M4 jacksonwylie 638578

D E S I G N J O U R N A L

Virtual Environments - Semester 2/ 2013 - Group1

JACKSON WYLIE 638578

I D E A T I O N

Breif: Skin & Bone

At the begining of this project we were giv-en the choice of using different material sys-tems including skin & bone, inflation, panel & fold and profile & section. We chose skin & bone and to further explore this we at-tempted to do measured drawings and also rhinoceros re-creations of an object (Umbrel-la) that is built out of this material system. The first step into understanding an object is to be able to accurately draw it (Heath et. al 2000). This can be done by drawing a sec-tion, as seen below, or by creating a three-di-mensional digital model on rhinocerous. In the umbrellas case the most difficult part to draw was the curvature of the arms and fab-ric, Heath et. al (2000) offered a useful tech-niques for drawing these kind of shapes by tracing, using reference points and angles.

With the assistance of the Rhinocerous additional tutorials as well as the read-ing by Cheng (2008) i was able to cre-ate a three dimensional model of the umbrella with a relatively high level of accuracy. An advantage of digital modelling is the ability to easily create, wireframe models, surface models and also solid models by simply changing the perspective of the viewport e.g. wire-frame, shaded, rendered as seen in the images to the left (Cheng 2008). One limitation of this software is it is almost impossible to model certain materials such as fabrics that are not always taut as these digital models would suggest.

BRIEF

MEASURED DRAWING

3D DIGITAL MEASURED DRAWING

I D E A T I O N

Precedence

Steilneset Memorial: PETER ZUMTHORThe Steilneset Memorial was designed to commemorate the 91 people who were burned at the stake in the 17th Century Vardo Witchcraft Trials (Atkin & Guthrie, 2012). We were inspired by the Swiss architect’s design as it incor-porated a unique skin and bone ma-terial system with the bone structure on the exterior. This resulted in the skin which was strung by steel wire making a very organic shape that appears to ‘float’ inside the wooden structure. We wanted our second skin design to have a skeletal system that is exteri-or to the inner skin. Like the Steilneset Memorial we hope our interior skin will form a very organic, natural shape that will appear to be an extension of the person’s skin.

Dutch Fashion Designer: WINDE REINSTRAThese alternative fashion designs by Winde Reinstra we found very informative as they also embrace the skin and bone material system. They ways in which these designs sit on the body and compliment the body’s shape are particularly relev-ent to what we aim to achieve through our design which needs to be able to be seen as a physical construction of one’s mentally derived personal space bound-ary. The skin in Winde Reinstra’s designs is vertually transparent leaving the bodies true outline easily visible, the wooden bone structure acts as an exaggeration of the bodies curves, and features which could perhaps represent the areas of the body that the person is most aware or self concious of.

Steilneset Memorial - Peter Zumthor, Date Unkown

Haute Couture Collection - Winde Reinstra, Date Unknown

I D E A T I O N

Defining Personal Space/ Our Concept

DISTORTED Image of Self Our second skin design is not aimed to define a certain physical area that one defines as his or her ‘personal space.’We ackowledge that personal space is an imagined construct (Sommer 1969) and that is unique for everyone and often based on one’s own insecurities. We want to explore the concept of body image, and how people might have a dis-torted perception of themselves and this may affect their ability to relate to others. Our second skin will be a physical repre-sentation of the distorted perceptions that people have of themselves, for example they may think they have unusually broad shoulders, large behind or small muscles, this will be highlighted and over-exagger-ated in the second skin design. The de-sign will represent the false, exaggerated body parts that one feels differs from the imagined norm or idea of beauty.

I D E A T I O N

First Designs

1. This was our first design, the ‘bone’ layer of this design is the triangle piec-es. We wanted this design to be able to expand and compress, stretchting the fabric ‘skin’ in the process. We ended up scrapping this design as we wanted the outer frame to be less prominent and the interior skin to be more visible.

2.We were originally quite fond of this design as the trianglar pyramids on the shoulders really exposed the stretched fabric. As evident in later designs we chose to further explore these pyramid shapes.

3. With this design we wanted the outer frame to be quite dramatic and ‘large’ to really highlight this idea of distortion. After looking at precedence we later found that most successful designs have a certain ele-ment of symmetry and repetition, our designs were too ‘random.’ If our design was more repetitive in shape then any outlier, exagger-ated parts of the second skin would be more noticeable, highlighting the distorted effect.

I D E A T I O N

Redesigned

This was the final design that we came up with. Adopting this new approach of in-corporating an element of symmetry and repetitiveness, we came up with the idea of constructing the frame out of pyramids with an identical base (dimensions to the right). What differed in the pyramids was the three dimensional aspect that was dif-ferent in every single pyramid. Some pyramids were extremely large or small in con-trast to the other pyramids and this would represent the person’s distorted view of that body part. For example, one may believe they have very broad hips or shoulders, and this distorted view would be represented in the excessively large pyramids in that area.

