Nathan Peters Harvard University Graduate School of Design M.Des - Technology | Spring 2018 Digital Fabrication and Robotics
Iowa State University B.Arch | Spring 2016
HYBRID FORMATIONS II: LUFTSCHLOSS
Boston, MA | Fall 2016 Professor Volkan Alkanoglu with Nic Hogan, Royce Perez, and Max Vanatta Awards Selected for publication in Harvard GSD’s Platform 10 Intro Video
Hybrid Formations: Luftschloss (The German word for “sky-castle”) challenged students to imagine and construct the future of flying architecture. Our team explored the concept of “radical lightness” and used recent advances in generative design software to maximize the scale of the quadcopter while maintaining structural stiffness and respecting fabrication limitations. The algorithm used to design the lattice pattern strategically thickens the frame in areas where high stress or potential impact is most likely to occur. The frame was 3D printed using a Formlabs Form2 resin printer in a series of components that were designed to be interchangeable. Mounting brackets were designed into the components to allow the motors and navigation hardware to attach directly to the frame.
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Top: Solid Frame / Adaptive Lattice Bottom: Load and Support Conditions for Topology Optimization
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Top: Topology Optimization in Monolith / Millipede Bottom: Final Frame Design Render
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HYBRID FORMATIONS
Boston, MA | Fall 2016 Professor Volkan Alkanoglu with Lara Tomholt Awards Selected for exhibition at the Harvard GSD Dean’s Office for Spring 2017
The digital fabrication seminar Hybrid Formations was centered on Buckminister Fuller’s famous question to Norman Foster: “How much does your building weigh?” Foster’s Sainsbury center was assembled from lightweight aluminum panels and space frame trusses, and appeared to float above the museum’s exhibitions.In the seminar, students were challenged to readdress the concept of the “prototype” as it is seen in high performance automobile design. Teams designed research focused “architectural prototypes” that showcased the use of cutting edge digital fabrication and computation techniques in architecture. Fabrication and assembly took place at the Autodesk BUILD Space in Boston. Our project explored monocoque shells—a construction technique used in traditional aircraft fuselage construction—and used parametric design software to build a complex double curved structure. The waffle structure and the outer skin worked in tandem to maintain the shell’s rigidity and counteract torsion forces introduced by the complex curvature of the form. Nate Peters | 5
FRONT
MID
TAIL
TOP PANEL 22 FOLDED TAB + RIVET HOLE 516
SHORT BEAMS 44 JOINING PLATES 20
LONG BEAMS 15
Exploded Axonometic Diagram
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80/35 PAVILION
Des Moines, IA | Spring 2016 Professor Shelby Doyle with the Fabricating Potentials Studio 2016 Awards + Publications • • •
ArchDaily - The Best Student Design Projects Worldwide 2016 Revista Materia Arquitectura #13 Full Project Publication on ISSUU
Designed and built by sixteen students majoring in architecture, industrial design and interior design as part of an interdisciplinary spring option studio, the 80/35 Pavilion is a light-reactive structure that glows in response to the surrounding music and augments the festival atmosphere. The 10-by-20-foot pavilion visually engages the crowd and provides shade, seating and a sensory experience that blends design, music, light and color. Made from plywood boxes and Tyvek skin, the pavilion was designed entirely on the computer, with 6,500 pieces cut on a CNC router and assembled by hand via a tab-andgroove system. LED strips installed between the Tyvek walls are programmed by microcontrollers set to respond to sound, so the lights change color with the beat of the music played at the festival.
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FORM DEVELOPMENT The form of the pavilion was derived from the constaints of the site, the structural limitations, and the desired visual presence. The sloping overhang provided shade during the day and created a sense of enclosure while exaggerating the sense of scale when standing undernearth. The serpentine curve of the base encouraged users to explore the structure while providing a stable geometry that removed the need for exterior supports.
