Shane Dominique Siy Cha657886 Semester 2/2013 Group 5 InflatableVirtual Environments

MEASURED DRAWINGS AND ANALYTICAL SKETCHES

I learned from the measured drawings and analytical sketches how the floaties or inflatable works. In this case, I tried to look at how the valve system works and the inflation process of the float-ies. I noticed how air goes through the valve only if it is pressed and the slit widens. On the other hand, the inflation process was actually quick. This is also most probably because the inflatable itself is small. I also noticed how the whole inflatable is sealed and divided into parts. This means that when air is blown into the valve, not all of the inflatable inflates. I found this very interesting and already instantly thought it could be useful for my second skin design.

Ideation 1

Ideation 2RHINO DIGITAL MODEL

For my first try of using Rhino, I tried to de-velop the floaties in. It was quite difficult as it was my first time. The photo on the bottom right was my first try by making two pipes and slanting it a little bit to have both pipes touch. Afterwards, I lofted the ends to patch them up and later on adding truncated cones for the valve. However, I

tried to progress it further by giving it another try. I then set up an axis of revolution with two ellipses stacked together. Next, I revolved both ellipses to 270° and then extruded the curve along the curve to join both edges. Finally, I added truncated cones on it to acts as valves. I was able to get help from the tutorials and the technical sessions for both.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Ideation 3

I tried making an inflatable using plas-tic tablecloth. Initially, I would have used a normal plastic bag or a garbage bag as suggested in class. However, I found it too thin, which I thought would make taping it together more difficult. I also tried to cre-ate bulges as it inflates. I tried with tapes as shown above and it did not work. I then tried to use string to wrap around it and once I in-flated it using a hair dryer, it finally bulged.

PRECEDENCE AND SKETCH DESIGNS Ideation 4

Source: http://dehornberger.aimsites.org/files/2008/12/pufferfish.jpg

One precedent I found that inspired one of my sketch designs was a puffer fish. I found it interesting how it blows up when it gets defen-sive and afraid from anything that is a threat to it. This then acts as its defense mechanism where-in the spikes help protects it. Similar to the puff-er fish, I looked at my view of personal space

personal space and initially, I thought of not want-ing people to be close to me. In this case, I drew spikes that would inflate on my arms so peo-ple would get the idea of my “defensiveness” and personal space. I also found it interesting how the puffer fish just transforms to a complete-ly different form once it feels something unusual.

PRECEDENCE AND SKETCH DESIGNS Ideation 5

Source: http://images.sciencedaily.com/2009/09/090921134702-large.jpg

Another precedent I found interesting was the shape of the DNA. Not only that, but the DNA is a molecule that encodes genetic information, which is used to develop and function all living organisms. In this case, I thought that the DNA would also be the reason for people’s reactions and feelings about anything. This includes our personal space and how we react to it as well. With looking at my personal space through this, I realized that I would not want people or strangers to be anywhere near my front area, specifically the torso and face area. This area of the body, especially to women, is most vulnerable. This helped me create a sketch that focuses on the torso area wherein different “arms” are connected to a middle function. In this case, people would not be able to come too near where I am most vulnerable.

SKETCHES Design 6

With a groupmate, we had to further develop and think a better design for our second skin. This time, we looked on “spikes”, which aren’t really too pointy, thus the triangular shape and something massive. We also thought of something different and somewhat “complicated” as to show how our internal re-actions with our personal space. As shown in the sketch where two people are connected, the person on the left is in an area where they are most comfortable hence the smaller design. However, as the area gets uncomfortable and the per-son starts feeling uneasy inside, the design gets bigger and the “hat” shows how it’s more difficult to concentrate then. On the other hand, the other design shows more of transformation from it being deflated and cape-like then inflated once the person starts feeling uneasy. Although, we also realized along with the tutor’s comments that the connected design is too compli-cated for an inflatable and would be very difficult to make.

DIGITIZED MESH AND RHINO Design 7

These designs are then further de-veloped on Rhino along with my digitized mesh body form 123D Catch. The digitized mesh did not turn out perfect, but it was good enough to represent my body on rhino for the design. On the other hand, the Rhino was still quite confusing to do.

