The Palm Arms

 

Palm trees are angiosperms, which means flowering plants. They are monocots which means their seeds produce a single, leaf-like cotyledon when they sprout. This makes palms closely related to grasses and bamboo.

Components of Palm Trees

Palm Growth and Decay Process

Palm Tree Information

Mimicking the Geometry

This mature palm shows how the pattern originally seen in the young plant, forms a distinct mathematic pattern known as ‘Phyllotaxis’. This is a pattern with reoccurs throughout nature and is based on the Fibonacci sequence. In order to try to understand the use and formation of the palm fibre, the overall formation of the palm stem needed to be mathematically explored.

However, redrawing the cross-section of the base of the palm plants allows a better understanding of the arrangement of the palm plant.

Palm Frond Arrangement

This exercise allows models to be made to recreate the patterns found in palm plants. By engineering plywood components, the basic shape of the palm geometry can be made into a physical model.

Re-creating Palm Base

This was pushed further by curving the plywood components to make extruded palm structure models

Extended Palm Structure Model

Three-Dimensional Palm Model

The arrayed components can then be altered so that the base of the models form regular polygon shapes. Doing this allows the potential for the structures to be tesselated. Using different numbers of components mean the structure can then be tested for strength.

Tessellation Models

Palm Wine

There are hundreds of used for palm fruits, this the plant producing materials which range from durable, to flexible to edible. One of the more interesting ones if the production of palm wine using the sap from the tree. Within 2 hours of the wine tapping process, the wine may reach up to 4%, by the following day the palm wine will become over fermented. Some prefer to drink the beverage at this point due to the higher alcohol content. The wine immediately begins fermenting, both from natural yeast in the air and from the remnants of wine left in the containers to add flavour. Ogogoro described a ‘local gin’, is a much stronger spirit made from Raffia palm tree sap. After extraction, the sap is boiled to form steam, which is then condensed and collected for consumption. Ogogoro is not synthetic ethanol but it is tapped from a natural source and then distilled.

To understand the fermentation process more clear, the process of fermenting sugar to make wine has been undertaken.

Testing Palm Wine

Alternative Fuel

The distillation of the wine can be used to make bio-ethanol. This production of this fuel can act as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel energy, which is overused and damaging to our environment.

How Much Energy?

Future Proposal

The developed structure, as well as the production of palm wine and bio-ethanol, can be collaborated to develop a programme, which provides sustainable energy, within a space that is inviting and exciting.

The production of bio-fuel releases a lot of carbon dioxide. In order to ensure the process does not impact the environment, this needs to occur inside a closed system, so the CO2 does not enter the atmosphere. This can be done by using the properties of a Solar Updraft Tower. Carbon dioxide released from the fermentation and distillation processes can be received by palm trees for increased photosynthesis, while the excess oxygen from the trees provides fresh air for visitors.

 

Form 01 – Solar Updraft Tower Implementation

 

The fermentation process can be controlled within an isolated area of the model.

Form 02 – Fermentation Implementation

 

The Distillation process, which requires a store of water for cooling, can also be conducted in an isolated area of the model, with apparatus incorporated into the structure.

Form 03 – Distillation Implementation

 

The final proposal will be a combination of all three forms

 

Proposal

Transcendental Staircase

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Life’s First Flicker

Project Summary

Translucent fractal ball animated by dancing color changing lights symbolizing the very first spark at the beginning of the universe as well as the spark of life that our species is on both an eternal mission to keep alight and is in the final stages of creating anew with artificial intelligence.

Physical Description

A 20 foot diameter translucent form, made of twelve identical five petal polypropylene origami flowers arranged as a dodecahedron each with two smaller flower at their centers and intricately lazercut with a 2d filigree depicting the overall form. All the flowers are tied to each other and to a timber dodecahedral internal skeleton with concealed zip ties. The creased polypropylene held in tension by the origami folds themselves provide the rest of the stability. LED DMX lights sit in the five points which touch the ground, facing upwards, illuminating the entire form.

Philosophy

At the end of Isaac Asmiov’s book ‘The last question’ a disembodied AI is the last mark of the human race left in an empty entropic universe. It remains calculating the answer to the last question it was asked, and, unable to find a recipient for it’s solution it says ‘Let there be light’ and creation begins again.

This piece is shaped as a tangible interpretation of this spark. The spark at the first second of the universe and the spark of life which our civilization is racing to create in a sentient self learning AI. This moment, when our creations become self aware, is the theme of burning man 2018 and also likely to be the most important moment in our species’ history. Self teaching AI will rapidly become so powerful it will effectively be a deity. This pavilion’s purpose is to draw the visitors attention to this rapidly approaching moment and consider how we should design this mind before it is too late.