OPTIMIZATION Limited to the use of 1/2” OSB plywood and a 2’x3’ CNC router, the second major phase of the design was optimizing the form for fabrication. Maximum out of plane bending tolerance was determined experimentally, and the team used Grasshopper to visualize the planarity of the geometry. Once the worst case boxes were fixed, the same script generated toolpaths and labels for each box.
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THE MODULE A desktop CNC (600mm x 1200mm) was used to fabricate the large-scale construction – a task well beyond the intended specifications of the machine. Thus the modules – whose constraints already included structural sizing and the resolution in the pixelated display – had to be further constrained by this dimensional limitation, and the corresponding ability to nest multiple parts on a single sheet. However, the smaller scale of the module allowed for an inexperienced design team to fully engage in a sequenced construction process.
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AFTERLIFE During the construction of the pavilion, students and faculty in the College of Design helped to generate a list of contacts at local elementray schools with STEM classrooms. Forms were distributed describing the pavilion project and potential ways for the modules to be used as teaching tools for students to learn basic programming and electronics skills. After the festival, around half of the modules were distributed to fabrication labs and STEM classrooms in central Iowa.
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THE FESTIVAL In June of 2016 the pavilion was disassembled by a team of six students and transported from ISU to downtown Des Moines for the festival. The team had 12 hours from the closure of the streets to the opening on the gates, so careful planning and coordination was required. At the end of the festival, the modules that were pre-selected to go to local schools were transported back to Ames for re-wiring, and the rest of the structure was recycled.
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DIGITAL MEDIA II
Cambridge, MA | Fall 2016 Professor Andrew Witt with Stanislas Chaillou Awards - Selected for Distinction Demo Video
This project, titled Dynamic Builder, is a force based planning tool conceived for developers that can generate floorplan layouts from a given set of desired room sizes and types. We developed three different packing strategies in Python that are used to organize the rooms by floorplate. preferencing either volume, privacy, or even distribution of program types. Once the rooms are sorted, room volumes are packed around a given circulation core of the structure.
Compare room areas and floorplate area
Room to core
Room to room
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DIGITAL MEDIA II
Cambridge, MA | Fall 2016 Professor Andrew Witt with Stanislas Chaillou Awards - Selected for Distinction
The midterm project for Digital Media II was Pixel Path. The brief called for an exploration of medial surface geometry and complex mesh construction. We chose to imagine our medial surface as an human scale structure that one could climb and circulate through. We applied graph theory to the wireframe of the mesh and generated a shortest circulation path along the surface of the structure. The path was then “voxelized� to allow users to climb upwards along the path.
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STATION HOTEL
Seattle, WA | Fall 2015 Professor Tom Leslie with Bryan Johnson and Thomas Thatcher
Exposing the structure and using it as a tool to express both the logic of the program and the complexity of the site was the central theme of the design. The tube-in-tube steel diagrid system allows our hotel to accomodate a sixteen story atrium that brings daylight into the guest circulation. The inner and outer diagrids fuse together at the fifth floor to support a sixteenthousand square foot event space that is completely column free. Placing the event space within the tower removed the need for a large plinth that ruined views of the existing King Street Station from the surrounding site.
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1.1 The initial floor plate design spans across the tracks, maximizing rooms per floor and views of downtown.
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1.2 Wrapping the rooms around the perimeter creates wasted spaces at the center of each floor. Cutting out the center of the guest floors creates a unique atrium condition and introduces daylight. 1.3 The casing structure on the East facade folds inward towards the core to prevent interrupting the train tracks below. 1.3
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SITE Sitting at the nexus of downtown Seattle, Pioneer Square and the Stadium District, the site offers the opportunity to act as a pedestrian terminal. The public program experiences waves of heavy use due to sporting events and rail transport, so our team gave careful attention to the street presence of the structure. Circulation is designed to improve the connection between the historic King Street Station and the Station Hotel by improving upon the site’s existing amenities for rail travelers. Highlighted in blue is the existing train station. DOWNTOWN STATION SITE
NFL STADIUM
MLB STADIUM
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PROGRAM DIAGRAM The program required a 16,000 SF column-free ballroom space that could be subdivided into multiple event spaces. The simple solution was to place this space on the main floor, but this blocked the existing view of King Street Station from street level. The design of the dual casing structure allowed us to pull the event space up to the fifth floor. This preserved the view of the station, and took advantage of the ocean views that would have been blocked at a lower level.