PRECEDENCE Design 8

The Breathing Wall - Sensoree, date unkown Inflatable Street Art - Joshua Allen Harris, date unkown

One of the precedence we found is the Breathing Wall by Sen-soree. Most of the designs Sensoree aims to accomplish the promotion of external intimacy. The Breathing Wall is an interactive design that reacts to human movement, touch and flow. Sea creatures and beings such as sea anemones and the puffer fish original-ly inspired this design. In making this design, single-use plastic bags were utilized, which were then put togeth-er to create an inflatable with unique textures and colors. This design is also

computer generated as motion sensors in it were connected to computer fans that senses human movement and behavior that caus-es it to inflate. We found this prec-edent very useful to our second skin design with exploring personal space. Similarly, we want our sec-ond skin to show how our personal reactions are like from being safe to being in a place where we feel danger. Likewise, we want to por-tray the internal feelings and reac-tions externally in a physical design.

Another precedence we found is the inflatable street art by Joshua Allen Harris. With the use of cheap materials such as garbage bags, he was able to portray such sim-ple and noticeable artwork. In addi-tion, his design was not only the phys-ical art but it gave off a big message to people; especially his polar bear design. Although Harris did not mean the design to have a message, peo-ple just instantly had it in mind upon seeing the art such as global warm-ing and how inflation epresents life

and deflation as death. These designs were taped down to subway gates fig-uring that with 4 paws and more holes to tape down, there would be more passageways for the wind to inflate it as the train passes beneath the vents. We found this precedent to be very useful for our design as well as give us inspiration on how we could create a message about our personal space through the design. In addition, we would want to stress simplicity to our design just like Harris did and still give off a strong message to the public.

LECTURE AND READING RESPONSES Design 9

THOMAS HEATHERWICK

Rolling Bridge - Thomas Heatherwick, date unkown

Thomas Heatherwick talked about the use of design to create effects. It took his attention that small-scale innovations portray such a great materiality and sole-fullness. However, such large scales, which should be giving more significance, lacked sense of sole, which feels colder. Heather-wick thought to bring out the meaningfulness of small-scale designs to stimulate a sense of emotion into larger scale innovations. This way, large scale projects would be more enjoyable. To produce this, there must be effects and a sense of purpose to the design. In addition, the building must be made to work for context and to create interest and aesthet-ic appeal to the public. An example of this would be Heatherwick’s Rolling Bridge in London, UK. This de-sign is a pedestrian bridge for workers and residents, which gives off a main fascination—the movement. As shown in the photo, from a straight structure of eight segments, it curls inwards to close the bridge.

Similarly, he designed the upside-down, connected high-rise apartments in Malaysia, which is econom-ically beneficial as it designed to have a space on the top floor for a large rainforest. This promotes the diversity of flora and fauna and brings nature into the city. Additionally, it adds up green space to the area. It is, therefore, important to understand the quality of algorithmic machines we design instead of the designs the machines themselves produce. This way, we prevent getting lost in parameter space. Moreover, we must keep in mind that the quality of processes is more important than the overall result. In addition, computation has intensified maths in architectural practice—this has been shown in in-creasing interest in maths and its abstract concepts, which would help with the design process. It is also essential for one to communicate well, especially with architectural design—the builders must be giv-en sufficient instructions while describing the design.

Furthermore, to reduce design is to find the op-timal way to transport information to rewrite the description without actually altering the content. Heatherwick also talked about NURBS. He mentioned that it is the precise definition of com-plex shapes through control points. As learned in the lecture, NURBS help the designers define the design more by defining and balancing con-trol points through operations such as transfor-mation. In addition, modeling free form surfaces means that mathematical concepts working be-hind the surfaces and relating these to the mate-rial world must be understood. It was mentioned in the lecture that math would always be a part of architecture and in this case, it could even help make designs more innovative through the pro-cess of defining control points. Lastly, Heatherwick also mentioned that smart solutions would be to know the properties of both shape and material.

PROTOTYPES Design 10

We had different prototypes on in-flatables and we looked and experimented for different types of details that would give more volume to the inflatable, which is an-other goal for us to aim. Although the air itself would already give enough volume to the de-sign, we wanted to have something eccentric.

We tried different materials as well such as plastic bag and plastic table cloth and found that the heavier the material the better. In this case we tested on pleating and looked up dress making, flaps and tried to make round inflatables. We also initially tried to make it on triangles, as we know that our de-sign would have triangular like designs on it.