Burners can pass by or play with the spark and think it is just a cool shape, but those who climb up inside what is figuratively a snapshot right at the beginning of new life and the universe, can take a moment to pause and ponder from within, whether their life’s endeavor is relevant in the face of coming AI, what our species’ current knowledge may lack and how it could be codified and explained to a machine and how lucky we are as a generation to have both been born late enough to see AI’s birth, and early enough to have known life before it.

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/244593633″>Life’s First Flicker: Burning Man 2018 Art proposal</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user71835996″>Benjamin Street</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Celestial Field

---

Whatever your creed your reliance on the sun is unquestionable.

We have worshipped it as a God.

Spent lifetimes studying it through science.

Yet human hands will never touch its surface.

Celestial Field brings our sun to the Playa for us to dance in its glory.

Triggering our own solar flare.

Internal perspective of the Celestial Field Pavilion

 

From the dawn of time the sun has been a constant in human life. It has been central to the beliefs of nearly every civilisation throughout history. What was once an astrological wonder sustaining life; dictating when to plant and harvest our crops; evolved into a god and deity, woven into the stories and teachings of nearly every culture, from the Egyptians to the Ancient Greeks and even Christianity.

Sun symbolism from across the globe and through the ages

 

The oldest man-made structures in the world have resounding astrological connections to both the sun and constellations, covered in carvings they unquestionably align to major astrological events.

Newgrange in Boyne Valley, Ireland, thought to be built in 3500BC, has a tomb in which sits a stone basin lit by a single beam of light at sunrise on the winter solstice.

 

Newgrange Tomb- Borne Valley, Ireland; built around a single beam of light that exists only for a moment each year

 

The Egyptians, Greeks, and Christians have all referenced the sun within their religion and beliefs.

The Egyptians in 3000BC had Ra, the Greeks in 400BC believed Helios to be God of the sun, and Christians have often depicted Jesus in front of what is thought by many to be the solar cross.

Ra, Helios and Jesus all depicted with solar symbols

 

In the past the sun has been depicted as a 2Dimensional disk of light travelling across the sky before dying only to be reborn at sunrise.

The Ancient Greeks believed Helios to be the personification of the sun. A man with a many rayed crown of light, pulling the sun across the open sky with a horse drawn chariot. The Helios named after the Greek god has been used and adapted through the ages, with one of the most recognisable iterations being the logo of global corporation BP which symbolises “a number of things – not least the greatest source of energy … the sun itself..” – bp.com

 

Building the Helios

 

This once celestial being has now become a tangible thing. Through advances in our technological and scientific capability we have gained an understanding of the suns chemical make-up, uncovering many of its secrets from sun spots to solar flares. Although we have developed an increased understanding of the forces driving the sun, it is still no more accessible to us mere humans than on the first day on earth remaining an impenetrable sphere in the sky only to viewed from a far.

 

Physical model light testing

 

Digital animation of lighting tests

 

The suns surface has taught us much. Galileo’s sun spot diagrams unknowingly demonstrated the unique fluidity of the suns chromosphere. Further study of these sun spots and magnificent solar flares proved that the surface of the sun is covered in billions of interlaced magnetic fields all interacting together to form the whole. When these fields cross swirling plasma burst in an instance out into the corona bringing with it immense light displays that can be seen on earth as the aurora.

 

Recording magnetic fields with computer models and physical experiments

 

In an age where endless streams of newfound knowledge are accessible with the touch of a finger – it is easy to lose our sense of innocent amazement and unquestioning awe. We have a constant need for explanation of why and how phenomena exist, no longer blindly excepting their beauty and revelling in it.

The indescribable beauty of these gigantic magnetic fields can often be lost and forgotten in the mundane when scaled down to earthly objects. Viewing them at a micro scale allows us to connect with their other-worldly nature.

Macro photographs of physical tests of magnetic structure using iron filings

 

Science has taught us how a magnet attracts and repels enabling use in industry, medicine and everyday life. And as our knowledge expands, we move from child to adulthood and our desire to play diminishes – burdened by explanations and reasoning; we are no longer in awe of our ability to make metal move without laying hands on it. It has become the norm and the expected, it is no longer ‘magic’.

Life should be fun and full of mesmerising moments. Our increased knowledge should enable and enhance our experience of ‘magic’ not hinder it.