FORM EVOLUTION Using Grasshopper to visualize the program requirements in 3D, we found that by using an efficient floor plate that the base program could be met with a 360’ tower. This allowed us to enlarge public spaces to increase daylight and as well as preserve views of the station from the street level. Additional event spaces and a wellness center were added at the 21st floor with the final tower height still 60’ below the zoning maximum.
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BRIDGING THE GAP The size of the structure required the demolition of an existing pedestrian bridge that connected the lower level of the station over the tracks and up to 4th Street. The function of the bridge was integrated into the program of the hotel’s publicly accessible main floor, which also included amenities for rail travelers like such as food and waiting areas. The termination of the diagrid is strategically designed to prevent any interruption of the existing tracks.
GUEST AMENITIES A 75’ by 25’ lap pool overlooks downtown Seattle to the North and Elliott Bay to the West. Grasshopper was used to generate a custom light fixture that plays with the surface of the water and invites guests into the space.
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SOLAR PERFORMANCE Solar analysis tool DIVA was used to verify daylight penetration into the atrium and courtyard spaces. Overlighting in the guest rooms is controlled with an operable mesh scrim.
TAPERING STRUCTURE To allow the event space to sit above the street level while remaining column free, the atrium casing structure begins tapering towards the outer structure at the 9th floor. Diagonal columns connect the lobby to the 5th floor to prevent a soft story condition.
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SHIFT
Berlin | Summer 2014 Professor Ulrike Passe with Kelsie Stopak
IMPORTED VERNACULAR Students of the 2014 Summer Academy spent a week in Italy studying the palazzo style of architecture. Energy specialists gave lectures about natural ventilation in courtyard buildings and led daily passive design charrettes. The next month was spent in Berlin learning about the development of post-war German architecture and the effects that climate change will have in the near future. The final project brief was a proposal for a courtyard style housing complex that offered live/work units in a developing residential area in Berlin. Right: 3D printed massing model in ceramic. Below: Site Diagram
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ADAPTIVE EXTRUSION The three-sided courtyard creates a wide array of solar exposure conditions when comparing energy gains between different apartment units. Each live/work unit consists of four “pods� that were parametrically extruded to create optimized solar heating conditions.
South and East Facing Unit - Prevent Overheating
Northwest Facing Unit - Maximize Insolation
UNIT LAYOUT Detail of a northwest facing unit. The main entrance is on the upper floor, maintaining the privacy of the living space below. In this unit, annual energy simulations showed that the unit would need mechanical heating or cooling also year-round
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SUMMER CONDITION The upper floor of each unit is naturally ventilated while the occupant is using the space, and heat is absorbed by the thermal slab. The lower floor is protected from direct solar gain by the cantilever and remains cool. At night the upper floor is cooled back down by night flush cooling of the thermal slab while the occupant is downstairs.
WINTER CONDITION The low angle of the sun directly heats the face of both the upper and lower floors. The thermal slabs are designed to absorb as much solar energy as possible in order to heat the apartment at night through radiation. The extrusion of the upper floor is designed to allow heat into the apartment in the winter.
UNIFIED SYSTEM The entire complex works as a unified air handling system. Dark aluminum heat-sinks at the top of the four circulation towers absorb solar energy in the daytime. This accelerates the flow of air from the hallways into the stair towers and improves the efficacy of natural ventilation in the individual apartments.
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COURTYARD SPACE The large volume of the courtyard creates a large enough space to be shared by residents and employees of the street-level studios. Greater access to daylight would allow the courtyard to be planted more heavily than traditional residential courtyards.
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MATERIAL ASSEMBLY This diagram shows the combination of opaque and translucent panels used to create a comfortable level of natural light for a live/work unit, and the other materials chosen to improve passive energy performance.
