving, however within those projects there are more specific techniques. This project concerns itself specifically in the spiral or coil. In "Tooling" Aranda/Lasch describe this technique as, “the spiral (which) is not so much the shape as the evidence of a shape in formation."(1) This idea implies constant movement as a desired effect - something architecture has historically aspired to. Aranda/Lasch continue the argument in terms of spiral lattices as multiple woven points weaving producing stability: this gives the potential of using the technique as away to assure the structure of the project’s form. To employ such a technique, one would have to use materials and tools that provide a ribboning or woven methodology.

When we began to research more about weaving techniques we looked at“coiled” baskets and “plaited” basketry. Baskets are categorized by Technique; we found diagonally plaited as producing a more contemporary effect. At the same time, coiled baskets provide more stability in that they employ a technique

of bundle strands or rods stitched into a spiraling oval or round form with a thin, flexible element to create a coil. Numerous variations of stitch types and embellishments (such as imbrications) can afford a wide range of possibilities.

Spulenkorb is a combination of both techniques. Spulenkorb literally means a coiled or spiral-form basket. The interest in a coil-spiral-weaving technique is the idea of movement - a propelling force that make things operate - a pattern and certain geometries referential to physics and chemistry as well as in popular culture, music, and film - all while being sensitive to architectural logic of elegance in structure and form.

The initial form then was conceived as a mobius rind (2), a variation of the pure mathematical "strip". For initial investigation we worked with the tool TopMod(3), a topological manifold mesh modeler which handles multi-genus geometries, to model the rind. We then continued to develop the mesh in Maya to include vortex apertures and variable, ornamental perforations, in an effort to test therobustness of the weaving algorithm.

Once the basic geometry was developed, the project was then passed through a series of subdivision routines to help determine which might provide the type of weaving that we ultimately desired. The team selected a base cubic pentagonalization routine because of the flower-like aperture treatment and the relationship between the various ribbons. There was also a strong consideration of the necessity of the final algorithm: weaving the mesh required inclusion of mesh based knots and links. These links can be represented in various ways, and can be passed through a subdivision-extrusion-reevaluation procedure to produce the desired woven effect. The final state of the project includes a series of six continuous ribbons of various lengths. Additionally, none of the ribbons are straight, nor do they maintain their width - these variables are determined by the geometry, the algorithm, and the further parametric variables provided in the algorithm. Each ribbon includes several hundred developable surfaces, all with a unique four- sided condition. It is because of these specificities, and because of the recent development of the tools that such a project can be conceived, digitally or otherwise.

In conclusion, that while up to this point much of the study in digital fabrication research has been based on tessellated surfaces typically derived from some abbreviation of the catmull-clark subdivision routine, this proposal supersedes these current studies by providing new solutions and challenges through the use of emerging tools (such as topmod) and algorithims (such as cubic pentagonalization and weaving) providing an opportunity to experiment and new directions.

1. Aranda, Benjamin. Tooling. Aranda/Lasch. Pamphlet Architecture 27. Princeton Architectural Press. Spiraling. P 12.

2. Akleman Ergun. Cyclic Plain Weaving on Polygonal Mesh Surfaces with Graph Rotation Systems. Siggraph 09.

3. see topmod3d.org for more information

Be sure to check out the project on suckerpunch-

aperture & influence

fisker artega gt

The elevational surface of the artega gt aligns itself as knowing other geometries that are emerging from current architectural discourse (or work thereof): it’s eye-like aperture on the side is similar to the ornamental moves recently employed by Esquivel in his La Riviera renovation geometries (theoremas blog link):

At this point I contend that there are words/articulation needed to fully distinguish one aperture from another (as others certainly exist) wholly in and of itself, and not of a metaphorical rhetoric).

There is a specific move, where void makes a line, a delineation, about a surface, then invades or moves through the surface creating sub-surface expressed geometries in its wake; a moving void. In the same way there seems to be a movement about Esquivel’s work that entertains void objects about a surface, causing influences while not (in a similar move) ripping or destroying it’s plasticity.

