Wind Architecture Journal Submission A

WIND ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 5: STANISLAV ROUDAVSKI & ALEX HOLLAND

STEFANIE JUDD 638809

INFLATABLE ARCHITECTURE: A BRIEF TIMELINE

ANT FARM: PILLOW, INFLATOCOOKBOOK 1969-71

REYNER BANHAM AND FRANCOIS DALLEGRET: UNHOUSE 1960s

ARCHIGRAM: SUITALOON 1960s

ANISH KAPOOR & ARATA ISOZAKI: INFLATABLE CONCERT HALL

HAUS-RUCKER-CO: PNEUMAKOSM 1960S-70s

ARCHIGRAM: CUSHICLE 1960s

INFLATABLE ARCHITECTURE: INITIAL EXPLORATIONS

DESIGNING THE PROTOTYPE SURFACE

SRF U

DIVISIONS

V

DIAMOND PANELS

SURFACE DIVISION INTO PANELS

COLOUR CODING PANELS FOR SIMPLE FABRICATION

5 PANELS

20 PANELS

This is the beginning of my exploration with kites and inflatables. I wanted to start simple and see what i could achieve in the way of an inflatable. I started by modeling a sphere and pane ling it with a set number of panels. This shape seemed simple enough in its digital form, however I understated how difficult it would be able to create out of fabric and plastic.

To help with fabrication, I colour coded each panel and unrolled them. As I only had access to an A4 printer, I arranged the unrolled panels at the desired scale on A4 sheets of paper. These were the templates, which were used to cut the fabric.

UNROLLED PANELS ON A4 SHEETS OF PAPER

PROTOTYPE FABRICATION & MATERIALS

FABRIC

PAPER TEMPLATE

PLASTIC

I used two different types of materials, a light fabric and a plastic. The fabric I found in Spotlight, and it does not allow much air flow through it, which is essential for an inflatable.

The plastic is from Bunnings, and was initially intended as a table protector. The plastic is light enough so it was able to be sewn together. I then placed the templates on the plastic and fabric, making sure to tape them down rather than pin them, as to avoid holes for air to escape. A 1cm edge was left around all the template to allow for the sewing connection.

SEWING MACHINE

The connection between two of the polygon pieces was done by putting the two pieces back to back, sewing a seam about 1cm in from the edge, and folding the fabric back in the other direction, so that the seam was relatively well hidden.

TEMPLATES ARRANGED ON PLASTIC

INFLATED PROTOTYPE

1

3

The prototype inflated relatively well at the top, however, due to my failure to think about the connection to the air supply, the air pressure was not enough to inflate it to its full extents. The inflatable was connected to a hairdryer (fig.2) via two pieces of twine sewn into the lining of the edge of the inflatable (fig.4). This meant that the inflatable did not need to be held onto the hairdryer as it inflated.

2

4

As there were so many nodes on this design, it was quite difficult to sew together. Lining up the points was difficult, and if one piece did not line up, it would often mess up other sections. It would have been simpler to work in strips, as to avoid difficult sewing. I also found that the plastic stuck on the machine as it was sliding through, so moving forward, this plastic may not be the best option.

EXPLORATION MATRIX INFLATABLES

Here I created a simple rectangular ‘pillow’ which connects to the hairdryer via a tube. I experimented here by pinching the fabric at various points and inflating it to see the effects. In the last few photos, the fabric was held together around the center and inflated to create an interesting, simple form.

KITE MAKING: THE PROCESS

LEADING EDGE

LEADING EDGE

2nd LEADING EDGE

2nd LEADING EDGE MAIN PANEL

TIP

SEWING ORDER 1 SEW LEADING EDGE PIECES TOGETHER 2 SEW LEADING EDGE PIECES TO

MAIN PANELS 3 SEW RIBS TO MAIN PANELS 4 SEW BRIDLE LEADERS TO

LEADING EDGE AMD RIBS TIPS 5 SEW TUNING LINES TO

LEADING EDGE/MAIN PANELS 6 SEW TWO HALVES OF KITE TOGETHER 7 SEW THE TAIL ATTACHMENT 8 FIT BRIDLES

MAIN PANEL

TIP

The kite making process was quite difficult because we didn’t have much of an understanding about how the parts of the kites fit together. The first image is a diagram demonstrating how the pieces of the kite fit together. We begun by tracing templates and cutting out the fabric in our desired colour.

