RHIANNON RUSSELL

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

607660

MODULE TWO

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!e Beijing Olympic Stadium (2008) was created to resemble a birds nest, based on the shape of a historic Chinese pot. !e braided, steel structure comprises of sweeping lines around a circular vessel. !e structure is very intricate with parts criss-crossing to create a very complicated fabrication. !e facade is open to allow for natural ventilation, while also creating a membrane that has an inviting quality.

PRECEDENT

Looking back on my design from Module 1, I was unsure of where my design process was taking me. I decided that I had moved too far away from my original use of the dande-lion into an abstract form with little meaning.

Consequently, I resorted back to sketching the dandelion in different stages and came up with a model based around the process of the dandelion losing its seeds.

CREATION OF MODEL

I used the model by tracing sections technique to create my digitalised model. However, once I had initially lofted the 6 individual shapes to form the surface of my GHVLJQ�,�GHFLGHG�WKDW�LW�GLGQ·W�ORRN�ULJKW�WR�KDYH�D�ÁDW�ERWWRP���$V�D�UHVXOW��,�FRSLHG�WKH�ÀUVW�IDFH�VKDSHV�DQG�UHÁHFWHG�WKHP�DORQJ�WKH�[�D[LV�WR�IRUP�D�VSKHUH�OLNH�REMHFW���I futher altered the shape by rotating the bottom half so that the intrustion in the top half of the shape was on the opposite side to the intrustion on the bottom half.

DIGITALISED MODEL

3D Panelling: pyramid

WEEK FOUR PANELLING

3D Panelling: weave

2D Panelling: brick 2D Panelling: tri-prism

!ese forms of panelling demonstrated that my shape was quite complicated. I tried using custom panels but they were not successful as faces continuously overlapped on particular areas of the lo"ed surface. As a result, I decided to test more complicated panels on a simple object forhe second part of module 2.

PANELLING #1

Desired panelling effect Custom panel Base shape

I used my own custom panel within Rhino to produce this model. I found that I had to constantly change the custom panel and delete lines to prevent doubling up when the pattern was repeated and applied to the surface so as to get the desired effect that I was after.

PANELLING #2

Desired panelling effect Custom panel Base shape

To create this model I used a custom panel within Rhino. I found that the desired effect was not evenly distrib-uted across the whole model and consequently had to tweek the number of panelling points a few times EHIRUH�LW�ZRXOG�ÀW�DSSURSULDWHO\�

This form of panelling was originally one of my favour-ites. However, given that the edges are all curved I am unable to unrol the surface to create an accurate pro-totype. I attempted to triangulate the surfaces but this resulted in the shape being lost and the panelling effect represent squares.

PANELLING #3

Desired panelling effect Custom panel Base shape

I again used a custon interface to create my desired panelling effect in Rhino. I tested the design multiple times with a varying number of panelling points and decided upon keeping the structure simple so as to not over complicate the lighting effects and thus only having a few.

PROTOTYPE #1

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PROTOTYPE #2

Unrolled panels from second panelled lantern

INTERFACE

After testing different forms of SDQHOOLQJ��,�WKLQN�WKDW�P\�ÀQDO�trial with the diamond pattern

is the most effective. It also has similar lighting effects to what I

hope to obtain with different lay-ering and boldness of shadows.

I want the lantern to be held in the hand because it is a very fragile piece that should be

protected. As humans we tend WR�KROG�REMHFWV�ZH�FKHULVK�ZLWK�

both hands clasped around them and bring it in close to our

chest.

RESPONSE

I thought that the sheer detail of the Beijing National Studium represented the delicateness of the dandelion very well. A!er watching an episode of Megastruc-tures of the development of the building I found that many of its identi"able features were also apparent within my own design and process. I used the idea of a porous surface with collective vessels through means of panelling my base structure. In doing so I created a complicated object with multiple layers and protrusions at many angles. While this task was extremely frustrating and I had to greatly simplify my original idea to get it to work successfully with Rhino, I am quite happy with the end product.

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Thomas Heatherwick is an architect that spoke about on his designs in a TED talk. The Seed Cathedral is a SDUWLFXODUO\�JRRG�H[DPSOH�RI�KRZ�+HDWKHU��ZLFN�XVHV�design to create a spatial effect. The building was made up of “optical hairs”, which enabled the whole building to move with the wind. It references the need to save seeds for growth, evident through the preser-vance of seeds within the structure. They are located in long rods that could also be regarded as growing as the rods protrude out of the building structure.

Going back over the lectures and looking at precendents put me back on track for my design as before I had strayed too far from my dandelion design so as to alter things without meaning and purpose.

In Lost in Parameter Space by Scheurer and Stehling, abstraction and reduc-tion were explored. Abstraction: the development of a model with as little information as possi-ble, while still describing the properties of an object without ambiguity. Reduction: "nding another way of representing data to achieve optimal use of resources such as memory and disk space.Abstraction permanently removes redundancies, while reduction tempo-rarily removes redundancies. #e Rhino model produced in module 1 is an example of abstraction and reduction. When "rst drawing the 3D model, abstraction takes place, and to re"ne the model, reduction must occur. Kandisky’s 3 stages of analytical drawings is the analogue version of abstrac-tion and reduction in 3D modelling.

During last week’s lecture, Dr Alex Selenitsch identi"ed di$erent types of composition methods: single gesture, assemblage, inter-ference patterns and resolution.

#e most relevant composition stragegies in regards to designing my lantern are the single gesture and assemblage approach. #e single gesture strategy aims to just have one outcome. Similarly, the process of designing the lantern may have many di$erent formations; however, there will only be one "nal design.

Another composition strategy that is implemented in my design is the assemblage strategy. It is the collaboration of many dispa-rate parts with a mixed scale and medium. From the analytical drawings, paper model and clay model, an extraction of all the ideas and forms must be made in order to produce the "nal lan-tern design.

RESPONSE