 

Experimenting with magnetism to define levels of sensitivity for large scale interaction

 

Celestial Fields captures the unexplainable wonderment the sun once held and makes it accessible through modern mediums, combining two worlds; science and enchantment, imbedding them on the Playa at Black Rock City, Nevada, for people to explore and lose themselves in.

Thousands of swaying rods made of tubes of one-way mirror form an undulating field, rising high above your head, and falling like the plasma pulled in all directions by the phenomenal magnetic forces found on our sun.

By day a field of mirrors reflect and intensify the suns natural beauty and power. Creating a maze of ever changing light to explore, push through and play within. At sunset everything transforms. The field morphs, bursting into a sea of glowing beams reacting to movement and mimicking the fluid, almost pulsing nature of the suns corona.

Like the chromosphere, magnetic fields have informed density and pattern, creating patches of pure brightness and areas as dark as sunspots. With each rod built on a spring loaded base it can be pushed a manipulated, enabling you to forge your own path through the densest areas of Celestial Field, parting rods like magnets repelling polarised iron.

 

Individual rods are clad in a one-way mirror film – creating a reflection of the desert in the day and an illuminated environment at night

 

Movement through the sprung rods creates interest not only for the participants but also onlookers. During daylight hours people weaving in and out can be seen across the playa through the constant glinting of the sun on the reflective rods. An ever changing shimmer, like sunlight dancing across water in the distance, drawing people in from all directions out of wonder and intrigue.

Once the sun has set the lights come on, and the show only gets better. The rods now glow and pulse, changing colour, transforming the world around them – each equipped with a sensor so as to react to movement as people push past; creating tracks of swirling light shifting like the turbulent surface of the sun. Areas of intense and overwhelming light can occur when people team together to trigger a cluster of rods forming a concentration of light evocative of a solar flare.

The sun is not solely about light, with it comes inevitable darkness. Shadows too have been used throughout time as a symbol in opposition to that of the sun; and in this instance the areas of shadow formed in the magnetic layout create areas of calm within the thrill of the lights where one can sit and ponder everything from the dessert to the sky and the sun that brings life to earth.

The pavilion layout is informed by the patterns of sunspots and flares forming on the suns surface

 

What was once worshipped as a distant god and celestial being can now exist on the surface of the earth as a Celestial Field in Nevada. The sun has risen and set, bringing with it heat and light; powering life on earth since the dawn of time, a focus of incomprehensible wonder and fascination for each and every culture across the globe.

Celestial Field intends to reignite our faith in the intangible, while showing us there are powers and beauty still to be found in the modern world.

 

 

 

 

Duality

This project is a physical exploration of anamorphosis in three dimensions centred around the theme of duality. It aims to combine two widely recognisable figures into a pavilion that will attract burners, provoke debate, and catalyse interaction.

---

The theme of this project arose from the realisation that even the most widely recognisable symbols contain multiple layers of meaning and mystery.  Social, historical and sometimes even spiritual contexts give a symbol its perceived meaning. For example, while the Christian cross is a symbol of hope it is literally a scaled representation of an ancient torture device – an icon synonymous with good carries with it a darker elucidation. This interpretation led to the emergence of duality as a topic and a title. There are many symbols which have multiple meanings and nuances to those who interpret them.

I began by looking at the Ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life/fertility. The Loop of the Ankh represents the feminine discipline or the womb, while the elongated section represent the masculine discipline or the penis. These two sacred units then come together and form life. This is a perfect representation of man and woman in perfect union. I then was led to study the symbol for mercury, which is used in botany to indicate a flower with both male and female reproductive organs.

This duality of meaning in symbols led me to the desire to study how I could physically combine other symbols and forms to create one form. Anamorphosis, from the Greek anamorphōsis meaning ‘transformation,’ from ana- ‘back, again’ + morphosis ‘a shaping’, became an interesting opportunity to do just this.

 

I want to explore this theme using the iconic faces of Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian as instigators. From a random vantage point or even from up close, the subject matter of the piece is evidently unclear, the image changes until the viewer arrives at a specific pre-set location, only then does the likeness reveal itself. This echoes our warped perception of figures in limelight; anything the media choose to present to the world is an engineered production and if taken out of its context it becomes incomprehensible. My aim is to stir ambivalence among the burners, for them to engage in discussion with one another about these two incredibly famous personalities and what they seemingly represent.

As a physical entity, the sculpture is purposefully made durable enough to be able to endure the brunt of any elicited reactions. Its exposed surfaces are smooth, an open invitation to graffiti, carve or deface in any manner possible. It is large enough to climb and to gather within as a group – it only takes a spontaneous suggestion from a creative festival goer to give the sculpture another unforeseen use.

