Halokinesis AADRL Thesis 2021-23

SPYROPOULOS STUDIO 2021-2023 TEAM STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO ZHEN JIA KAY MASHIACH MAYA MASHIACH ZHICHENG YANG

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TEAM STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO ZHEN JIA KAY MASHIACH MAYA MASHIACH ZHICHENG YANG

SPYROPOULOS STUDIO 2021-2023 STUDIO PROFESSOR THEODORE SPYROPOULOS STUDIO TUTORS APOSTOLOS DESPOTIDIS HANJUN KIM OCTAVIAN GHEORGHIU PHASE 01 HELPERS ANNA KONDRASHOVA YIFAN YANG

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INDEX

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Thesis Premise

Salt History

Material & Crystallization

i. Studio Brief ii. Halokinesis Defined iii. Thesis Statement

i. Salt Sourcing & Collection ii. Salt Processes iii. Salt Tectonics

i. Context ii. Molecular Classifications iii. Crystal Simulations iv. Energy & Environmental v. Ion Concentrations

Proposing Agency

Agent Optimization

i. Organizational Methods ii. Magnetized Spicules iii. Mother Agent iv. Cellular Automatas

i. Three Dimensional Spicule ii. Pneumatics for Buoyancy iii. Prototyping iv. Large Tank Model

INDEX

Scaffold Experiments

Spicule Scaffold

i. Growth Patterns ii. Tubular Scaffold Models iii. Digital Tubular Scaffold iv. Wool Line Scaffold

i. Spicule Cataloguing ii. Structural Analysis iii. Physical Tests

System Cycle

Stigmergy & Pollination

Closing Observations

i. Total System ii. Use-Case / Coral iii. Data Mapping

i. Stigmergy Agents ii. Migration iii. Pollination Formations iv. Halokinesis Visuallizations

i. Phase 2 Presentation ii. Phase 2 Jury iii. System Codes iv. Acknowledgements iii. Bibliography

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Thesis Premise i. Studio Brief ii. Halokinesis Defined iii. Thesis Statement

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Studio Brief SPYROPOULOS STUDIO

Within the contemporary condition new conceptual terrains emerge that raise questions of agency and intelligence within a deep ecology of our environment.

The work explored examines environmental phenomenon in the service of sustaining life on this planet. Challenging the orthodoxies of contemporary spatial landscapes, this studio focuses on the temporal nature of the environment, while applying provocative research methods through material exploration. While questioning the ecological application of architecture, an inquisition towards generative and procedural forms engages in a discernable environmental and discursive conversation, igniting an urgency within this field. The thought is a worldly application – an architecture that can be implemented into multifarious environments, which include the most extreme environments in an application to urban systems.

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thesis premise

thesis premise

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Introduction _premise of Halokinesis

HALOKINESIS is an architectural endeavor that utilizes salt, a universal material, to re-balance the coral bleaching environments within applicable locations on this planet. HALOKINESIS is the magical ability to move salt with one’s mind, and thus, this project explores salt crystallization’s phenomenology by harnessing this power within our reality.

Salt, an essential and abundant element on earth, is known for its ubiquitous flavoring and preservation, while also denoted as a sterilizing agent. However, salt remains an essential element of life. Salinity’s increasing abundance in relation to its paradoxical attributes of sustaining and annihilating situates itself as a priority in investigating its usefulness and applications.

In this case, the elemental is focused on salt, a commodity around the world, by appropriating the origins of salt production processes, both natural and artificial, as the focus of our experimental manifestations.

Analysis of this element revealed an inherent nature of supertemporal growth, requiring us to elicit interventions through controlling behavioral propagation. As salt is seen to be a keystone to the ecological processes of the world, we take into consideration the circulation and movement of salt bodies on earth. Our HALOKINESIS relies on time coupled with a responsive scaffold, growing crystals to achieve strength and formations. Salt tectonics, halokinesis, and crystallization are typically referred to as existing within the "geological time scale", existing within the history of the Earth.

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thesis premise

On the basis of research, we divided different parameters that would influence the crystallization process into two main categories, solution-related and scaffold-related.

The solution-related ones mainly affect the speed of crystallization, while the latter affect the form of the crystal structure. The former mainly includes the type of salt, temperature, humidity, concentration and so on, while the latter includes the material, form and duration of crystallization of the scaffold. By applying a controlled variables approach, we have attempted to examine the importance of the different variables and to gain a detailed understanding of the properties of the different types of salt.

The spicules are small skeletal elements of most sponges, by fusing together they form the structure of the skeleton. When exploring this structural element, we studied possible mutations and classifications. To continue the exploration of the spicule we tested several other possibilities outside the natural shape of sponges.

introduction

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We separated them by number of axes and different ends mutations to provide diverse outcomes when aggregating them. Most spicules in themselves have a very stable centrosymmetric form, which in our project would give the structure a better performance on holding different shapes after aggregation. When numerous spicules are entangled with each other, they form an interlocking structure that is robust.

Formations of scaffolds are determined inputting localized terrains, salinity levels, and coral bleaching regions. Self-binding phenomena occurring in salt crystallization is implemented in the organizational profile and scaffolding systems employed in the granular aggregation, composed of constituent parts that interlock. Crystallizing granular formations produce a dynamic dialogue and permit constant variability in response to the environment.

In the 'unlimited solution’ of the ocean, salt is in superabundance, which is an ideal site for HALOKINESIS. In this case, the agent is equipped with the ability to float and move on the surface of the water. By designing and embedding intelligent systems, our goal is to create a community that receives data from the external environment and translates it into instructions to perform specific actions. They will be able to change their behavioral patterns in order to adapt to their environment in the face of continuous or substantial environmental change. Following the information flow, a structure would be generated by the swarming behavior Ithat constantly interacts with the local organisms and the terrain.

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thesis premise

By implementing a cyclical system of crystallized agents that rehabilitate coral reefs through the introduction of higher salinity levels, HALOKINESIS gives agency to the scaffold in order to determine ideal formations.

This process begins with spicule agents detecting a highsalinity location. When the agents find their most optimal region, they harvest salt by encouraging crystallization on the spicule scaffold itself. After enough salt is crystallized and the agents are generally bound to one another as iceberg formations, they transport through a self-propulsion mechanism to a nearby atrisk coral site. The detection of the coral reefs by the agents is then translated into positional behaviors that forward a vertical formation making system. This formation is catalyzed by coral protection inputs, such as topography, bleaching colors, oceancurrent vectors, and sunlight, which are deciphered in order to optimize the organizational strategy. The breaking of crystallized spicules that form columnar, salt tectonic organizations result in a gradual salt distribution within the specified coral region, mobilizing a necessaryrebalancing of saline levels. Over time, these salt formations are eroded, further distributing salt and protecting coral respawning from impending wave disruption.

introduction

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Definition _definition of Halokinesis

1. The movement of salt and salt bodies. The study of halokinesis includes subsurface flow of salt as well as the emplacement, structure, and tectonic of salt bodies.

Another term used to refer to the study of salt bodies and their structure is “salt tectonics.

2. The magical (and non-existent) ability to move salt with your mind.

initial constant_ salt layer

salt moves_ network of ridges

ridges continue to grow_ salt domes start to form

salt completely withdrawn_ formation solidifies

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thesis premise

While salt flow influences geological tectonics through the creation of structural traps and reservoir distribution, it also serves as a basis to fluid migration around the world. The concept of subsurface salt flow, or halokinesis, embeds itself as an integral aspect of the relationship between global tectonism and sea level change. This relationship provides a fundamental insight into the direction of a structural and contextual foundation for this thesis. definition

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What Are We Exploring _Salt

We are exploring the elemental through the use of salt.

Using the natural intelligence of salt as a material that hardens and self-binds when crystallized. We study the possibility of creating spatial qualities with scaffolds that can be crystallised with salt solutions. Making visible how salt as a material is transformative since the crystalline structure is in continuous growth, always responding to the environment in which it might be situated and its conditions.

The time element is a key aspect of this stable yet mutating material, always evolving and adapting. We are testing the capabilities of strength, self-binding, and formation of crystallization over time, achieving different outcomes that depend on the salinity levels and conditions. As Henna Burney says "Salt is a material of the future: an essential life-supporting mineral, ancient in its uses and abundant as a resource". We explore how can this old, yet new material can coexist with architecture by understanding its materiality.

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thesis premise

Salt is essential for human life.

Salt is abundant.

Salt's crystallization cycles mirror natural rhythms.

Salt is antibacterial.

Salt is a catalyst for a new kind of energy.

Salt facilitates collaboration through a multidisciplinary network.

- Manifesto, Henna Burney of Atelier Luma We are studying the historical narratives of salt, as well as showcasing how it can be used as a resource.

Ultimately questioning salt as a material, and its uses in architecture. Testing its capabilities under compression with skeleton-like scaffolds, analizing it over time, reveals it gradually crystallizes and grows as a "living system".

The capabilities of reflecting light and the creation of atmospheres awarded to the transparency of the material is another important aspect to explore, as well as the handling of the material's own humidity, and its anti-bactericide and preservation properties to naturally reduce moisture.

what are we exploring

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Idiosyncracy _Crystallization

The first steps within our Halokinesis was to understand the characteristics of crystals. We began isolating the relevant compounds, which explored the types of crystals and processes that are within human reach in creating.

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thesis premise

We found that crystals are idiosyncratic. Each output is a result of a unique set of conditions including temperature, humidity, pressure, location, and more. In the same way as it is understood that no two snowflakes are the same, hence snowflakes are crystals, all other crystallizations are as well. Characteristic outputs include hardness, cleavage, optical properties, heat conductivity, and electrical conductivity.

what are we exploring

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Overabundance and Underuse _why are we exploring salt

While ecological networks afford power through growth and regeneration to the Earth we live within, they also render this world vulnerable to the effects produced by anthropological evolutionary measures that stake a claim as a part of this network. Consequently, the oblivion of a harmonious ecological connectivity makes it vulnerable for the exploitation of resources and natural habitats by both local and non-local agents.

Although virtual mediums allow for an awareness to this exploitation, genuine engagement is removed from the public sphere, creating a void in which individuals become oblivious to consumerism’s environmental effect. However, creating a tangibility and visibility to these resources which can become readily available, could represent the flows and exchanges of natural processes. This tangibility would allow humans to gain an immediate and direct connection to an otherwise inscrutable global reality in which we live in, a draining of raw materials from this Earth. This could potentially result in a new subjectivity, wherein individuals can become empowered to act within this global context.

While this exploitation of resources is widespread towards rare materials, the asset of salt itself is highly accessible, as well as underused in its essence throughout the globe.

When contextualizing the history of salt, it is necessary to pursue its outlook in relation to historical significance and its exceptional relationship within the Silk Road trading route. At that time, salt was a commodity, wherein its abundance was central to everyday life due to its seasoning qualities. This abundance is still seen today. The Silk Road represented a time of interconnected networks between humans that otherwise would have had no relationship with each other whatsoever. Salt being a part of this connection, its use was explored in a wider variety. From being used as a seasoning, as a preserving agent, and an antiseptic, it became an element that was fundamental to ordinary tasks.

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thesis premise

Since ancient times, salt’s wider uses have spanned into a product of the chemical industry. Both this context and application put into question the fundamental nature of salt. Its overabundance somehow results in underuse throughout the various fields of life. As a material, its expansion can arise through its non-toxic, compressive strength, fire resistance, heat dissipation, and more.

The real question is, why has this element not extended itself into the architectural world in a more prevalent and exponential advancement?

While salt in its raw and harvested form presents a challenge to maintaining a systematic structure, there is no building material today that does not require a postprocessing production operation that creates a better sustained application. The development of the means to generate a stable construct of salt building materials is part of the ambition of this thesis. Reconfiguring and reassembling the molecules that strengthen salt itself is part of the process necessary to establish it in a building application. The overabundance of salt allows for this material to serve a new additional function. overabundance and underuse

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Ubiquitous _ harvesting and use-cases

HARVESTING Salt harvesting exists both naturally and artificially. In the cases of natural salt harvesting, it is apparent that the world's various ecosystems and living beings gather salt for nutrition or ecological processes. Humans, however, have taken it further, with extreme harvesting of salt for a variety of purposes. Salt is yielded through massproduced manufacturing methods or bespoke processes.

We explored all practices to better enlist our own modus operandi for salt harvesting.

USE-CASES Salt is one of the most ubiquitous minerals on the planet, familiar to every human on this Earth. This is essentially what makes the element so extremely unique, as everyone has some relationship or understanding of it.

Most widely known is its flavouring. Less recognized applications are its function in health, disinfection, and preservation. Hospitals use saline solution in IV bags in order to revitalize and rehabilitate patients. Many medications contain salt as well. Almost all cleaning products contain saline or are disseminated from products containing saline. Salt is an excellent mode of preservation with its outstanding thermal insulation.

Further, humans have explored the use of salt for icy roads to maintain safety. Salt provides continuation of everyday life by altering natural weather intrusions.

The mud from the Dead Sea is a phenomena that people around the world flock to for its healing powers in order to apply salt- and mineral-rich mud to their bodies. Animals also capitalize on salt nutrients. Cows, elephants, deers, goats, and more all lick salt to receive essential mineral nutrients. These salt licks occur both naturally and artificially in ecosystems with poor general availability of nutrients, migrating for miles to receive necessary nutrients. Flamingos enjoy salt flats for its nutrients. They are born white and turn pink as a result of digesting salt filled with algae and excreting this through their feathers.

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thesis premise

purpose and program

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Case Studies _crystallization and scaffold

The Venus Chair, conceived by Tokujin Yoshioko, is a salt structure installation, formed through the natural process of crystallization in order to imply the shape of a chair. Tokujin’s fascination with crystallization and growth processes has become a precedent for this Halokinesis Machine. The Venus Chair took 6-8 days to grow onto a porous polyester fibre scaffold. Its innovation lies in the porosity of the scaffold, which allows for more air to penetrate the structure, leading to a higher possibility for seeding points to occur throughout the project. Fusing technology and life force, this chair presents a concept which is central to our own thesis, the ability to grow architectural forms.

Venus Chair _ Tokujin Yoshioko

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thesis premise

Dead Sea _ Sigalit Landau

Sigalit Landau experiments with submerging commonplace objects into the Dead Sea to unearth the natural salt growth that occurs in-situ. By using a completely localized process to grow and generate crystallization, Landau brings forth a concept which revolutionizes natural harvesting. Allowing for a general 6-8 weeks for the crystallization process to occur, these objects become fully grown before removing them from the site. A structure built in order to submerge objects without them touching the sea floor is crucial in this specific precedent in order to avoid a welding nature into the landscape. Proving that on site salt crystallization situates our thesis in a conceptual location which includes a highly saturated body of salt water. case studies

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Focusing on the spicule in-situ, Concrete Tetrapods are structural innovations that are conceptualized and utilized on the shoreline in order to disperse waves and break water. This discovery was developed after the Tsunami that hit the shores of Japan and destroyed infrastructure and homes of the local people. The fourfooted, porous, concrete barrier is used generally now to prevent erosion and water damage through dissipation.

The spicule form is conducive to a natural displacement of 9f liquids when they are packed together. This allows for proof of theory, when organizing a spicule scaffold into and body of water that has natural flows. While these tetrapods have been criticized for their heavy concrete and unnatural form, our response to that in our thesis involves a lighter structure as well as a scaffold for natural growth.

Concrete Tetrapods

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thesis premise

Spicules _ Minimaforms

Exploring the limits of density of porosity within the spicule, Minimaforms applies a variety of compositions within their Archigram revisited and Imogen Heap stage installation and exploration. This variety occurs through a multifarious typology of the spicule shape itself. This shape results from a variation of arm numbers, spicule geometry, as well as end mutation. These variations create either a density or a porosity of structures. In application, this density and porosity lends itself to a seeding point control for an ultimate crystallization with this Halokinesis Machine. Where more structure is needed to bear weight, denser spicules are incorporated.

Meanwhile, where there is a less intensive load, less material can be used, which results in a more porous spicule shape. This incorporation of variety is an essential component to this thesis. In addition, the exploration applied a high number of spicules, assisting in the realization that this thesis needs to consider the supply needed to achieve a complete structure. case studies

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A Different Approach _alternative salt research

In the precedent studies, we learned the properties of salt from artists, architects and engineers, and many other perspectives. We started to understand its materiality and the poetic quality in its nature. However, those cases isolate only one or a few qualities of salt. For designing the halokinesis machine, we had to be able to control the salt we use and play a role in global climate changes, and do more to take our precedent research further.

SCALE The project Venus explored the "controlled salt crystallization", where Tokujin used poly-fiber to create a porous scaffold and initiated crystallization with meaningful shapes. However, the salt chair is kept in a water tank just for exhibition. For Halokinesis machine, the space created is not only on a much larger scale, it is also meant to perform structurally. Therefore, the Halokinesis research happens on multiple scales. With limited space and equipment, the research only occurs on the human scale, but what should be kept in mind is that approaches such as massive industrial fabrication or off-site fabrication should be avoided. Instead, a generative, decentralized, and adaptive approach should be developed.

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thesis premise

TIME In the Dead Sea project, the artist submerges objects in the saturated body of water for months in order achieve maximum crystallization. Crystallization is a slow and natural process but, in the project, time is completely determined by the natural condition of the site. In our Halokinesis research, we are looking for a naturally driven, low-energy cost approach, while still having control of the process, the system must have agency.

This means the system should be able to include time as an essential parameter, instead of sanctioning nature's control.

MATERIALITY To harvest salt, Tokujin used polyfiber as the material of scaffolding, which is an artificial pre-fabricated material and hard to acquire. In Halokinesis Machine will be working on a global scale so the material acquirement and scaffolding need to be on-site, simple, and direct.

This indicates a low energy cost, also echoing with the redundancy and simplicity of the element salt.

a different approach

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How Are We Exploring Salt? _parameters for crystal growth

We envisaged utilising salt as a building material, but it was a challenge to test its potential and try to explore different possibilities to optimise the design.The transformation of salt from an ionic state dissolved in solution to a solid crystal in the form of crystallization is a phenomenon whose principles we cannot observe with the naked eye. Based on a series of studies and papers, we tried to find a more intuitive approach through scientific analysis. By means of a series of experiments and tests combining different types of salt, environmental conditions and other heterogeneous materials, we investigated how salt can be produced as a building element and raw material.

The key to all this lies in the conditions required for crystallization. Firstly, we tried to understand salt in our own way, although refined salt is an everyday necessity, we still do not know enough about it. By using our sensuality to experience the transformation of salt between ionic and liquid states, we noted the many physical properties of the salt crystals themselves, being highly translucent and compressive, but fragile due to the unique shape of the crystals themselves. This means that the crystals can have a high structural strength in one form or another, but are unable to form large spans of arched structures on their own. During the course of our initial experiments, we found that the crystals were more likely to be produced on the inner walls of containers and on the surfaces of other objects within the solution, which inspired us to start thinking about the possibility of using salt in combination with other substances to form structures. Through the analysis of a number of case studies, this eventually gave rise to the idea of providing scaffolding for the growth of salt.

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thesis premise

On this basis of the research, we divided the different parameters that would influence the crystallization process into two main categories, solution-related and scaffold-related. The solution-related ones mainly affect the speed of crystallization, while the latter affect the form of the crystal structure. The former mainly includes the type of salt, temperature, humidity, concentration and so on, while the latter includes the material, form and duration of crystallization of the scaffold.

By applying a controlled variables approach, we have attempted to examine the importance of the different variables and to gain a detailed understanding of the properties of the different types of salt.

On the solution side, we found that concentration and temperature were the most important parameters, and that when the solution is saturated, salt precipitates whenever the temperature decreases or water evaporates. For scaffolding, we tried a range of different materials such as wool, organic fibers, sponges, metals, wood and plastics and found that absorbent materials enhanced the crystallization reaction and that the crystals grow more on the rougher surfaces.

how are we exploring salt

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_the exploring of the scaffolding

For scaffolding systems we can say that there are almost unlimited possibilities for exploration, as salt can crystallize on the surface of any object. We tried to compare and experiment with different categories of scaffolding and tried to think about how these structures could be generated in different forms.

There are two main categories, coherent and discrete, further subdividing the former into three different geometrical types, and the latter according to whether its constituent elements are homogeneous or not.

Wool

Fiber

Sponge

/Metal /Plastic /Wood /...

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thesis premise

COHERENT SYSTEM The need to adapt to the environment is difficult to meet if the material of the structure in a coherent system is rigid and difficult to deform. We started with soft material and semi-rigid material. For linear types, string, wool, and fibre were our first choice. Inspired by Frei Otto's experiments with wool, we sought to explore the form generation of the fine fibres in wool when immersed in a solution, where the surface tension of the water brings these fibres close to each other, creating interconnected threads of different thicknesses. As for the surface, we experimented with mixing different concentrations and salt solution types with paint and applied it to the surface of the paper, discovering that the inherently soft paper produced an undulating surface in the presence of water. The crystals had the effect of reinforcing it, allowing it to maintain its curved form.

Sponges were our choice of volume-type. By using different forces to pull and compress the sponge, we found that the salt crystals grew in the pores inside the sponge, allowing it to maintain its deformation.

DISCRETE SYSTEM When we were experimenting with sponges, we accidentally found two pieces of sponge bonded together by salt crystals to form a whole. This led us to think about the self-binding properties of salt. In fact, the process of salt crystallisation is itself a process whereby numerous small salt crystals fuse with each other to form larger crystals, so why not attempt to break up the coherent system into a series of elements and combine them into a larger whole through the process of crystallization? In this way, we can have more power over the material and unconstrained by its softness. Crystals are not necessarily strong enough to support themselves, and if we could choose materials that are sturdy enough independantly, then we could explore more forms and structures that we would otherwise not have had the opportunity to experiment.

how are we exploring salt

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_the exploring of the scaffolding

SPICULES AS BASIC UNIT Inspired by the MinimaForms Project and the skeleton structure of glass sponge, we used the spicules as the basic element of our system. The spicules are small skeletal elements of most sponges, by fusing together they form the structure of the skeleton. When exploring this structural element, we studied possible mutations and classifications. To continue the exploration of the spicule we tested several other possibilities outside the natural shape of sponges. We separated them by number of axes and different ends mutations to provide diverse outcomes when aggregating them.

DISCRETE ELEMENTS, COHERENT WHOLE Most spicules in themselves have a very stable centrosymmetry form, which in our project would give the structure a better performance on holding different shapes after aggregation. When numerous spicules are entangled with each other, they form an interlocking structure that is robust in itself. There are no rigid points of connection, so all spicules are loosely connected to each other, which provides opportunities for deformation and metamorphosis. This structure generated by collective behavior also create porosity that is well suited to the growth of salt crystals, and the latter can fuse originally loose elements together to form a whole.

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thesis premise

Material

FORM

POPULATION

EXPERIMENTS AND SIMULATIONS Combining the physical experiments and digital simulations, we tried to learn more about how to find a efficient way to organize the spicules and grow more crystal on them. By utilizing different techniques, we used several material like PLA, Plywood, acrylic and metal to make the spicules. Spicules made of materials such as plastic will stay suspended in the water due to buoyancy, while those made of wood and metal will sink straight to the bottom. In addition to this, we tried to control the environment temperature to test the stability of the structure after crystallization. Heating the solution would accelerate the crystallization happened on the surface of solution while cooling it down will cause more crystal grow at the bottom, so the choice of material can also be influenced by differences in the environment.

how are we exploring salt

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Timelines _crystallization as a descriptor of time

Understanding timeframes in this time-based process is a fundamental step in comprehension of natural salt crystallization, and further, a mastery or assimilation on our part within this process.

A key feature in realizing the purpose for this time nessecity is the outcome exhibits a moment in time within its layers. Similar to a tree's rings, one can look at a salt formation and understand the conditions at each segment of the formation. Thus, outputs are a snapshot of time. As we said that the crystallization essentially freezes our spicule arrangements in a moment in time, the crystals themselves doing the same, and the whole is thus self-referrential.

