Air Studio WEI LIU
PART C. PROJECT PROPOSAL
Contents C.1 Gateway Project: Design Concept C.2 Gateway Project: Tectonic Elements C.3 Gateway Project: Final Model C.4 Algorithmic Sketch C.5 Learning Objectives and Outcomes
C.1 Gateway Project: Design Concept
C.1. Design Concept Last approach of our design was not completely 3D objects and each part of it is repeated last pieces. So that in this stage, we were considering about the feedback from last presentation and trying to change the volume of the model. We did some research on Wyndham city. Wyndham is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia. At the same time, as a newly developed area, Wyndham city connect two major cities, Melbourne and Geelong. Most people driving on Princess Highway which is a highway crossing the city state just cross this city. Thus, Wyndham is less well-known even local people in Melbourne. In terms its background, we think Wyndham city need a identity to keep develop as a fast growing city. Wyndham city encourages people doing outdoor activities and community life because they have wonderful natural features of cultivated Werribee River and second longest coastal line in Australia. Historically, Aboriginal communities also nourish the coastal line and Werribee River, in this respect, therefore won the grandeur of nature and live in harmony with the local environment. Werribee, Aboriginal word meaning “backbone” refers to the shape of the Werribee River. Today, Werribee is the most attractive and fast developing area of Wyndham City. Soon, Werribee River will witness a new birth and growth of a harmonious community. With “masterplanned coastal development,” which is to be completed in 2014, a new “togetherness, good neighborliness and harmonious community blueprint” for drawing.
Wyndham water system is undoubtedly the source of the spirit of community culture. Therefore, we chose to imitate the function of water in the local geographical characteristics of the people of the city and to remind people that evoke a sense of community. So that we decided that our proposal should give a impression that showing transition and harmony between communaties and nature environment. Meanwhile, it should be a eye-catching sculpture in order to give a new identity to people.
Desin definition We decided use wave to represent the main environmental elements foring the geographic features of Wyndham city. Its dynamic and changing form can also confront people with an image of a fast-growing community with diverse culture that lives in harmony with the nature. Our group is working on this project by sectioning. Section can form the sense of movement which evokes the sense of continuous change and as a whole provokes the feeling of harmony. Finally we thought that Mobius strip is the rightb way to illustrate the “homony� by its structural skin and spatial relationship exploration. To response the site of this project, we create three Mobius trip with different materails showing the transition from nature to urban.
Site Pan Our design concept aims to create a gateway which expresses transition. The effect is achieved by three distinct volume of Mobius strip.
General Form
Form Changing
Further Development
C.2 Gateway Project: Tectonic Elements
C.2. Tectonic Elements
Material Our design concept aims to create a gateway which expresses transition. The effect is achieved by three distinct volume of Mobius strip. So that we choose plywood represents nature and steel represents urban. Why we use plywood is because timber has own texture on it which respond to the natural environment. Our site is an open area, we would like make the model adjust and respond the landscape and environment. Meanwhile, we choose steel as modern section is because it is substantial modern architecture materials and used largely in urban concept design. One of the strips on the way to city is made of modern material stainless steel, and the other one on the way to Wyndham city is made of natural material plywood. The middle one contains two layers. This strip is transition from nature to urban. In terms of the connection between the road and the gateway structure, we are going to use shadow to create an optical effect on ground.
Our model is based on Mobius strip which is continues twisted strip, which would use a large numbers of changing curvature. Thus the material has to be plasticity. Plasticity� is not about plastics. However, it is about what plastics in a sense can do. As used by architects, plasticity is a term used to describe a rich, threedimensional or sculptural presence of a building. Moreover, plywood and stainless steel are lightweight materials, so that is will be easy to prefabricate. Our proposal provides a flexible configuration to solve the structural limitation for the complex geometry system.
Double skin
The middle one is Double skin. This strip is transition from nature to urban. In terms of the connection between the road and the gateway structure, we are going to use shadow to create an optical effect on ground. It is a three-dimensional Mobius strip including of plywood and steel elements. The wooden lattice work swoops create a view frame in the middle. As one approaches the gateway, the eye is instantly drawn to the lattice’s mind-bending visual effect. The viewer is subconsciously drawn to the structure, eager to know more about what’s going on inside.
Plywood . High quality . Strong, excellent bending strength . Easy machining andsurface treatment . The flexibility of the material is 1.5mm thick .Can be bent through 180 degree, this extends the range of design possibilities.
Precedent This project is inspired by bad hair. It aims to create a similar visual effect of bad hair turned upside down. made of glue-laminated strands that crisscross over a sphere and sweep to the floor to enclose the passer-by in a shadowy tangle, The whole structure is 4.3m-tall by 17m-wide which made by plywood. It is interesting to explore the performance of plywood in such a large scale project. “To achieve this complex geometry, two different types of wood supplied by Finn forest have been used. Kerto-engineered spruce was used in the radial part of the pavilion, while standard 8 x 4ft (1.2 x 2.4m) birch plywood sheets were used in the moulded, freer part.� Each arc section is 39mm thick and glued together with other four arcs in a group, which creating a curved beams. These curved beams are slightly different and the largest one is 300mm in width and depth. The 6.5mm-thick plywood has been cut into a curved shape using a CNC machine. This large structure contains 48 pieces beams in total. And they are glued together and placed into a steel mould. It is a good example of connection of double curved twisting plywood model, which we can use in our design.