---

The aim of my proposed sculpture is to provoke an exchange of opinions and interactions between burners. It depicts two iconic and highly controversial public figures who personify two tremendously important issues that we as a society face today; political and social change.

As festival goers approach the installation, and the two widely recognisable faces reveal themselves, comments about the likenesses will spiral inevitably highlighting or at least touching upon the shift that these two personalities represent.

The sculpture’s physical form comprises of several spatial elements that lend themselves to fostering the kind of debates that I wished to promote. The hollow centre creates an enclosure, to enable hosting or housing for a meeting, it gives its participants a sense of protection; this is an open forum, please take part. The raised base on the peripheries can act as stages or podia. The expansive smooth external surfaces can act as billboards or banners, the skin of the sculpture will bear the physical outcome of the issues discussed here.

Whether people get photographed with it, or whether they deface, damage or even burn it to the ground, I will have succeeded if among any of the interactions the agenda was heard and a heartfelt reaction was made.

---

The sculpture will be made of 8mm CNC routed plywood sheets fixed to a heavy plywood formwork. Standing at 6m tall, one side will represent a 25:1 scale stencilled portrait of president-elect Donald Trump, the other side; the likeness of reality television personality and socialite Kim Kardashian. Much like the oblique anamorphosis incorporated in Holbien’s The Ambassadors, the sculpture’s subject matters will reveal themselves only from some 60m away, but from close up, the installation will seem like a mass of abstract wooden extrusions, something suggestive of an adult-sized climbing frame. Fluorescent LEDs recessed into junctions of the outer plywood skin layer will illuminate the piece at night.

---

The pavilion achieves the incredible feat of allowing the viewer to have a personal and intimate connection with it whilst also allowing for reflection. The two images are intended to bring moments of delight to viewers to allow for interaction even from a distance.

Combined with its symbolic and evocative power, it should indeed conjure a deeper sense of place and self, and bring a subtlety and complexity to what might have been just another pavilion.

 

Love Nest

The Heart is an internationally known Symbol for Love.

The Love Nest is a Pavilion designed for Burning Man as a destination to express your Love to another. Wedding ceremonies will take place within the Heart structure, this is the biggest gesture of Love, joining together as one, declaring your Love for everyone to see

The wooden hearts floating toward the sky create a Tower of Love

 

Inside the Love Nest

1:20 Model and Heart Bending

Love Nest – Night Time

 

Developing the Love Nest

The origin of the Heart Symbol

Symbols as a System

At Burning Man within the Temple (also known as the Temple of Love) people leave messages to remember there loved ones that they have lost, the temple is then burnt so the messages can get to those who are being remembered. The Idea of the below design was inspired by a book, being a place of words, people add to the pages of the book of love.

Interlocking Hearts – Heart Tower

The Tower

Every time someone is married within the Tower a coloured heart is added to the Structure. 

Progression of the Form

Developing the design to be more fluid and natural, as love isn’t hard and spiky.

Bending Hearts

Looking at different ways of bending wooden Hearts to be able to work with the newly designed form and being able to attach to the ‘Ribs’ of the design. I looked at two ways of achieving this:

Laser Cutting

By laser cutting a line pattern into the heart I achieved a material that bends easily

Cutting and folding

Cutting a slit from the bottom of the heart to the centre and taking the two half and bending one on top of the other

Results – The Laser Heart bent easily but did not stay in place and became more fragile whereas the folded heart keeps its shape and is a more solid form

The Love Nest – Initial Renders

The Love Nest – Initial Model

 

Folding Hearts – Further Research

Looking at what effects the curvature of the heart.

Variable – Length of cut for bending

Results – The Longer the cut the smoother the curve

 

Final Design – Love Nest

The Final Design looks at creating a form by connecting the folding hearts, removing the structural ‘Ribs’ from the previous design and creating a system to achieve a Form

Love Nest – Final Model

Love Nest – Internal Views

Love Nest – Lighting

Love Nest – Night Time

TriNect

The aim is to generate an architectural response through a playful loop between the digital and the physical. Digital tools such as Rhino and Grasshopper are used  in order to carry out analysis and generate buildable three-dimensional forms. Interplay between physical fabrication and digital experiments enable to become an inventor of a system. Here is mine.

TriNect is a flexible system of triangular elements with slots at their vertices. Elements interlock with one another creating different space filling polyhedra. The system can be applied in various scales and adapted for different needs.

TriNect

Auxetic Assemble

As the Maker World develops, we want to have a greater impact on our environment, the spaces we live in. Auxetic Assemble gives you a chance to build your own furniture and have a input in your product. Auxetic Assemble gives you the chance to buy either the cut parts for the product or the instructions and CNC cutting files to then source your own material, cut your own product and assemble your work. The future of this adaptable design system allows the product to be fitted and designed to your require space.