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thesis premise

Salt tectonics, halokinesis, and crystallization is typically referred to as existing within the "geological time scale", or existing within the history of the Earth.

Attempting to capitalize on a system that exists on a completely different time scale as that of our human existence and modern history remains a challenge. The question regarding our project's time scale is perpetually reviewed. We cannot speed up time. We can speed up processes such as heating up salt solutions hotter than the desert would, increasing evaporation rates, and crystallizing quicker. However, doing this ultimately dissociates the research project from our in-situ element of interest, salt.

Our crystallizations have been baked in the oven and exposed to multiple heat lamps, and interestingly, we consider these to be our most successful experiments.

With the crystallization sped up, we could finally see a proper outcome as we would see in natural circumstances. On the other hand, a smaller scale tank experiment was left to evaporate naturally for over two months, leading to more revelations about the natural salt crystallization processes. Over time, dendritic growth occured more in this naturally evaporated formation as a slower evaporation rate led to smaller crystals on the tips of the salt.

After observing this small scale successful experiment, the timeline of crystallization became apparent. On the walls of the tank, where the salt creep occured, we could see the moment we all left for summer break. Such expressions came from our holiday, when it rained, when the tank was moved, when the initial solution was poured on the scaffold, and when exponential crystallization first took place. Following those time "lines" on the walls of the tank, the same expression is witnessed on the crystallized formation as well. Time is thus articulated on these formational structures. We intend to create an intimate correspondence between the time scales of our models and the formational expression.

timelines

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Contextual Futures _learning from the Dead Sea

Salt formations and halokinesis found in natural circumstances have provided us with a base point in realizing output formations. These bodies reveal the extended possibilities salt posses and can be introduced now on a larger scale. The Dead Sea, the saltiest body on the planet, has been a source of precedence, as our crystallization experiments and methods simulate the saltwater and evaporation natural to the area.

As ocean salinity averages to 25 PPM, the Dead Sea is about 45 PPM, situated in a hot and arid climate predisposed unique crystallized formations. Although most formations in the Dead Sea are either purely salt, compounded salt with other minerals, or salt growing off rocks, genesis of these formations still prevail.

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thesis premise

Our Halokinetic research gradually increases scale and attempts to implement contextual value to our outputs.

Currently our crystallized spicule formations combine scale employing 1:1 salt crystallization, but paired with variable spicule scales and aggregations. Structurally, salt behaves better in compression. Through evaluation, our goal is to better understand the intrinsic product of an almost uncontrollable, natural process. By introducing a underarching scaffold, we obtain the ability to inform crystallization, ultimately imposing a specific procedure in its growth.

contextual futures

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Salt Futures _"Salt as a Building Material: Current Status and Future Opportunitues"

by Vesna Pungercar and Florian Musso

This paper is the first ever review of salt materials as building materials. This indicates that salt materials need to be further analyzed and the paper suggests several recommendations for future application: 1. Salt mixed with other materials can increase the resource efficiency in building construction. Currently, REA gypsum represents around 50% of the gypsum used in Germany, but this resource will soon disappear because of the planned closure of the country’s coal power plants.

Therefore, mixing salt with gypsum or other materials could reduce the demand for energy-consuming or rare materials.

2. Some salt materials (such as salt concrete and Karshif) can influence indoor environment conditions. Salt concrete can absorb and release heat from the air and could be used as a thermal storage material in climates with high day-night temperature differences. Karshif (salt-clay) can absorb and release the vapor from the air and could be used as a humidity storage material in climate conditions with short exposure to higher relative humidity.

3. Salt materials with a higher amount of salt and increased efflorescence on the surface could positively affect human health in buildings. Emissions from salt materials could provide healthier working or living conditions. Salt is not toxic, is free of chemical emissions and has no odor.

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thesis premise

4. Raw salt materials or salt brines could be used for temporary building construction such as pavilions, exhibition construction, and shading systems of buildings and open areas. Temporary building structures in very hot and dry climate conditions could be built with the technique of salt crystal growth following seawater evaporation and could easily be demolished with water.

5. Salt is not flammable and has good acoustic properties (in comparison with wood it has higher average bulk density). It could be used as infill material for walls in dry and hot climate conditions.

6. Salt materials can be adapted to different building techniques (e.g., 3D printing, additive manufacturing, masonry, prefabrication). https://www.doi.org/10.15274/tpj.2021.06.02.4

salt futures

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Situational Crystallizations _ environmental factors

LEARNING FROM EXPERIMENTS In the time when our crystallizations were left for a few months to evaporate, we were able to identify key natural features of salt crystallization including situational dispositions in the surrounding environment.

Although in the hot summer days, the large tank left outdoors to crystallize did not continually crystallize like it had when we placed heat lamps within the first 16 days of crystallization. In order to properly crystallize, salt needs heat for the water to evaporate, but there should be an absence of moisture, of humidity.

We initially belived any moisture can be detrimental to continuous crystal growth and can reverse the months of crystal growth. However, after our second large tank crystallization, beginning in October 2022, it became apparant that even with all the rain and snow that caused high humidity in the air, that the crystallization was able to persist. In a warm solution, salt can properly and quickly dissolve, but after the solution cools, salt crystals separate from the water and thus attach to anything in proximity. Therefore, our crystallization occured heavily underwater even in a cold solution.

Investigating the second large tank crystallization, we decided to add a fan to induce water turbidity, helping move solution around. This fan was active during the wettest time of the year in London, yet the tank still crystallized. We also sprayed saline solution on the spicules throughout the crystalliation process to increase salt growth. Further, an overheated water surface causes surface crystallization. Salt is an excellent insulator of heat, so anything behind solid crystallization are shielded. We learned this after observing that evaporation rates reduce after full coverage of crystallization from the surface.

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thesis premise

Tank 01 Crystallization

Tank 02 Crystallization

Scrutinizing the crystallizations after a couple months of non-interference and non-observation revealed the more innate tendencies of salt crystallization and thus informing requirements of site.

UNDERSTANDING SITUATIONAL NECESSITIES Our conclusion is the ideal locality is not necessarily dependant on humidity, and if anything more hydroapplications can increase crystallization. Whether localities are meant for the process of crystallization and/ or decisive outcomes (growing architecture), oceanic and coastal circumstances remain central to conduct and relay situational architectures.

situational crystallizations

43

_site relationships

ACTIVE SALT DEVELOPMENTS The Siwa Oasis and the people of the settlement, for example, manifest an architectural vernacular built with mud and salt, with crystallization occurring overtime from exposure to moisture. However, its existence in the desert has enabled this material to endure rather than dissolve because of its low humidity and high heat. A cave, however, is an ideal location for salt crystallization to occur as it follows compressive awareness, maintains its own microclimate, and is thus a stabilized environment. Realizations of an obscure site relationship could validate and commission our own intimate predilections on decentralization in the modern world.

EPHEMERAL ATTITUDES These sites, though, are not only determined regarding ideal conditions for salt crystallization to occur, but the ways it can be utilized to sustain life. However, of the few researchers interested in salt as a new type of ecomaterial for architectural purposes, most of them have coated their salt modules in an epoxy. One researcher, Eric Geboers of TU Delft, has been researching saltbased materials and is in the process of searching for an eco-friendly coating to replace epoxy. Coatings were a necessary discussion as our goal is to not invalidate the use of salt as an ecological, elemental harvesting, and utilize its cyclical nature of crystallizing and dissolving.

The ephemeral quality of salt crystallization does not need to be a detriment to the project, rather we explored taking advantage of this with our scenarios.

44

thesis premise

Halokinesis Crystallization

Siwa Oasis

Halite Cave

situational crystallizations

45

Spatial Postulations _notes on form and shape

Highly informed space, in this case, is determined by what salt and its crystallization needs. Placing this as the ultimate driver in design causes us to rely on the knowledge and research we have gained over the course of this thesis. Compression is applied structurally in cases of masonry and further, salt. Precedents using salt in architectural purposes have typically mixed it with other architectural materials such as stucco, mud, plaster, and concrete in order to further its compressive strength.

HALOKINESIS, TECTONIC FORMATIONS Mineral Base_ Composite Crust

Pull Apart_ Rhomb

Namakier_ Salt Glacier

Surface Crack_ Weak Point Salt Rising_ Pressure Pump

crystallized Arch

46

Crystallized Vault

thesis premise

Crystallized Dome

ARCHITECTURAL SALT TYPOLOGIES Being a mineral, salt is mostly witnessed in geological formations, but its halokinetic, tectonic qualities act as a fluid. The flowing characteristics of salt over a geological time scale is the reason as to why salt intrudes in geological circumstances manifesting as a salt dome, salt glacier, salt pillows, and many more. Understanding the structures and mega-structures of salt proves necessary to furthering our large-scale spatial conceptions.* It becomes critical to identify these halokinetic forms and apply them in our own circumstances. Typologies that are surface-active such as an arch, dome, or vault will be the most ideal spatial outputs, exploiting the structural disposition of salt. However, as our research shows, in order to inform our own conceptualized outputs, incorporating a scaffold regarded in tension can open more possibilities. The spicule formations we have introduced into the crystallization processes exist in compression as an individual spicule is wedged into another spicule and becomes compacted.

We have identified that over time our spicule formations, when in the process of crystallizing, settle into specific shapes that cannot necessarily be controlled. The spicules provide a basis to initiate any deliberate form of our choosing. In both salt crystallization and spicules, we need to give in to a loss of control and agency and tend to the needs of the chaotic and the natural. Prototyping will need to be in constant dialogue between the agent and this spatial inevitability.

spatial concepts

47

Purpose and Program _giving meaning to the structure

ADAPTIVE STRUCTURE ON THE WATER SURFACE In the 'unlimited solution', ocean, the salt is in superabundance, which is an ideal site for the halokinesis machine. In this case, the agent should be equipped with the ability to float and move on the surface of the water.

With the self-binding nature of the element, salt and scaffolds could create meaningful structures and spaces.

In the sea, the project can create flood dikes to prevent the damage of floods and tsunamis. Or floating islands and bridge structures in the ocean.

HABITABLE SPACE IN EXTREME CONDITION After observing the salt crystal for months, we realized it* requires certain conditions to sustain its shape and strength. Dryness is very important, which leads to another potential site of Halokinesis: the desert. Desert environments are ideal: the heat would dramatically increase the rate of evaporation and keep the crystals strong for a long time. Salt exists in vast amounts in most areas of the world, including the desert, so the structure and space created can be used as habitable space in the desert. Furthermore, one of the natural qualities of salt is the ability to reflect light, which also suits the purpose of habitation in the desert as to reflex the heat conveyed by the sunlight.

POTENTIAL BUILDING MATERIALS Salt known as the enemy of architectural material is harmful to timber, concrete, metal, etc. However, the structural tests show the potential of salt and scaffold being able to create structures that can hold, and the self-binding nature of the salt can also be applied to construction.

48

thesis premise

Adaptive structure on the water surface Salt island in the dead sea

Habitable space in extreme condition Slat mountain in the salt marsh

Potential building materials 'Small scale architecture' of Erez Nevi Pana

Monument of nature and history Salt column in the dead sea

MONUMENT OF NATURE AND HISTORY No matter which purpose the Halokinesis Machine would be used, a structure on a globe scale made of salt crystals would be a human-nature-made monument. It's adaptive yet the process of changing is slow. The salt not only binds discrete things together, reflects light, and bears weight, but the element also absorbs colours, dissolves, and re-crystallizes through time. It will be a living monument made of salt, that is constantly dissolving as well as freezing moments in the time that we live in.

purpose and program

49

How the System Would Work _decentralized system

Beyond different objectives and mechanisms, our project hopes to create a bottom-up system where each agent can individually analyze their own environment and make decisions to participate in collective actions.

By designing and embedding intelligent systems, our goal is to create a community that receives data from the external environment and translates it into instructions to perform specific actions. They will be able to change their behavioural patterns in order to adapt to their environment in the face of continuous or substantial environmental change. Following the information flow, a structure would be generated by the swarming behavior that constantly interacts with the local organisms and the terrain. Creating a decentralized system enabled a human-free, self-regulating system in symbiosis with the ecosystem.

Structural stable

Inter-Connection

Collective Behavior

50

thesis premise

spicules as basic unit

51

Halokinetic Application _ coral rehabilitation

We explored salt as a structuring, preservational, and nutritional agent, necessary in Earth’s ecological processes and beings. Highlighting these intrinsic characteristics led us to exploit all functions in our outputs, leading us to explore areas in need to salt re-balancing, lacking necessary nutrients, and formational proposals that can help rather than harm. Although there are many problems and consequences of human activity to the environment, a high profile issue is coral bleaching.

Investigating salinity imbalances throughout the world revealed that coral are suffering from freshwater intrusion, lacking the necessary nutrients from the ecological salinity maintained on the planet for thousands of years.

Environmental events such as monsoons cause turmoil in the oceans, with coral not just lacking nutrients, but also swells throughout the ocean cause harmful movements for coral spawns, or polyps.

We took this and addressed all the necessary variables that our system can employ to better coral colonies. Our Halokinesis did not only check the salinity factor, but also protective and barrier configurations inherent to our system.

52

thesis premise

halokinetic application

53

Salt History i. Salt Sourcing & Collection ii. Salt Processes iii. Salt Tectonics

54

55

Salt Sourcing and Collection _production methods

Salt is a mineral produced naturally on Earth. Thus, over millions of years geologic formations have produced an abundance of salt later to be found by humans and exploited for thousands of years. Both natural and artificial methods for enacting salt have yielded a collection of methods for both production and collection.

Analyzing these source points is critical to understanding how to engage and utilize saline in necessary outputs that will be employed eventually in the project.

The agent we seek to produce will be capable of harnessing salt, and possibly producing it. Thus, to collect crystal seeds would mean the necessity of crystallization within the agent, while to collect salt solutions would mean the necessity of straining crystals from the liquid within the agent.

56

salt history

harvesting crystal seeds

harvesting salt

=

=

Crystallization after agent collection

Crystallization before agent collection

---

---

natural Salt Dome (Deposit) Salt Playa Salt Sedimentary Bed (Deposit) Salt Glacier

natural Brine Spring Salt Lake Ocean Brine Pool

+

+

artificial Underground Mining Solar Salt Evaporation Ponds Potash Mining

artificial Vacuum Pan Salt Open-pan Salt Solution Mining Desalination Plants Brine Mining

salt sourcing and collection

57

NATURAL SALT DOME

SALT LAKE

A salt dome is a mound or column of salt that has intruded upwards into overlying sediments, known as diapirism.

A salt lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts significantly higher than most lakes.

Salt domes can form in a sedimentary basin where a thick layer of salt is overlain by younger sediments of significant thickness.

In some cases, salt lakes have a higher concentration of salt than sea water. Salt lakes form when the water flowing into the lake, containing salt or minerals, cannot leave because the lake is endorheic. The water then evaporates, leaving behind any dissolved salts and thus increasing its salinity. Eventually, continuous evaporation greater than water flow can lead to a dry lake or salt playa.

SALT PLAYA

SALT SEDIMENTARY BED

Playa lakes are usually inland lakes in desert regions. All rocks contain salt, and when rain falls, the rock is partly dissolved, so salt goes into the water.

Halite, the mineral name for salt, forms when salt-rich water evaporates, leaving the salt behind. Biologic sedimentary rocks are either composed of fragments (or the whole) of living creatures, or they are formed by biologic processes.

Playa lakes have no exit, and so the water goes no farther. In a desert, the hot sunshine simply evaporates it, so that the amount of salt in the lake gets higher. Eventually a point comes when the water cannot hold all of the salt in solution, and some of it comes out to make salt crusts.

58

salt history

SALT GLACIER

BRINE POOL

A salt glacier (or namakier) is a rare flow of salt that is created when a rising diapir in a salt dome breaches the surface of the Earth. The sources of salt glaciers are salt deposits.

A salt marsh is a coastal ecosystem between land and open salt-water that is regularly flooded by the tides. They occur on low-energy shorelines in temperate and high-latitudes.

Over time sediments, rock and debris cover the deposit causing layers to build up over the salt.

Due to its crystalline structure, salt remains at the same density while the sediment above begins to compress and become denser. The density contrast is the mechanism in which salt begins to rise.

BRINE SPRING

OCEAN

A brine spring is a salt-water spring. Brine springs are not necessarily associated with halite deposits in the immediate vicinity. They may occur at valley bottoms made of clay and gravel which became soggy with brine seeped downslope from the valley sides.

The ocean is saline rich because the rain that falls on the land contains some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic due to carbonic acid. The rain physically erodes the rock and the acids chemically break down the rocks and carries salts and minerals along in a dissolved state as ions.

The ions in the runoff are carried to the streams and rivers and then to the ocean. Ions that are not used by organisms are left for long periods of time where their concentrations increase over time. 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline.

59 salt sourcing and collection

ARTIFICIAL VACUUM PAN SALT

OPEN-PAN SALT

Vacuum Pan Salt evaporates salt brine by steam heat in large commercial evaporators.

This method yields a very high purity salt, fine in texture, and principally used in those applications requiring the highest quality salt.

Open-pan Salt Making extracts salt from brine using open pans. It uses evaporation to strengthen and evaporate the brine to make salt crystals.

Whenever pressure is lowered, the temperature at which water will boil is also lowered. The brine used in the process is typically produced by Solution Mining.

Extending from the traditional, the Openpan method, today, has been transformed to industrial methods such as Solar Salt Evaporation Ponds, but can be utilized in small scale personal use as well. The three types of industrial salt production that uses a variation of this method include Coastal salt production, Inland salt production, and Salt Refining.

SOLAR SALT EVAPORATION PONDS

DESALINATION

Solar Salt Evaporation Ponds are shallow, artificial basins designed to extract salt from seawater, salty lakes, mineral-rich springs, or other brines through natural evaporation.

Natural salt pans are geological formations that are also created by water evaporating and leaving behind salts. They are almost entirely located in warm climates with high evaporation and low precipitation.

Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. Salt-water is desalinated to produce water suitable for human consumption.

60

The biproduct of the desalination process is brine, and is usually disposed of by dumping it back into the sea, a process that requires costly pumping systems and damages marine ecosystems.

salt history

UNDERGROUND MINING

POTASH MINING

Underground salt-mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite, extracted from evaporate formations.

Potash Mining uses a similar system to Solution Mining, injecting hot water into the potash, which is then dissolved and pumped to the surface where it is concentrated by solar induced evaporation.

Mining salt used to be one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations because of rapid dehydration caused by constant contact with the salt as well as problems such as excessive sodium intake. The Industrial Revolution made Underground Mining less dangerous, and therefore, more plentiful.

Traditionally, Potash essentially created salt from ash and is principally obtained by leeching the ashes of land and sea plants. The ash is soaked in water in a pot, the solution evaporates, leaving the mineral composition.

SOLUTION MINING

BRINE MINING

Solution Mining is the mining of various salts by dissolving them and pumping the resulting brine to the surface where it is concentrated of processed to recover the desires output.

Brine Mining is the extraction of salt which are naturally dissolved in brine. In Brine Mining, the materials are already dissolved, as opposed to In-Situ Leaching and Solution Mining.

Water or under-saturated brine is injected through a purpose-designed well drilled into a salt mass to etch out a void or cavern.

One of the best environmental implications for Brine Mining is the possibility of using the brine produced from Desalination Plants as the concentrate in Brine Mining.

salt sourcing and collection

61

Ocean Salination _natural salination processes

Ocean salination is a closed cycle of the movement of salt through the earth’s ecosystem. The general salinity comes from the minerals on Earth dissolving into the world’s oceans. The equilibrium that occurs is a ratio dependent on the water’s temperature.

An increase in ocean salinity is a typical result of the evaporation of seawater and the freezing of seawater.

A decrease is typically the result of precipitation of rain/ snow, river runoff, ice melt, and groundwater flow to the ocean. When these are in balance, there is a constant salinity level over time.

OCEAN SALINITY LEVELS

SALINITY PERCENTAGES OF WATER CYCLES

62

salt history

ocean salination

63

Saltwater Intrusion _rising sea level effect

Rising sea levels result in a higher salt water intrusion into freshwater supplies on Earth. The elevating ocean levels force a mixing of the natural fresh waters and saline waters, which retreats inland more and more.

Groundwater that discharges into the coast prevents an imminent landward encroachment of salt-water from the ocean. Coastal communities deal with salt-water intrusion by constructing sub-zero dams that block saline water from penetrating further into the land.

GROUNDWATER WELL SALINE IMPACT

COASTLINE SALINE INTRUSION

64

salt history

saltwater intrusion

65

Salt Extraction _methods of salt collection

There a three main ways to extract salt from the Earth.

The first being mining, it is the least utilized form. Mining salt is primarily done 700m below the Earth’s surface.

The second being reverse osmosis filtration, this process is set to utilize the permeable nature of membrane to capture sediment and salt and extract pure water, leading two a two fold result. The third is the solar salt production, a process that has been used for centuries to cultivate salt from the ocean and dry it, leading to crystallization.

CRYSTALLLIZERS

UNDERGROUND SALT MINE

66

salt history

Extracting salt to crystallize and grow is a key aspect to the solar coverings created by the agents. By extracting salts from the ocean, the agents’ structures can self-crystallize and form a sheet that blocks intense UV penetration.

salt extraction

67

Desalination _methods of salt collection

The process of isolating and removing salts and minerals and bacteria from seawater to extract fresh water with the intention of human consumption and industrial utilization, desalination is an energy demanding operation. Starting with seawater, the process requires multiple steps of clarifying and filtering the saline water, resulting in two outputs, fresh water and brine. The brine is typically deposited back in to the ocean, a potentially harmful deposit.

SEMI-PERMEABLE MEMBRANES

NaCl AND H2O SEPARATION

CHARGED FILTRATION

68

salt history

desalination

69

Heat Storage _harvesting energy from salt

Having electricity readily available in times that the renewable source is not, is central to the need to store energy. By using molten salt, there is a highly resourceful material of salt, which allows for an efficient output. The molten salt isn’t toxic, which makes it safe for use. Its viscosity is similar to water, so its flow is predictable and controllable.

SOLAR SALT STORAGE

INDUCTION STORAGE

70

salt history

The use of salt heat storage can be implemented into the salination process.

By attempting to have self-sustaining systems, self-production of energy is necessary. The solar heat attained within the salt structures that are formed can be converted into energy.

heat structures

71

Salt Tectonics _analyzing halokinesis formations

Halokinesis is defined as the movement ofsalt and salt bodes, similar to the movement of water. It is the study of subsurface flows of salt as well as emplacement, structure, and tectonics of salt bodies. Another term used to refer to the study of salt bodies and they’re structural formation is salt tectonics.

While salt flows influence geological tectonics through the creation of structural taps and reservoir distributions, it also serves as a basis to fluid migration around the world. These structures are categorized into the tectonic typologies. Each salt tectonic tyology is defined by certain environmental inpits in a given region of the world. Mainly, the subsurface pressure and density of the earth catalyze a variation of formations, creating unique shapes and surface penetration.

While salt tectonics have been simulated through the scanning of subsurface structures, they are defined by their environmental input, which translates into typical formations. The halokinetic tectonics that we simulated are established through vetted research data, mainly the Earth’s crust density, pressure at given subsurface levels, and mineral compositions. These factors were inputted as variables within the simulation, outputting what we see as salt tectonics.

72

salt history

TECTONIC BREAKING

HALOKINESIS TYPOLOGIES Salt Canopy

Salt Wall

Salt Anticline

Salt Roller

Salt Pillow

salt tectonics

Salt Sheet

Salt Stock

Salt Teardrop

73

REAL SALT TECTONICS PRECEDENTS linear piercement

Salt Canopy

Salt Wall

Tectonics

Salt Sheet

Salt Teardrop

Salt Stock

colunn piercement

74

Salt Anticline

salt history

SIMULATED SALT TECTONICS PRECEDENTS lidar scanning

Salt Canopy Multiple

SubSurface Teardrop

Tectonics

Salt Piercement

Salt Anticline Multiple

Salt Section Analysis

Salt Stock Multiple

sectional scanning

salt tectonics

75

INITIAL SIMULATIONS

76

salt history

EARTH NEGATIVES Simulating this phenomena, we inputted initial and surface state pressures as well as rock densities, which defined a generic cylindrical tectonic. The effect of halokinetic structures on the earth’s cryst leves impressions which are marked by the pushing of local tectonic plates, creating a fracture which is filled in by salt flow.