Firstly, the pleating was very good as we found that this would make the inflatable bulge, which therefore would create more volume. Secondly, the flaps really attract at-tention, but at the same time the detail gives it more volume without having to make the design bigger. We found that this would real-ly work well on our second skin and exploring personal space at the same time. Instead of using “spikes” which we later on found very literal. As the flaps starts to move when air is being blown in, we thought it shows more of a transformation to the second skin. T

he round doughnut-like design was good but it would not fit well on the design we had in mind. Also, it was suggested to us by the tutor that we should not complicate the design more and make it as simple but exceptional as possible.

PERSONAL SPACE Fabrication 11

With our personal space, we made an-other prototype. As we were exploring more for our personal space, we realized that the whole upper body is equally vulnerable and thus want-ing to make a second skin that would cover the whole upper part of the body. We found that not only are we vulnerable at the back

area where we cannot see what is happening, but also in the front area where we actually know what might happen. For instance, if we were in an uncomfortable or dangerous situation, we would always try to look back as we may be par-anoid, but the paranoia will bring us back to de-fending ourselves knowing what’s in front of us.

With this, we wanted to elaborate more on transformation through the phase of comfortableness (deflated) to uncomfort-able (inflated). We tried to put in the flaps on the triangle or the arm and later on at-taching this to the base, which is pleated and covers the whole back and torso area.

FINAL DIGITIZED MODEL Fabrication 12

Since the design was only an estimated mea-surement, also with the use of rules and tape measure, it did not fit and inflate right and several problems occurred. Firstly, the arm was too small, which did not really astonishing. Secondly, the pleats did give it volume, however, as it inflated it did not become as big as we wanted it to be. It actually feels suffo-cating when it is worn and it is being inflated, there-fore not giving it enough volume. It also kept falling when it is worn as the measurement was not right.

We then further developed this design in rhi-no, trying to think of ways on how to give it more volume. We then paneled a rounder shaped rhino design, which, like a beach ball, gives it more vol-ume. The base is also paneled, which we thought might make the design rounder. We made the arms longer as well. Finally, we tried to make it fit the digitized mesh body, so it fits us perfectly.

LECTURE AND READING RESPONSES Fabrication 13

As years go by, new technologies are continuously invented that affects design pro-cesses from planning to manufacturing. These development and progresses we have in our time has disadvantages such as restricting one compared to the traditional way of designing in terms of limiting ones imagination. Howev-er, it is mostly advantageous and beneficial to both the designer and the process as it may develop new ways of effect and definitely speed up the design and construction process.

As mentioned by Kolarevic (2003) in his own “Architecture in the Digital Age”, there are different types of processes for digital fab-rication. The most common one being used is the two-dimensional fabrication, which basi-cally cuts a sheet of material. Another tech-nique is the additive fabrication, which creates a product layer by layer. On the other hand, the subtractive fabrication removes volume or milling. Moreover, the formative fabrication produces desired forms by mechanical forc-es, which restricts heat to alter the material.

With our second skin design, we are able to use digital fabrication through the fabrication lab. As we complete and final-ize our design in Rhino, we are able to sub-mit our design in the fabrication lab wherein machines such as the laser cutter and card cutter are used to speed up the cutting process needed to make the final design.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

DIGITAL FABRICATIONS

Iwamoto (2009) talked about several techniques in “Digital Fabrications” such as sec-tioning, tessellating and folding. With focus on folding, it is seen as a very uncomplicated tech-nique to use, yet it is very helpful and effective to not only give effect visually, but also improve the structure of the material. Folding increases firmness and rigidity to the design, which orig-inated from a flat surface. Though this, the ma-terial is capable of expanding and be more effi-cient, thus making it a more effective technique.

Originally, we sketched our second skin design on paper, which had a round form and as we prototyped it, it didn’t become as volu-metric as we wanted it to be. As we developed it in Rhino, we found that we had to panel the sides into sections to create a more spherical and volumetric shape once we have it fabricated. This then changed the aesthetics of the design, which we also had to use a soldering iron and tape, which also lead to a more complex design.

With prototyping, we learned that we could actually test how different scales; fabri-cation, materials and techniques may alter our original design and make it look better. Usually, there is a big difference between the conceptu-alization process and the final design because in between the process, there may be an altering in techniques, which may either lead the design to an advantage or disadvantage. I learned that through prototyping and altering fabrication process, it would always lead to the final design.

MANUFACTURING PROCESS Fabrication 14FABRICATION LAB - TEMPLATES

We then unrolled parts of our final design for us to have our template to make the inflat-able. We had parts of the triangle made, the top base and the bottom base. We submit-ted these unrolled surfaces to the fabrica-tion lab and with the use of a laser cutter; we were able to get our boxboard templates.

