Yuhan(Psyche) Hou_743234_Independent Thesis Book

A SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENT FOR NATURE AND ARCHITECTURE USING SWARM INTELLIGENCE

INDEPENDENT THESIS Yuhan(Psyche) Hou

Studio Supervisor : Paul Loh Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne July - November 2020

A Synthetic Environment for Nature and Architecture using Swarm Intelligence

Yuhan(Psyche) Hou, 743234

Studio Supervisor : Paul Loh Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne

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Acknowledgement Thanks to my supervisor - Paul loh’s continuously support. Thanks for lightening my thesis with inspiring ideas and kindly patience.

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Contents 08-09 10-11

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Thesis Statement Proposition

12-19 20-27 28-43 44-61 62-73 74-93 94-105 106-135

A.0-4 Literature Review B.0-1 Precedent Study C.0-6 Swarm Intelligence D.0-4 Swarm Behaviour E.0-1 Site Architectural Catalogue G.0-3 Swarm Robotic Construction H.0-6 Design Proposal

136-141 142-143

Schedule Biography

How can swarm intelligence be used to to create a synthetic environment for nature to coexist with architecture?

This thesis explores and examines the application of swarm intelligence in architectural design and construction. The project reinterprets the notion of naturalism in the digital age. This thesis proposes a system of swarm robotics, which following simple rules to generate a free-form volume through subtractive fabrication methodology. The resulting void spaces will become the mould for casting concrete. By using the bottom-up approach of design, this thesis explodes blending nature with architecture. I recognized that both nature and architecture are synthetic. The intent is to create a synthetic environment for nature to coexist with architecture, as a form of naturalism. The swarming algorithm works as the gene of the new form which expresses the effect of roughness of the material.

This thesis is interested in the notion of naturalism. One part of the research is to investigate how to use swarm intelligence to generate and construct a synthetic structure. The other part of research will look at the bottom-up approach in digital gothic and roughness in few precedents. In the end, the notion of naturalism allow architecture as an infrastructure for nature to coexist.

A.0 Literature Review

A.1 Notion of Nature ...Architecture should ‘imitate’ nature1...

Figure 1.00. Marc-Antoine Laugier. the ‘primitive hub’, from Essai sur I’ architecture,1753.1

In the architecture there two necessary ways of being true … to be true according to the methods of construction is to employ the materials according to their qualities and properties … purely artistic questions of symmetry and apparent form are only secondary conditions in the presence of our dominant principles1.

- Discourses on Architecture, Marc-Antoine Laugier, 1877-81

A.2 Savage in Gothic Architecture Nature in the form and construction

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In Laugier’s Primitive Hut, he claims the notion that architecture should ‘imitate’ nature1. The most authentic architecture should return to beginnings, in the way of generating form and in the method of construction. The notion of nature is continuous stressed in this thesis and inspires later using the natural system - the swarm.

1 Carol S. Terry, “ MODERN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1900 . William J. R. Curtis MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN: AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY . Bill Risebor ,” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 2, no. 5 (October 1983): 163–64, https://doi.org/10.1086/adx.2.5.27947200.

2 “The Nature of Gothic : A Chapter of the Stones of Venice: DISCOVERY,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/ detail?vid=5&sid=9474cca8-7f2b-468c-97e2-e4922f22e416%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bd ata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNzbyZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3D#db=cat0000 6a&AN=melb.b2889076.

...examine once more those ugly goblins, and formless monsters, and stern statues; but do not mock at them, for they are signs of the life and liberty of every workman who struck the stone; a freedom of thought, and rank in scale of being, such as no laws, no charters, no charities can secure; but which it must be the first aim of all Europe at this day to regain for her children...2 - The Nature of Gothic, John Ruskin, 1853 Figure 2.00. True and False Griffins, plate 1 from John Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 3 [1856] 2.

A.3 Savage in the digital Age What contributes to the savage in gothic? – Craftsmanship + Open design System John Ruskin is one of primitivist, who also improve the arts, craft movement in 19 centuries. In his paper, the nature of Gothic Architecture, he points out the savageness as one essential nature of gothic architecture. The architecture is highly craft-driven, the Griffin in Northern Gothic is rude and rough, compared to the Griffin in Roman architecture. This savageness of Northern Gothic is generated because it allows craftsman’s free expression of the material and open system of gothic design. This thesis is interested in reinterpreting the savageness in digital age 2.