SUBSURFACE PIERCEMENT

salt tectonics

77

SALT TECTONIC SIMULATIONS initial simulations

SALT ANTICLINE

SALT CANOPY

SALT SHEET

SALT STOCK

SALT TEARDROP

SALT WALL

78

salt history

Ultimately thesis tectonics typologies yield a wide variety of results dependent upon its local region, however the ultimate properties remain the same. Those properties are determined by the stability of the halokinesis as well as the potency of the salt.

Salt tectonics typically penetrate the earth’s crust at a depth of -8000 meters, and continue to find the most ideal open cracks to permeate through. The typologies of salt tectonics are mirrored by the topological typologies of tectonic plates. Due to the occurence of these halokinetic structures at the tectonic plates, their penetration is ammased at water body regions which furthers a crystallized above surface formation, which we see as salt flats, salt lakes, brine pools, and more.

Over millions of years these geologic formations have produced an abundance of salt, later to be discovered through anthropocentric necessities and harvested for use. Analyzing these source points and salt tectonics is critical to understanding how to engage with large scale salt formations and utilize the inputs of pressure and density into necessary outputs that will be emplayed in the project.

salt tectonics

79

LARGE SCALE SALT CANOPY _in-situ prototyping simulations

80

salt history

salt tectonics

81

SALT TECTONIC SIMULATIONS _sectional growth typologies

82

SALT ANTICLINE

SALT CANOPY

SALT SHEET

SALT STOCK

SALT TEARDROP

SALT WALL

salt history

salt tectonics

83

IN-SITU SALT ANTICLINE

84

salt history

salt tectonics

85

IN-SITU SALT SHEET

86

salt history

salt tectonics

87

IN-SITU SALT CANOPY

88

salt history

salt tectonics

89

Material & Crystallization i. Context ii. Molecular Classifications iii. Crystal Simulations iv. Energy & Environmental v. Ion Concentrations

90

91

Context _abundance

Oceans cover about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and about 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline. Salt in the ocean comes from rocks on land.

The rain that falls on the land contains some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic due to carbonic acid. The rain physically erodes the rock and the acids chemically break down the rocks and carries salts and minerals along in a dissolved state as ions. The ions in the runoff are carried to the streams and rivers and then to the ocean. Many of the dissolved ions are used by organisms in the ocean and are removed from the water. Others are not used up and are left for long periods of time where their concentrations increase over time.

70%

95%

3.5%

of the Earth is covered by Oceans

of all water on Earth is saline

of weight of seawater comes from salt

ABUNDANCE

43%

Mining

40%

salt brines

HARVESTING

92

material and crystallization

7%

evaporation of salt water

HOW SALT REACHES THE OCEAN

context

93

Crystallography _our own study of crystals

The study of crystals in this project necessarily led us to compare the nuances in complexity of each crystal type's structure, optical properties, heat and energy input and output, size, binding quality, and growth rates.

Properties of certain crystals enabled site locations and scaffold necessities, further informing the selection of useful crystals for further study. Thus, table salt and epsom salt became our crystal of interest.

94

material & crystallization

scan of an early cystallization test

crystallography

95

Salt Classifications _molecular structures

MAGNESIUM SULFATE CRYSTALLIZATION

SODIUM ACETATE CRYSTALLIZATION 96

material and crystallization

Sodium Acetate crystal

Sodium Chloride crystal

Epson Salt crystal

3

marble granite

soil brick 2.5

glass masonry

2

low performance concrete

rammed earth

1.5

clay brick high performance concrete

common brick salt 1 ice oak 0.5

cedar

pinewood

0 1

10

100

salt classifications

1000

97

Salt Phases _phase change

Combining water and sodium chloride catalyses various phase changes. The solution structure emerges within ionic, crystalline, and liquid phases. During the reaction, a negative chloride ion is attached to a sodium ion, forming a stable atomic arrangement.

IONIC PHASE CHANGES

LIQUID PHASE CHANGES

98

material and crystallization

The crystalline process is dissociative, meaning the breaking down of the molecules is central to the reorganization of the ions. In liquid formation, there are specific temperature ratios that result in a eutectic point, the point at which the crystallization is most likely to occur.

CRYSTALLINE PHASE CHANGES

salt phases

99

Natural Growth _sourcing crystals

There are three ways in which crystals can be formed.

We focused on the one and the process of how atoms dissolve in water, and then gather into uniform structures to stabilize when the liquid starts to cool down.

PROCESS OF CRYSTALLIZATION IN WATER Molecules gather to stabilize when liquid starts to cool and harden

Small atoms dissolve in water

100

Uniform and repetitive pattern in a crystal

material and crystallization

CRYSTALS GROWING AS MAGMA COOLS When magma is at a high temperature, it is completely liquid because high kinetic energy ensures that no solid is stable

liquid magma

solidified magma

CRYSTALS PRECIPITATING FROM WATER Occurs when minerals precipitate from water to form aqueous minerals

liquid magma

solidified magma

CRYSTALS FORMING BY CHEMICAL REACTIONS Where a solution of compounds can be dissolved in hot water and then cooled. As it cools, one substance crystallizes

Magnesium Sulphate

Sodium Acetate

natural growth

101

Atom Structures _salt nucleation

A crystal structure is an ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in crystalline material, for example sodium chloride or NaCl. The crystal is effectively one molecule. An atom covalent bonds to four others, which in turn bond to four others, and so on. Na+ and Cl- ions occupy the space, formulating a structure that is most efficient for growth.

The resulting unit cell becomes the small repeating aggregate of the crystal. Each unit acts as a building block supporting the composite structure of the formation.

NaCl ATOM STRUCTURE

102

ATOM CATEGORIZATION

salt history

atom structures

103

Crystal and Classification _geometries

Each crystal is formed in their own crystal habit, according to the molecular composition of the atom. The general forms and combinations manifest themselves at the eucectic point, catalysing a wide range of crystal formations. A regular crystalline structure is organized and grid like. The polycrystalline is the aggregate that begins to break formation, ultimately becoming an amorphous aggregation. Crystal that typically form as amorphous are based within dendritic and botryoidal habits. Ultimately all of these crystalline structures fall into the mesophase category within the phase change process. Presented as theromotropic, crystals move towards a source of heat and grow further.

104

material and crystallization

CRYSTALLINE PHASE CHANGES

crystal and classifications

105

Crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystalline material, the structure occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat along the principal directions of three-dimensional space in matter.

Crystal structure is described in terms of the geometry of arrangement of particles in the unit cell. The unit cell is defined as the smallest repeating unit having the full symmetry of the crystal structure.

The positions of particles inside the unit cell are described by the fractional coordinates (x, y, z) along the cell edges. The initial structural setup of the atoms will define the shape of crystals, and they need enough space and material to grow a certain Geometric shape. ​ Crystal’s atoms are arranged in a highly organized, repeating pattern, from which the properties of different crystals emerge.

106

material and crystallization

6 DIFFERENT TYPES OF ATOM STRUCTURE

crystal and classifications

107

Crystal Simulation _snowflake

Figures on this pageshows a diagram illustrating the computation for one small patch. Note that the zeros in the array of unreceptive sites are used as values in the averaging while the zeros in the array of receptive sites are placeholders.

The motivation for the model is that receptive sites are viewed as permanently storing any mass that arrives at that point. The mass in the unreceptive sites is free to move, and hence moves toward an average value. Lastly, the constant added to receptive sites corresponds to the idea that not only is "add a constant" an especially simple generalization to the model, but it very informally captures the idea that some water may be available from outside the plane of growth. The constant to be added to the receptive sites is one of the parameters that we vary.

The second parameter that we vary is the background level. We will ordinarily begin with a single cell of value one (an ice seed) in a sea of a constant background.

We will usually denote the added constant by γ and the background level by β.

108

material and crystallization

STEP1: Fill the hexagonal grid with a value. eg. 0.4.

STEP2: Give one cell a value 1.0, which will be recognized as ice, and act as a seed point of the crystallization.

STEP3: The seed cell and its neighbours is acknowledged a receptive group, and other cells as non-receptive group.

Step 1

STEP4: Two group is considered dividedly, fill the blank cell in the original group as 0.0.

STEP5: Add a condtant to the receptive group, eg.

0.1, calculate the values in the grid with a set weight.

Step 2

STEP6: Add two group by its values, the cell that has the value greater than 1.0 will be recognized as ice.

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

crystal simulation

109

SINGLE SEEDING POINT γ: 0.0050

γ: 0.0035

γ: 0.001

γ: 0.0001

γ: 0.00

β: 0.10

β: 0.20

β: 0.30

β: 0.40

β: 0.50

β: 0.60

Figure here shows a diagram of the configurations resulting from several background levels 0≤β≤0.95 and addition constants 0≤γ≤1. We embedded a single isolated seed in an approximately 400 by 400 hexagonal arrangement of the background level.

We allowed the configuration to evolve until ice approaches the (circular) boundary or until 10,000 iterations had occurred. Notice the appearance of dendrites, stellar forms, sectors, and plates. The darkest half of the gray values used in the image correspond to cell values below 1, with black corresponding to 0. The lightest half correspond to ice; however, we reverse the values in this case so that white corresponds to 1. Thus we get contrast at the boundary between ice and not.

β: 0.70

β: 0.80

β: 0.90

β: 0.95

110

material and crystallization

Back groung level - β: Water concentration in the 2D plane.

Add constant - Ɣ: Amount of water absorb from the 3D environment.

MULTIPLE SEEDING POINTS

Seed point: 3 β: 0.4 Ɣ: 0.001 10000 steps

Seed point: 3 β: 0.4 Ɣ: 0.001 10000 steps

Seed point: 3 β: 0.4 Ɣ: 0.001 10000 steps

Seed point: 3 β: 0.4 Ɣ: 0.001 10000 steps

Seed point: 3 β: 0.4 Ɣ: 0.001 10000 steps

The simulation conducted for the multipul seed point is to understand how the crystals interact with each other when growing. We use hexagonal grid and square grid for simulate water crsytal and salt, sodium chloride, crystal. As shown in the diagrams, the snowflakes interacts with each other and slows down the groth. Which is because, if we consider this in our mathematical model, the non-receptive group between the arms of the crsytal don't have acess to the values in the grid, so it's hard for those cells to keep adding up, which leads to a slower growth. But in the case of the salt, square grid dose not have angle other then 90 degree, so the interaction won't affect the speed of the growth. The salt crytal will continue to grow with the same speed.

crystal simulation

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Supersaturated Behavior _solution applications

A supersaturated solution is a solution that contains more than the maximum amount of solute that is capable of being dissolved at a given temperature. The recrystallization of the excess dissolved solute in a supersaturated solution can be initiated by the addition of a tiny crystal of solute, called a seed crystal. The seed crystal provides a nucleation site on which the excess dissolved crystals can begin to grow.

Recrystallization from a supersaturated solution is typically very fast.

The crystallization speed by using this supersaturated solution is 5mm/ s. Using the attribute of fast growth of the supersaturated soultion, we was able to control the radom growth of crystal. The solution flow drop by drop from the syringe, crystallization happens inside each drop and instantly solidify while merge itself with the crystal that already formed.

Concentration Temperature CONTROLLED GROWTH

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material and crystallization

CONTROLLED CRYSTALLIZATION GROWTH BY SUPERSATURATED SOLUTION

supersaturated behavior

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Energy Generation _magnetizing the spicule

Sodium acetate is mainly known for its use in heating pads, hand warmers, and hot ice.

Sodium acetate trihydrate crystals melt at 58 °C. When they are heated beyond their melting point and subsequently allowed to cool, the aqueous solution becomes supersaturated. This solution is capable of cooling to room temperature without forming crystals. By agitating the solution it crystallizes back into solid sodium acetate trihydrate. The bond-forming process of crystallization is exothermic. The process can be repeated indefinitely. Based on previous physics researches, we can know that supersaturated solution is able to store energy, to be more specificly heat, and we can have acess to the that energy by initalizing the crystallization. The efficiency of this process is 54 percent, the total amount of lanten heat stored in a supersaturated solution is 254.6kj/kg, and the heat emmited from it is 137kj/kg.

100 90 80

TEMPERATURE

70 60 50 40 30 20 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

ITERATION OF HEAT EMMISION

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material and crystallization

After knowing heat can be created using supersaturated solution, we try to convert this energy into electricity by using another attribute of crystal-semi-conductor.A semiconductor material has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as metallic copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. Its conducting properties may be altered in useful ways by introducing impurities ("doping") into the crystal structure. When two differently doped regions exist in the same crystal, a semiconductor junction is created.

By using the attribute of free-moving electron in the crystal (usually silicon) reaction to heat and cold, a device can be made to generate electricity. We combine the heat emmitted from the supersaturated solution crystallization and the thermoelectric power generator to create current and observe it on the meter.

COLD SOURCE

HEAT SOURCE

COLD SOURCE

HEAT SOURCE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF SILICONE

energy generation

DIAGRAM OF THE THEORY OF TPG

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CURRENT GENERATION

Heat source: hand_35℃ Thermoelectric generator Cold source: table_16℃ Current read: 0.42A

Heat source: crystallization_50℃ Thermoelectric generator Cold source: table_16℃ Current read: 0.44A

Heat source: crystallization_50℃ Thermoelectric generator Cold source: ice cube_1℃ Current read: 0.63A

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material and crystallization

Environmental Input _ion concentration

In order to harvest the salt in the water, the agent should be able to have access to the concentration of salt in the water. The Salt exit in the water as the form of ions, hence it can be detected by the conductivity level of the water(or tds-value).

By using Ardunio, we managed to translate the ion concentration level to certain behavior of the machine. The code is flexible towards the interaction and behaviours of the machine.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

TDS-value: 0-700

TDS-value: 700-750

TDS-value: 750-800

TDS-value: 800 and above

environmental input

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Concentration Control _strategy

Boids system as an simulation of agents’ movement.

Detect the High Concentration Area​to control the crystal growth.

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Agents Agents / Machine / Machine

Diffusion-Limited Diffusion-Limited Aggregation Aggregation

Reading ReadingEnvironment Environment

Generate Generaterandom random agent agent

Data Datatransfer transfer

Find FindClosest Closestseed seed

Collective Collectivemovement movement

Location Locationofof random randomagent agent

material and crystallization

Reading Environment data & Crystal growth Control

concentration control

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Ion Concentration _ 2D Map _energy strategy

For the computer to read, the concentration map should convert the information from the environment to a picture where each pixels have different values.

Rule of generation of concentration map

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Pattern 1

Ion concentration map 1

Pattern 2

Ion concentration map 2

Pattern 3

Ion concentration map 3

Pattern 4

Ion concentration map 4

material and crystallization

Ion Concentration _ 3D Map _energy

We also tested the algorithm in a 3D environment, instead of the pixels the voxels are able to detecte the local ion concentration and then translate it to a value demonstrated by gray shade.

3D Pattern 1

3D Ion concentration map 1

3D Pattern 2

3D Ion concentration map 2

ion concentration

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Simulation _ 2D _concentration control AGENT MOVEMENT

S_01 Agents Number: 1185 Attraction:4.1 Cohesion: 1.2 Seperation: 1.0

S_02 Agents Number: 1805 Attraction: 2.3 Cohesion: 1.2 Seperation: 0.8

S_03 Agents Number: 1580 Attraction: 7.8 Cohesion: 1.8 Seperation: 1.2

S_04 Agents Number: 1300 Attraction: 5.3 Cohesion: 1.2 Seperation: 1.0

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material and crystallization

CRYSTAL GROWTH

State_01 Agents count: 1185

State_02 Agents count: 1805

State_03 Agents count: 1580

State_04 Agents count: 1300

simulation 2D

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AGENT MOVEMENT

PATTERN_01 Time: 75 Complexity: 1 Crystal: 431

PATTERN_02 Time: 92 Complexity: 2 Crystal: 798

PATTERN_03 Time: 67 Complexity: 3 Crystal: 475

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material and crystallization

CRYSTAL GROWTH

PATTERN_04 Time: 108 Complexity: 4 Crystal: 899

PATTERN_05 Time: 103 Complexity: 3 Crystal: 948

PATTERN_06 Time: 132 Complexity: 5 Crystal: 1137

simulation 2D

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Scaffold Experiments i. Growth Patterns ii. Tubular Scaffold Models iii. Digital Tubular Scaffold iv. Wool Line Scaffold

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Crystal Growth _parameters

There are several parameters that would influence the growth of salt crystal. We can divide them into 2 main catergories, related to solutions and scaffolding. This chapter will focus on different test we did for know the salt better.

For the four parameters associated with the solution, they mainly determine the rate and specific location of crystallisation. For most salt crystals, the higher the temperature and concentration and the drier the environment, the faster the crystallisation rate will be. Whereas the surface and bottom of the solution are more susceptible to crystallisation.

The rate of crystallisation can vary slightly due to the different water absorption and thermal conductivity of the particular material, but the structural strength brought about by the different materials is a more obvious difference.

Salt will crystallise wherever the conditions are right, and so the form of the scaffold is crucial, as this determines the shape of the final structure formed. In addition to this, time as an important parameter can also change the outcome to a large extent, with new crystallisation more likely to occur where the initial crystallisation takes place.

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scaffold experiments

Material: Soluble Sand Time:3 Concentration:saturated Temperature: 15°C

Material: Soluble Sand Time:4 Concentration:satuated Temperature: 15°C

Material: Soluble Sand Time: 6 Concentration: satuated Temperature: 15°C

crystal growth

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Material Physical Tests _materials and solutions

Several materials for scaffolds were explored. The main reason was to understand onto which one salt grows better, and to comprehend how could it be controlled.

Those materials are metal, PLA, acrylic and plywood.

Onto these materials previously mentioned, 3 different saturated solutions were tested, to be able to see their diverse capabilities and crystallisation. Those solutions are made with Epsom salt, Sodium Chloride and Sodium Acetate. The same materials were soaked in the three saturated solutions for a week.

The pictures below show the growth after that first week.

These are the outcomes of pairing the different materials with the saturated solutions and it shows how the different porosity in materials helps the solution to grow onto the scaffold to optimise the self-binding properties of the crystallization with salt.

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scaffold experiments

material physical tests

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Scaffold Pattern Insight _case studies

The glass sponge is a coral that has strong material qualities. These unique qualities have been studies as a scaffold for crystallization structural stabilization. At the micro there is a patterning that allows for a large surface area to act as a seed for crystal growth, attracting ionic concentrations within the fibers. In a study done with dish sponges and a sodium chloride solution, we crystallized 4 different samples to better explore the growth patterning that had emerged. The crystallization that occurred was greater along the face that was at the bottom of the tub.

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scaffold experiments

SPONGE _ 01 crystallization _ 15 density _ 30

SPONGE _ 02 crystallization _ 10 density _ 20

SPONGE _ 01 crystallization _ 7 density _ 18

SPONGE _ 01 crystallization _ 12 density _ 26

scaffold pattern insight

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Simulation 2D _patterns

S_01 Material Use: 1100 Crystal Growth: 324

S_02 Material Usea: 1100 Crystal Growth: 365

S_03 Material Use: 1020 Crystal Growth: 397

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scaffold experiments

H_01 Material Use: 1100 Crystal Growth: 378

H_02 Material Use: 1200 Crystal Growth: 467

H_03 Material Use: 1280 Crystal Growth: 479

simulation 2D

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C_01 Material Use: 1100 Crystal Growth: 426

C_02 Material Use: 1160 Crystal Growth:397

C_03 Material Use: 1120 Crystal Growth: 457

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scaffold experiments

Physical Tests 3D _patterns

H_1 Material Use: PLA/Sodium acetate Crystal Growth: 1 day No other methods applied

S_3 Material Use: PLA/Sodium acetate Crystal Growth: 1 day Using complex structure to capture air bubble to accelerate the process.

C_3 Material Use: PLA/Sodium acetate Crystal Growth: 1 day Using complex structure to capture air bubble to accelerate the process.

physical tests 3D

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Water Level Controlled Growth _patterns

We discovered that the crystallization happens faster in the solution near the water surface, because the surface is where the evaporation and tempreture drop happens.

So when using a 2D grid to harvest the salt, there are always much more crystal growing on the water surface and at the bottom area.

Therfore, by using a special water tank which is able change the water level at the certain speed, we will have the agency to controll the growing speed and posision of the salt.

PHYSICAL TESTS In order to test this methods we use three kinds of grids with different patterns and densities. They are all 3D printed by sand print.

Hexagonal Grid Grid size: 10 cm * 15 cm Cell diameter: 1.50cm Edge thickness: 1.2mm

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Square Grid Grid size: 10 cm * 15 cm Cell size: 2.2cm * 1.7cm Edge thickness: 1.2mm

scaffold experiments

Square Grid Grid size: 10 cm * 15 cm Cell size: 0.7cm * 0.7cm Edge thickness: 1.2mm

SOAK THE PATTERNS IN THE SOLUTION FOR 8 HOURS

INITALIZE THE WATER-LEVEL DROPAT THE SPEED OF 0.1MM/MIN

OUTCOME AFTER 24 HOURS

pattern experiments 2D

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Pattern Experiments 2D _patterns

Expanding on various patterns in the physical realm, we used particle printed patterns to text scaffold densities and their affect on crystal growth. The denser the pattern, the greater surface area the crystal has to grow on to. Utilizing the absorbent qualities of the particle print, the crystal seeds grew and strengthened the structure of the patterns. front face up density: high

back face dipped density: high

bottom dipped density: low

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scaffold experiments

pattern experiments 2D

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CRYSTALLIZED MODEL SET 01

In the physical experiments, we created scaffolding that explored weaving density techniques to catalyse varied crystallization outputs. As a basis, the string was a porous enough material that the sodium chloride solution was able to penetrate deeply and grow their seeds out from it.

weaving density_ 1/3

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weaving density_ 2/3

scaffold experiments

weaving density_1

The density of the weaving itself was part of the main exploration variable that was experimented with. While a lower density weave allows for more openings, however its structural integrity when crystallized is still weak. A higher density absolves the openings, however its structural capacity is larger. The in between state, where the weave is not too dense that there is a lack of openings, but dense enough to maintain its structural integrity.

tubular scaffold models

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CRYSTALLIZED MODEL SET 02

Crystallizing footings, which supported the arched structure of the fiber optic cable, was central to this physical experiment. While the ring density variable changes, it doesn’t affect its crystallized output.

The output depends upon the 4 rings that compose the two foundational footings of each experiment.

This exploration was a teaching point in solution tank variables. For this case, we used metal containers (as opposed to the typical plastic container) for each footing, which resulted in a highly variable temperature from night to day. The consequence was that the crystal formation was not able to sustain itself and failed to crystallize properly.

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scaffold experiments

ring density_4

ring density_5

ring density_6

tubular scaffold models

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CRYSTALLIZED MODEL SET 03

For this crystallization set, we submerged the models completely in the solution to explore the resulting form. While the pre-crystal models were bendable and transformable, the post-crystal models were fixed in their form. The result was a highly crystallized tubular state, in which each model was bend based on their ring density and bending ability. Since the lower ring density model emerged as a more flexible and ductile generation, its crystal form presented as a bent archway. Meanwhile, the denser ring formation presented itself as a straight tubular habit.

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scaffold experiments

ring density_7

ring density_9

ring density_5

tubular scaffold models

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scaffold experiments

tubular scaffold models

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Tubular Scaffold _approach and strategy

The tubular scaffold is based on half divisive segments, connected through circular surface paths.The circles follow square divisions and is scaled and translated to be uphold an ability of customizable, tubular geometries. Combining the divisions from the x and y axis, the 3D materialization varies based on each circular placement. In post-analysis, these rule sets emerge formal generations that reconstruct the advantageous characteristics of the glass sponge.

