12th April Tutorials

Below are several pictures from our last tutorials.

Above: An impressively strong laser-cut model from Dan Dodds made of 2mm card. the small four-sided component which is repeated is based on this “space-packing” (leaves no gap) Archimedean solid: http://www.matematicasvisuales.com/english/html/geometry/space/truncatedoctahedrontessela.html

 

Above: A Grasshopper definition generating an entire building from Chris Ingram. This is for a growing TechHub around the Sillicon Roundabout.

 

Above: Floating Earth Island for the Twa tribe in Zambia by Kayleigh Dickson. The physical model is made from a steel mesh, a layer of waterproof cement and an earth and straw compound. PLants have started growing on the entire structure now.

 

BLOOD GLUE – FIRST EXPERIMENTS

 
Here are the results of my initial experiments in developing a blood based glue for used as a structural binding agent. Unfortunately the glue was not entirely successful due to its setting by water loss as opposed to chemical reaction. On to round 2…

Digital Representation

This is my submission for the Digital Representation module at the University. The first part focuses on learning how to use Bentley’s Generative Components to explore geometry and in particular ruled surfaces. The module tries to give an insight into understanding how to construct geometry and how the process can be developed parametrically. It then explores creating your own object classes and feature types to expand the abilities of the software and increase efficiency in modelling. Finally the module looks at developing an understanding of scripting and the syntax needed to code 2D and 3D computer programmes and models using both Processing and scripting within Generative Components. The second part looks at using the tools to develop our studio proposals, in my case the proposal for a pavilion at Burning Man Festival.

Quasicrystal Research paper

This is a Thesis project by Barbara Weinzierl which looks into Quasicrystals and their potential application within architecture. She has experimented taking the penrose tiling and raising it into a 3D geometry, analyzing its pattern morphology and the different combinations of rhomb found. One of the things I found most interesting is the potential of fractal patterning as shown below, this opens up great possibilies for the designer to play with scale.  I think this could be particularly appropriate for burning man as the warm baby girls were saying that scale can be difficult to gauge in the desert.  She explores their use in a single layered system as well as multidimensional crystals, creating some really interesting models.

You can read some of her research paper by following this link  to her facebook page. She has also had an article published in the Swedish design magazine ”Arkitekten” this month.

3D Fractals

Tom Beddard, Physicist, Animator and Web Developer, explores the relatively new field of 3D fractals. By writing his own software to render new sets of mathematical algorithms that generate 3D structures with unlimited detail. He investigates the resulting wide range of structures ranging from the natural and organic to geometric and artificial, appearing from purely mathematical space.

A collaborative effort on developing 3D fractal algorithms on fractal forums has enabled many programmers to start exploring this new field; free web software generates interactive 3D fractals in real time.

Generating fractal images is more like exploration than design and Tom Beddard explores an entire ‘fractal planet’ shown in the videos below. More information at SubBlue.

Above: Raytraced 3D fractals using Pixel Bender

Quasicrystals

When researching the close packing of tetrahedrons I came across a reasonably new discovery, The Quasicrystal.  Its current impact or potential impact can be gauged by the fact that Dan Shechtman, who made the finding, was this year awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

“Quasicrystals are a fascinating aspect of chemical and material science – crystals that break all the rules of being a crystal at all.”

So what is a Quasicrystal?

Basically they are formed when tetrahedra are compressed into a given volume. In Dan Shechtman’s discovery, the packing achieves an efficiency which fills 82% of space, higher than any previous effort.  The close packing of the tetrahedron forms these intricately complicated and amazingly complex structures. A normal crystal is a material structure which repeats periodically however one of the really interesting things about Quasicrystals is that they don’t actually repeat exactly, despite its regularity.  Quasicrystals represent a class of solids which lack translational symmetry, but nevertheless exhibit perfect long-range order and reveal well defined fivefold rotational symmetries. Translational symmetry is when an image or object can be divided into a sequence of identical repetitions which are translated about a given vector. So without this form of symmetry the Quasicrystal is non-periodic.

Aperiodic and Penrose tiling’s can also be found within Quasicrystals which themselves can be found in medievil Islamic mosaics.

The model shown in the second image is made up of 4000 x 1cm long struts, built thanks to 3D printing!

For further information follow the link below.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/press.pdf

Martian Landscape

Stunning images of the Martian Landscape taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006. Thank you to Subtilitas for pointing it out and for The Big Picture for posting them.

Part of the Abalos Undae dune field. The sands appear blueish because of their basaltic composition, while the lighter areas are probably covered in dust. More, or see location on Google Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) 

Scalloped sand dunes in the southern hemisphere of mars, displaying seasonal frost on the south-facing slopes, which highlights some of the regular patterns, as the frost forms only on parts of the ripples. More, or see location on Google Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)