What makes Gothic digital? – Variation of figures + Interacting relations between figure and configuration In the paper, The Digital Nature of Gothic, Spuybroek points out the changefulness in gothic open design system using the bottom-up approach. Gothic has its own grammar. It is built based on relationships between figure and configuration. The figure refers to the underlying circles that form the elements. The figures, also called motifs, are the combination of lines, A entity has the ability to change and adapt when meeting other figures. The variation of the individual figures and configuration of figures contributes to the changefulness in gothic3.

Figure 3.00. John Ruskin. Plans of Piers.

Plate II from The Stones of Venice I (1851)3.

3 Lars Spuybroek, “The Digital Nature of Gothic,” 2011, https://philarchive.org/rec/ SPUTDN.

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He argues the variation in the figure and interactive relationships between figure and configuration make gothic digital3. This logic of organisation using the bottom-up approach will be further investigated in applying swarm system in architecture.

A.4 Bottom-up Approach in Gothic and Swarm It inspires the main approach used in this thesis. The gothic is built based on relationships between figure and configuration benefited from the autonomy of craftsman. The context is the initial input of the system which contributes to the final organisation. In my thesis, the new syntactic structure is built upon the relationships between behaviour and organisation of the swarm based on the autonomy of the agent. What thesis propose is an abstract machine, have ability to generating a series of the organisation according to the giving context. The form is one moment of the organisation.

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B.0 Precedent Study

B.1 Naturalism 01

- In the Roughness of Material Figure 4.00. Lina Bo Bardi, Restaurante Coati. Interior.

Figure 5.00. Lina Bo Bardi, Restaurante Coati. Courtyard.

Figure 6.00. Lina Bo Bardi, Restaurante Coati. Street view.

Figure 7.00.

Looking at the Unfinished: Roughed-out Ornamentation in Greek Architecture.

Figure 3.00 Figure 4.00

The raw concrete material has been broadly used in brutalism.

Roughness becomes an authentic way of expressing the quality and property of the material. Roughness is more than a surface texture, but an unfinished condition and indicating the process of craft.

By applying the appropriate style of unfinished surface, Greek architecture could define the subject of the building, as the city wall, cemetery and Palace4.

Claimed by Alexander, Roughness is a form quality which makes building more natural. Roughness becomes an inherent, essential quality of architecture. It indicates the power of instincts5.

Figure 5.00

Lina Bo Bardi stresses the roughness and tolerance to imperfection. In her work, the corrugate concrete surface gives a rough-and-ready feel, make the building more natural, the rough concrete become the interface to connect with the landscape and life of surroundings6.

4 M Grawehr - New Directions and Paradigms for the Study of Greek and undefined 2019, “Looking at the Unfinished: Roughed-Out Ornamentation in Greek Architecture,” Brill.Com, accessed August 19, 2020, https://brill.com/view/book/ edcoll/9789004416659/BP000027.xml.

5 Christopher Alexander, “NATURE OF ORDER THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE,” 2004, https://www.academia.edu/download/54146313/Nature_of_order_lecture_by_ Diana_Allam.pdf.

6 C Veikos, Lina Bo Bardi: The Theory of Architectural Practice, 2014, https://www. nlclibrary.ca/eds/lookup?query=9780415689137.

Figure 6.00

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B.1 Naturalism 02

- In the Transparency and Closure Figure 8.00.

Vandenhaute-Kiebooms house, Juliaan Lampens, Exterior.

Figure 9.00.

Vandenhaute-Kiebooms house, Juliaan Lampens, Kitchen.

Figure 10.00. Vandenhaute-Kiebooms house, Juliaan Lampens, Plan.

Figure 9.00

Figure 7.00

In the design of Vandenhaute-Kiebooms house, Juliaan Lampens intends to create a harmony between interior and exterior within nature. Lampen develops a fluid concept of living expressing itself in the mediation of transparency and closure7.