3D arrangements combinations of circle rules

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scaffold experiments

H_1 grid: hexagonal density: 15

H_2 grid: hexagonal density: 30

H_3 grid: hexagonal density: 45

T_1 grid: triangular density: 20

T_2 grid: triangular density: 30

T_3 grid: triangular density: 40

C_1 grid: combined density: 35

C_2 grid: combined density: 60

C_3 grid: combined density: 85

digital tubular scaffold

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Tubular Simulation Concept _scaffold aggregate

Cellular Automata As the scaffold of Crystal growth. Which would generate a structure with certain porosity to grow the crystal.

Cellular Automata

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Tiling

Neighbor rule

Get data from CA /Set up rules

Data transform

Tiling

Certain state with higher survive possibility

Self-Assembly

scaffold experiments

Agents self-assembly to create a porosity structure

tubular simulation concept

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Simulating Crystallized Tubular Scaffolds _scaffold with certain porosities

V_01 Material Use: 982 Max Neighbor: 3

V_02 Material Use: 1680 Max Neighbor: 5

C_03 Material Use: 2014 Max Neighbor: 8

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scaffold experiments

WFC_ SELF-ORGANIZE AND ASSEMBLY

Choosing one of the high-performance model generated by the Cellular Automata, we used the Wave-FuncionCollapse algorithm to get the tubular scaffold model.

After the selfassembly process, we tried to simulate the crystalization process of this scaffold.

tubular scaffold simulations

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Wool Line Scaffold _frei otto wool experiments

The analogue model finds the minimal path system, that is, the system connects a distributed set of given points, thus the overall length of the path system is minimised. Each point is reached but there is a considerable imposition of detours between some pairs of points.

The material interactions frequently result in a geometry that is based on complex material behaviour of elasticity and variability. the wool-thread machines. This last tech-nique was used to calculate the shape of two-dimensional city patterns, but also of three-dimensional cancellous bone structure or branching column systems. They are all similar vectorized systems that economize on the number of paths, meaning they share a geometry of merging and bifurcating.

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scaffold experiments

The salt crystallization requires seed points to start the proscess. In water, the wool will expand and small branches of wool reaches out and tangle with others, which create weds and pull wools toward each other, these webs provide ideal positions for seeding and crystallization.

The system is a tree (branching system) without any redundant connections.

Physical experiment of wool react with water

Digital simulation of the process

The final shape of the wools is highly related to the inital pattern, by create digital model and simulations, we explored this connection, and select criterion. To parameterize the inital patterns, we used "​ Sample number​", "Offset Value​", "Sin offset value​", "Sin phase number" as paraeters to make up the patterns and research the wool experiment.

S=60_0=36_P=0_SIN=0

S=60_0=36_P=0_SIN=0

wool line scaffold

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2D SIMULATIONS

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S=60_0=20

S=60_ 0=20

S=60_0=20_P=1_SIN=20

S=60_0=20_P=1_SIN=20

S=60_0=20_P=1_SIN=68

S=60_0=20_P=1_SIN=68

S=60_0=20_P=4_SIN=9

2D_S=60_0=20_P=4_SIN=9

S=60_0=20_P=6_SIN=100

S=60_0=20_P=4_SIN=9

scaffold experiments

SQUARE _ 2 Seed: 15 Section: 4 Threshold: 0.15

HEXAGON_ 2 Seed: 2 Section: 6 Threshold: 0.04

HEXAGON _ 2 Seed: 9 Section: 6 Threshold: 0.23

wool line scaffold

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Wool Line Crystallized Scaffold _timeline and strength

DAY 03 _ temperature_ 15 degrees

DAY 01 _ tied knots and anchored to side points

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DAY 06 _ temperature_ 8 degrees

DAY 06 _ cooled the temperature down with ice

scaffold experiments

DAY 08 _ temperature_ 5 degrees

DAY 09 _ dried it when temperature increased

FINAL WOOL MODEL

crystallized spicule wool that is sustained after removed from panelling

wool line scaffold

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Spicule Scaffold i. Spicule Cataloguing ii. Structural Analysis iii. Physical Tests

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Spicules _classification

Spicules are an structural element found in most sponges.

The meshing of many spicules serves as a sponge skeleton, thus it provides support. They can have a collective behavior and the shape itself generates porosity when aggregated.

Possible mutations and classifications were studied, for then differentiate them by number of axes and different end mutations.

SPICULES IN NATURE

ENDS MUTATIONS

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spicule scaffold

Type A

Type B

Type C

0.

1.

2.

THE STELLATED

PLYWOOD TEST 1

PLYWOOD TEST 2

spicules

PLYWOOD TEST 3

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DEEPER CATALOGUING

Branch Type _ T-End

The scaffold of spicules provides an opportunity in which its loose nature can solidify during a crystallization process. Our attempt is to exploy the porosity of the spicules to provide a seeding point.

When multiplying its number within an aggregation, there is an increase in opportunity for a stronger crystallized structure. While applying the spicule formation to a scaffold that optimizes the strength of the crystal, our team began to iterate variations on geometry, branching numbers, and end mutations.

After testing the spicules physically we discovered that the optimal spicule shapes have arc-like end mutations, which allow for an interlocking nature and a stronger scaffold.

Branch Type _ Arc-End Branch Type _ Fork-End

END MUTATION

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3D ITERATIONS

spicule scaffold

2D ITERATIONS

ACRYLIC ITERATIONS

PLA ITERATIONS

density _ 8

density _ 8

density _ 10

density _ 10

density _ 16

density _ 16

12 branches

8 branches

6 branches

5 branches

3D ITERATIONS

spicules

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INITIAL DIGITAL AGGREGATION _ the pile

composite _ 01 branches _ 5 density _ 20

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Ultimately, our goal is to configure the spicule iterations into a 3-dimensional shape that can aggregate. Initially, our aggregations took us to a place where the spicules would form a non-descript pile, reducing any opportunity to extract spatial structures. The expression of spicules can begin to articulate itself by structuring its formation based on the typological topologies that form spatial boundaries. By understanding the organization that may be achieved, we began to test digitally an array of formations, to explore if we can get a loose aggregate.

composite _ 02 branches _ 4 density _ 30

composite _ 03 branches _ 6 density _ 40

composite _ 04 branches _ 5 density _ 45

composite _ 05 branches _ 8 density _ 50

spicule scaffold

ATTEMPTING AN ORGANIZATION

atrium item amount _ 650 strength _ 200

bridge item amount _ 500 strength _ 90

column item amount _ 300 strength _ 150

cross item amount _ 1400 strength _ 150

windows item amount _ 700 strength _ 100

wall item amount _ 700 strength _ 115

spicules

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Spicule Structure _structural test STRUCTURAL TESTS

After designed the catalog of spicule types, it is necessary to have the selection criteria. Firstly, to create a structure that perform spatially, structural ability is an important parameter. We ran tests on the outcomes of the simulation on spicule arrangement before and after crystallization, to choose the types to continue the research.

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Bridge shape arrangement

After crystallization

Danger point

Danger point after crystallization

Total Displacement

Total Displacement After crystallization

spicule scaffold

In this comparison we tested the structural ability of two types of spicule which generated from the same geometry: square. One has open arms and the other one has some of the branches closed. Tests shows with the branches closed, the structural performance also gets better.

Bridge shape arrangement

After crystallization

Danger point

Danger point after crystallization

Total Displacement

Total Displacement After crystallization

spicule structure

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Crystallized Spicule Tests _the spicule as scaffold

In order to confirm the self-binding of salt, in combination witht the interlocking of the spicule, we tested small scale PLA prints, which depending on the amount of branching, would bind at a varied strength.

The more branches, the greater the binding. After noticing that spicules would solidify, concurrently with the salt crystals effectively pausing time, a proof of concept emerged, expanding upon the true nature of salt, to self-bind.

RANDOMIZED

BRANCHES: 4 BINDING: 30

BRANCHES: 12 BINDING: 75

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spicule scaffold

CONTROLLED

BRANCHES: 5 BINDING: 20

BRANCHES: 4 BINDING: 10

BRANCHES: 6 BINDING: 25

BRANCHES: 6 BINDING: 35

crystallized spicule tests

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MATERIALS AND SOLUTIONS

ACRYLIC + SODIUM CHLORIDE

PLYWOOD + SODIUM CHLORIDE

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spicule scaffold

ACRYLIC + EPSOM SALT

PLA + EPSOM SALT

crystallized spicule tests

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Small Tank Experiments _testing crystallizing spicule scaffolds

After understanding the low populations, we moved onto typologies that can be produced.

The wall was created by building up layers of spicules, and submerging it in the salt bed.

Another formation we explored was the bridge. The crystallization solidified the spicules, making it extremely strong as all became one system.

Our last of the small tank crystallizations was the dome, or cave. We scaled down the spicules as to understand populations needed to produce a output. Each of these models are sectional and suggest the ability to continuously aggregate, which will be displayed later.

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spicule scaffold

THE WALL

crystallized spicule wall that is sustained under water

small tank experiments

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THE BRIDGE

crystallized spicule bridge that can bear weight and withstand water impact

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spicule scaffold

THE CAVE

crystallized spicule cave that sustains a cavernous roof structure

small tank experiments

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Large Tank Scaffold _acrylic spicule scaffold

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spicule scaffold

Acrylic spicule scaffold

large tank experiments

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Large Tank Growth _process of large scale crystallizations

The process of the large tank formations provided us with insight on what on-site crystallization needs. Salt creep is the phenomena of crystallization growing on surfaces which has not been submerged in solutions.

It forms in a dendritic growth. The salt creep further engages us with timeline of evaporation: the thinner it is the faster crystallization occurred and vise versa. In this model, we needed to implement a heat source to replace the hot conditions in which the salt naturally crystallizes so we applied two heat lamps, which encouraged a great amount of crystallization. The branches occurring at the surface of the water are produced by slow evaporation mixed with surface tension.

Over time, table salt specifically becomes blurred in its formation, as individual crystals become integrated with their neighbors. This is a timeline of crystallization.

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spicule scaffold

Day 06

Crystal seeding has just begun, starting with the ridges on the spicules.

large tank growth

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Day 06

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spicule scaffold

Day 10

large tank growth

185

Major Changes in Crystallizations

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Day 06

Day

Day 06

Day

spicule scaffold

y 10

Day 13

y 10

Day 13

large tank growth

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Notable Features in our Crystallizations

The cubic-pyramidal shape of the table salt, NaCl, is very apparant throughout the crystallizations.

Water surface crystal seeding occurs as the solution meets the air.

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spicule scaffold

Salt creep on the tank walls thickens overtime as crystallization continues and water naturally evaporates.

Crystal seeding increases in ridges on spicules.

Crystals do better with a greater surface area and course surface texture

large tank growth

189

Large Tank _larger scale study of salt crystallization

The large scale model explores the ability to make certain forms and maintain its original state through crystallization. We wanted to understand how a large scale formation crystallizes in outdoor conditions and how the salt crystals themselves transform. Over time the spicule formations settled into natural arches, but external movement of the tank for display purposes caused uncrystallized spicules to far and lose their original shape.

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spicule scaffold

large tank

191

120 cm

192

spicule scaffold

large tank

193

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spicule scaffold

large tank

195

196

spicule scaffold

large tank

197

198

spicule scaffold

large tank

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200

spicule scaffold

large tank

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Crystallization Afterward _Day ~90

After around 90 days of crystallization, we ensured that we would collect and analyze the process of each of the tanks. Each crystallization period was able to give us more information as to what the process growing and harvesting salt entailed.

As it seems, there was a clear difference between the durability of epsom salt (artifically created salts) and the durability of sodium chloride (naturally formed salts).

While epsom salt yielded a formation of crystals that was aestecially fascinating as well as a faster crystallization growth time, the stability over time failed. After our 90 day check-in with the experiments, the epsom salt began to turn into a powdery substance, similar to snow or sand. This meant that the artificial salt that we were experimenting could not withstand long durations as well as environmental factors.

Sodium chloride, the naturally occuring salt that we had used in our experiement, yielded a strong and durable result. It retained it crystal structure over time and even strengthened the structure as it dried. This meant that it became a more condusive salt to attain our structural needs and hopeful outcomes.

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spicule scaffold

Day ~90

The wall structure after complete evaporation of the saline solution. crystallization afterward

203

small tank crystallizations

While the the socium chloride (natural salt) has proven to retain its molecular structure, the epsom salt has disintegrated over time into snow like particles.

The epsom salt bridge structure has retained its strength over time due to its crystallization process. After creating the solution it was shocked by a cold temperature which retained a strong molecular structure.

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spicule scaffold

The sodium chloride wall has crystallized and almost entirely evaporated, creating an extremely strong wall. The salt continues to grow through continuous creep.

This epsom salt cave structure has begun to turn to dust due to its insufficient molecular structure when initial crystallization occured. Although the structure remains intact due to its spicule, the salt disintegrates to the touch

crystallization afterward

205

small tank crystallizations

206

spicule scaffold

crystallization afterward

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large tank crystallizations

After around 90 days the crystallization that occured abover the water line has continued to grow more and more.

While the crystallization above the waterline has succeeded in growth, the humidity of the london has caused an ineffective ratio for crystallization to continue below the water.

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spicule scaffold

The seeding points within the water that existed on the scaffold have disintegrated due to the humidity within line, While crystallization occurs naturally in its natural habitat, London has not proven to be a sufficient site for crystallization.

Through salt creep, we are able to note that crystallization continues to grow above the water line.

crystallization afterward

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Proposing Agency i. Organizational Methods ii. Magnetized Spicules iii. Mother Agent iv. Cellular Automatas

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211

Assembly _Spicule projectile system PROJECTILE SYSTEM

Our precedent study of Remote Material Deposition Installation, Sitterwerk, St. Gallen, gave us the idea of useing a projectile system of distribution and assembly.

Featuring an industrial robot that aggregates material over distance and therefore exceeds its predefined workspace, this installation brings not only forward a novel scale of digital fabrication in architecture – it also takes a first step in characterizing a novel approach in digital fabrication, taking architecture beyond the creation of static forms to the design of dynamic material aggregation processes.

Unlike the clay in the precedent case, the spicule can't precisely attach to one another. But the spicule, which naturally has the ablity of interlocking, with the quality of redundancy, which provides the space for mistakes.

We imagine the approch would be able to assemble a structure with throwing spicules.

We created digital models with changable parameters for simulations to test our thoughts. In the right is some of the first tests. Through these simulation we learned the main factors of the projectile system, such as spawner angle, spawner position,inital rotation, magnetic force of the spicules, etc.

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proposing agency

Projectile height = 30; Spawner rotation = random; Magnetic force of spicules = 0; Magnetic force of attractor = 0;

Projectile without magnetic spicule

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

Projectile height = 30; Spawner rotation = random; Magnetic force of spicules = 14; Magnetic force of attractor = 255;

Projectile with magnetic spicule

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

assembly

213

COMPARISONS The increase of the manetic force can cause a thicker, stronger strcture. But at the same time, because of the force increasing, the spicules will have a higher possiblity to catapult because of the same pole forced to each other, therfore it requires more spicule to reach the limit.

Magnetic force of spicules = 14; Magnet force of attractor = 500; Length (ratio) = 15;

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

AGENT CAPABILITY Moving on spicules; Throw spicule to certain directions; Collect spicules; Sensing the environment ( terrain, salinity, other agents, structure……)

214

Projectile height =25; Spawner rotation = random; Magnetic force of spicules = 14; Magnet force of attractor =255;

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

proposing agency

SIMULATION TESTS This test compares the difference between projecting angle, spawner position and the magnetic force of the spicules. Screen shot of the same frame in each simulation can show the differennt results caused by the parameter changes.

Magnetic force of spicules = 14; Magnet force of attractor = 500; Length (ratio) = 15;

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

COMPARISONS Tests showed that different spawner position can cause a change on the "growing" direction, the change in the scaffold system will cause the variaty in the space that the crystallization creat.

Magnetic force of spicules = 14; Magnet force of attractor = 500; Length (ratio) = 20;

Frame 0

Frame 15

Frame 100

Frame 200

assembly

215

Scaffold Structural Limits _spicule placement studies

A significant part of crystallization is allowing time for it to happen, and thus maintaining stillness for the crystal seeds to take place and grow. The scaffold should then reciprocate that, almost being paused in time from crystallization. Because spicules are a fluid, nonstatic structure so its important to know the limits of its structural capabilities.

At what point of adding spicules does the wall fall down?

How can we create an arch from the spicules simply falling into place? What limit allows for maintaining an identifiable formation?

Simulations studying placing spicules are meant to highlight the necessary moment of crystallization, otherwise the spicule structure would collapse. The spawner in these instances are meant to represent any future automation and/or human.

216

proposing agency

in-progress spicule placement

moment of structural limit

crystallized at structural limit

initial collapse of structure

fully collapsed structure

in-progress spicule placement

moment of structural limit

crystallized at structural limit

initial collapse of structure

fully collapsed structure

scaffold structural limits

217

Magnetic Field as Organization _intelligence & self-organize

Magnetic fields, as a physical phenomenon generated by moving electrical charges, can be found everywhere in our lives. It is expressed by ferrous materials and organises the position and orientation of these elements.

Through the use of magnetism, we try to add a certain intelligence to the spicules and allow them to selforganise in order to produce a certain order in the configuration of the spicules. By adding magnet with different poles, we can set up attractor and repeller to influence the collective behavior.

The position of the magnets is also an important parameter. The difference in distance from the centre of the spicules to the end of the arms will result in a huge difference in the magnetic force, which will also completely change the forming process.

218

proposing agency

Attractor & Reppeller

Swarm Behavior

spicule branches _ 6

steel ball size _ 3mm ball count _ 83

steel ball size _ 2mm ball count _ 79

steel ball size _ 1mm ball count _ 75

GRADIENT

STEEL BALLS PLA PRINT

steel ball size _ 1,2,3mm ball count _ 81

integration of magnet within the spicule body and arms

magnet as intelligence

steel ball size _ 1,2,3mm ball count _ 81

219

Magnetic Spicules _low population studies

In an attempt to derive a self-organizing formation, we turned to a magnetic approach. In this case, it was important to recognize all the factors by isolating north and south poles, magnet location, configurations of these, and interruption of the non-magnetic spicule.

The locations of the magnets include centrallized or peripheral (on the end of the spicule arms).

The low population simulations of magnetism and configurations have provided us with insight on how each variable will shape the outcome.

The spicule alone is meant for self-attachment, so it was important to include magnetism without making the use of the spicule obsolete. However, these simulations revealed that the magnets merely inform attraction but allow for the inherent nature of spicules to remain in play.

220

proposing agency

INITIAL STATE

FINAL STATE

Magnets_center: 6 Magnets_branch: 12 Spicule_N: 2 Spicule_S: 2

Magnetic_spicule: 4 Non-magnetic_spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 6 Magnets_branch: 12 Spicule_N: 2 Spicule_S: 2

Magnetic_spicule: 4 Non-magnetic_spicule: 0

Magnets_center: 6 Magnets_branch: 12 Spicule_N: 2 Spicule_S: 2

Magnetic_spicule: 4 Non-magnetic_spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 6 Magnets_branch: 12 Spicule_N: 2 Spicule_S: 2

Magnetic_spicule: 4 Non-magnetic_spicule: 0

magnetic spicules

221

INITIAL STATE

FINAL STATE

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 0

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 0

222

proposing agency

INITIAL STATE

FINAL STATE

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_spicule: 5

magnetic spicules

223

INITIAL STATE

FINAL STATE

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 0

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 1

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 0

224

proposing agency

INITIAL STATE

FINAL STATE

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 5

Magnets_center: 12 Magnets_branch: 20 Spicule_N: 4 Spicule_S: 4

Magnetic_spicule: 8 Non-magnetic_ spicule: 5

magnetic spicules

225

s_4_01

SPICULE NUM: 432 AGENT NUM: 6 Magnet Force: 5 Electromagnet: 60

TOP VIEW

FRONT VIEW

s_4_03

SPICULE NUM: 580 AGENT NUM: 8 Magnet Force: 5 Electromagnet: 90

TOP VIEW

226

FRONT VIEW

proposing agency

s_4_02

SPICULE NUM: 432 AGENT NUM: 11 Magnet Force: 5 Electromagnet: 80

TOP VIEW

FRONT VIEW

TOP VIEW

FRONT VIEW

s_4_04

SPICULE NUM: 686 AGENT NUM: 8 Magnet Force: 5 Electromagnet: 120

magnet as intelligence

227

Water Filtration _natural water formations and the affect from spicules

A known environmental input for this thesis is the applicable nature of water bodies. In this scenario, it was essential to analyze the dispersment of water motion that various spicule formations established in-situ. When simulating this environment in combination with our concept, there was a clear dispersment of water, which in-turn meant that these structures could break and filter its environment. With erosion increasing around the world due to a rise in sea level, this filtration and dispersement could be an environmental ally.

In these simulations, we were able to understand what formations and organizations of spicules would induce a great filtration, potentially informing further spatial configurations.

LAKE _ DEAD SEA, ISRAEL TEMP: 30° HUMIDITY: 62%

228

COAST _ PAG, CROATIA TEMP: 22° HUMIDITY: 72%

proposing agency

ATOLL _ TAFISI, TONGA TEMP: 28° HUMIDITY: 77%

Water Displacement : 5

Water Displacement : 20

Water Displacement : 25

Water Displacement : 35

Water Displacement : 40

Water Displacement : 70

water filtration

229

Initial Agent Proposal _behavior and components

The notion was a hierarchy of intelligence. We experimented with the entire population of spicules containing magnets, which are then organized by what we called a mother magnet, or a magnet with a greater force. This would essentially inform spicules with formational tendencies without obscuring the selfbinding/interlocking nature of the spicule.

We explored placing these powerful attractors at different locations to understand spatially the emerging compositions.

From these experiments, it was evident we needed to identify the necessary behaviors of the agent. This included throwing and placing spicules. Further, the agent needed to move in order to provide variability in organizations and specificity to formational aspects.

230

proposing agency

AGENT BEHAVIOR_ ACTUATION AND ARDUINO

ELECTROMAGNET REACTIONS

COMPONENT PARTS

Telescoping Arms _redistributes center of mass for movement

Tubular Stability _attachment of telescopes of internal grid structures

Electromagnets _attaches and detaches to external spicules for organization of formations

Robotics Stables _contains Arduino parts within the agent

Inner Structure _contains robotics intelligence

Shell Structure _overall shape of the agent distributing electromagnetic attachments

Weights _provides mass for the center of mass redistribution

Electromagnetic Pockets _attachment of electromagnets to overall structure

initial agent proposal

231

Salt as Material _reusable and self-binding

Cellular automata is a computational model which consists of a grid of cells. Each cell would get information from its neighbor and chage state (alive or dead) according to the rule.

In our system, the input information is the local salinity level and temperature, by preceiving those data and its neighbor condition, each agent could make decision. The system would be adaptive to the environment and 'grow' densier in high-salinity area in order to accelerate the crystal growth.

We used a octahedron grid for our CA model, and this would keep all cells at the same distance from their neighbours. Different rule sets are apply to the agents if their salinity sensor read a different number, and determine the porosity of this area.

Each cell would represent a cluster of spicules.

232

proposing agency

NEIGHBOUR TYPE

Forming process with Ruleset 1:

Initial state of the cell

Alive: neighbor <= 3 Dead: neighbor > 3

Growing process with Ruleset 2:

12 Neighbors of the cell

Alive: neighbor <= 6 Dead: neighbor > 6

Growing process with Ruleset 3:

Coordinate of different Neighbors

Alive: neighbor <= 9 Dead: neighbor > 9

forming agency

233

River_Growth Type_3 _Bridge & Strategy

For the 3rd type, to change the initial configuration of the agents by adding another group of agents at the bottom of the river, the form-generating process get more reasonable.

And the whole structure performs better in a short time.

FORMING PROCESS

234

proposing agency

With the agents reading data of the distance between them and the location, they have a preference of the moving direction, which would form a basic bridge structure.

river scenario _ type 2

235

Coast_Growth Type_3 _Bridge & Strategy

On the basis of the former, we tried to create more branches and to create some offshore barriers away from the shore to further reduce the speed of the waves.

