M4 sijing liu 395923

Virtual Environments Student Jounral2013 Semester 2

Student: Sijing Liu 395923

Tutor: RosieGroup members: Sijing Liu, Sophie Tran

M1 IdeationObject: LanternMaterial system: Sectioning and profile

Sketch drawingsPlan, Elevation and Sectionthe center of the lantern is set to be the reference point as discussed in the lec-ture (Loh 2013), it made the drawing easier and more efficient.

The object I have chosen for the semester task is a lantern, it has a material system of sectioning and profile, the volume it cre-ates is formed by its wire and the paper connecting between the wires. I explored the volume of the lantern by measured drawing shown on the right, the lantern can be compressed into a flattened state, the wire enables a very flexible structure.

M1 IdeationDigital Model

I made the digital model for the lan tern in Rhino to further explore the volume and structure of sectioning and profile. Refering to the lecture, the context of the project will be on human body, this could mean that the design ought to fit the hu-man body. The opportunity of the material system would be by looking at the volume as I stated (Loh, 2013). Therefore I think the design idea at the beginning should not be too specific, and ought to look at vari-ous aspects.

M1 IdeationDesign brief : Innovative design of a sec-ond skin; a wearable volume or surfac ac-commodates the body. The second skin will explore, measure, and/or negotiate the boundary of personal space

Define personal space: “is a region sur-rounding a person which they regard as psychologically theirs.” People maintain a distance between each other such that they feel comfortable and safe, the dis-tance they keep indicate how intimate they are. the second skin should be devel-oped to protect and adjust the space a person needs.

Personal space. Irene Koehler, 2013 Privacy Shell. Veasyble

source untracked

M1 IdeationDesign concept 1

sketches by Sijing Liusketches by Sijing Liu sketches by Sijing Liu

USEMorph. Hassan Ragab

the design was adapted from Ragab’s project USEMorph, where using the tech-nique of sectioning to create various shape that fit onto human body. The design uses the concept of sectioning to create panels that are almost parallel and connected to each other which assem-bles a pair of wings and make the user looks armed, such that people would not feel like to approach the user. The pair of “wings” can be drew back to the user’s shoulders as a decoration, and at the same time make the space that defends the users contract if the users is facing close friends or family.

M1 IdeationDesign concept 2 & 3

Sketches by Sijing Liu

Testing Model. Jungho Yeom, 2009

Sketches by Sijing Liu

Ideal 2 on the left deals with the section-ing technique where panels intersecting with each other to form a fluid shape, the panels on the user intersect with each other perpendicularly to create a space on the upper body to resist any intimate approach by strangers, the height of the perpendicular panels are above the us-ers eye level such that he/she can not see anything besides him/her, to clear any disturbance from the sides.

Design 3 made up with ellipse wires con-nect parallel by soft material such as plastic bag or paper. It creates a space that expands horizontally to the front side of the user, however from the side view, the second skin is narrow. This allows the user adjust his position to decide whether he wants people come closer to him to keep a distance with them.

Design 2

Design 3 front

Design 3Side

M2 DesignPrecedental research on the material systemContemPLAY Pavillion

ContemPLAY Pavillion is a public space created by graduate students from McGill school of architecture in Canada, it was designed to create a Moiré effect through form and cladding. As the public moves along and engages with the pavillion, the visual field is modified and interrupted by the interference created by motion and the two layers of cladding. The interfer-ence patterns create an interactive and dynamic experience for the users.In our design for “second skin” ,

Moiré effect responses perfectly to our material system section and profile, as it emphasizes on the visual effect created by angle, space and depth, the two layers of cladding would define a physi-cal space around the user and the visual effect generated by the movement of the audience and the object would give them a distorted and psychedelic effect which would therefore create an atmost-phere (emotion) around the user.

ContemPLAY Pavillion by McGill School of Architecturev

ContemPLAY Pavillion by McGill School of Architecturev

ContemPLAY Pavillion by McGill School of Architecturev

M2 DesignPrecedental research on the material systemTo and Fro Table

The To and Fro table created by Loh and Nex is a good example of using section-ing to create different angles that affect the angle of light penetrating it. The image onthe right demonstrates the effect of light that can be manipulated by the pattern. different parts of the table is monitered by computer software that allow preci-sion, such that the desired effect can be achieved more efficiently, which we can learn from.

M2 DesignDevelopment of ideas

Sketch by Sophie Tran

Sketches by Sijing Liu

Rhino model by Sophie Tran

The final design will combine Sophie’s idea of using panels to manipulate lights and my idea of creating a volume using the sectioning concept. The Rhino model on the right demonstrates the rough idea of the new design, that by changing the angle of the panels, it is interesting to see how the views can change.

M2 DesignDesign Outcomes

The final design of M2 is shown above, we decided to let the second skin locate on the user’s shoulder, covering the user’s head since it is the most important part of one’s body. We used the upstanding and extended fins to announce dominance

Define personal space:protect and able to adjust

Emotional effect:Dominance and power

and through the gaps of the fins, lights will be manipulated by the user as he/she turns around. Our second skin is made thin-ner at the side and wider in front to allow user freely control the distance between the user and the audiences.

all the fins fit to a panel that rested on the shoulder, however, the single panel may not support all the fins’ weight by itself, we seek to improve on this.

Rhino model by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

M2 DesignDesign Outcomes

From a perspective view of the digital model, we can see that as it rotates the view’s change is really interesting, at the side, the quantities of the fins are denser and in front, the fins are wider spaced. As stated by Loh (2013), a design should achieve certain effect, the effect we want to create here is dominance and power, by putting the crown like fins on the shoul-der, it enlarges one’s image and can threaten others somehow.