Fabrication 15MANUFACTURING PROCESSMAKING OF FINAL DESIGN - CUTTING AND WELDING

With the help of the template from the fab-rication lab, we were able to cut the de-sired sizes for the sections of our inflatable. Instead of just estimating the measurements, the templates made the process of cutting the plastic easier. After cutting everything, we used a soldering iron to put the base to-gether as well as make the triangles by put-ting all the parts together as well. The only thing we did not weld from the triangle is the tip as it was too small and difficult for us to weld together. In addition, we cut circles for the flaps and cut holes on the arms for it.

Fabrication 16MANUFACTURING PROCESSMAKING OF FINAL DESIGN - TAPING AND ATTACHING FAN

Since we already have the welded pieces, we just taped the tip of the triangles so the arm would be fully covered. We then attached the arms to the base of the inflatable by taping them, as it was dif-ficult to weld it together. Finally, we attached the bilge fan with the help of a pipe also made by plas-tic tablecloth that connects it to the inflatable. We had to use two bilge fans to create more power and air to flow in. We started with only one bilge fan and it did not inflate as desired since there was not enough power for the arms to actually stand.

FINAL DESIGN Fabrication 17

We decided not to add the pleating to the inflatable, as there was plenty of volume already that pleating would not be even close to noticeable. Our final design, which was produced with the use of simple materials such as plastic tablecloth, tape, soldering iron and fans just like the precedence we found, was finally created.

LECTURE AND READING RESPONSE Reflection 18

The third industrial revo-lution reading first talked about the first industrial revolution, fol-lowed by the second and final-ly about the third. Rifkin (2011) mentioned about how the first industrial revolution ran on coal. The first industrial revolution was a prototype business model for oth-er industries wherein the railroad was the centerpiece of the coal powered, steam-driver first indus-trial revolution. Since it was the start, everything was expensive as it had a massive commercial enterprise. During this time, own-ership and management were separated as managing was al-ready a heavy and difficult task, therefore work was broken down by division of labour, which made production flow done faster while maintaining the control of overall operations. In addition, they had a principle of scientific manage-ment, which optimizes worker ef-ficiency such as telling the work-ers what to do, how to do it and how long it should be done. This then made efficiency the basic value of the new industrial age. Later on, oil overtook coal as the leading energy source in the United States, which started the second indus-trial revolution. Oil was found to be much cheaper than coal,

which caused the decline of use of coal. During this time, the use of railroads and making of railways slowed down. Many oil compa-nies were created and automo-bile companies followed. The use of cars, then, started to increase as railroads decreased. However, no matter how innovative the sec-ond industrial revolution was with the start of automobiles, this also caused poverty to rise as those on top of the pyramid have benefited disproportionately. In this case, it was somehow economically poor.

The third industrial revo-lution then came as the use of natural gases such as sun, wind, hydro, geothermal heat, biomass, ocean waves and tides were dis-covered. This helps the economy to be more sustainable compared to the first and second industrial revolution. The partial shift from markets to networks brings a dif-ferent business orientation such as moving economy from analog to a digital mode of thinking. Ad-ditionally, the power of network became even bigger during this time such as Wikipedia having so much more entries than Bri-tannica. Moreover, the networks have changed the way people do things such as the three-di-mensional printing. Rifkin (2011) states, “Industry analysts forecast

that millions of customers will rou-tinely download digitally manu-factured, customized products and ‘print them out’ at their busi-ness or residence”. This therefore shows that, everyone can po-tentially be their own manufac-turer, which may reduce logistic costs and the increase of energy savings. The third industrial revo-lution businesses are starting to help the economy grow such as the Internet being a big help in connecting sellers to buyers.

Being used to having Inter-net and digital technology easy access, I never actually thought about it being such a great help. This reading made me think how difficult everything used to be as they were manual. Connections now are so much easier, as well as designing and making. But with the emerging of third industrial revolution, it also helps sustain-able economic game plan for the world. I realized how much easier work is with digital technology. For instance, with Rhino and our in-flatable. It was taking us so long to figure out the geometries of how our 2nd skin would fit to our body, until we tried fixing it in Rhino and it was a perfect fit. It is the same with the world, how faster the process of designing and making would be with digital technology.

THE THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

PROJECT ANALYSIS Reflection 19

At the beginning of the course, we were introduced to the idea of making a second skin by ex-ploring our own personal space. Also, we were given our materi-al system and I got the inflatable.