FORMING PROCESS

236

proposing agency

By simply reading the depth of the ocean, agents could get the data of their position and make certain movement in order to form the structure.

coast scenario _ type 3

237

Agent Optimization i. Three Dimensional Spicule ii. Pneumatics for Buoyancy iii. Prototyping iv. Large Tank Model

238

239

Spicule Iterations _ optimizing spicule design

The first iteration began with a simplified 2D geometry, intersecting at its perpendicular. This proved useful for initial crystallization experiments on the self-binding nature of the spicule and salt. The spicule was upgraded to be generated from a 3D geometry with attached arms at each node of the form. This allowed for more surface area in terms of crystallization seeding points. Applying agency became integral to the spicule design, meaning catalyzing an incorporation of pneumatic elements within the behavioural formation.

240

agent optimization

three dimensional spicule

241

Initial 3-Dimensional Spicule _ first iteration of a 3D spicule form

Our initial iteration of a 3D spicule has brought us to the exploration of a 12 faced dodecahedron, resulting in 20 potential arms for crystallization. The 12 faces allows for an integration of pneumatics, mirroring the 3-Dimensional form.

SPICULE /Core: 12 faces /Arm: 20 arms /Division: 3*4 units

DODECAHEDRON /Faces: 12 /Edges: 30 /Vertexes: 20 /Centrosymmetric

242

agent optimization

Convex type _ Positive

Concave type _ Negative

initial three dimensional spicule

243

INITIAL SPICULE PHASING

VERTICAL MOVEMENT / BUOYANCY

Phase _ 0

Phase _ 1

Phase _ 2

244

agent optimization

Inflated units:

1/4

2/4

3/4

4/4

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT / BUOYANCY

Movement direction:

After this iteration, we decided to go back to simulation methods and analyze with which optimization methods we could achieve a maximal crystallization output. We decided to experiment with the core shape, end mutations, and meshing details for porosity.

initial three dimensional spicule

245

Three Dimensional Spicule _ simulating crystallization for each iteration

Exploring the shape of the spicule has been an important next step in the understanding of crystallization outputs.

In an organized network, crystallization determines the final formation. The spicule provides a low surface area, which allows for a seeding point that crystallized into a 80% salt and 20% spicules organization. Exploring the pyramid, cube and dodecahedron cores, which inform the amount of arms within the spicule, we are able to understand which spicule shape maximizes a total crystallized formation. After furthering the digital explorations, the dodecahedron spicule formalizes a larger and more applicable crystallization, which affords a larger total growth. Meanwhile, the dodecahedron is a more customizable shape for the pneumatic system which will be applied.

246

agent optimization

_ Pyramid _ aggregate

_ structure

_ structure

_ crystallized

_ crystallized

_ 10 Days

_ single

three dimensional spicule

247

_ Cube _ aggregate

_ structure

_ structure

_ crystallized

_ crystallized

_ 10 Days

_ single

248

agent optimization

_ Dodecahedron _ aggregate

_ structure

_ structure

_ crystallized

_ crystallized

_ 10 Days

_ single

three dimensional spicule

249

End Mutation Optimization _ single bifurcated end mutation

Further optimizing this spicule, the end mutation of the arms was key to catalyzing a locking and interlocking of the spicule within a system. While keeping the integrity of the interlocking, the testing of a single bifurcated arm and the crystallization to surface area ratio has given us insight into which end mutation was most optimal for our spicule.

250

agent optimization

end mutation optimization

251

Spicule Surface Meshing _spicule meshing porosity simulations

252

agent optimization

After the various explorations of the spicule research and tests, our optimization has come down to shape resulting in the amount of arms necessary for salt to grow into.

Ultimately, the reasoning for the spicule was to insight and create a better performing growth vessel Providing meshing to the spicule surface allowed for a porosity that is necessary for the penetration of saliine solution as well as coral growth.

The less dense the mesh iterates, the more salt can penetrate the agent and propogate to its maximal potential. The final spicule consists of a 50/50 mesh to surface area ratio, which was simulated as the most optimal growth ratio through porosity.

spicule surface meshing

253

Each component part was simulated digitally as well as experimented with physically to bring forth the most optimal spicule design for an increased salt crystallization growth.

CORE

ARMS

The ultimate goal of the spicule is to harvest salt for specific use-cases. By formulating this spicule, we are confident to go forth in the organizational simulations.

PNEUMATICS

The final spicule is composed of a core which contains sensors and mechanisms for behavioral organisations.

The spicule includes 16 bifurcated arms, 4 buoyant pneumatics, and a 50/50 ratio mesh surface.

These elements engage in a behavior based input for exploring the boundaries of formational organization strategies.

254

agent optimization

FINAL SPICULE AGENT

COMBINED

final spicule agent

255

SALT CRYSTALLIZATION GROWTH surface level growth

256

agent optimization

Due to the evaporative properties of the surface level water, salt grows and solidies faster above the surface level and slower in saline water. This informs the harvesting input of our salt crystallization system.

1/2 spicule

1 spicule

3 spicules spicule crystallization

257

CORAL GROWTH sunlight growth

We identified the spicule as a vessel for growth, so we extended that to coral growth as well. During protection formational agency, passive spicules will drop to the sea floor, allowing coral more opportunities for growth, and polyps to attach. A major input to coral growth is decided upon the direction of the sunlight in the ocean. Coral needs sunlight to grow and it's photosynthetic propertiesare an input we are including for the organization of our salt dispersal system.

258

agent optimization

equatorial sunlight

top down directional growth resultant from sunlight typical nearer to the equator line

indirect sunlight

slowed growth resultant from sunlight in consistently clouded and shaded regions

polar sunlight

single directional growth resultant from sunlight at a location closer to the north and south poles

spicule coral growth

259

Pneumatics Integration _essential inputs and considerations

Pneumatics being integrated into our salt formations is largely necessary because of the need for scaffold sctructures to make it to the surface of the water, which is the most conducive location for crystallization. Secondly, incorporating an intelligent system provided the means for scaffolds to be fluid.

260

agent optimization

Utilizing an inflation system to the point where the spicules arms are such as replaced with pneumatic arms, gripping and cohesion replace the spicule’s natural behavior of binding and tangling. Many key elements are important to consider in order to achieve the performance and behavior necessary to our formations.

pneumatic integration

261

Phase 00

_spinal ribs

The first step in achieving the required behavior is isolating rib types through thickness, pattern, proportion, and shape. These studies isolate these elements to identify bending and deformation. It became apparent, by observing shape, that larger cavities are the first to expand and thus will expand the largest. This is because the rib-to-cavity ratio is higher, leaving less rib stiffness to prevent deformation. The curved pneumatics are then the shape to bend more, while the angular inflate more uniformly throughout.

The necessity of including an angle in all pneumatic shapes rather than keeping the ridges parallel is to begin to incorporate the spicle in the overall system.

A spicule’s arms are always angled, and thus will make incorporating angled rails in the pneumatics a requirement.

262

agent optimization

Phase 01

Phase 02

rib-shape types

Phase 03

263

Phase 00

_meandering ribs

The difference in the air pathway, whether utilizing a central spine or meandering, ultimately affects total pneumatic inflation. The central spine enables air to find the larger space. The meandering approach forces air to follow a specific path, and inflating all cavities in the first phase of inflation. Yet, by the time it reaches the third phase of inflation, the shape becomes more important in terms of bending.

In this case, the curved shape with a meandering pattern bends so much as to tip the pnematic over, which the angled shape with a meandering pattern remains quite uniform.

The pnematic volume from Phase 00 to Phase 03 increases by about 337.5% of its original volume, with each phase growing by almost 150% of its previous phase.

264

agent optimization

Phase 01

Phase 02

rib-shape types

Phase 03

265

_thickness as input When initially casting the pneumatic forms, we followed previous research by casting the molds, and then sealing it by pouring EcoFlex on a flat surface, and placing the mold on top. This action caused an uneven thickness, averaging to 3mm overall. The result was a pneumatic that was stiffer, unable to bend to the full capability of the initial form.

The next step was then to create a mold of 1.5mm thickness, controlling the thickness that the form had on all sides, and exploring its extents. This resulted in a pneumatic that bent significantly more, and thus isolating rib patterns, proportions, and pneumatic shapes as being the main variables.

Phase 00

266

Phase 03

agent optimization

Phase 00

Phase 03

thickness comparisons

267

_adjacent inflation and deflation

268

agent optimization

double-sided pneumatics

269

A B A

_ thick-to-thin faces

_ thick-to-thick faces

_ A rotates B

_ B pushes A off

_ A falls off B

270

B

agent optimization

_ A and B fly apart

_ A pulls B

_ A rotates B

_ B releases A

pneumatic rib interaction

271

Phase 00

_positioning and phasing

Incorporating and experimenting with the pneumatics in the spicule is a necessity as they will ultimately affect the behavior of the spicule. In this case we looked at positioning the spicules and observing its behavior in each phase. By Phase 03 the pneumatics bend 90 degrees from its initial state and adjacent spicule arms. The bending, as intended in this specific pneumatic rib type, would begin at the end of the pneumatic arm and extend outward.

272

agent optimization

Phase 01

Phase 02

pneumatic rib interaction

Phase 03

273

_pneumatic spicule interaction

B

Interaction between two pneumatic spicules helps identify its behavior. We are interested as well in obbserving pneumatic features that cause specific behaviors. It becomes apparent that the interaction between two pneumatic spicules majorly amplifies the original behavior or a simple spicule, affecting the spicule attached to the pneumatic, the spicule interacting with the pneumatic, and the overall system. Further, we can understand grip capabilities of just two arms rather than the precedential three arms per system.

_ A rotates from inflation

274

agent optimization

A

_ A pushes B away

_ A and B ungrip

_ B drags A

_ A and B fall over together

pneumatic spicule interaction

275

Phase 00

We explored the behaviour of origami folding as a method of expansion and emergence. The concept is meant to act as an expansion of the spicule, maintaining its original design organization - a centrosymmetric approach - maintaining the arms and a core. The origami spicule “blooms” when output is required whether for gripping, unlocking, floating, or sinking.

276

agent optimization

Phase 01

Phase 02

origami pneumatics

Phase 03

277

Furthering the concept of the origami spicule, we scaled up the pneumatic and explored locating the pneumatic on the faces of the spicule. In this instance, iterating the spicule to apply a straight arm was meant to isolate the pneumatic as a new variaton of an end mutation, with the arms mainly being the points of intersection. We also applied the robotic pump, as using merely a syringe for inflation does not provide sufficient air to inflate the pneumatic.

278

agent optimization

origami pneumatics

279

PNEUMATIC BEHAVIOURS 1.5mm Thicnkness

280

Spinal Rib

agent optimization

Meandering Rib

MOLD MAKING Angled Origami

pneumatic molds

Bulging Origami

281

Face, Enlarged Face, Contracted

A necessity in incorporating the pneumatic into the spicule is identifying where the anchor should be attached on the spicule. Positions we experimented with were the frame of the dodecahedron, the face of the dodecahedron, and the arm of the spicule.

Because the shape of the dodecahedron inherently has the most amount of vertices of any proposed shape we looked at, it would thus have the most pneumatic arms if we placed them on every frame. However, placing the pneumatic arms on every face produces a less dense overall spicule, leaving the original arms to still have a formal interaction within the whole formation.

Frame, Contracted

Frame, Enlarged

One Pneumatic Arm

282

agent optimization

Two Pneumatic Arms

Four Pneumatic Arms

Six Pneumatic Arms

origami pneumatics

Full

283

Pneumatic Bending _spinal ribs

Simulating pneumatics was meant to understand the possible behaviours. In this instance, we explored stiffness by incorporating a spine. This pneumatic spine, when oriented differently, encourages bending in different rotations.

284

agent optimization

pneumatics for buoyancy

285

286

agent optimization

pneumatics for buoyancy

287

Prototype Pneumatics _ pneumatic output scales

We approached the last iteration of the pneumatics by thinking about the necessary attributes and behaviours for our system. Incorporating a bump on the pneumatics is meant to enhance grip for the ability to interact and attach to peer spicules. Color comes into play in order to identify different types of phasing: active versus passive. Further, as scale changes, rib density, sizing, and thickness must vary in order to maintain proper inflations.

migration model

288

formational model

agent optimization

prototype

prototype ribs

pneumatics

289

PNEUMATIC BEHAVIOURS Prototype Iteration 01 Uniform

2mm thickness

Combining the ribs with the cylidrical forms necessitated a two-part mold. We had to consider control of thickness, rib densities, and scalability in these more recent prototypes. We first explored a simple cylindrical form, analyzing variable rib densities and sizing for bending and inflation purposes. We found that maintaining a uniform cylindar caused a more curled pneumatic, rather we aimed for bending matched with elongation. Adding a bump to the surface of the pneumatic incorporated further grip and bioinspired outputs.

Prototype Iteration 02 Variable

Approaching the prototypical pneumatic, we decided to give an organic form, in line with the first few seconds of an inflated pneumatic in simulation. We increased the sizing of the cavities in order to incorporate less joints in bending, but greater inflation.

The multiple scales of pneumatics were meant for different model outputs. However, when approaching these different scales, the pneumatics could not merely be scaled, rather maintaining cavity sizing in relationship to rib thicknesses kept behavioural outputs the same.

290

agent optimization

MOLD MAKING

1mm thickness

Prototype Iteration 03

Raft Scale

Formation Scale

pneumatic molds

291

Prototyping _physical explorations

We built a prototype as a control system for the behavior of the spicule. With it we wanted to explore the properties of an individual spicule as an agent to then test the communication between them. For some situations there are variable inflations. The spicule shows different stages of inflation based on the interaction between them.

1st prototype

2nd prototype

Based on those behavior we began to prototype interaction and response.

Each spicule is equipped with an ultrasonic sensor, which detects neighbors. For it to sense the other spicules when aggregated. The output is shown with white light when is not sensing another agent, and red light when is sensing one.

292

agent optimization

1 - Air pump 2 - Air valve 3 - Ulrtrasonic sensor 4 - Batteries 5 - LED lights 6- Arduino Nano 7- Relay 8 - Connector 9 - Pneumatic

2 5

1

6

4

3 8

9

This activates the air pump and the air valve inside depending on the input of the sensor. The valve will keep the air in or it will release depending on the edge condition that the sensor is perceiving, so the pneumatic arm has a greater inflation or not.

prototyping

293

LARGE SCALE SPICULE

294

agent optimization

LARGE PROTOTYPE INTERACTIONS _thickness as input

prototyping

295

LARGE PROTOTYPE INTERACTIONS _inflation based on communication

296

agent optimization

MEDIUM PROTOTYPE INTERACTIONS _agent to agent communication

prototyping

297

CRYSTALLIZATION TIMELINE

2 DAYS

5 DAYS

Here was an exploration on the amount of time it takes to achieve certain salt crystallization growth. After 10 days, growth exceeded over 300% of the spicule arm's original surface area.

Each arm was initiated through a 3D printed scaffold which consisted of a surface mesh from the simulated optimizations. This allowed for a growth rate the most optimal for crystallization harvesting needs.

298

agent optimization

8 DAYS

10 DAYS

crystallized arms

299

Large Tank Model _physical explorations

300

agent optimization

large tank model

301

302

agent optimization

large tank model

303

304

System Cycle i. Total System ii. Use-Case / Coral iii. Data Mapping

305

Total System _applying systematic purpose

Our HALOKINESIS relies on an artificial cycle coupled with natural processes, generated through necessity, and constantly responsive to environments. We identified three main stages within the cycle: harvest, migration, and protection. Harvest deals with crystallization of the spicule agents in higher salinity zones. Migration, then, is the process of transporting salt structures through current dynamics and self-propulsion. Protection employs formational agency in low salinity coral reef zones, adapting to coral structures as barriers and dispersing salt.

The process is cyclical, allowing for the agents to detect their next location to begin the system again.

Within our system, agents detect high salinity regions, where they can crystallize through the initial state of seeding points. Warm temperatures and surface level evaporation cause a growth of the salt on our scaffold eventually solidifying into a salt tectonic.

306

system cycle

This system detects high salinity locations in order to capture and crystallize readily available material.

The system inter-communication translates data to move salt islands from location A to location B in order to redistribute necessary environmental protections in at-risk regions.

01

02

03

04

05

SALT DISTRIBUTION

SEEDING POINTS

EVAPORATION

CRYSTALLIZATION

SOLIDIFICATION

general agents detect high salinity regions

salt begins to seed on in-situ scaffold

warm temperatures result in-situ evaporative waters

scaffold salt crystallizes and grows to formation

general agents detect solid mass of salt and sufficient structure

total system

307

Coral Health _health and structure

There are many environmental factors contributing to coral bleaching, however, a key variable more recently acknowledged and experimented is salinity. When environmental events such as monsoons, hurricanes, and typhoons occur, a suddden influx of freshwater causes salinity to decrease from an average of 35ppm to as little as 10ppm.

These events typically occur in coral habitats. This sudden change is shocking to coral, creating imbalances, and ultimately cause the symbiotic organisms, zooxanthellae, that provide coral 90% of its food, and its color, to leave its coral host.

36 psu 39 psu 42 psu + Effect of different salinities on heat-induced bleaching in the coral model Aiptasia. / A _ Aiptasia H2 showed reduced bleaching at increased salinities under heat stress. / B _This pattern was not apparent in Aiptasia CC7.

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A

hour 0

B

hour 0

C

hour 0

A

hour 18 Coral Death

B

hour 18 Coral Death

C

hour 18 Coral Death

+ Coral branches from 3 stations / A _ Khao Mha Jor / B _ Pla Muek Island / C _ Had Tien diving point at 33°C under the lowest salinity (10 psu).

system cycle

The phenomena we know as bleaching is the effect of zooxanthellae leaving its coral host. Bleaching does not mean death, and if conditions return to normal quick enough, the zooxanthellae will return, but if conditions do not change, coral is left as merely a skeleton, later covered by algae.

coral health

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_reef vulnerability

+ 4000 different species of fish can inhabit a single coral reef​ + 1 sq km, can produce up to 35 tons of fish​ + Polyps settle on a place to live and build a skeleton (calcium carbonate) on the surface of a rock​ + If one polyp isn’t doing too well, they are connected with other polyps surrounding, and will receive nutrients from others as well​ + Zooxanthellae, algae in symbiosis with coral, receive most of their food from these algae (90%)​ ​

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system cycle

+ Estimated that we have already killed ~10% of coral reefs on Earth with ~ 60% remaining being threatened by human activities​ + Polyps are highly vulnerable if they choose to settle in the wrong place​ + If one polyp isn’t doing too well, they are connected with other polyps surrounding, and will receive nutrients from others as well​ + Coral bleaching is a defense mechanism of coral​ + Temperature, acidity, salinity, ocean depth, average sunlight, dissolved CO2, increased motion of water can cause coral bleaching​ + Bleaching doesn’t equal death, but can kill 30-95% of coral if they are in the wrong location​ ​

coral health

311

Coral Reefs _ zones and structures

+ The reef surface is the shallowest part of the reef. It is subject to surge and tides. When waves pass over shallow areas, they shoal, as shown in the adjacent diagram. This means the water is often agitated.

These are the precise condition under which corals flourish. The light is sufficient for photosynthesis by the symbiotic zooxanthellae, and agitated water brings plankton to feed the coral.​

+ Water in the reef surface zone is often agitated. This diagram represents a reef on a continental shelf. The water waves at the left travel over the off-reef floor until they encounter the reef slope or fore reef. Then the waves pass over the shallow reef crest. When a wave enters shallow water it shoals, that is, it slows down and the wave height increases.​

+ The off-reef floor is the shallow sea floor surrounding a reef. This zone occurs next to reefs on continental shelves. Reefs around tropical islands and atolls drop abruptly to great depths and do not have such a floor. Usually sandy, the floor often supports seagrass meadows which are important foraging areas for reef fish.​

+ The reef flat is the sandy-bottomed flat, which can be behind the main reef, containing chunks of coral.

This zone may border a lagoon and serve as a protective area, or it may lie between the reef and the shore, and in this case is a flat, rocky area. Fish tend to prefer it when it is present.​

+ The reef drop-off is, for its first 50 m, habitat for reef fish who find shelter on the cliff face and plankton in the water nearby. The drop-off zone applies mainly to the reefs surrounding oceanic islands and atolls.​

+ The reef lagoon is an entirely enclosed region, which creates an area less affected by wave action and often contains small reef patches.​

+ The reef face is the zone above the reef floor or the reef drop-off. This zone is often the reef’s most diverse area. Coral and calcareous algae provide complex habitats and areas that offer protection, such as cracks and crevices. Invertebrates and epiphytic algae provide much of the food for other organisms.

A common feature on this forereef zone is spur and groove formations that serve to transport sediment downslope.​ ​

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system cycle

A

B

D

C

E

F

G

+ Examples of the main coral reef types in the tropical Pacific Ocean: / A _ continental barrier reef, protecting lagoonal patch and fringing reefs (Vanua Levu Island, Fiji) / B _ oceanic barrier reef surrounding a lagoon with fringing and patch reefs (Mangareva, French Polynesia) / C _ oceanic reef island bank (Malekula Island, Vanuatu) / D _ oceanic atoll that has been uplifted with a narrow fringing reef (Nauru) / E _ closed oceanic atoll (Kaukura atoll, French Polynesia) / F _ fringing and patch reefs around an oceanic island (Malekula Island, Vanuatu) / G _ lagoonal patch and fringing reefs (Vangunu Island, Solomon Islands).​

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Coral Reef Classifications _ continental reefs

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system cycle

+ Fringing reef​ A fringing reef, also called a shore reef, is directly attached to a shore, or borders it with an intervening narrow, shallow channel or lagoon. It is the most common reef type. Fringing reefs follow coastlines and can extend for many kilometres. They are usually less than 100 metres wide, but some are hundreds of metres wide. Fringing reefs are initially formed on the shore at the low water level and expand seawards as they grow in size. The final width depends on where the sea bed begins to drop steeply. The surface of the fringe reef generally remains at the same height: just below the waterline. In older fringing reefs, whose outer regions pushed far out into the sea, the inner part is deepened by erosion and eventually forms a lagoon.

Fringing reef lagoons can become over 100 metres wide and several metres deep. Like the fringing reef itself, they run parallel to the coast.

+ Barrier reef​ Barrier reefs are separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep channel or lagoon. They resemble the later stages of a fringing reef with its lagoon but differ from the latter mainly in size and origin. Their lagoons can be several kilometres wide and 30 to 70 metres deep. Above all, the offshore outer reef edge formed in open water rather than next to a shoreline. Like an atoll, it is thought that these reefs are formed either as the seabed lowered or sea level rose. Formation takes considerably longer than for a fringing reef, thus barrier reefs are much rarer.​

+ Ribbon reef _ long, narrow, possibly + Patch reef _ common, isolated, compar- + Apron reef _ short reef resembling a fringwinding reef, usually associated with an atoll atively small reef outcrop, usually within a ing reef, but more sloped; extending out and lagoon. Also called a shelf-edge reef or sill reef.​ lagoon or embayment, often circular and downward from a point or peninsular shore. surrounded by sand or seagrass. Can be The initial stage of a fringing reef.​ considered as a type of platform reef or as features of fringing reefs, atolls and barrier reefs.

The patches may be surrounded by a ring of reduced seagrass cover referred to as a grazing halo.​

coral reef classifications

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Coral Reef Classifications _ oceanic reefs

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system cycle

+ Platform reef​ Platform reefs, variously called bank or table reefs, can form on the continental shelf, as well as in the open ocean, in fact anywhere where the seabed rises close enough to the surface of the ocean to enable the growth of zooxanthemic, reef-forming corals. Unlike fringing and barrier reefs which extend only seaward, platform reefs grow in all directions. They are variable in size, ranging from a few hundred metres to many kilometres across. Their usual shape is oval to elongated. Parts of these reefs can reach the surface and form sandbanks and small islands around which may form fringing reefs. A lagoon may form In the middle of a platform reef.​ Platform reefs can be found within atolls. There they are called patch reefs and may reach only a few dozen metres in diameter. Where platform reefs form on an elongated structure, e. g. an old, eroded barrier reef, they can form a linear arrangement. In old platform reefs, the inner part can be so heavily eroded that it forms a pseudo-atoll. These can be distinguished from real atolls only by detailed investigation, possibly including core drilling. ​

+ Atoll​ Atolls or atoll reefs are a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef that extends all the way around a lagoon without a central island. They are usually formed from fringing reefs around volcanic islands. Over time, the island erodes away and sinks below sea level. Atolls may also be formed by the sinking of the seabed or rising of the sea level. A ring of reefs results, which enclose a lagoon.