Rhino model by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

M3 FabricationMore precedental examples

The Aqua Tower is a Chicago landmark building made by Studio Gang lead by Jeanne Gang, the multi layers of the outer terrace create a fluid exterior shape of the building, admiring the uneven and dynamic effect it creates by the volume of section, we decided to adapt the idea into our model .

Aqua tower. Studio Gangsource: studiogang.net

M3 FabricationStage 1|Rhino model

Learnt from previous mistakes, we de-cided to apply the concept of abstrac-tion (Scheurer & Stehling 2011), instead of making each fin individually, we create a volume of the second skin and used the command ‘sectoin’ in Rhino to outline the fin lines, it made the process much easier and we are able to create uniform shapes. Therefore at the first stage of M3, the model has been developed to en-close the head as the head is the most fragile and important part of the body, it is also the eyes and mouth locate, which serves to communicate with people. The volumn that it creates protects the im-portant part of the person and the sapce between the fins helps the user adjust the extent he/she wants to communicate with the outside world. The fins are plucked into 2 supporting plane which contains two hollow circular shape in the middel in order to allow the user’s head to fit in.

Digital model by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

M3 FabricationStage 1 |physical model

Physical model by Sijing Liu &Sophie Tran

This model demonstrates the desired visual outcome by arranging the number of fins and angles, however, side fins are too heavy that almost damage the supporting panel, the side fins are also not fitting to the shape of the head. the front fins are to short to demonstrate the visual effect. And upper fins tends to fall apart, those are shortcomings we need to improve in the next stage of model designing.

the second model extends the front fins and keep same distance of space as the previous model. the side fins are made into a concave shape to reduce the weight at the shoulder and also to fit the shape of the head.

we found that the lower supporting plane are not able to hold the fins together and the fins tend to fall apart by gravity, so we decided to move one of the supporting plane up to hold the upper fins together

in order to stabilise the model on the hu-man body, the lower part of the fins are trimmed to fit the human shoulders, such that the second skin model can lie on the shoulder without wobbling forth and back.

M3 FabricationStage 2|Rhino model

M3 FabricationStage 2 |physical model

Model by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

Audience’s view at front Audience’s view at side

User’s view at front User’s view at side

M3 Fabrication

Photo by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

M3 FabricationStage 3|Rhino model

the 3rd model has improved by adding one more supporting plane because we decided to use perspex for the physical model which would add more weight than boxboard, therefore a third plate is crucial in preventing the planes from breaking. In the lecture, Loh (2013) mentioned uncer-tainty in making, considering the laser mark that left on the surface of our model, it makes our model has a dirty looking. how-ever, perspex allows a shining surface that could reflext which gives more interesting views to the model.

Stage 3|PerspexM3 Fabrication

model by Sijing Liu & Sophie Tran

the model made by perspex has a shining surface that reflect views by the panels, that add one more view to the original in and out lights which gave the design more depth. The supporting plates are made of plywood and painted white, because plywood is much stronger in compression.

ReflectionThe whole design process of the subject is generally challenging and meaningful as it introduced a new software to us, using software to design and digital fabrication has changed my perspective of designing, the traditional designing process is mainly made by hand, it took long time and lack precision. However, with new technologies such as 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional fabrication which allows machine head move not only in a x-y axis but also the z axis (Kolarevic 2003), in our project, we only used the la-ser cutter, as the material system and material we selected is straightforward, however, with perspex, the laser cutter seems less efficient as it takes the machine a few times to cut through the perspex board.

Throughout the design process with Rhino, we have always been careful with the pos-sible outcomes, the physical model might not be the same as the digital one, in real-ity we have to consider the weight and ductility of the material, for example, we used boxboard at the beginning stage because it is light and pliable, it is good in tension so that all the fins can fit perfectly into the supporting plates. However, it turns out that boxboard is not so good in compression as the fins tends to break the supporting board, and it has a dirty marks on the surface left by laser cutter. We later changed to use per-spex but we found that it is bad in either compression or tension despite its pretty look-ing. We therefore use plywood for the supporting plates and finally it worked out.

The lectures and readings are very useful as they related closely to our project. I was a little confused with the concept sectioning at the beginning, but the lectures clear the problem as Mr Loh has provided plenty of examples and most of them are very innova-tive. By researching on precedent examples I have also gained an understanding of structures and concepts, our project was informed by those examples well. Because of the characteristic of our material system, we have relied a lot on Rhino to make mod-els, unlike those who are doing inflatables, we have to create the physical models by digital fabrication, the main thing I have learned from Rhino is that it is sometimes an alternative solution to look at the volume of the designing object rather than looking at the individual part of the object. This has affected how we changed the Rhino model after module 2. In general, the learning and making experience is very delightful and educated.

ReferenceKolarevic, B 2003, ‘Digital Production’, in Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing, Spon Press, London, pp. 31-53.

Loh, P 2013, Design Effects, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, viewed 27 October 2013, <http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au>.

Loh, P 2013, Designing Ideas, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, viewed 27 October 2013, <http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au>.

Loh, P 2013, Material System, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, viewed 27 October 2013, <http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au>.

Loh, P 2013, Power of Making, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, viewed 27 October 2013, <http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au>.

MSA, 2011, ContemPLAY Pavillion, photos, eVolo, viewed 31 October 2013, < http://www.evolo.us/architecture/contemplay-pavilion-mcgill-school-of-architecture/>.

Scheurer, F & Stehling, H 2011, ‘Lost in Parameter Space?’, IAD: Architectural Design, vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 70-79.

Studio Gang, 2004, Aqua Tower, photos, Studio Gang Architects, viewed 31 October 2013, <http://studiogang.net>.