It is an open plan without pillars or even walls, all the rooms, kitchen, living room and bath were placed so they seemingly conjoined with each other. The concrete roof extends from the interior to the exterior and sits seamlessly within the landscape. The varied shape and height of concrete block define varied living areas and with different level of closure8

7 C Van Gerrewey, “Juliaan Lampens. Vandenhaute-Kiebooms House,” 2017, https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/252905/files/SOS_Lampens.pdf.

8 “A+U 523: Juliaan Lampens | ArchDaily,” accessed August 26, 2020, https:// www.archdaily.com/500329/a-u-523-juliaan-lampens?ad_source=search&ad_ medium=search_result_all.

Figure 8.00

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What I understand savageness here is a using the minimalist design and construction as a way of returning to a more basic way of living.

B.1 Naturalism 03

- In the Strategic Construction Figure 11.00.

The Truffle, ENSAMBLE STUDIO, Construction on site.

Figure 12.00.

The Truffle, ENSAMBLE STUDIO, Construction on site.

Figure 13.00.

The Truffle, ENSAMBLE STUDIO, View from interior to the sea.

Plasticity of Concrete When concrete in its wet state it is in a plastic state. In general, it forms according to the mould and has great ability in bearing compression9.

The plasticity contributes to the versatile nature of concrete.

One precedent amplifies the plasticity of concrete.

Strategy and ambiguity

Figure 10.00

Figure 11.00

The Truffle House by ENSAMBLE STUDIO is a piece of nature built with the earth. It emulates the processes of mineral formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment, complying with its laws.

They make a hole in the ground and pile up straws as usable space then pour the concrete directly around10.

The texture records the process when the earth meets the concrete.

The savageness I understand here is the strategic construction approach, allow a certain level of change and imperfection. The later proposal of the swarm robotic system will adapt the same strategic construction approach.

9 “Plasticity in Reinforced Concrete - Wai-Fah Chen - Google Books,” accessed August 29, 2020, https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FGp-U4hNjggC &oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=concrete+plasticity&ots=gUScRLGwM8&sig=GhlQqV139fp438 UOTn2y2A5KSIA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=concrete plasticity&f=false.

10 “The Truffle / ENSAMBLE STUDIO | ArchDaily,” accessed August 20, 2020, https:// www.archdaily.com/57367/the-truffle-ensamble-estudio?ad_source=search&ad_ medium=search_result_all.

Figure 12.00

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C.0 Swarm Intelligence

The thesis will continue to explore the possibilities of this autonomous, collective and continuous construction system in architecture based on swarm intelligence. This thesis utilizes the swarm robots with a conventional concrete-casting method widely used in the pre-cast concrete industry.

C.0 Swarm Intelligence

Swarm Intelligence refers to collective behaviour of a decentralized and selforganized system. The system takes a bottom-up design approach where individual agents follow very simple ruleset, that locally interact with one another and the environment, contributing to the emergence of global ‘intelligence’ 11.

How can swarm intelligence facilitate concrete construction in architecture?

Figure 14.00. Bird flocking behaviour in nature.

Figure 15.00. Non-directional flocking behaviour simulated in grasshopper, based on the study of Boid.

This thesis aims to propose a system of robots, consist of small physical robots following simple rules as separation, alignment and cohesion to create a free-form volume inside an Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) box through subtractive fabrication methodology. The thesis explores the application of the collective behaviour emerging from the individual robot interacting with one another and its environment as a way of forming material – in this project, I will explore how this can be used as a mould for casting concrete. To be specific, the swarming process will be simulated and traced physically by dissolving EPS block with swarm robots which later becomes the mould for casting concrete structure.

A genetic algorithm will be created to facilitate the construction process that can be pre-designed and implementable through realtime feedback with sensors. The swarming algorithm will become the gene of the design workflow, acting as an instantaneous capture of the swarming process. By capturing the process, the real-time feedback and intelligence are embedded in the physical model which will further refine the swarming algorithm. That is how to make the robotic system more capable of open-ended learning.

11 S Johnson - Cities, and Software. New York: Scribner, and undefined 2001, “Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains,” n.d.

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K Timberlake and S Kieran, “Refabricating ARCHITECTURE,” 2003.

The thesis, therefore, challenges conventional construction in architecture that is predominantly of an assembly of parts12 and explore a new continuous on-site construction method with an autonomous robotic system under swarm intelligence.