+ Seamount or guyot _ formed when a + Cays _ small, low-elevation, sandy islands + Bank reef _ isolated, flat-topped reef larger coral reef on a volcanic island subsides; tops formed on the surface of coral reefs from than a patch reef and usually on mid-shelf of seamounts are rounded and guyots are flat; eroded material that piles up, forming an regions and linear or semi-circular in shape; a flat tops of guyots, or tablemounts, are due area above sea level; can be stabilized by type of platform reef to erosion by waves, winds, and atmospheric plants to become habitable; occur in tropical processes​ environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans (including the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef), where they provide habitable and agricultural land​

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Data Mapping _translating environmental conditions

Analyzing a water column was necessary in understanding ideal zones. These ideal zones consist of the overlap between stabilizations of temperature, salinity, and density, meaning the change of inputs between 0 to 200 meters does not vary too much.

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IDEAL ZONE

between the 0 to 200 meters depth of the ocean presents an ideal location for stable and consistent environmental conditions. these conditions display a threshold in which our system can achieve its maximal growth and formation making potentials.

salinity profile

0

density profile

termperature profile

200

pycnocline

400 halocline

600

thermocline

800

1000

depth (m) 1200 temperature (C)

2

4

6

8

salinity % (ppt)

32

33

34

35

36

density (gm/cm³)

1.00

1.01

1.02

1.03

1.04

data mapping

10

12

14

319

Salinity Mapping _extracting NOAA salinity data We mapped the salinity levels around the globe, and discovered regions of high salinity where we can determine ideal harvesting locations. Salinity levels throughout the year are different, which informs our time parameters.

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system cycle

SALINITY MAPPING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR WINTER

SPRING

SUMMER

FALL

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SALINITY MAPPING _ CARRIBEAN salinity surface temp. rainfall cloud cover bathymetry coordinates salinity (ppt) <33.5

LOCATION_A high salinity -2

35.5

salinity (ppt) >37.5

<33.5

32

-2

375

1

100

0

sea surface temp. (°C) 14

19

50

14

32

rainfall (mm)

cloud fraction (%) 0

>37.5

sea surface temp. (°C)

rainfall (mm) 1

35.5

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 50

100

Salt Island

Britishbathymetry Virgin(meters) Islands 0 2724.5 Carribean Sea 10898 18.3759°N 64.5281°W AST (UTC-4)

bathymetry (meters) 0

salinity (ppt) <33.5

35.5

>37.5

sea surface temp. (°C) -2

14

32

rainfall (mm) 1

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 0

50

100

Cayo Calebra

Mexico Latin America 19°30°N 87°45°W EST (UTC-5)

bathymetry (meters) 0

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2724.5

10898

system cycle

2724.5

10898

We identified sites of higher salinity nearby intended areas of coral rehabilitation.

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SALINITY MAPPING _ SOUTH PACIFIC salinity surface temp. rainfall cloud cover bathymetry coordinates salinity (ppt) <33.5

LOCATION_A high salinity -2

35.5

salinity (ppt)

>37.5

<33.5

32

-2

375

1

100

0

sea surface temp. (°C) 14

35.5

sea surface temp. (°C)

19

50

32

19

375

cloud fraction (%)

cloud fraction (%) 0

14

rainfall (mm)

rainfall (mm) 1

>37.5

50

100

Magnrove Island

Australia Oceania 10898 22.3455°S 149.5352°E AEST (UTC+10)

bathymetry (meters)

bathymetry (meters)

0

0

2724.5

salinity (ppt) <33.5

35.5

>37.5

sea surface temp. (°C) -2

14

32

rainfall (mm) 1

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 0

50

100

Deception Bay Papua New Guinea Oceania 7°58°S 145°46°E AEST (UTC+10)

bathymetry (meters) 0

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2724.5

10898

system cycle

2724.5

10898

These higher salinity zones consist of saline or brackish water, mostly existing in coastal zones, and include salt marshes, estuaries, coastal lagoons, and atolls.

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Coral Bleaching Mapping _extracting NOAA coral bleaching data A major input to coral growth is decided upon the direction of the sunlight in the ocean. Coral needs sunlight to grow and it’s photosynthetic properties are an input we are including for the organization of our salt dispersal system.

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CORAL BLEACHING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR YEARLY BLEACHING

MONTHLY BLEACHING

WEEKLY BLEACHING

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CORAL REEF MAPPING _ SOUTH PACIFIC coral bleaching surface temp. rainfall cloud cover bathymetry coordinates coral heating (°C) 0

LOCATION_B at-risk coral reefs

8

coral heating (°C) 16+

0

32

-2

375

1

100

0

sea surface temp. (°C)

-2

14

19

50

14

32

rainfall (mm)

cloud fraction (%) 0

16+

sea surface temp. (°C)

rainfall (mm) 1

8

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 50

100

Sudest Island

bathymetry Papua New(meters) Guinea 0 2724.5Oceania10898 11°30°S 153°26°E AEST (UTC+10)

bathymetry (meters) 0

2724.5

coral heating (°C) 0

8

16+

sea surface temp. (°C) -2

14

32

rainfall (mm) 1

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 0

50

100

Fergusson Islands

Papua New Guinea Oceania 09°31°03°S 150°40°30°E AEST (UTC+10)

bathymetry (meters) 0

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2724.5

10898

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10898

Regarding our coral protection sites, we isolated two main areas of need as examples for our rehabilitation proposal, including the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

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CORAL REEF MAPPING _ CARRIBEAN coral bleaching surface temp. rainfall cloud cover bathymetry coordinates coral heating (°C) 0

LOCATION_B at-risk coral reefs

8

coral heating (°C)

16+

0

32

-2

375

1

100

0

sea surface temp. (°C)

-2

14

19

50

14

32

rainfall (mm)

cloud fraction (%) 0

16+

sea surface temp. (°C)

rainfall (mm) 1

8

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 50

100

San Blas Island

Panama Latin 2724.5 America10898 9.57°N, 78.82° W EST (UTC-5) bathymetry (meters)

0

bathymetry (meters) 0

2724.5

coral heating (°C) 0

8

16+

sea surface temp. (°C) -2

14

32

rainfall (mm) 1

19

375

cloud fraction (%) 0

50

100

Anse La Roche Bay Grenada Carribean Sea 12°03°N 61°45°W AST (UTC-4)

bathymetry (meters) 0

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2724.5

10898

system cycle

10898

Each site was chosen based off its distinguishing coral and land characteristics that are meant to represent typologies of scenarios. We examined coral bleaching, surface temperature, rainfall, cloud cover, bathymetry, and coordinates.

coral bleaching mapping

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Pollination Topographic Analysis _site analysis

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system cycle

site analysis

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Stigmergy & Pollination i. Stigmergy Agents ii. Migration iii. Pollination Formations iv. Halokinesis Visuallizations

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Pneumatic Phasing _ determining behavioural outputs

On the agent scale, we explored different inflation ratios within the pneumatic arms. These ratios are in relation to the bifurcated passive arms of the spicules and are calculated based on output behaviors. For example, negative buoyancy refers to an agent whose pneumatic arms cannot hold its own weight, and therefore cannot rise to the surface. This is an important ratio as we need the ability to move down and up within the water column.

02

03

01

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01

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02

03

six spicule fifteen spicule

ten spicule

two spicule

one spicule

01

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inflation ratios

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10x inflation ability to carry a spicule

6.4x inflation positive buoyancy

4x inflation neutral buoyancy

1.5x inflation negative buoyancy

INFLATION BEHAVIOURS

01

338 02 03

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04 05

46x inflation overinflation

30x inflation ability to lift multiple crystallized

23.3x inflation ability to lift multiple spicules

16x inflation ability to lift a crystallized spicule

ISOLATING RATIOS

01 02 03

inflation ratios

04 05

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SELF-PROPULSION BEHAVIOUR

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 2

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 50

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 0

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 2

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 50

curved path

straight path

active spicules _ 1 passive spicules _ 0

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For phase 03, the pneumatic inflates with air and releases the air out the back, ultimately propelling the spicule and it’s counterparts. It can then refill at the surface of the water. We explored the self propulsion behaiour, isolating path type and agent count in relation to passive spicules. active spicules _ 3 passive spicules _ 50

active spicules _ 4 passive spicules _ 50

active spicules _ 3 passive spicules _ 50

active spicules _ 4 passive spicules _ 50

raft

migration

341

EXTRACTING BEHAVIOUR

PHASE 00 negative buoyancy

PHASE 02 positive buoyancy

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PHASE 01 neutral buoyancy

PHASE 03 self-propulsion

phasing

343

EXTRACTING BEHAVIOUR

We extracted the necessary ratios for our system’s behaviors. The pneumatic’s isolated inflation ratios are translated into the 4 different phases of a spicules behavior.

PHASE 00 negative buoyancy

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PHASE 01 neutral buoyancy

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PHASE 02 positive buoyancy

PHASE 03 self-propulsion

Simulating the phasing behaviour, vertically, in a body of water revealed the drag, lift, and other necessary hydrodynamic attributes. We examined the current flows, extracting proxemics, finding that the transition between phase 00 to phase 01 pushes the water the furthest around it, meaning that there will be the most amount of influence on local spicules and coral. While transitioning from phase 01 to phase 02, the water flow is the least influenced as the change exists within neutral buoyancy, causing little movement other than the pneumatic scaling. On the other hand breaching the surface during phase 03 causes water to reach higher speeds both above the spicule and below, where the air is pushed out of the back of the pneumatic.

phasing

345

To avoid the solidification from crystallization, a pneumatic can continuously pump air in and out. Each spicule holds the capacity to engage in all phases.

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PUMPING SIZING

state 01 / overpressure _ 10

state 02 / overpressure _ 12.5

state 03 / overpressure _ 17.5

synergetic agents

347

Current Fields _ static current field 2D

The system’s initial state is floating on the surface of thwe ocean, so it’s it’s important to understand how the dynamic circumstances of the current on the ocean surface.

Here we tried to understand how the agent would react to the force of the current, and what formation would they finially achieve and frozen by the salt crystallization.

Complex and dynamic currents can be break down to some simple ‘basic current compoents’ Which are valley : A-B ; vortex: C-E. By simulating the behaviour of spicules in the current we can start to understand the formation that each type of current can create.

Also in the more complex real situation (G-I) the current field is consist of multipal simple compoents.

In the simulations, the numbler of the spicules are 2200; spicule move speed is 10.

A

B

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D

E

F

G

H

I

current dynamics

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DYNAMIC CURRENT FIELD _ 2.5D

In nature, currents are not static all the time, they change due to wheather condition, presssure, salinity level etc. So it’s important to be able to understand how a changing current would influence the spicule formation. In the simulation the vectors that represtent the current keeps changeing according to serveal moving attracters and repellers.

In the simulations, there is a conhesion strength between every spicule, so in the begining, the original curreent and conhesion strength would creat an inital formation, then when the current changes, the force would become larger than the cohesion strength. Hense, some part of the formation would break and create a new formation. Which give the whole system the capacity of adaptation to the dynamic situation.

Spicuel number: 3000; repeller number: 4; simulation step: 4000; inital current setup: real situation G;

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Spicuel number: 3000; repeller number: 4; simulation step: 4000; inital current setup: real situation I;

In the simulation the scale is limited, so some of the spicules would leave the simulated area, is the simulation shows the changing current, could remove all the formation and transport the spicules to other location for them to perform again.

Spicuel number: 3000; repeller number: 4; simulation step: 4000; inital current setup: real situation H;

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351

Time is also a key factor in the system. Time span in the dynamic current simulations are monthes or years, because the current changes slowly. But it can work very well with the crystallization because the process also takes month. the cyrsyal grow slowly.

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The cohesion strength represtents the binding force of the salt, in a dynamic ocean enviroment, the system would perform like ac iceberg, in some area they come together and crystallize, wheh the environment changes, they ‘melt’ and travel elsewhere to freeze again.

current dynamics

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Stigmergy Agents _organizing crystallized spicule for rehabilitation

After migration, we started looking into the protection of corals, our agents will self-organize as an everchanging formation that balance the salinity level temporally and reducing the harmful influences caused by rapid climate change.

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stigmergy agents

355

NEIGHBOR RULE

Phase _ 0 Maximum Neighbors: 32

Phase _ 1 Maximum Neighbors: 30

Phase _ 2 Maximum Neighbors: 24

Communicating with each other, agents selfregulate and change phases.

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POLLINATION SIMULATIONS

Phase _ 1 Neighbor Count < Min Rule Set

Phase _ 0 Neighbors Counth >= Min Rule Set Neighbors Count <= Max Rule Set

Phase _ 2 Neighbors Count > Max Rule Set

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BUOYANCY CALCULATIONS

3 days

7 days

15 days

20 days

Harvest formation _2D Current Force + Buoyancy Calculations Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 30 days;

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30 days

Simulation result the agents on the edge, because they have less neighbors, are more likely to inflate and hold the whole formation. These strategies will release the space taken by the pneumatic for salt to grow and also speed up the harvesting process.

The current is able to create clusters. However they are not connectted and locked together to create stable intersection points to crystallization. So we start to introduce some other rule for the agents to actively move to get into formation, which is optimized for salt grouth.

buoyancy calculations

359

COHESION BEHAVIOR

Stage 0 Release the agents.

Stage 1 Agents within a certain distance will gather together.

Stage 2 Depending on the initial configuration of the agents, they will eventually form relatively stable clusters.

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Stage 0 Individuals have gathered and formed several clusters

Stage 1 Clusters in close proximity will approach each other under the effect of movement of individuals within them.

Stage 2 Relatively small clusters would merge into larger ones.

cluster cohesion

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COHESIVE MOVEMENTS

3 days

7 days

15 days

20 days

Harvest formation _2D Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Cohesion Force Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 30 days;

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30 days

Since the crystallization process initialize at the intersection points. We introduce another behavior which is Cohesion. That means all the agents are moving towards their neighbors in their own search radius to create clusters. This behaviors will maximize the seeding points as they traveling on the ocean, which leads to a accelerated salt harvesting.

cohesive movement

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SALINITY SEEKING

364

The ocean surface have difference in salinity levels.

Agent can sence the salinity value in a search radius

Agent will analyze these values by comparing them

Agent find the high salinity point in its search radius

stigmergy and pollination

Agent will calculate locations of the High salinity points, and find the desired location and move by the self-propulsion behavior.

Ocean Surface

salinity seeking

365

COHESIVE MOVEMENT

3 days

7 days

15 days

20 days

Harvest formation _2D Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Cohesion Force + Salinity Seeking

Salinity Map

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Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 30 days;

30 days

Another essential behavior is High salinity seeking. Agents are equipped with salinity sensors, which enable them to be aware of this value in a certain radius. And move to where its higher. With ocean current acting as a macroscope searching force cooperating with the self-propulsion force of salinity seeking, they are able to create meaningful harvesting formations.

We run variations of simulations with all of the agents behaviors of harvesting. Result shows the significant influence of the dynamic ocean environment to the agent movement. But with our rule set, the formation can keep the center area relatively stable for the salt to grow.

cohesive movement

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Harvest formation _2D_Variation 01

Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Cohesion Force + Salinity Seeking Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 30 days; Salinity Map

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Current Field

3 days

15 days

25 days

30 days

stigmergy and pollination

Harvest formation _2D_Variation 02

Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Cohesion Force + Salinity Seeking Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 30 days; Salinity Map

Current Field

3 days

15 days

25 days

30 days

harvestig simulations

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Harvest Phasing _ visualization of agency

We explored harvest phasing in-situ. The harvest stage is unique to the rest of the cycle as it employs non-crystallized individual spicules to transform from individual to colony. The 10x inflation is able to carry the weight of its own spicule, 20x inflation is able to carry itself and peer spicules, and 30x inflation is able to carry itself as well as peer crystallized spicules. Further, as the prototype described, the red indicates passive, or deflated, and the white indicates active, or inflated.

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harvest phasing

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10X INFLATION

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harvest phasing

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20X INFLATION

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harvest phasing

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30X INFLATION

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harvest phasing

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HARVEST PHASING

harvest phasing

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HARVESTING SALT

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harvesting salt

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HARVESTING SALT

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harvesting salt

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HARVESTING PHYSICAL EXPERIMENT

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harvesting physical experiment

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HARVESTING PHYSICAL TEST OVER TIME

using heat lamp time / 0 days _ estimated natural time / 1 days

using heat lamp time / 2 days _ estimated natural time / 4 days

using heat lamp time / 4 days _ estimated natural time / 9 days

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stigmergy and pollination

using heat lamp time / 9 days _ estimated natural time / 14 days

using heat lamp time / 12 days _ estimated natural time / 20 days

We conducted physical test by recreating the result of the simulation with actual inflated and deflated agents, and crystallize them. We discovered with time passing and crystal grow heavier, it will reach a point where the pneumatic on the original agent are not strong enough to hold the mass and the whole piece sinks.

So we went back to digital simulations to look at this problem in a 3D perspective.

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HARVESTING SIMULATIONS

When an agent, in its search radius, the majority of neighbors are underwater, it will autonomously changes its neighbor rule, by which the agent decides its own pneumatic phasing.Which means, collectively speaking, when the formation is sinking by the mass of salt, more agents will inflate to provide buoyancy.

This strategy gave the system the capacity to self-regulate in order to stay on the top of the ocean. As simulations on the right shows , when the cluster sinks, more agents turn turn white, which indicates the inflation phase, and eventaly the formation reaches its balance which is floating on the surface, ready for more crystal to grow.

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Agents applying old neighbor rules

Cluster sinks due to the increaing mass of the salt crystal

Agent autonomasly change neighbour, more agents inflate

More Bouyancy provided, cluster start to float to the ocean surface

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Harvest formation _3D_Low - population

Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Self - regulate Population = 3000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 20 Weeks;

1 days

4 days

8 days

12 days

16 days

20 days

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We run high population simulations with this rule in relation to time as a parameter of salt growth to optimize the harvesting of salt.

Calculating with the formula we developed, The time of harvesting on the surface should be around 32 weeks which can be translated.ratio of volume between agents and salt, at around 1:4.

When the time passes 32 week, with the rules of self-regulation, more and more agents turns into inflated phase and they will start to break the salt crystal and take spaces, which will damage the efficiency of the system.

Harvest formation _3D_High - population

Current Force + Buoyancy Calculation + Self - regulate Population = 300000; Current Force = 1; Self - propulsion Force = 5; Time = 32 Weeks;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 4 weeks; Ratio = 1:0.1;

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Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 12 weeks; Ratio = 1:0.7;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 15 weeks; Ratio = 1:1.3;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 18 weeks; Ratio = 1:2;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 24 weeks; Ratio = 1:2.6;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 28 weeks; Ratio = 1:3;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 32 weeks; Ratio = 1:3.6;

Current Force = 1; Harvest Time = 32 weeks +; Ratio = 1:4+;

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Migration _organizing crystallized spicule for rehabilitation

After enough salt is crystallized and the agents are generally bound to one another as iceberg formations, they transport through a selfpropulsion mechanism to a nearby at-risk coral site. The detection of the coral reefs by the agents is then translated into positional behaviors that forward a vertical formation making system. This formation is catalyzed by coral protection inputs, such as topography, bleaching colors, ocean current vectors, and sunlight, which are deciphered in order to optimize the organizational strategy.

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migration

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MIGRATION SIMULATIONS

Simulations of the migration phase starts with spawning agents in the formation we got from the harvesting simulation,n as a represents when the agents finished harvesting salt, they move to the next phase.

The agent are equipped with intelligence of sensing its vertical distance to the seafloor and move towards where its smaller. Because the coral reefs grow near the coastal area where the water is shallow.

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The color sensor will scan the seafloor since the terrain, healthy and bleached corals differs in colors. We set up rules for them to move to the white color which representations the bleached colonies.

Since sensors has limitations on radius, in some scenarios , the formation might split up, but all of these salt ice-berg will reach their own destinations which is decided by the collective movement.

migration

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Migration

_ From Harvest to Coral Reef _9.95° N_ 79.95°W Population = 70000 Current Force: = 0.61m/s Self-propulsion Force = 10 Inflation Ratio = 30 Time = 40 - 50 days

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Current Variation_1 Current Speed = 0.67 m/s; Agent Population = 4000; Self - propulsion Force = 20;

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Current Variation_2 Current Speed = 0.85 m/s; Agent Population = 4000; Self - propulsion Force = 20;

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Current Variation_3 Current Speed = 1.21 m/s; Agent Population = 4000; Self - propulsion Force = 20;

We run multipul simulations of the migration with different types of ocean current field withy the same terrain.the result varies from the dynamic environment the agents are facing. With the rule sets, agents are able to self-regulate and get to the low salinity area where we regenerate the bleaching colonies.

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HYDRODYNAMICS

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PROPULSION MECHANISM

migration

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Pollination Formations _organizing crystallized spicule for rehabilitation

After Migration, the system would enter the protection state for regenerate coral colonies, our agents will self-organize as an everchanging formation that balance the salinity level temporally and reducing the harmful influences caused by rapid climate change.

While pneumatic components offering buoyancy, the passive agents would be dropped at certain location in order to act as an anchor for the formation and also disperse salt to balance salnity level.

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pollination formations

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SIMPLE GEOMETRY

Learning from the salt tectonic in nature, we translate pressure and density into buoyancy and cohesion force. With information from the neighbors, agents would behave collectively and forming an autonomous cluster.

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We tried several simple geometry as initial configuration to simulate the general formation, when we added the sides and finally using a circle as image seed, we can see a mushroom column structure appears, which also exist in nature.

simple geometry simulation

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BEHAVIOR EXPLAINATION

Stage 0 Scan the local height of the terrain.

Stage 1 Apply differentiated rule sets and change the phase.

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DIFFERENTIATE RULE

different rule sets

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LOW POPULATION SIMULATION

3_1.2

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Terrain_01

Initial configuration

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3_2.2

3_2.3

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Terrain_02

Initial configuration

3_2.4

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LOW POPULATION CRYSTALLIZATION SIMS

Formation 01

_ 0 Days

_ Isometric Precrystallized Precrystallized _ Isometric

_ 300 Days

_ Isometric Crystallized _ Isometric Crystallized

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_ 0 Days

_ Perspectives

low-population simulation / spicules

_ 300 Days

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Formation 02

_ 0 Days

_ Isometric Precrystallized Precrystallized _ Isometric

_ 300 Days

_ Isometric Crystallized _ Isometric Crystallized

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_ 0 Days

_ Perspectives

low-population simulation / spicules

_ 300 Days

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Formation 03

_ 0 Days

_ Isometric Precrystallized

_ 300 Days

_ Isometric Crystallized

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_ 0 Days

_ Perspectives

low-population simulation / spicules

_ 300 Days

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ANCHOR

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Introducing the environmental input that our agents could get locally from the site, agents would behave differently according to the local height map.

Agents would apply different rule when they are floating on the white dots as they are the most depressed places, so the system would drop the passive agents to create columns at those places as anchor positions.

find anchor position

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CORAL

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detect coral position

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LOW POPULATION SIMULATION

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low population simulation / representational agents

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HIGH-POPULATION SIMULATION

Time Frame: 132 hours

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Time Frame: 7 hours

Time Frame: 31 hours

Time Frame: 102 hours

main high-population simulation

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TOP VIEW

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Time Frame: 7 hours

Time Frame: 31 hours

Time Frame: 102 hours

top view

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FRONT VIEW

Time Frame: 7 hours

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Time Frame: 31 hours

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Time Frame: 102 hours

front view

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FORMATIONAL PHASING

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formational phasing

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HIGH POPULATION SIMULATIONS

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SIMULATION / MESHING

top / front views

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FORMATIONAL MODEL In this physical model, for the first one in south pacific with 12000 population, the distance between 2 coral colonies is only 1.2 kilometers, which leads to a floating landscape as infrastructure, that connecting the lands.