30cm

20cm

30cm

D E S I G N

Initial Rhinoceros Images

D E S I G N

Initial Prototypes

The initial prototypes we made were constructed with the purpose of solving the issue of what materials to use for the skin and bone structure. We tested three materials for the frame of our second skin: Cardboard, Wood and Metal. The bone structure had to be stur-dy enough ensure that the elastic fabric could be held taut, light enough to sit on the body comfortably and also able to be joined and put together effectively. Whilst cardboard could be joined and cut with great ease it was far to weak and flimsy to withstand the pressure of the taut fabric. The timber frame was easily strong enough however several issues arose when attempting to join it at the edges, as the wood would split if screwed or nailed, and if glue was used it would be far too time consuming and weak. Finally, we tested Metal which was definitely strong enough and offered much more effectively ways of being joined than wood by either soldering, welding or other means. We decided that metal would be the best material to adopt as the material for the frame of our second skin. Little did we know that there were still some issues to resolve to do with this material as we continued to refine our design.

PROTOTYPES: Solving Problems of Materiality

D E S I G N

Redesigned Rhinoceros Images

D E S I G N

Further Developed Prototype

Once we had chosen metal as the most suitable material for the bone layer of our second skin we had a number of issues to resolve. The first challenge that we encountered was that most metals were quite heavy, especially considering that the entire second skin’s weight would be supported by the model’s shoulders. We didnt want the second skin being uncomfortable to wear for prolonged periods of time, nor did we want the model’s posture to be impaired due to the overwhelming weight exerted on the shoulders. Through research we discovered that alluminium was the lightest metal available to us, that still had a sturdy quality. We came across hollow aluminium tubing which was extremely light yet very strong. The second issue that we came across was how we would join the aluminium tubing together and to the fabric. Inspiration came from the bone structure of ccamping tents whose hollow alluminium or fibreglass tubes are joined by long pieces of taut elastic rope that runs through the hollow centre. We trialed this method on our developed prototype pictured on the right, we were very pleasantly suprised by the effectiveness of this joining process which not only held the frame together effectively, but also added an element of flexibility to our second skin granting the model even greater movement than we had anticipated. The elastic also gave us something to attach the fishing wire to that we used to pitch the inner skin.

PROTOTYPE: Further Developed

F I N A L D E S I G N Final Rhinoceros Images

F A B R I C A T I O N

Exloding Frame

Once we had finalised our design, we had to derive a way in which we could approach the production of our second skin. Firstly we decided to break down our design into a base layer and an outer layer. This base layer consisted of all of the two di-mensional triangles that would later provide the bases of all of the three dimensional pyramids that make up the outer lay-er. These exploded images show the first step that we took into simpliying our design to aid the fabrication of our second skin.

F A B R I C A T I O N

Assembly Line

Once we had seperated our design frame into a base layer and a outer lay-er, we had to further simplify our de-sign to identify the exact number of al-uminium tubes and all of their lengths. To do this we completely dismantle the three dimentional frame to create a two di-mensional assembly line. This assembly line consisted of the front and back base lay-ers (top left & top right) as well as all of the lengths used to create three dimensional pyramids on the outer layer of the front and back (grouped in 3’s on bottom left & right). Creating this assembly line made the fab-rication process much quicker and easi-er as we new exactly how many lengths were needed, where they would be placed and how long they would be.

F A B R I C A T I O N

Method 1

2. Secondly, we had to create a network that would determine what order the elastic string would pass through the aluminium tubes. This was quite difficult as we aimed to use only two lengths of string for the front and back of the base layer. Pictured to the left is the network we drew for the front base layer.

1. First, we grouped all of the aluminium tubes in their lengths ready to be used.

3. We then proceeded to run the elastic through the tubing following the network that we had made. It was vital that the elastic was kept taut the whole time, to en-sure that the aluminium was held together tight.

4. At each intersec-tion we would tie off the elastic to keep the aluminium in the correct form and also prevent the elas-tic from going slack

5. Base Front Layer

6. Base back layer

F A B R I C A T I O N

Method 2

The second stage of the production was to add the three dimensional ‘outer layer’ to the frame. To construct the 3D pyramids, three lengths of aluminium were added upon each tringle of the base layer using one continuous piece of elastic. Just like the This process was almost identical to the production of the base layer of the frame as it still involved running elastic string through each of the aluminium pieces, we would secure the elastic at the pinnacle of each pyramid with a double knot to not only ensure each pyramid was held rigid, but also prevent the entire frame from being destroyed in the event of the elastic fraying and breaking.

F A B R I C A T I O N

Method 3

With the completion of the front and back halves of the frame, the four side pieces of aluminium needed to be added to connect the front and back of the frame to make it wearable. These pieces would have to be able to support the weight of the entire second skin so to ensure their strength we doubled up the lengths of elastic through these joining 20cm alumninum lengths.