C.1 Emergence

C.2 Swarm Intelligence in Architectural Design C.2.a // Behaviour – Form – Motion – Tectonic Figure 16.00. The research study of swarm intelligence in architectural design.

13 “Swarm Morphologies - Kokkugia,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://www. kokkugia.com/filter/research/swarm-morphologies.

14 “PRATT AGENT WARE - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www. kokkugia.com/filter/teaching/PRATT-AGENT-WARE. 15 “Swarm Urbanism - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www.kokkugia. com/filter/research/swarm-urbanism.

16 “ALGORITHMIC DESIGN RESEARCH - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https:// www.kokkugia.com/filter/teaching/ALGORITHMIC-DESIGN-RESEARCH. 17 “Cast Bodies,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/futureprotoyping-2020/exhibition/cast-bodies.

18 “AADRL Swarm Printing: Aerial Robotic Bridge Construction - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www.kokkugia.com/filter/teaching/AADRL-swarm-printingaerial-robotic-bridge-construction.

19 “Composite Swarm - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www. kokkugia.com/filter/research/Composite-Swarm.

20 “Cast Bodies.”

21 “Cast Bodies.”

22 “Composite Swarm - Kokkugia.”

23 “Rock Sculpture Held up by String and Assembled by a Robot,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://www.dezeen.com/2015/10/13/mit-eth-zurich-research-lab-rockprint-installation-structure-string-robot-chicago-architecture-biennial-2015/.

24 Markus Kayser et al., “FIBERBOTS: Design and Digital Fabrication of Tubular Structures Using Robot Swarms,” in Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2018 (Springer International Publishing, 2019), 285–96, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-92294-2_22.

25 Hugh Durrant-Whyte et al., “TERMES: An Autonomous Robotic System for ThreeDimensional Collective Construction,” Books.Google.Com, accessed August 19, 2020, http://www.roboticsproceedings.org/rss07/p35.pdf.

26 “BEHAVIOURAL URBANISM - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www. kokkugia.com/filter/research/BEHAVIOURAL-URBANISM. 27 “AADRL Swarm Printing: Aerial Robotic Bridge Construction - Kokkugia.”

28 “Cast Bodies.”

29 “RMIT Mace - Kokkugia,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://www.kokkugia.com/ filter/research/RMIT-Mace.

30 “AADRL Aerial Robot Thread Construction - Kokkugia,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://www.kokkugia.com/filter/teaching/AADRL-aerial-robot-thread-construction.

31 “ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart | ArchDaily,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://www.archdaily.com/902775/icd-aggregate-pavilion-2018icd-university-of-stuttgart.

32 Roland Snooks and Gwyllim Jahn, “Closeness: On the Relationship of MultiAgent Algorithms and Robotic Fabrication,” in Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2016 (Springer International Publishing, 2016), 218–29, https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-26378-6_16.

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Recently, swarm intelligence has been broadly applied in architectural form generation. Different from traditional top-down design approach.

Swarm algorithm allows the form to be generated based on the behaviour of individual agent that how it interacts with its neighbours and its environment. Most of the researches of Roland Snooks focus on emergent characteristics of form and tends to mimic the form with varied tectonic and robotic fabrication32, which I understand as an image-based design. Differently, the FIBERBOT designed by MIT Media Lab uses swarm robotic to build tubular structure24 and Terms designed by Harvard University, introducing a new autonomous collective construction using swarms robotic25. Inspired by theses research studies., this thesis intends to fill the gap of translating multiagent algorithm directly to the collective swarm robotic construction.

In specific, after the form is generated from behaviour, the motion of individual agent as X, Y, Z coordinate, velocity and directions will be directly extracted as instruction for the individual robot to work on the building material. In short, this thesis intends to propose a new way of design and construction, from behaviour to form, and then translate form into motion, which then informs the final organization and tectonic outcome.

C.2.b // Swarm Robotics Application Swarm robotics has been broadly applied in Agriculture, Warehouse, Education, Emergence and rescue based on planar movement on terrestrial. This thesis interests to allow swarm robotic to move threedimensionally inside the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) with a subtractive approach33.