The column structure connects the top and bottom, formed by passive agents. The dynamic current field influences the system's self-organization as they enter the site to connect islands.

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formational model

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FORMATION RENDERS

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formation renders

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SALT DISPERSAL

salt disperal

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ECOSYSTEM THRIVING

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ecosystem thriving

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WAVE BREAKING ANALYSIS

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breaking potetntial _ 8 dispersal _ 2

breaking potetntial _ 6 dispersal _ 5

breaking potetntial _ 4 dispersal _ 7

breaking potetntial _ 7 dispersal _ 8

breaking potetntial _ 9 dispersal _ 6

breaking potetntial _ 10 dispersal _ 9

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In order to emphasize the spicule choice, we performed an environmental analysis of wave breaking and distribution.

The porosity of the spicule has shown that it breaks the wave better, resulting in a higher performance of harvesting, transporting, and formation making of a system.

wave breaking analysis

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FORMATION SECTIONAL VIEW

There is a difference in porosity of the formation from top to bottom caused by salt dispersal, which leave a space for coral to spawn on the passive agents at the bottom and also a shelter for sea creatures.

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Agents are keeping distance from the coral, and that depends on the bleaching degree of the nearest coral.

sectional view

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ECOSYSTEM THRIVING

ecosystem thriving

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ECOSYSTEM THRIVING

ecosystem thriving

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HALOKINESIS Visuallizations _renders describing the process of the thesis

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halokinesis visuallizations

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PHASING VISUALLIZATION

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halokinesis visuallizations

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HARVESTING VISUALLIZATION

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halokinesis visuallizations

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HARVESTING VISUALLIZATION

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halokinesis visuallizations

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MIGRATION VISUALLIZATION

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SOUTH PACIFIC FORMATION

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SOUTH PACIFIC FORMATION

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PANAMA FORMATION

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CARIBBEAN SEA FORMATION

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ECOSYSTEM VISUALLIZATION

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SCENARIO VISUALLIZATION

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halokinesis visuallizations

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Closing Observations i. Phase 2 Presentation ii. Phase 2 Jury iii. System Codes iv. Acknowledgements iii. Bibliography

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Phase 2 Presentation _ transcription

TEAM studio_ SPYROPOULOS duration_ 12 MONTHS location_ AADRL, 1ST FLOOR

MAYA MASHIACH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO ARGENTINA

KAY MASHIACH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CY YANG CHINA

EDGE JIA CHINA

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closing observations

MAYA MASHIACH: HALOKINESIS is an architectural endeavor which examines salt crystalline environmental phenomena in the service of sustaining life on this planet. The idiosyncratic, self-binding nature of crystalline growth means there is a distinct difference in shapes, presented in accordance with their environmental growth. Salt, an essential and abundant element on earth is known for its ubiquitous flavoring and preservation, while also denoted as a balancing agent. Our HALOKINESIS relies on time to achieve strength and formations. Salt tectonics, halokinesis, and crystallization are typically referred to as existing within the "geological time scale", within the history of the Earth. The elemental is focused on salt, a commodity around the world, by appropriating the origins of salt production processes, both natural and artificial, as the focus of our experimental manifestations. Salinity varies across the globe, presenting itself through a variety of landscapes. The oceans contain a virtually inexhaustible supply of salt situating our project within an endless container.

KAY MASHIACH: The spicule provided an inherent design capacity for interlocking, allowing for fluidity, a dynamic ever changing and adaptable system. We explored iterations of the inherent design, applying agency while still maintaining its natural chaotic behavior. We identified the structure as an underlying, secondary vessel for salt growth as an irrepressible and self-binding element with its own chaotic nature. Investigating salt’s effects revealed coral as requiring a salinity rebalance within its local ecosystem. Coral reefs are vital, acting as an urban area, and supporting over 1/4 of all marine species. Currents throughout the ocean provide a means of movement, causing detriments in areas susceptible to exterior forces. The environmental impacts of freshwater runoff was explicit within coral reefs, being vulnerable to increasing extreme weather conditions and climate change. Salinity deficiencies prove coral as inhospitable environments for symbiosis causing mass bleaching. We explored providing a deployable rehabilitation system utilizing salt with spicules as its vessel to temporarily relieve stress on vulnerable coral ecosystems.

MAYA MASHIACH: In order to create a stable salt structure, we need to impose a phase change of the element. Crystallization occurs when warm water breaks down salt particles (Na and Cl). These particles restructure in a crystallized formation and continuously grow in a stabilized warm environment. Salt crystals come in different forms including the mined state of magnesium sulfate, the artificial state of sodium acetate, and the naturally sourced state of sodium chloride. Each crystal presents different geometrical growth formations, characterized by their atomic structure and ionic phase change.

Simulating 2-dimensional idiosyncratic crystals, we set up a cellular model with an initial state of a seeding point, ultimately defined by the makeup of atoms. Edge to edge neighbor conditions form growth fractal patterns catalyzed by specific beta and epsilon inputs. phase 2 presentation

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MAYA MASHIACH: Halokinesis is defined as the movement of salt and salt bodies, similar to the movement of water. It is the study of subsurface flows of salt as well as emplacement, structure, and tectonics of salt bodies. Another term used to refer to the study of salt bodies and they’re structural formation is salt tectonics.

While salt flows influence geological tectonics through the creation of structural traps and reservoir distributions, it also serves as a basis to fluid migration around the world. These structures are categorized into the tectonic typologies defined as canopy, sheet, wall, teardrop, stock, and anticline. Each salt tectonic typology is defined by certain environmental inputs in a given region of the world. Mainly, the subsurface pressure and density of the earth catalyze a variation of formations, creating unique shapes and surface penetration. Simulating this phenomena, we inputted initial and surface state pressures as well as rock densities, which defined a generic cylindrical tectonic. The effect of halokinetic structures on the earth’s crust leaves impressions which are marked by the pushing of local tectonic plates, creating a fracture which is filled in by salt flow. Ultimately these tectonic typologies yield a wide variety of results dependent upon its local region, however the ultimate properties remain the same. Those properties are determined by the stability of the halokinesis as well as the potency of the salt. Salt tectonics typically penetrate the earths crust at a depth of -8000 meters, and continue to find the most ideal open cracks to permeate through. The typologies of salt tectonics are mirrored by the topological typologies of tectonic plates. Due to the occurrence of these halokinetic structures at the tectonic plates, their penetration is ammased at water body regions which furthers a crystallized above surface formation, which we see as salt flats, salt lakes, brine pools, and more. Over millions of years these geologic formations have produced an abundance of salt, later to be discovered through anthropocentric necessities and harvested for use. Analyzing these source points and salt tectonics is critical to understanding how to engage with large scale salt formations and utilize the inputs of pressure and density into necessary outputs that will be employed in the project.

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: Our HALOKINESIS relies on time coupled with a responsive scaffold, growing crystals to achieve strength and formations.

The first tests were 2d and 3d grids made out of powder print and plastic filament.

We also tested 3d grids with different types of strings, yarn and wool. From these models we learned about the self-binding property of salt crystals, the hardness and stiffness it provides. How it works better under compression and that salt crystals grow more in the intersections. After the previous explorations we understood the growth parameters of salt crystals, which are a high salinity levels in water, high temperatures, stable water level and a scaffold with intersections.

By applying a controlled variables approach, we have attempted to examine the importance of the different variables and to gain a detailed understanding of the properties of the different types of salt. As our scaffold we choose spicules.

These are small skeletal elements of most sponges, the meshing of many of them serve as a skeleton which provides structural support. They can have a collective behavior and the shape itself generates porosity when aggregated. Most spicules in themselves have a very stable centrosymmetric form, which in our project would give the structure a better performance on holding different shapes after aggregation. When Exploring this structural element, we studied possible mutations and classifications. To continue the exploration of the spicules we tested several other possibilities outside the natural shape of sponges, iterating the number of axes and end mutations to test aggregation.

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STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: We learned that when numerous spicules are entangled with each other, they form an interlocking structure that is robust.

Solution-related parameter mainly affect the speed of crystallization, while the latter affect the form of the crystal structure. We tested sodium acetate solution, sodium chloride and Epson salt solutions on metal, plastic filament, acrylic and plywood. Our conclusions were that salt crystals grows onto all the materials but more onto the ones with greater porosity. We testes all three solutions onto these materials to test the self binding property of salt when aggregating the spicules. To build our models we tested formation of spicules with magnetic fields. We realised it does not work because spicules have inexact formations, and that is the beauty of the aggregation, that still interlocks at different levels while been stable but inexact. We did structural tests as a selection criteria comparing different types of spicules and how the shape affects the strength of the formation when loaded, how the crystal strengthens the formation and exploring possible danger points.

MAYA MASHIACH: For this crystallization experiment we used magnesium sulfate as our phase change crystal. We were able to form a cave like structure with a compressive capacity due to the self-binding nature of both the spicule and the salt. We then explored a bridge like structure by organizing the spicules in an arching formation. The magnesium sulfate crystal catalyzed a strengthening agent, allowing for the arch to withstand itself. Here we replicated the formation of a salt tectonic typology, the wall. This provided proof for a vertical efficiency of the crystallized spicule scaffold. This one was the strongest of the three small tank experiments due to the use of naturally sourced sodium chloride and the density of the spicules. Our first exploration within the boundaries of a large tank provided proof of scalability of our formations. To provide a binding point for the crystal seeding, we scored the acrylic, furthering a super temporal growth. Using sodium chloride, we organized 300 spicules which ultimately crystallised and bound together at various intersections. This experiment was where we began to understand that crystallization grows the fastest above the water surface. Within this large tank formation, we used a more porous material, being plywood, which absorbed the solution initiating seeding at a rapid rate, inciting increased growth.

This formation utilised a 3D geometry spicule which allowed for more surface area for salt crystallisation. Over 12 weeks, the crystallization above the water surface grew to over 200% of its original surface. Over a period of a few days to a week, we were able to visibly observe the crystallization and growth of the salt onto the scaffold. As more water evaporated from applied heat, more growth would occur.

MAYA MASHIACH: After the various explorations of spicule research and tests, our optimization has come down to shape, resulting in the amount of arms necessary for salt to grow onto. After simulating the crystallization of the pyramid, cube, and dodecahedron, we realize the dodecahedron has the most surface area to grow salt, meaning an increase in seeding opportunities. Further optimizing this spicule, the end mutation of the arms was key to catalyzing a locking and interlocking of the spicule within a system. While keeping the integrity of the interlocking, the testing of a single bifurcated arm and the crystallization to surface area ratio has given us insight into which end mutation was most optimal for our spicule. The first iteration began with a simplified 2D geometry, intersecting at its perpendicular. This proved useful for initial crystallization experiments on the self-binding nature of the spicule and salt. phase 2 presentation

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MAYA MASHIACH: The spicule was upgraded to be generated from a 3D geometry with attached arms at each node of the form. This allowed for more surface area in terms of crystallization seeding points. Applying agency became integral to the spicule design, meaning catalyzing an incorporation of pneumatic elements within the behavioural formation. Ultimately the reasoning for this spicule was to insight and create a better performing growth vessel. Providing meshing to the spicule surface allowed for a porosity that is necessary for the penetration of saline solution as well as coral growth. The less dense the mesh iterates, the more salt can penetrate the agent and propagate to its maximal potential. Due to the evaporative properties of the surface level water, salt grows and solidifies faster above the surface level and slower in the saline water. This informs the harvesting input of our salt crystallization system. The final spicule is composed of a core which contains sensors and mechanisms for behavioral organisations. The spicule includes 16 bifurcated arms, 4 buoyant pneumatics, and a 50/50 ratio mesh surface.

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: We built a prototype as a control system for the behavior of the spicule. With this prototype we wanted to explore the properties of an individual spicule as an agent to then test the communication between them. For some situations there are variable inflations. The spicule shows different stages of inflation based on the interaction between them. Based on those behavior we began to prototype interaction and response. Each spicule is equipped with an ultrasonic sensor, which detects neighbors. For it to sense the other spicules when aggregated. The output is shown with white light when is not sensing another agent, and red light when is sensing another agent. This activates the air pump and the air valve inside depending on the input of the sensor. The valve will keep the air in or it will release depending on the edge condition that the sensor is perceiving, so the pneumatic arm has a greater inflation or not. When designing a system for the pneumatic arms the idea was for them to unfold and grip. We tested the deformation, muscle and inflation through different number of ribs shapes and thicknesses. With Several physical tests we tried different spines and cavities with various positions to achieve the function, buoyancy and inflation we were looking for. Emphasizing the grip between them. These are some isolated studies of the location of the 4 pneumatic arms in the spicule, and how the orientation provides different results. What we learned from these previous studies was then tested in the prototypes to get a better understanding of interacting between them for the different situations.

KAY MASHIACH: Our HALOKINESIS relies on an artificial cycle coupled with natural processes, generated through necessity, and constantly responsive to environments. We identified three main stages within the cycle: harvest, migration, and protection. Harvest deals with crystallization of the spicule agents in higher salinity zones. Migration, then, is the process of transporting salt structures through current dynamics and self-propulsion. Protection employs formational agency in low salinity coral reef zones, adapting to coral structures as barriers and dispersing salt. The process is cyclical, allowing for the agents to detect their next location to begin the system again. Within our system, agents detect high salinity regions, where they can crystallize through the initial state of seeding points.

Warm temperatures and surface level evaporation cause a growth of the salt on our scaffold eventually solidifying into a salt tectonic.

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KAY MASHIACH: We mapped the salinity levels around the globe, and discovered regions of high salinity where we can determine ideal harvesting locations. Salinity levels throughout the year are different, which informs our time parameters. Analyzing a water column was necessary in understanding ideal zones. These ideal zones consist of the overlap between stabilizations of temperature, salinity, and density, meaning the change of inputs between 0 to 200 meters does not vary too much. We identified sites of higher salinity nearby intended areas of coral rehabilitation. These higher salinity zones consist of saline or brackish water, mostly existing in coastal zones, and include salt marshes, estuaries, coastal lagoons, and atolls. Ocean currents are extremely important parameters to explore in the oceanic environment. We simulated the behaviors of passive agents within a static current field, meaning the currents are not changing over time in this instance. We found that the agents will generally form linear or circular clusters. In reality the oceanic environment is variable in terms of weather condition changes, temperature, air pressure, and more. Therefore, we simulated floating agents within this dynamic current field, finding that they will generally stick to larger circular clusters emulating ocean current gyres. The rest of the simulations run throughout our project are in this type of current field, ultimately setting up the dynamic nature of our agents with the project. Within the harvest stage of the cycle, we isolated behaviors such as cohesion between agents, buoyancy, and steering as necessary in salt harvesting and formation. This is important because in a harvesting state, the structures will inhabit the water surface for the most part.

KAY MASHIACH: On the agent scale, we explored different inflation ratios within the pneumatic arms. These ratios are in relation to the bifurcated passive arms of the spicules and are calculated based on output behaviors. For example, negative buoyancy refers to an agent whose pneumatic arms cannot hold its own weight, and therefore cannot rise to the surface. This is an important ratio as we need the ability to move down and up within the water column. We extracted the necessary ratios for our system’s behaviors. The pneumatic’s isolated inflation ratios are translated into the 4 different phases of a spicules behavior. Further, to avoid the solidification from crystallization, a pneumatic can continuously pump air in and out. Each spicule holds the capacity to engage in all phases. For phase 03, the pneumatic inflates with air and releases the air out the back, ultimately propelling the spicule and it’s counterparts. It can then refill at the surface of the water. We explored the self propulsion behavior, isolating path type and agent count in relation to passive spicules. We explored harvest phasing in-situ. The harvest stage is unique to the rest of the cycle as it employs non-crystallized individual spicules to transform from individual to colony. The 10x inflation is able to carry the weight of its own spicule, 20x inflation is able to carry itself and peer spicules, and 30x inflation is able to carry itself as well as peer crystallized spicules. Further, as the prototype described, the red indicates passive, or deflated, and the white indicates active, or inflated.

CY YANG: Simulations were run in a area of 100 kilometer by 100 Kilometer, and the sphere showing is a representation of 100 agents. We developed formulas to calculate the buoyancy of the agent with two variables of mass and inflation phasing. The agents will make decisions base on which and also the number of its neighbors. phase 2 presentation

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CY YANG: The first rule we set for harvesting was when the agents are sensing more than 30 neighbors, they will deflate and vice versa. The activated agent will provide buoyancy to hold itself and the mass of its neighbors. Since the crystallization process initialize at the intersection points. We introduce another behavior which is Cohesion. Which means all the agents are moving towards their neighbors in their own search radius to create clusters. This behaviors will maximize the seeding points as they traveling on the ocean, which leads to a accelerated salt harvesting. Another essential behavior is High salinity seeking.

Agents are equipped with salinity sensors, which enable them to be aware of this value in a certain radius. And move to where its higher. With ocean current acting as a macroscope searching force cooperating with the self-propulsion force of salinity seeking, they are able to create meaningful harvesting formations.

We run variations of simulations with all of the agents behaviors of harvesting.

Result shows the significant influence of the dynamic ocean environment to the agent movement. But with our rule set, the formation can keep the center area relatively stable for the salt to grow. We conducted physical test by recreating the result of the simulation with actual inflated and deflated agents, and crystallize them. We discovered with time passing and crystal grow heavier, it will reach a point where the pneumatic on the original agent are not strong enough to hold the mass and the whole piece sinks. So we went back to digital simulations to look at this problem in a 3D way and introduced another rule. When an agent, in its search radius, the majority of neighbors are underwater, it will autonomously changes its neighbor rule, by which the agent decides its own pneumatic phasing.

Which means, collectively speaking, when the formation is sinking by the mass of salt, more agents will inflate to provide buoyancy. This strategy gave the system the capacity to self-regulate in order to stay on the top of the ocean. We run high population simulations with this rule in relation to time as a parameter of salt growth to optimize the harvest formation. Calculating with the formula we developed, The time of harvesting on the surface should be around 30 weeks which can be translated to a ratio of volume between agents and salt, at around 1:4.

Agent scenes and move independently, but with colliding, interlocking property, and neighbor communication and cohesion, cluster movement with collective intelligence starts to appear. The agents on the edge, because they have less neighbors, are more likely to inflate and hold the whole formation. These strategies will release the space taken by the pneumatic for salt to grow and also speed up the harvesting process.

CY YANG: After harvesting, the agent will migrate , carrying the salt crystal, from high salinity locations to the coral reef area. They will be able to read environmental data, make decisions and move toward destinations. We use the results from harvesting to spawn the agents for the migration simulations. The agent are equipped with intelligence of sensing its vertical distance to the seafloor and move towards where its smaller. Because the coral reefs grow near the coastal area where the water is shallow. The color sensor will scan the seafloor since the terrain, healthy and bleached corals differs in colors. We set up rules for them to move to the white color which representations the bleached colonies. Since sensors has limitations on radius, in some scenarios , the formation might split up, but all of these salt ice-berg will reach their own destinations which is decided by the collective movement. Again, the result varies from the dynamic environment the agents are facing. With the rule sets, agents are able to self-regulate and get to the low salinity area where we regenerate the bleaching colonies.

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CY YANG: Steering behavior also create hydrodynamic rotation, which enable the cluster to ride the current and reduce the energy consumption in this long distance migration. While traveling, agents on the edge might detach due to the water erosion. But it’s in the dynamic nature of our system, with intelligence and actuator in every autonomic agents, after detached, they will make decisions of moving responsively with the environment.

KAY MASHIACH: We mapped coral bleaching around the globe to determine our areas of need. These regions will be determined for our protection stage of our cycle. Bleaching varies during different durations of the year. There are many environmental factors contributing to coral bleaching, however, a key variable more recently acknowledged and experimented is salinity. When environmental events such as monsoons, hurricanes, and typhoons occur, a sudden influx of freshwater causes salinity to decrease from an average of 35ppm to as little as 10ppm. These events typically occur in coral habitats. This sudden change is shocking to coral, creating imbalances, and ultimately cause the symbiotic organisms, zooxanthellae, that provide coral 90% of its food, and its color, to leave its coral host. This causes the phenomena we know as bleaching. Bleaching does not mean death, and if conditions return to normal quick enough, the zooxanthellae will return, but if conditions do not change, coral is left as merely a skeleton, later covered by algae. Coral classifications are based off of locational characteristics including land-adjacent, off-shore, and even isolated in the ocean. It was necessary to identify these classifications to better orient and organize our formational systems.

KAY MASHIACH: We identified the spicule as a vessel for growth, so we extended that to coral growth as well. During protection formational agency, passive spicules will drop to the sea floor, allowing coral more opportunities for growth, and polyps to attach. A major input to coral growth is decided upon the direction of the sunlight in the ocean. Coral needs sunlight to grow and it’s photosynthetic properties are an input we are including for the organization of our salt dispersal system. Regarding our coral protection sites, we isolated two main areas of need as examples for our rehabilitation proposal, including the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Each site was chosen based off its distinguishing coral and land characteristics that are meant to represent typologies of scenarios. We examined coral bleaching, surface temperature, rainfall, cloud cover, bathymetry, and coordinates.

These sites explore coral colonies within a oceanic island reefs and continental reefs isolated as fringing, patch, barrier, and platform classifications. The topographic situations of coral colonies and parameters such as temperature, humidity, and salinity influence coral configurations and our formational rehabilitation.

EDGE JIA: After migration, we started looking into the protection of corals, our agents will self-organize as an ever-changing formation that balance the salinity level temporally and reducing the harmful influences caused by rapid climate change. Learning from the salt tectonic in nature, we translate pressure and density into buoyancy and cohesion force. With information from the neighbors, agents would behave collectively and forming an autonomous cluster. Here we tried several simple geometry as initial configuration to simulate the general formation, when we added the sides and finally using a circle as image seed, we can see a mushroom column structure appears, which also exist in nature. phase 2 presentation

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EDGE JIA: On the basis of neighbor rule and vertical movement, we tried to understand how the system works by itself with Arduino parts, we built up a tenpopulation setup. Each of them has data input from their neighbors and make decision of rising of falling according to their neighbor situation. The robots in the middle drop first as they have less neighbors, but finally the group would find a balance by themselves, since they would have less neighbor when they drop and vice versa. After that, we introduced the environmental input that our agents could get locally from the site. Agents would use several ultra-sonic sensors to get a local height map, as we can see on the screen, when the color getting redder, means the topography is more depressed at the location, and agents would apply different rule when they are floating on the white dots as they are the most depressed places, so the system would drop the passive agents to create columns at those places as anchor positions. By using color sensor to detect the bleaching degree of corals, from blue to red, the color getting warmer represents the coral colonies are more endangered. Meanwhile, Corals that have been detected would act as an attractor for agents to move towards but also as Repeller when agents are getting too close to them.

EDGE JIA: Here is the high-population simulation at an island in Caribbean sea where the coral surrounds the island and acting as barrier, we can see obviously in the front view that our agent is analyzing the terrain and self-regulating to change phases in order to drop the passive spicules to the bottom for coral to grow on, yellow ones represent the passive agents represent one-fifth of the whole population. From the top view, it’s clear that agents are moving closer to the blue part, which is the healthy coral, and keep certain distance from the red ones in order to disperse salt but not to break their branches since they are already endangered. Afterwards, we took one frozen moment when the everchanging formation reached a balance and generate the mesh of agents with salt growing on them. The phase changing process here shows how the reconfiguration happen even with crystal growing on them, the pneumatic inflate and deflate, which gives the agents an opportunity of interlocking or unlocking freely. And then we did 3 more simulation on 3 different sites, the system is adapting to the topographies and coral situations, applying same behavior but ended with very different formations as the environmental forces change. For example, for the first one in south pacific with 12000 population, distance between 2 coral colonies is only 1.2 kilometers, which leads to a floating landscape as infrastructure, hat connecting the lands. After getting into formation, the passive agents would sink to the bottom of the sea and disperse salt to balance the local salinity at the level that coral grows, to regenerate the coral, and also providing shelters for sea creatures thriving the ecosystem. Here is the sectional view of the formation in location, we can see a difference in porosity from top to bottom. And also how salt disperse more in the endangered part and agents are keeping distance from the coral. For the four sites we choose in South Pacific, Panama, and Caribbean Sea, including both coastal and off-shore coral colonies. While the agent system adapting to the environment, they also strengthen certain function of which the coral reefs offer to the ecosystem, such as making connections or acting as barrier for the seashore.