I was somehow confused about what was asked of us. All I knew was that we had to explore our per-sonal space to make our design and I constantly asked myself how do we actually do that thinking that person-al space is an instinct and something external. After reading “Spatial inva-sion” by Sommer, R (1969) who defines personal space as “an area with invisi-ble boundaries surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not come”, I learned that the only way to find your personal space is to test it.

I found module 1 quite chal-lenging since I was still confused about what was asked of us. I did not do too well on my first module, however, I’ve definitely learned from my mistakes then. Looking back to the first few weeks and looking at my last few weeks, there has been a big change on my progress. Without this journal, I doubt anyone would be able to guess that my first mod-ule and final design are even related.

We started our group work in the second module and it was not as difficult as I thought it would be since I realized that my group mate and I ac-tually work well together. This is because we had ideas that go well togeth-er, which were also relatively similar. However, we have had our problems throughout the second module as well since we were still having troubles with Rhino and we would either think of a design too simple or too complicated.

I worked hard after the first module and tried harder on the sec-ond. I talked to the lecturer, Paul Loh, about how my design and ideas for an inflatable seemed too complicat-ed to make and he then told me the point of module 2 is to keep proto-typing until you find what works best. This is when I realized that through the long process of making, drawing and imagining are just small steps. That is when digital tools come to make the process easier and faster.

Through the designing pro-cess, both creating it and doing Rhi-no, I realized that I’ve encountered many problems, which were mostly technical problems and my lack of creativity to create something since most of the time my idea would turn out to be impossible to digitize.

With the help of my tutor, de-signing the second skin then became easier as she told us that with mak-ing an inflatable, it is better to make it simple, but with meaning. Finally, we were able to think of a design that was uncomplicated yet it defi-nitely showed our personal space.

However, I later on realized how Rhino can greatly help shape our de-sign as it alters measurements as well.

PROJECT ANALYSIS Reflection 20

Although it was very much time consuming, going through mod-ule three was the most amusing to me. However, I realized that making something out of plastic was so much easier than sectioning and folding the design since all we needed to do was to seal it. Nevertheless, it was still part-ly difficult because of its fragileness.

This immediately made me re-alize the importance of prototyping and developing it digitally since only Rhino was able to make the mea-surements and volume of the de-sign right. Additionally, prototyping helped me learn from my mistakes.

Although our design is not as complicated as other designs and see-ing that it is not perfect, I still admire the inflatable we have made since we ded-icated time and hard work to create such a massive project also never know-ing I would be able to create one my-self. What gave me more joy was when the tutors, lecturer and a few other peo-ple appreciate the work we have done.

“nothing is perfect, but practice lessens the imperfections”

Virtual environments has not only given me learning knowledge, but thought me skills that I will be experi-encing in the future and that will help shape me through the following years.

What amazed me the most is finding my ability to learn what I find too different and difficult quickly; in this case, Rhino. I struggled with Rhino since the very start and always did ev-erything the last minute. Although I did not do too well on it, the digitization was actually not as bad as it seems. Although throughout the semes-

ter I have been getting annoyed at how much work the subject requires, how lit-tle sleep it gives me and all the stress in between, I realized that in the end ev-ery sleepless nights were worth it and therefore made me aware more of why I am taking this subject and why I want to go through the field of architecture.

The criticisms and knowledge I have gained from the subject pushed me and is continuously pushing me to work harder. Moreover, I have learned to be more patient as I go through because restlessness will not get me anywhere.

Virtual environments taught me that nothing is perfect, but practice lessens the imperfections. Other than that, it taught me that my mistakes will always bring me a step closer to getting things right. I realized that imperfec-tions make things more interesting as it helps me explore my imagination more.

Through the semester, vir-tual environments had helped me with life realizations such as my own potential and to be open to more improvement as I go along.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CREDITS

Heatherwick, T (March 2011) Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral [Video file] retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_heatherwick.html

Iwamoto, L 2009, Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, Selected Extracts

Kolarevic, B, 2003 “Digital Production” in Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing , Spon Press, London, pp30-54

Scheurer, F, Stehling, H 2011, “Lost in Parameter Space?” AD: Architectural Design, vol 81 pp. 70-79

Sommer, R 1969, ‘ Spatial invasion’ in Sommer, R, Personal space : the behavioral basis of design, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, pp. 26-38

Rifkin, J 2011 “Distributed Capitalism’ in The third Industrial Revolution Palgrave Macmillan, New York pp107-126