C.3 Swarm Robotic with Subtractive Approach C.3.a // Constrains of single robotic subtractive fabrication Figure 17.00. The research study of swarm robotics application and analysis of subtractive manufacturing approaches.

Limited Geometry Input The standard robotic hot wire cutter can only carve ruled surfaces on EPS. In our previous studio, we have designed a free-form surface hot wire cutter based on the objectivity of the interpolated curve34.

Though, the robot has to subtract material from the outside volume, and mainly from the surface of the material. The CNC machine also subtracts material layer by layer.

Limited reach and mobility of the single robotic arm As documented by robotic manufacturer, every robotic arm has its maximum reach which severely limits the size of material it can work on. That is why ICD-ITKE Research Pavilion at the University of Stuttgart use 2 robot arms collaborating with UAV robots to fabricate a long span structure36.

C.3.2 // Benefits of using small mobile robotics as a new subtractive construction methodology.

33 Melanie Schranz et al., “Swarm Robotic Behaviors and Current Applications,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI (Frontiers Media S.A., April 2, 2020), https://doi. org/10.3389/frobt.2020.00036.

34 “Motion Imprint,” accessed August 19, 2020, https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/futureprotoyping-2020/exhibition/motion-imprint.

35 Kayser et al., “FIBERBOTS: Design and Digital Fabrication of Tubular Structures Using Robot Swarms.”

36 James Solly et al., “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2016/2017: Integrative Design of a Composite Lattice Cantilever,” n.d.

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Long-range, high mobility and lightweight Take the use of gravity Great potential to generate volumetric geometry

The diagram shows the swarm robotic fabrication procedures. The red sphere represents the individual robot. By receiving the command from the computer, the group of robotic start to resolve the EPS block. The resolved EPS block becomes the mould for casting concrete.

C.4 Swarm Robotic Fabrication v.1

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Stepper motor / Gearmotor / Servo? // Gearmotor is often used in robotic vehicle design because of its high speed. But Gearmotor has relatively low precision. Servo could turn with required degrees ad can be used to toggle the emitting of the material. Stepper motor has relatively strong torque force, enough speed and high precision, which is most appropriate for this project. The Nema 17 Stepper Engraver for 3D-printer will be chosen.

Microcontroller– Arduino board + Raspberry Pi 4 // The swarm robot will use the Arduino UNO Compatible with CNC Shield V34 plus A4988 Stepper Drivers to control stepper motor’s rotating speed and directions.

The computer sends commands to Arduino through Girbel and Firefly. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 2GB with Bluetooth works as a mini-computer to control the Arduino board.

Power – V and mah // The DC storage battery will power both the stepper motor and Arduino board. The volt of power source will match the required volt of Arduino board. Mah of power decides the maximum operating time of the robot per battery.

Weight // The weight of the internal driving unit is important. If it is too heavy, the friction between wheels and surface will be too large to avoid robot from moving. If it is too light, the robot will find it hard to balance when moving. The weight of Liquid material, stepper motor, the battery should be mainly considered. Extra ballast can be used to adjust overall robot weight.

37 S Bhattacharya, SK Agrawal - IEEE Transactions on Robotics, and undefined 2000, “Spherical Rolling Robot: A Design and Motion Planning Studies,” Ieeexplore.

Ieee.Org, accessed August 26, 2020, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/ document/897794/.

38 “DIY Sphere Robot : 25 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables,” accessed August 26, 2020, https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Sphere-Robot/.

39 M Ioannou, T Bratitsis - 2017 IEEE 17th International, and undefined 2017, “Teaching the Notion of Speed in Kindergarten Using the Sphero SPRK Robot,” Ieeexplore.

Ieee.Org, accessed August 26, 2020, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/ document/8001790/.

Figure 18.00. DIY Spherical Robot38.

Figure 19.00. Sphero Robot39.

Figure 18.00

Figure 19.00

Swarm Robotic V.1 01 Spherical Shell 02 Robotic Wheel 03 Bore Aluminum Gear, 80T 04 Aluminum Channel 05 Electronic Speed Control 06 HD Planetary Gearmotor 07 Power Pack 08 Ballast

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Spherical Robot // An aspherical robot consists of a spherical shell as the body and an internal driving unit that enable the robot to move.

The robot moves by rolling wheels over the surface. The rolling motion is produced by charging the motor.