Stainless steel Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance and familiar lustre make it an ideal material for many applications. The one on the way to city will use stainless steel. Stainless steel in a lustrous angel-hair finish that softly reflects light and accentuates its dynamic aspect, the Ribbon is a sculpted form that changes as it wraps around the building.
Flying sculputre
The Mobius strip is mounted in the midst of a circular pool atop Ramsey Auditorium. It is made of 3 x 5 inch (1 inch = 2.45m) pieces of stainless steel which were welded on a tubular form eight feet in diameter.
Construction Precedent “The structure itself is comprised of 140 planar plywood ribs joined together with another 140 sheet metal node assemblies which are triangulated into a space frame by 266 metal tubes. The entire structure is clad with 302 moiré strips fixed to the ribs by 1208 trapezoidal plywood joints. In total, there are 2056 discrete assemblies that comprise the pavilion and more than 3000 individually unique pieces of plywood, sheet metal and tubing”. This Pavilion is made of separated small size lightweight plywood ribs run along the Morbius strips which supported by steel tubes. These ribs are made of 50mm thick BC fir plywood and steel tubes are connected by two different joints. Due to the anisotropy of wood material, it is important to overcome the bending limitation of plywood in real construction. This pavilion provides a feasible way to connect the plywood panels in a large scale. Our proposal is inspired by this design and we are going to ….
Construction Drawing
C.3 Gateway Project: Final Model
C.3 Gateway Project: Final Model Detail model
View From Princess Highway
Scale Model 1:50
Daytime View
Night view
C.4 Algorithmic Sketches
C.4 Algorithmic Sketches
C.5. learning Ojectives and Outcomes
C.5. learning Ojectives and Outcomes We did a lot of test model during this process. At first , we use different materials, such as paper board and ployn . Paper board was failed because it cannot twist in such a long strip. And before the presentation we use the plyon . It also failed because it cannot stand up by itself due to the stiffness limitation. We started to consider 3D printer. The first one crushed because its wrong scale. After these testing modeling, we realized the materials we want to use in real construction have to be very strict. Our model is based on Mobius strip which is continues twisted strip, which would use a large numbers of changing curvature. Thus the material has to be plasticity. Plasticity� is not about plastics. However, it is about what plastics in a sense can do. As used by architects, plasticity is a term used to describe a rich, three-dimensional or sculptural presence of a building. Moreover, plywood and stainless steel are lightweight materials, so that is will be easy to prefabricate. Our proposal provides a flexible configuration to solve the structural limitation for the complex geometry system.
In this project, the grand natural features and harmonious community culture in Wyndham city encourage interactions within community members and between human and nature. New architectural developing trend also encourages interactions between people and people, and also interactions between human and nature. This new quest urges for a new relationship between internal and external space. And parametric design suggests the possibility of the blurred boundary between internal space and external space. As Jameson argued in his article that Architecture design process has been revolutioned by computational design which has played an important role in past years. in our case, gateway project, this design method provides us a dynamic ways to develop our design and results in a dramatic change as well.The computational design techniques allow us explore a large range of options and compress the design process.
Review of Learning Objectives Objective 1. “interrogat[ing] a brief” Our group did research and analysis about the project by considering the process of brief formation. Objective 2. developing “an ability to generate a variety of design possibilities for a given situation” Each of our group member create 30 metrics after learning from vedio tutorials Objective 3. developing “skills in various three-dimensional media” Grasshopper can directly change the model parameter to adjust form. Objective 4. developing “an understanding of relationships between architecture and air” Our design proposal created a structure which can response the site, and our physical models is 1:50. Objective 5. developing “the ability to make a case for proposals” Our group discourse topic is Architecture is a new exploration and the parametric design is a way to achieve it. Objective 6. The design analyses of precedent projects provide us new idea of tecniqure and concept. Objective 7. Understandings of computational geometry, data structures I think Grasshopper is based on data flow to record modeling process. To change the final form, we can achieve it by simply changing the starting model or the relevant variables. Objective 8. Computational techniques
Reference Re-engineering the design process :The role of computational methods A, Jameson, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey Mc Gill ContemPLAY Pavillion, viewd from http://web.farmmresearch.com/pavilion/ ContemPLAY Pavillion,viewed from http://www.archdaily.com/258929/the-contemplay-pavilion-drs-farmm/ AA Design& Make, viewed from http://designandmake.aaschool.ac.uk/?page_id=300 Bad hair Pavillion, viewed from http://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/technical/shampoo-andset/3090347.article Flying Sculouture, viewed from http://www.m-tec.uk.com/project-flying-sculpture-portishead. html Fermilab History and Archives Project, viewed from http://history.fnal.gov/sculpture.html Handbook of Finnish plywood, Finnish Forest Industries Federation, 2002, ISBN 952-9506-63-5 Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia Stainless Steels and Alloys: Why They Resist Corrosion and How They Fail�. Corrosionclinic. com. Retrieved on 2012-06-29. Wyndham City Council, http://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au