With our system actively getting involved into the global Salt cycle, we hope to see the reviving in local coral ecosystem after several generations of agents working together, adapting, reacting and influencing the environment.

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Phase 2 Jury _ transcription

FINAL JURY date_ JANUARY 12TH, 2023 time_ 18:00 location_ Architectural Association Lecture Hall

DR. THEODORE SPYROPOULOS

is the Director of the Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab (AADRL) in London and resident artist at Somerset House. Theodore has previously chaired the AA Graduate School, was Professor of Architecture at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt and a visiting Research Fellow at M.I.T.’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He co-founded the experimental art, architecture and design practice Minimaforms. Theodore has previously worked for the offices of Peter Eisenman and Zaha Hadid Architects. He received his Bachelor of Architecture with honours from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, his Master of Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association and his PhD from University College of London, Bartlett School of Architecture.

DR. PATRIK SCHUMACHER

is principal of Zaha Hadid Architects and is leading the firm since Zaha Hadid’s passing in March 2016. He joined Zaha Hadid in 1988 and was seminal in developing Zaha Hadid Architects to become a 400 strong global architecture and design brand. Patrik Schumacher studied philosophy, mathematics and architecture in Bonn, Stuttgart and London. In 2010 Patrik Schumacher won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture together with Zaha Hadid, for MAXXI. In 1996 he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association in London where he continues to teach. In 1999 he completed his PHD at theInstitute for Cultural Science, Klagenfurt University. Patrik Schumacher is widely recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders within the fields of architecture, urbanism and design.

DR. INGRID SCHRODER

is the Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture. She previously directed the MAUD course at Cambridge where she lectured on architectural history and urban theory and is heavily involved in research on new pedagogical models, climate change, and architecture of the American Revolutionary period. Other roles have included studio tutoring at the AA and ETH Zurich, lecturing at Central St Martins and being a visiting critic at the EPFL Lausanne, the Royal College of Art, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and CEPT University in Ahmedabad.

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ROSS LOVEGROVE

is a designer and visionary who’s work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three dimensional world. Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature his design possess a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form, creating what many industrial leaders see as the new aesthetic expression for the 21st Century. There is always embedded a deeply human and resourceful approach in his designs, which project an optimism, and innovative vitality in everything he touches from cameras to cars to trains, aviation and architecture.

DR. DAVID KIRSCH

is Professor/past chair of the Dept. of Cognitive Science/UCSD, received a D. Phil.

(Oxford), did post-doctoral work at MIT (AI Lab), held research or Visiting Professor positions at MIT and Stanford, and the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL. He has written on situated and embodied cognition, how environments can be shaped to simplify/extend cognition, and how space, external representations, our bodies and even manipulable objects become interactive tools for thought. He is co-Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and on the Board of Directors for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. He is Adjunct Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

PHILIPPE MOREL

is an architect and theorist, co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research (2000) and initiator and founding CEO of the large-scale 3D-printing corporation XtreeE (2015). He is currently a Visiting Professor at UCL Bartlett and an Associate Professor at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais, where he headed the Digital Knowledge department (co-founded with Pr. Girard).

DR. MOLLY WRIGHT STEENSON

is Vice Provost for Faculty at Carnegie Mellon. She is also Associate Professor in the School of Design and the K&L Gates Associate Professor of Ethics & Computational Technology. From 2018–21, she was Sr. Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine Arts. Molly is the author of the book Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape (MIT Press, 2017), which explores the radical history of design, architecture, AI and cybernetics from the 1950s to the present. It focuses on the practices of Nicholas Negroponte, Cedric Price, Christopher Alexander, and Richard Saul Wurman. She’s the co-editor of Bauhaus Futures (MIT Press, 2019) with Laura Forlano and Mike Ananny, an edited volume that looks at the impact of the Bauhaus as it turns 100. She also researches the ethical impact of AI. Molly holds a PhD in architecture from Princeton University and a Master’s in Environmental Design from the Yale School of Architecture. phase 2 jury

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ROSS LOVEGROVE: Here I go again. I'm not touching anything in display.

(Laughter)

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Well, I do have some practical questions. But first, I

think the models and the whole research is beautiful. It's really, really intelligent, beautifully presented; and also what you said was very clear.

Now, the thing for me is, you know, I've got lots of questions for myself like, you know, if -- if coral grows in particular regions, why -- why is there a salt deficiency suddenly? What is that caused by?

KAY MASHIACH: So those regions are areas that incur a lot of tropical

weather such as monsoons and all that. So all that freshwater decreases the salinity locally in that area where the coral is.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Is it through kind of evaporation or just being dispersed?

KAY MASHIACH: Just by dispersing more water, by bringing an influx of so much water.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Yeah, that's not a whole new thing, is it?

KAY MASHIACH: No. ROSS LOVEGROVE: That's been going on for millions of years. So why suddenly the problem?

KAY MASHIACH: Well, it's a lot of climate change -ROSS LOVEGROVE: This is El Nino and La Niña -KAY MASHIACH: -- increasing. Yes.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: So what does that do? Does that then evaporate the salt?

KAY MASHIACH: It just -- it creates equilibrium within the water. So that

means the amount of salt within the water -- within a water body is decreased, the ratio, basically --

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: Saturation.

KAY MASHIACH: -- saturation, yes, which is also -ROSS LOVEGROVE: I just find it strange that nature does not naturally compensate for something so important for the whole ecosystem. So, you know, would nature let those reefs diminish? Would they allow that? Would nature allow that? I -- without some other force coming in as a compensation. So it's just so catastrophic, yeah.

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DR. DAVID KIRSCH: Some are adapting, and some are coming back.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: So why -- why are the parts -- what look like the MidPacific, Mid-Atlantic -- why do they have such high salinity? Do you know?

CY YANG: Yeah. I think that's related to the weathers also, to the climate -MAYA MASHIACH: Salt.

CY YANG: -- yes, and the salt tectonics, which we mentioned is the natural way of salt movements in the Earth.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Does that create some benefit for those regions of the ocean?

CY YANG: Well, the North Pacific is called the ocean desert because the salinity level there is so much higher than the other parts.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Uh-huh.

CY YANG: And we were actually looking at those areas for harvesting, but then we moved to another side. But the ocean desert means there's less creature there because the salinity level is not suitable for creatures to live.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Okay. Now, the big question is I don't understand how they get from these regions very specifically to, you know, zones, specific zones. How do they -- what is -- where is the embedded intelligence that it's not just adrift, is it? It's -- otherwise, that would happen naturally to some extent so -How are these agents? How are they -- I missed that. I couldn't follow. Sorry.

EDGE JIA: Okay. So basically, the harvest -- the harvest part and the coral -- the region where coral is bleaching, they are not, like, too far away. So actually the first we are kind of releasing the old agent and they're going to find the higher salinity part continuously, and they're going to exchange information in order to find a locally higher salinity level point. And after that, they're going to come back to the coastal areas where most of the corals, like, use the self-propulsion basically from the air --

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Naturally.

EDGE JIA: -- yeah, yeah. And after that, they're going to scan the terrain in order to go to the part that's, like, the water level is getting lower and lower, basically going to a coastal -- coastal area and use the color sensor to sense the corals.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Okay. And what is the material of the -- is it a 3-D printed skeleton that you you're using? phase 2 jury

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EDGE JIA: Yeah. We're thinking about using plastic. Things like the salt is kind of preserving the plastic, and also the -- since all the salt is going to create kind of a creep on top of the spicule and the microplastics is also not going to be released --

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Because some of the regions where you have high salinity, they also have huge pools of plastic pollution -- so why are you not filtering out of the ocean?

MAYA MASHIACH: Well, part of it is that --sorry. Sorry. Part of it is that, when the crystals are harvested -- the salt crystals are harvested onto the spicule itself --

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Uh-huh.

MAYA MASHIACH: -- there is -- the salt actually, like, enforces and contains everything that's within it. And so we found that, like, for example, with metal, salt corrodes metal which it releases back into the ocean and same with wood. It degrades wood. So wood would also release back into the ocean. But with our studies, we found that actually PLA it stays consistent -- it stays, like, in its original form, and it doesn't release any microplastics --

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Yeah, I can understand that you are encapsulating whatever -- the host material is. So in a way, something that we could find negative, i.e., a polymer, it doesn't make any difference. But I'm just suggesting that, you know, you try to close the loop system where you harvest the polymer and then you print from that polymer the spicules so the whole thing is just a self- -you know, it's a loop --

THE TEAM: Yeah.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: -- which would make you good guys in the movie, you know.

(Laughter)

MAYA MASHIACH: That's the goal.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: Just a thought. Anyway, I don't want to hog the microphone. But it's -- it's a fascinating and very thorough, you know, almost scientific project for me. I really kind of -- you've learned a lot.

THE TEAM: Yeah.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: It's probably made you really interesting people to have dinner with.

(Laughter)

MAYA MASHIACH: It’s just salt.

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ROSS LOVEGROVE: Put a lot of salt on it.

(Laughter)

EDGE JIA: All over the place.

MAYA MASHIACH: Yeah.

THE TEAM: Thank you.

DR. DAVID KIRSCH: So I agree that it was just a lovely scientific presentation -- not just. It was a lovely scientific presentation as well as all the interesting design solutions you're offering. To get from A to B, I mean, first, there has to be some power to get there -- and I'm just wondering why you don't use a beacon because it has to talk to all the other guys or girls. Why -- why not do away with that? It's going to have a power to cut off. So why not just drop a beacon where the -- where it's needed?

CY YANG: So we -- we want a decentralized system and with the beacon the agent needs to be aware of the exact location of himself and also his destination which is the beacon. So that is more like advanced type -- more advanced intelligence that we are putting into the agents. Now agents are only sensing like the salinity level in the certain radius. So it's dumber, but it's decentralized.

DR. DAVID KIRSCH: I think it just needs to take the 25 samples over the course of the day, and it can compute where the location is. It could compute a factor.

CY YANG: Yeah, also the -- as we keep mentioning in the presentation, the dynamic environment of the ocean, so the higher salinity level doesn't stay at one place. It's related to all the -- like, everything in the planet.

DR. DAVID KIRSCH: I worry that they won't find their way.

(Laughter)

DR. DAVID KIRSCH: At least the first ones, and all the forerunners. There's going to be a lot out there looking in every which way. It's a big ocean. And sooner or later, you're hoping, if you have enough of them, they're going to -- they're going to creep and then stigmergy their way to the destination.

DR MOLLY WRIGHT STEENSON: Okay. We're safe. I hope. All right.

This is one of my favorite projects I've seen in I don't even know how long. So thank you for the beauty and the provocation and, holy shit, the sheer amount of work you did.

(Laughter) phase 2 jury

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DR. MOLLY WRIGHT STEENSON: I mean, everybody here is -- I should say that everything that we've seen today is just such a high quality. But it's really exciting to see this -- this groundbreaking project and for some of the things we've talked about, like, and talked about in this -- in the Design Research Lab over the years about agents, about mobility, about responsiveness -- you've provided some really interesting ways for us to talk through this, for us to ask some fundamental questions about oceans, and for David to argue with you a little bit about are the agents going to find their way or not, which is kind of a fundamental thing we all wonder about when we're designing with agents.

There is something else you picked up here which is architects for the last 60 years or so, going back to Christopher Alexander, as one example, have tried to model ultrastability in systems. So the one -- the way a spicule might turn on the one next to it and so on is the light book example he gives under some of the synthesis of form, which is a cybernetic model.

And -- and it's -- it's interesting to see it pop up here in this different kind of -different kind of model. So it's -- yeah, I don't know that I have a question, per se.

But it just is -- I have appreciated that you've put into the dialogue here today and tomorrow some new ways to talk about how agents interact upon the real world in -- in different kinds of ways with different materials and different dynamics.

THE TEAM: Thank you.

PHILIPPE MOREL: Thanks a lot for the project. And I have a question, and please correct me if I am wrong -- if I am wrong. But the whole function of the project is to make it to capture some salt in a certain part of the world and bring it where there is some coral bleaching.

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: Yes. PHILIPPE MOREL: And you release the salt. And that's it; right? I mean, that's one function of the project.

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: Yes. And also, like, the natural erosion of the currents will start the salt -- (inaudible) in the salt formation.

PHILIPPE MOREL: Because, if it's a matter of bringing salt into coral reef, I believe there could be some much easier way or -- or, you know, because think of the amount of energy you spend, for example, to 3-D print. So to plot, then to fabricate all the inflatable things and all of that. I mean, if I would be extremely pragmatic, you know, I would just take a plane and release some salt in the concerned area and a bit like what we do when we -- when we fight against fires, you know?

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: Yeah.

PHILIPPE MOREL: I mean, we just take some water, and we drop it from a plane on the forest. So I really wonder why -492

closing observations

PHILIPPE MOREL: -- why are we going towards such a complexity? You know, for me that's the limit of the project. It's well done. It's well engineered and has many extremely interesting things on an amazing amount of work. But the limit of the project is that it brings, at least according to me, a kind of unnecessary complexity, an unnecessary cost, including environmental cost, because in order to correct something which is dysfunctional at the moment in nature, you produce a very large quantity of stuff -- or I don't know how to call it -- which requires energy, which requires, I mean, many -- yeah. I mean, you know, many chemicals.

And so it's some -- sometimes -- and I believe for the success of such a project, you need to go towards the easiest way. And everything you bring, you need to confront it to the easy way, let's say. And if it's not easier, in most cases it's going to fail, you know. And -- and my feeling is that that's the parameter that you didn't pay enough attention to.

CY YANG: Can I respond?

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: We actually got this question before.

CY YANG: Yeah. So I wanted to make clear that this project is not only for to regenerate coral by increasing salinity level. It's a research of how we can use that salt as an element and how we, as architects, can -- what we can do to make a response to this element. And also, let's say what we are proposing here is everchanging; it's everything is simultaneously. So it's -- and the time scale we are talking about is not like one month or one year. It's geological time. It's very long time. So if we only --

DR. PATRIK SCHUMACHER: But I mean, I have to support the team.

By the way, fabulous work. And it just was the science, and the video rendering is amazing. Simulation, the power simulation is unbelievable, and so on and so forth.

And we need to understand that, of course, yes, you could make that comparison on a very pragmatic level, maybe on an atomic level at this point, but this is about the dream of -- it's self-regulating systems like organic systems, bottom-up agent systems. And when -- I think when they started, they probably didn't know yet that they wanted to solve the coral reef problem. So this is building up systems, building its capacity, exploring materiality, exploring spicules, et cetera, et cetera, and then finding use cases, et cetera. That's why how all this comes about.

But I think in the end, look, we can't make this calculation because you have to fly aircraft with heavy loads; you have to cast salt from somewhere; you have to -you know, you have human labor, you know, continuously. Probably you're right at the moment in economic comparison. But this is about a vision, a vision of another kind of symbiosis between artificial and the manmade and -- and organic and -- and nature. So that's what it's about. It's not about that comparison.

PHILIPPE MOREL: I don't contest the vision, but I think the quantification is extremely useful. phase 2 jury

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ROSS LOVEGROVE: Yeah, I think if you listen to everybody; so that, at the end of the day -- No, no, no. I was just -- quick question on CBS. They said, "Technology has got us into this mess. Can they get us out?" I didn't hesitate. I said, "Yes," okay, because we need human ingenuity. We need to intervene. We are absolutely manipulators, the great manipulators, within the Anthropocene of the -- of all the natural world. And if there -- even if this system was something of a delivery system to enhance nutrition or whatever -- I remember years ago, I met Craig Venter, who mapped the human genome.

And I said, "Gosh, that's an incredible achievement. What are you doing next?"

He said, "Oh, I'm going off on my yacht." And I said, "You need a break after all of that." And he said, "No, no, no. It's not that." He said, "I'm going to look into the oceans because I think it's full of DNA. And after that, I'm going to look into the air."

So maybe the building blocks of life are out there. And I mean, I think what you're doing with the coral reefs is something that's a very high-profile thing, but I think there is other scales of that. As long as you produce a free, closed-loop system, then I'm behind you. If, like Philippe was saying -- if you're intervening in ways which are illogical because they add to the problem, then I'm not going to back it.

But I think pushing the you being responsible for the birth life and death of a bioentity since we're on a -- you know, we're a biosphere. And there's not enough people talking about it -- the shift from the mechanical to biological. So it doesn't matter what it does at the moment. I think the fact that you made such an effort to work out a system which, with a little bit of help, you can really get to work.

DR. DAVID KIRSCH: It may be valid. Just, I mean, I'm sure you know that the rate at which something dissolves is a function of the surface area to the volume. So if you -- this is not working. So if you -- so if you were to just calculate how much bigger your crystals are or how much the bigger the composite it is on your big structure and compare it to the kind of salt one would shovel out the window of an airplane, I am sure that you'll find that, by the time the salt reaches the coral, it's almost half dissolved, so whereas these things should linger. You could calculate it.

KAY MASHIACH: Another point is also that salt that would be just taken out from the airplane is human extracted -- whereas, what we're trying to do is a natural process.

MAYA MASHIACH: Yeah. And two-thirds of salt is harvested from, like, unsustainable regions. And while most of the salt exists in the ocean, only, I think, 5 percent of the salt is harvested from ocean that we use.

STEPHANIE DI GIRONIMO: And it's extremely unhealthy for humans also -- to harvest salt. So this would be human labor that would be very unhealthy to harvest salt and just, like, take it to the plane, you know.

(Laughter)

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ROSS LOVEGROVE: What about the lights? The energy? The sodium?

You're presenting a project (inaudible) -- there is an energy --

MAYA MASHIACH: Yeah.

ROSS LOVEGROVE: -- that could be harvested and used there.

MAYA MASHIACH: We did that test.

CY YANG: Yeah, we did the test of how to convert the heat emission by the preservation and convert it to the current, like the electric current but --

MAYA MASHIACH: We turned on some lights with saline water.

(Laughter)

CY YANG: -- yeah, but we think the focus of this project is not about how to harvest --

THE TEAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

DR. THEODORE SPYROPOULOS: Thanks. I feel like I'm getting, like, the motivational cheerleading to kind of get me. Yes, thank you. Thank you.

Listen. I think there is a lot of things that are scratching the surface, and I think the project has certain possibilities.

I mean, Philippe’s comments, I think, are also partially because you said this is about salt. And corals and ecologies and the whole concept of what we're trying to do with this elemental idea is to take phenomenon, take this kind of elemental aspect of a different kind of way of thinking about the environment and to see it as a form of technology.

To do that is to acknowledge that these things are everywhere, and at the same time to intervene means working with things. And now to the degree that this is needing to be blinking lights, agent, how many active agents, how many passive agents, I think all of those things-- I think that there should be a metrics to that.

There should be an optimization for that.

To Philippe’s point, I think it's important to be able to sort of say, well, actually, if I took an airplane and I dropped some salt, you know, it's not like peppering my dish because at the scale of the ocean we have to think about quantities and the fact of where these things are and the resources to move them. So if that's not coming across clear, that's an invitation for you to make that more explicit.

The same thing to David's point about some of these things may get lost. You know, there was a guy Rodney Brooks who basically said, "Some will live; some will die; the job will get done." This is like agency thinking in terms of, you know, it's not so much as this thing has to be exact. You talked about the inexact nature of the spicule, but the process itself is real-time. phase 2 jury

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DR. THEODORE SPYROPOULOS: It's probabilistic. It's like a weather system. The problems are very much data that is really being described from satellite imagery. Your agents don't have to be dumb. They have to be intelligent and collective, and simplifying things I think makes it more viable and credible and also scalable.

So, I think the issues are a lot. I think it's just starting to get into that. I think it's a subject matter that needs attention, and it challenges the idea that architecture has to be a building and sees it as a kind of infrastructure which is something different from roads and highways. So, working with nature, seeing that is part of the agenda, which is not green washing, which is not pretending like we know everything, but using the experiments to give you information, I think is important.

And Patrik's point is also important. This is process-oriented. If we knew the brief from the beginning, this is different. And that's why this isn't a conclusion. So, this is congratulatory, on the one hand, but the hard work remains. I'm stating that because I think that that's very important. Like, design research should not begin and end in these walls. Now, the question about how this thing kind of evolves outside is not literally trying to build your project, but maybe it's literally trying to build your project. I have no idea. But I know it actually necessitates some creative thinking as well. So, anyway, I think we have one more project to go. I think you guys got a lot of conversation. Did I inspire? I inspired you to talk.

(Laughter)

DR. INGRID SCHRODER: I will say I hate jumping in as I kind of pop in and out of the day. This obviously had its own rhythm of conversation. So it always feels awkward to step in halfway through a really good debate. I think one thing that hasn't been mentioned about this project is there is an aspect of delight that comes through. You know, the idea of these lights sprinkling through the ocean finding their way. But I think one important aspect of the criticism that you're receiving is that there will be moments of failure. And actually, the kind of the -- kind of imminent presence of failure, I think, actually, is a strength to the project. And, if anything, it would be something to explore further: the agents that get lost, the things that sink and are never found again, the places where they over-salinate somewhere accidentally.

I think that these things also allow the project to gain a layer of wit that also comes out of the hyperfocus of the subject matter. And what I really enjoyed is an acknowledgement of, I suppose, the vastness of the things that you haven't answered which has allowed you to actually develop a level of sophistication that's really enjoyable as well being really a lot of work. So I've enjoyed it tremendously.

It's a wonderful moment to come in. And thank you very much.

THE TEAM: Thank you.

(Applause)

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closing observations

phase 2 jury

497

Unity C# Scripts For Simulations _simulating the collective movement

With the understanding of external forces, we tried using Unity as a platform to simulate how our system would behave collectively.

Introducing the dynamic of the environment, we set up rules and behaviors for our agents to proactively reacting and changing the surrounding.

Gravity and Current are external forces we tried to exploit or overcome, our agents would also activate certain components that provides the Buoyancy and Self-Porpulsion Force according to the environmental data (coral location and terrain topography). Under the combination of all different forces, they are floating and colliding with each other, the computational model helped us to test the performance of a highpopulation system and build up its complexity.

498

c# scripts

harvest

499

500

c# scripts

harvest

501

502

c# scripts

migration / formation

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504

c# scripts

migration / formation

505

Acknowledgements

THANK YOU TO STUDIO MASTER & DIRECTOR:

THEODORE SPYROPOULOS COURSE TUTORS:

APOSTOLOS DESPOTIDIS OCTAVIAN GHEORGHIU HANJUN KIM OGULCAN SULUCAY

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closing observations

THANK YOU TO PHASE 1 HELPERS: ANNA KONDRASHOVA YIFAN YANG FINAL JURY: DR. DAVID KIRSCH ROSS LOVEGROVE PHILIPPE MOREL DR. PATRIK SCHUMACHER INGRID SCHRODER DR. MOLLY WRIGHT STEENSON SYNTHESIS TUTORS: CARLOS LORA YUNEN SEYITHAN OZER KLAUS PLATZGUMMER MACARENA POPPE COURSE COORDINATORS: NERMA CRIDGE ALEXANDRIA VOUGIA AKT II: EDWARD TIBUZZI ALBERT WILLIAMSON-TAYLOR SOFTWARE TUTORIAL TUTORS: LEO BIELING CESAR FRAGACHAN EDWARD MEYERS ELIZAVET KONSTANTINIDOU MARIA EUGENIA VILLAFANE

acknowledgements

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