The robot rotates by creating speed difference between two wheels.

The communication between the internal driving unit and external control unit is wireless due to its mobility and sealed spherical shell.

The power source is the battery inside the robot37.

Gear System // The gear system is optional in swarm robot design. It can be used to adjust rotating speed and toque from motor to wheel.

Aluminium U Channel // The Aluminum U channel used in swarm robotic V.1 function as a stable frame to connecting all other components. It has varied sizes and internal volume which increase the efficiency of using space inside the shell.

The size of the robot // All components need to be kept as small as possible to enable the small size of the robot. The size is important for the precision of fabrication.

The emitting system // There is a lack of an existing emitting system that can be adopted in this project.

The material of the outer shell // The outer shell must not be resolved by acetone.

Real-time Feedback // To reduce the redundancy of the work, it can be useful for individual robot able to see each other inside the robot. Varied types of sensors have been chosen in swarm robotic applications.

But to decide what type of sensors can work inside the EPS material, there is a need for physical testing.

C.5 Swarm Robotic Design v.1

C.6 Collective Construction

B.6 // Benefits of using real-time collective construction with swarm robotics?

Figure 20.00. The diagram of swarm controlling system and fabrication workflow.

Ability to implement complex task with simple mechanics and rules Swarm intelligence works on the philosophy of simplicity. The global intelligence emerges from local activity. The individual robot only needs to perform a few single tasks. As the design of the Terms, the complex structure can be built at a scale larger than an individual robot. And the robot is only consisted of few sensors and actuators and responds only to its neighbours. The natural features of swarm robotics make it useful and feasible for a new automated construction system40.

Long-range, high mobility, lightweight and high efficiency An aspherical robot consists of a spherical shell as the body and an internal driving unit that enable the robot to move. The communication between the internal driving unit and external control unit is wireless due to its mobility and sealed spherical shell, which makes swarm robotics possible for future on-site, large-scale construction41. Having thousands of small mobile robots works at the same time contributes to high speed and efficient construction.

Scalability, Robustness and adaptability

40 Durrant-Whyte et al., “TERMES: An Autonomous Robotic System for ThreeDimensional Collective Construction.”

41 Bhattacharya, Robotics, and 2000, “Spherical Rolling Robot: A Design and Motion Planning Studies.”

42 Schranz et al., “Swarm Robotic Behaviors and Current Applications.”

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The Swarm robotics works more like an interconnected web instead of linear narrative, which make the system robust enough to be organised in varied scale and changed environment42.

D.0 Swarm Behaviour Study

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 01.a

Swarm Behavior:

- Flocking (Directional)

SB 01.a1.

Non-directional Movement

SB 01.a3.

Align

Based on the study of Craig Reynolds’ theory on swarm behaviour43, this thesis has tested 4 major swarm behaviour and its possibilities to generate a form in 2D and 3D. Each agent, also known as Boid is released with a certain velocity and direction to move. Under the combination of basic behaviour, as separation, alignment and cohesion, agents tent to flock in different shape.

SB 01.a2.

Directional Movement

SB 01.a4_ Cohere

SB 01.a4_ Separate

Spatial Organization:

Matrix:

Emitter Direction

SO 01.a1.

Directional Movement + Cohere Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=5 / Cohere Force=0.15

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=5 / Cohere=0.15 Point Emitter

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=5 / Cohere=0.15 Point Emitter

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=5 / Cohere=0.15 Curve Emitter

Z = -0.2 / N = 50 Vision Radius=4 / Cohere=0.3

Z = -0.2 / N = 50 Vision Radius=2 / Cohere=0.35

Z = -0.2 / N = 200 Vision Radius=1.5 / Cohere=0.4

Z = -0.2 / N = 60 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.45 / Align=0.5 Top + Right Planes

Z = -0.2 / N = 60 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.45 / Align=0.5 Top + Bottom Planes

Z = -0.2 / N = 90 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.45 / Align=0.5 Top + Left + Right Planes

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.4 / Separate=0.5 Point Emitter

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.4 / Separate=0.5 Curve Emitter

Z = -0.2 / N = 20 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.4 / Separate=0.5 Two Curve Emitters

Z = -0.3 / N = 30 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.48 / Separate=0.2 / Align=0.2

Z = -0.3 / N = 30 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.7 / Separate=0.2 / Align=0.5

Z = -0.3 / N = 30 Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=1.0 / Separate=0.2 / Align=0.5

Vision Radius

Swarm Behavior Combination: Force X=0.1 / N = 2

Force X=0.1 / N = 20 SBC 01.a2.