Both discuss beauty in the most indiscrete way…perhaps this denies any true articulation to exist: they both leave the subject breathless.

la rivieria fabrication: link (I’ll post more of this incredible project as it comes online)

fisker automotive: link

Maya to Rhino translation in real time

LAN has released a video showing research on the transfer of geometry in real time from Maya to Rhino via the UDP format in Grasshopper. Currently the video only shows a surface being animated as a cloth with some sort of wind particle acting upon the surface. See the video below -

[LAN: Maya Fluid to Grasshopper via UDP]

a SWELL project

Professor Gabriel Esquivel

Ryan R. Collier – Project Manager

Nick Cignac | Matt Richardson | Todd Christensen | Mitch Scott Rocheleau | Chris Gassaway

“life is nothing but instability and disequilibrium... a swelling tumult continuously on the verge of explosion.” ~ Georges Bataille

“Swell” emerged from the posture of presenting an argument emerging from architecture itself. Is it possible to talk about architecture from its own discourse? This project fits within the continuum of architecture through references from works of the classicists to early modernists. A significant part of the research revolved around the discussion of classical ornamentation: a layer of architecturalization that was perhaps best articulated by the early modernist Louis Sullivan as seen in his intricate, highly articulated Guaranty Bank(i) corner to cornice detailing.

Not unlike the Baroque, there is a sense of levitation and anticipation – a feeling that the swell condition will either a) cause the entire beam to ultimately invade the floor and spread as a viscous fluid, or b) explode under the pressure of the aforementioned systems. Ironically, although the swell condition creates the illusion of weight, the project is - because of geometry, castellation, and material studies - quite the opposite. Furthermore, the form can be understood as an exaggerated moment diagram, as if the weight of the interior is causing deformation about the middle of beam.

This project addresses a classic architectural problem of the column/beam or more literally the corner/beam condition, a swelling condition in this case. The space includes a logic of ornamentation through aggregation of apertures and voids about the surface. To the benefit of the whole, two subservient (submissive) systems work concurrently, interdependently to erect an affect of Swell. Arguably, the one system without the other would be beautiful, but without any sense of abjection. Abject then is the state in which the object begins merging with the subject, literally dissolving the boundary between the two; the abject replaces the object. As the two systems invade the other and create such interaction, the composite condition begins to swell under pressures, literally ripping the surface: apertures graze the surface where there were none. The micro condition of the porous appears taut via stretching of certain geometries, ultimately achieving a high porosity the swelling turning into poché. This poché is the condition of the surface against the softbodies, a system beginning to distend: an infinite cleavage, a condition of invaded interstitial spaces.

The interstitial space, implied or contained is interpreted as a suppression of the paradox of physics and metaphysics of space that aims for an argument of desire, or that of the seductive void.

The void then can assume various shapes/relations. The question is whether or not the void is understood as a condition of interiority or exteriority. Our subjective affiliation to the project could be explained as the classic repression exercised by the superego, exposing another way to look at it in terms of the “other," in which otherness is present within the subject: a condition of abjection. “The interiority of exteriority is not understood until the internalization of absolute alterity disrupts the self conscious subject by revealing the presence/absence of an unconsciousness that can never fully enter consciousness”.(ii) Since the outside is always inside, the self is, in some sense, forever outside itself. The seductive “within” is not merely a need that can be filled by the possession of an object: the discourse of the other signifies an insatiable desire.

“Swelling” is presented as a disruptive condition that argues emotional possibilities, from its sensual and ominous ornamentation to questions whether it is psycho sexual, an explosion, or simply a disruption of the condition of the surface?

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(i) Image provided by: http://www.wrightnowinbuffalo.com/whattodo/images/Guaranty4.jpg

(ii) Jacques Lacan, Ecrits. A. Sheridan. New York; Norton 19

*Construction documents available upon request.

 

   

Tracery AEffect _preliminaries

These are the boards the team and I have been working on as a fabrication project at A&M. I just thought they looked amazing and I wanted to post them.

The project is really about the pliant and the Affect, with the architecturalization of the work being faceted and porous. The whole thing is an experiment in materials and scripting. I'll let you know more as things develop-

graphics/code by jeremy harper.

let me know what you think in the comments-