We then sewed all the pieces together. When sewing the ribs this was particularly difficult, as we initially had to sew a curve, and then the two pieces of fabric would often not meet at the end, which is crucial for the kite to fly straight.

When this happened, we would have to un-pick and try again, putting extra force on whichever piece of fabric was shorter.

KITE FLYING

KITE FLYING

WAYS TO ACHIEVE STABILITY 1

2

3

4

5

The kite needs a way to determine which way is up, to do this, the center of lift must be above the center of gravity.

A tail applies a corrective force on a kite when there is substantial angular displacement. This allows the kite to adapt to minor wind condition changes. The tail has an affect on the lift to drag ratio.

Laterally disposed drag. If you have a good aspect ratio (that is length to width ratio) then the kite will be more stable (with an aspect ratio of above 1).

The longitudinal dihedral angle is important, it shifts the kites center of lift down the kite and reduces the effective pendulum length and increases the kites ability to correct itself.

The angle of the line relative to the wind direction matters, the shorter the line length, the greater the angle.

WIND DIRECTION

CENTER OF PRESSURE

PENDULUM EFFECT ZERO AERO FORCE

& CENTER OF GRAVITY

WEIGHT FORCE

A OF A 90 ˚

WIND DIRECTION

AERO FORCE PENDULUM EFFECT POSITIVE CENTER OF PRESSURE

WEIGHT FORCE

ANGLE OF ATTACK LESS THAN 45˚

TYPES OF KITE RESEARCH

ANIMAL SHAPED KITES (RAM AIR INFLATED)

SINGLE SKIN, SINGLE LINE KITES

There are many different types of modern kites that can be made. I personally am interested in the idea of having multiple kites on one string, and seeing how the kite would fly. Would it dance around in an interesting pattern? Is there a possibility of releasing each section of kite when the one before hits a certain height? Or will it not work at all? I think it would be interesting to explore these ideas.

PILOT KITES

MULTIPLE KITES ON ONE STRING

DUAL LINE KITES

FUTURE DESIGNS IDEAS

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2

Using the kite from the workshop with Peter Lynn as a base for the design and modify it. This will be simpler as we already have a base kite which we know can fly.

Create our own design from scratch, using rules from Peter Lynn about what kites need to fly. I recently saw a kite flying with a tail, it was almost dancing in the wind, this is something I think would be interesting to explore in the future. It reminds me of ribbon twirling, which can often create a quite beautiful display. Perhaps it would also be interesting to look into designing a kite which can be controlled with additional strings.

TAIL MOVEMENT THROUGH THE WIND

INFLATABLE TAILS

REFLECTION

These first few weeks have been a massive learning experience, from learning sewing skills, to understanding what it is that makes a kite fly, to inflatable making. It was useful for us to create our inflatable prototypes in the first week as it introduced us to sewing, forced us to contemplate various ways of inflation, and helped us understand how preexisting inflatables were made. Before this subject I had not contemplated the idea of inflatable architecture, and now that I have been introduced to the idea, the opportunities seem endless. What I also learned was that even though something seems simple when

designing on the computer, it is important to know the limitations of the real world. The intensive kite making workship with Peter Lynn was quite daunting at first. He presented to us a single skin, single string kite that was completely foreign. This workshop was so helpful because it not only increased our physical modelling skills, but also helped us to understand some of the physics behind what makes Peters kites fly.

The tools and knowledge we learned in the workshop will come in handy for our future kite designing and making endeavours.