Directional Movement + Cohere Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.15

VR=5 L=8

SBC 01.a1.

Directional Movement + Cohere Vision Radius=5 / Cohere=0.15 Force X=0.1 / N = 2

Force X=0.1 / N = 20 Emitter’s Planes VR=10

L=8

SBC 01.a2.

Directional Movement + Cohere Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.15 Force X=0.1 / N = 2

Force X=0.1 / N = 20

L=8

SBC 01.a3.

Directional Movement + + Cohere + Align Vision Radius=10 /Cohere=0.55 / Align=0.5

VR=10

SBC 01.a3.

Directional Movement + + Cohere + Align Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.55 / Align=0.5

Emitter Type

Force X=0.1 / N = 2

Force X=0.1 / N = 10 SBC 01.a4.

Directional Movement + Cohere + Separate Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.4 / Separate=0.5

VR=10 L=8

SBC 01.a4.

Directional Movement + Cohere + Separate Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.4 / Separate=0.5 Force X=0.1 / N = 2

Force X=0.1 / N = 20 Cohere Force

VR=10 L=8

SBC 01.a5.

Directional Movement + Cohere + Separate + Align Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.34 / Separate=0.2 / Align=0.5

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SBC 01.a5.

Directional Movement + Cohere + Separate + Align Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.34 / Separate=0.2 / Align=0.5

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 01.b

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 02

- Flocking (Non-directional)

When the number of agents is increased, the characteristics of different behaviour start to become clear and unique. When the same swarm behaviour is applied in 3D, a spatial organization emerges which bring the potential of generation form. The non-directional flocking refers to steering behaviour of agent without initial input of moving direction and velocity. Vision radius deicide how far each agent can research its neighbour. When the vision radius increase, agents tend to form a larger field-like network, showed as 01.b4.

Swarm Behavior Combination:

- Wandering & Weaving Wandering

Swarm Behavior:

SB 02.a1.

Circular Wandering

SB 02.a2.

Random Wandering-L

SB 02.a3.

Random Wandering-S

SB 02.b1.

Weaving Wandering-S

Spatial Organization in 2D: VR=30

VR=70.5

VR=100 VR=10

VR=100

SO 02.a1.

Circular Wandering Change=35.7 / Radius=6 SBC 01.b1.

Non-directional Movement + Align N=4 / Vision Radius=100 / Align=1

SBC 01.b2.

Non-directional Movement + Cohere N=4 / Vision Radius=100 / Cohere=0.68

SBC 01.b3.

Non-directional Movement + Cohere+ Separate + Align N=4 / Vision Radius=10 / Cohere=0.15 / Separate=0.12 / Align=0.08

SBC 01.b4.

Non-directional Movement + Cohere + Separate + Align N=4 / Vision Radius=30 / Cohere=0.15 / Separate=0.12 / Align=0.08

SO 02.a2.

Random Wandering-L Change=35.7 / Radius=6

SO 02.a3.

Random Wandering-S Change=100 / Radius=50

SBC 01.b4.

Non-directional Movement + Cohere + Separate + Align N=4 / Vision Radius=70.5 / Cohere=0.15 / Separate=0.12 / Align=0.08

Spatial Organization in 2D:

SO 02.b1.

Weaving Wandering-S Radius=5 / Rotation=20

SO 02.b2.

Weaving Wandering-M Radius=5 / Rotation=50

SO 02.b3.

Weaving Wandering-L Radius=2 / Rotation=40

SB 02.b2.

Weaving Wandering-M

SB 02.b3.

Weaving Wandering-L

The wandering and weaving wandering behaviour describe how agent move based on the radius of the circle and its rotation trigger rates. The weaving wandering tent to drive a linear movement with varied size and frequency of weave.