VISUAL FEEDBACK DIVA visualizations were used frequently during the three-week design process to ensure that the extrusions in each unit were affecting the passive energy performance as expected.
OPERABLE SCRIM A custom four-panel scrim system was generated for each “pod� in the structure. Pods with full height glazing and maximum sunlight were less perforated, and pods that required more daylight were more perforated. Next Page: Poster graphic used to advertise project exhibition
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CONCEPT_SOHO
New York, NY | Spring 2014 Professor Andrea Wheeler
EXPERIMENTAL LIVING This concept is designed for the next generation of young entrepreneurs that are conscious about their personal impact on the environment. The site is located on the corner of Crosby and Broome Streets in Manhattan. Designs for the building had to adhere to NYC regulations on new building construction requiring low-income accessible apartments. The street level is intended for pop-up shops, which are an increasingly popular form of temporary retail used by fledging design firms and fashion labels. The form of the building is the result of a workflow I designed that optimizes the thermal energy performance of facades in cold-weather climates.
Below: Visualizations of the corner unit and micro-unit.
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PARAMETRIC FACADE OPTIMIZATION To generate a building shell that performs better than a traditional apartment complex, I designed a script that uses the evolutionary algorithm tool Galapagos in combination with the solar analysis plug-in DIVA. Research on NYC’s climate showed that building energy usage peaked during the winter when residents were heating their apartments, so the variable that Galapagos worked to increase was solar heat absorption through the glazing in winter. The red nodes shown in the top diagram were manipulated in three dimensions to generate panel iterations. By extruding these points parametrically, surface area of glazing per unit increased, and the panels were optimized based on their orientation to the sun.
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Exploded axon diagram of a single micro-unit. The cells were designed to be assembled on site without the facade panels attached, so the panels could be simultaneously fabricated off-site.
Poster graphic showing the variety of panel iterations across the East facade.
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MUSEO CASTEL SANT’ANGELO Rome, Italy | Spring 2015 Professor Cal Lewis with Bryan Johnson and Samanvay Kasarala
The final month of my semester in Rome was spent on a museum design project integrated into the ancient Aurelian Wall. Our group’s chosen site was Castel Sant’Angelo, also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, which sits at the crossroads between the Vatican and Rome’s historical center. This project was heavily researched in order to understand the historical changes in use of the structure.
As it exists today, the fortified ramparts of the castle act as a barrier to the pedestrian traffic that constantly flows around the site. Our proposal was a combination of a street level public park that bridged over the abandoned outer ramparts, and a subterranean museum. The museum is designed to house the contents of the nearby Vatican Archives that are unaccessible to the public due to lack of existing gallery space.
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EXISTING SITE DIAGRAM
SIDEWALK Barrier between street and inner park RAMPARTS
PLAZA Path to the Vatican TIBER RIVER WALL
DESIGN PROPOSAL
PARK/BRIDGE
VERTICAL CIRCULATION SPLIT PLAZA
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Top: Gallery space with clerestory and skylight strip. Raised park space above. Bottom: Gallery with museum accessible park. Street/park/bridge connection detailed.
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Top: Site map showing Castel Sant’Angelo in the center and St. Peter’s Basilica to the West Above: Concept sketches for the museum
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THE MACHINE
Ames, IA | Spring 2013 Professor James Spiller with Samanvay Kasarala
The Machine was an interactive installation that used pendulum motion to draw complex mathematical curves on a surface. The left user operated the drawing pad which rested on a two-axis gimbal. The right user operated the two lateral pendulums connected to the pen.
THEORY OF EVOLUTION The project brief required that the machine’s design drew inspiration from the work of a notable scientist. Our group chose Charles Darwin and referenced his writings on evolution. Our project’s narrative correlated the process of the users finding the right “touch” to producing beautiful drawings to the process of natural selection. We presented the drawing sequences as a visual record of adaptive learning.
ADAPTATION This series illustrates two users finding the optimal frequency and timing of the separate pendulums. The final exhibition organized the drawings into sequences made by pairs of users.
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January 2016
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