1. Front Half

2. Back Half

3. Joining front and back with side lengths

F A B R I C A T I O N

Method 4

4. At first, our aim way to sew all of the edges off, without being able to use a machine, this process consumed too much time. We then trialed hot glue which was very quick however resulted in discolouration of the fabric. Other glues dried clear, but took far too long to dry, making it impossible to keep the fabric taut. To solve all of these issues we sewed each corner of the fabric and glued the fabric to the metal in between whilst it was held together by pins giving it time to dry.

1. The next step of fabrication was to add the flexible interior ‘skin’ layer. Little did we know that this to be the most time consuming and difficult stage of the entire fabrication process. The first step was to cut two seperate rough-ly estimated pieces of stretch fabric for the front and back.

2. We began with the front half, using fishing line with large knots at the end we were able to pitch the high point of the fabric to the pinnacle vertices of each pyramid. This approach of us-ing a line to stretch the fabric was in-spired by the way in which the inner fabric ‘hallway’ of the steilneset me-morial was strung to the outer wooden frame structure by taut thick steel wire.

3. To get the fabric looking nice and taut without folds, or slack areas we had to stretch it between each pyra-mid with the excess fabric cut off at the edges. Through this process we discov-ered that it was also adding strength to the overall second skin structure. At the edges we kept a small amount of fab-ric to fold over the aluminium tubing so that we could pin it to itself. This held it all in place whilst we attempted to fig-ure out a way to permanently secure it.

F A B R I C A T I O N

Final Product

FRONTBACK

Overall we were extremely hap-py with the final product. It turned out to look almost iden-tical to our digital model which was quite a suprise. We feel it achieved our goal in creating the effect of distortion. We were a little concerned that the fabric would appear too slack in some areas however these were virtu-ally unnoticable from a distance.

More final images in the Reflection Section of journal....

R E F L E C T I O N

1

One of the most suprising things that I have discovered from this project is that hand drawing and sketching is in my opin-ion still the most effective way to gener-ate new ideas and to conceive designs. I was suprised as prior to this project I thought that digital technologies had completely changed the entire architec-tural designing process including ideation. This discovery is not to discredit the impor-tance of these new digital technologies as it is true that it has completely evolved architecture, but more specifically the way in which designs are translated into products (Kolarevic 2003). Our second skin would have been virtually impossible to complete with the precision and accu-racy that we achieved without the aid of the rhinoceros or some other designing or modelling program (Bernstein & Deamer 2008). Supported by Bernstein & Deamer (2008), we believe that the digital transla-tion of our design had massively reduced the risks of error or mistakes in the pro-duction of our design as we knew the ex-act lengths we needed, how they would connect together and in what order.

R E F L E C T I O N

2

One problem that we encountered on a reg-ular basis throughout the fabrication of our project was the difficulty in predicting material qualities. The digital technologies that design-ers use typically do not consider what materials are being used and their qualities. For exam-ple each material has unique qualities, some may be heavy or light, flexible or brittle in the presence of environmental stimuli such as tem-perature some materials may expand or shrink, these are all things that have to be tested for. In order to minimise the risk of failure we had to basically conduct several trial and error tests, using prototypes that was extremely time con-suming. As we discovered prototypes are still not a foolproof solution as they are often at a different scale, and as we found with the issue of glueing and sewing the fabric to the frame at the edges, what works for a prototype may not necessarily work on the larger scale. All of these issues are probably more the responsi-bility of engineers rather than architects, but what this taught me was that as a designer, their needs to be some basic knowledge of the materials that one desires to use. This is a view shared by (Heath et. al 2000) that suggest that the designer should be closer connected to the craft of manufacturing or even engineering.

R E F L E C T I O N

3

In hindsight, I believe our design was a great success. Not only was I satisfied with the design that we developed and refined, but I was also pleased with the physical production of our second skin. It is indeed true that the modern digital technologies such as Rhinoceros 5.0 bridge the gap and ease the transition between the process of ideation and design to the craft of manufacturing and production, without Rhino we would have been unable to succeed in physically replicating our design so accurately. Al-though we did come across some oproblems such as choosing apropraite materials, and finding originality in our designs, these issues are inevitable, only solved by persistence and trial and error. The sequence below is from our final second skin performance.

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

& C R E D I T S

REFERENCES Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manu-facturing /Branko Kolarevic. Spon Press, London, 2003

Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture/ Philip Bernstein, Peggy Deamer. Princeton Architectural Press. c2008. pp 38-42 Cheng, R. (2008). Inside Rhinoceros 4 / Ron K.C. Cheng. Clifton Park, NY : Thomson/Delmar Learning, c2008. Heath, A., Heath, D., & Jensen, A. (2000). 300 years of industrial design : function, form, technique, 1700-2000 / Adrian Heath, Ditte Heath, Aage Lund Jensen.New York : Watson-Guptill, 2000. Lindy Atkin, 2012 Peter Zumthor’s Vardo Memorial ArchitectureAU, viewed 6/8/2013, <http://architec-tureau.com/articles/witchcraft-memorial-vardo-nor-way/>

Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space : the behavioral basis of design / Robert Sommer. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, c1969.