 

The Pavilion

I have set up a Kickstarter Campaign in order to Fund a Pavilion in Hackney. The Pavilion is the next step in the journey to developing this system to its future potential. The construction process used for the plywood shelves will be developed at the larger scale to develop a pavilion to display the process of constructing the shelves and to exhibit the product. The Pavilion walls will become the seating, shelving and tables for the space. This is a chance to explore the system at a larger scale in order for further development for future of housing, an adaptable system that can be applied to a unique space and engages everyone as its workforce to build it.

Kickstarter Page

 

The Products

 

The design system has been developed into shelving product to sell as rewards, both in cardboard and plywood.

 

Follow the links to the Kickstarter Page to help this project be realized, Click on any image for the Kickstarter page link. Thank you.

 

Waste-fab

 

WASTE-fAB is a new idea for greener fairer recycling.

The initial pilot scheme to exemplify this concept aims to create a platform that allows users to advertise and sell excess digital fabrication space or WASTE-fAB space; this usually takes the form of negative, un-used space on a sheet material when laser cutting or CNC-ing. Buyer and seller use the service to transfer files and instructions and two jobs are merged into one…less waste!

 

The idea could be implemented on a much larger scale though…

Factories, building sites, high street retailers and many more operations create huge amounts of waste and we accept that its unavoidable in many cases but we insist that there’s a greener fairer way of recycling it.

 

 

Go to the WASTE-fAB Website…

‘Entwine’ – Submission for Burning Man 2016

INSTALLATION SUBMISSION TO BURNING MAN 2016 – ‘Entwine’

Entwine is a timber frame structure which has been developed through rigorous physical and digital testing to ensure a safe climbing frame for all to enjoy. When exploring Entwine, the vast expanse of the playa is framed through beautiful intertwining curved plywood beams. Burners can view the event from glorious vantage points nestled amidst multiple communal spaces that encourage interaction and play.

The structure predominantly consists of strips of curved plywood which have been connected together using pioneering construction techniques, specifically the utilisation of conflicting forces, similar to those apparent in ‘Tensegrital’ design. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci and his various experimentations with physical form, ‘Entwine’ is a marvel of geometry. The piece is formed from an arrangement of 19 octahedral components, each consisting of six beams, which are paired and positioned upon one of three axis. These three elements represent the unity of man, nature and the universe that surrounds us.

Each modular component is tessellated to form an octahedral space frame structure. The rigidity resulting from this tessellation is in direct contrast to the curving structural beams which exude an organic aesthetic. As Burners view Entwine from different aspects, a remarkable array of different patterns and forms are revealed, many bearing resemblance to sacred geometry, specifically the Flower of Life, which was a significant study within Leonardo Da Vinci’s work.

Entwine is unorthodox in its composition, and this is a contributing factor to what makes it so unique: Each module is constructed through tensioning layers of ¼ inch thick plywood, which are then mechanically fixed together when a desired radius has been reached. By laminating the plywood in this manner, each component retains its curvature but remains in compression. These conflicting forces are integral to the design of Entwine: Each octahedral module is constructed from these compressed plywood elements, and are held together with tensioning ropes creating a structure of isolated components in compression within a net of continuous tension.The form of the structure is based on the octahedron, which is a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles; four of which meet at each vertex. One of the eight triangles acts as a base for the structure. This results in one edge creating a small cantilever, whilst the counter edge can be anchored to the ground. As previously studied by Buckminster Fuller, the geometry of an octahedron is particularly good at forming space frames with a strong cantilevers.

The participatory aspect of the installation voids the role of the ‘spectator’ and creates more active engagement. In many of Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings, his subjects are framed by surreal, dreamlike landscapes. This is reflected within Entwine: As Burners become part of the installation, they are framed by the awe inspiring backdrop of Black Rock Desert: In many ways Entwine becomes the artist, the playa the canvas, and Burners the subjects.

“the artist is not a special sort of person, but every person is a special sort of artist.”

This is not only true in the sense of physical involvement but during the construction the ‘spectator’ becomes involved in making strategic decisions in the realisation of the work of art. The development, design and construction of the project embodies the principles of self-reliance and self-expression, whilst a proposal that is safe, interactive and beautiful will be gifted to the community at Burning Man.

Entwine’s curving form will be illuminated using LED spot lights to enhance the organic patterning existent within the structure. This allows the full form of the structure to be fully visible.