When there are a larger number of agents repeat the same type of behaviour, the varied patterns are created. Wandering behaviour focus on the shape of the trail and is often combined with other major behaviour. The bottom row shows the combination of flocking and wandering behaviour and it stars to simulate how two flow encounter, mediate and then move accordingly.

Swarm Behavior Combination in 3D: Spatial Organization in 3D:

SO 01.b1.

N=250 / Vision Radius=100

SO 01.b2.

N=250 / Vision Radius=100

SO 01.b3.

N=250/ Vision Radius=10

048

SO 01.b4.

N=250 / Vision Radius=30

SO 01.b4.

N=250 / Vision Radius=70.5

SBC 01.b1.

Random Wandering-L + Flocking Curve Emitter / N=30 / Cohere=0.17

SBC 01.b1.

Weaving Wandering-M + Flocking Curve Emitter / N=30 / Cohere=0.17

SBC 01.b1.

Random Wandering-L + Flocking Curve Emitter / N=50 / Cohere=0.17

SBC 01.b1.

Directional Movement + Flocking Box Emitter / N=230 / Cohere=0.3

SBC 01.b1.

Directional Movement + Flocking Box Emitter / N=230 / Cohere=0.17

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 03.a

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 03.b

- Path Tracking

Swarm Behavior:

Path tracking behaviour refers to agents tend to steer along a giving path. Polyline threshold decides how far agents can search for a path.

Projection distance refers to how fast agents move towards path and polyline radius refers to the distance that agents move around the path.

SB 03.a1.

Path Tracking

Spatial Organization in 2D:

SO 03.a1.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=50 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=13

SO 03.a2.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=260 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=13

SO 03.a2.1 Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=260 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=13

Swarm Behavior:

The multi-path tracking behaviour uses the same logic of single path tracking. Compare to the previous behaviour, path tracking allows the designer to have more control over the form. The bottom row tests out whether two or three separate groups of agents can joint along the path and whether it can form architectural elements as bridge, window and staircase.

SB 03.b1.

Multi-path Tracking

Spatial Organization in 2D:

SO 03.a3.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=260 Projection distance=1 Polyline Radius=13

SO 03.a4.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=260 Projection distance=100 Polyline Radius=13

Spatial Organization in3D:

SO 03.a1.1 Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=50 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=13

- Multi-Path Tracking

SO 03.a5.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=50 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=50

SO 03.a6.

Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=50 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=1

SO 03.b1.

Random Wandering-L+ Multipath Tracking Polyline Threshold=50 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

Spatial Organization in 3D:

SO 03.b1.1 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Arch) N=200 / 2x Surface Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

SO 03.a3.1 Random Wandering-L+ Path Tracking Polyline Threshold=260 Projection distance=1 Polyline Radius=13

050

SO 03.b1.2 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Single Line) N=200 / 2x Surface Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

SO 03.b1.3 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (3 Lines) N=300 / 3x Surface Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

SO 03.b1.4 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Spiral Line) N=200 / 2x Surface Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

SO 03.b1.5 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Rectangle) N=200 / Curve Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

SO 03.b1.6 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Stepped Lines) N=400 / 2x Surface Emitter Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=30 Polyline Radius=25

Swarm Behavior:

SB 04.a1.

Repel Force

Swarm Behavior:

SB 04.a2.

Attract Force

SB 04.b1.

Target Agent Path

Spatial Organization in 2D:

SO 04.a1.1 Random Wandering-L+ Repel Force Repel Threshold = 100 Repel Value = 4.6 Max Repel = 5

SO 04.a1.2 Random Wandering-L+ Multipath Tracking + Repel Force Repel Threshold = 40 Repel Value = 4.6 Max Repel = 5

SB 04.b2.

Seeking Agent Path

Spatial Organization in 2D:

SO 04.a2.1 Random Wandering-L+ Attract Force Attract Threshold = 200 Attract Value = 1

SO 04.b1.1 Random Wandering-L + Flocking Behaviour + Target Agent Moving Speed=0.5 Max Speed=3 Max Force=0.26

SO 04.a2.2 Random Wandering-L+ Attract Force + Repel Force Repel 3 x Threshold = 55 Repel Value = 4.6 Attract Threshold = 100 Attract Value = 1

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 04.a

Spatial Organization in3D:

D.1 Swarm Behaviour 04.b

Spatial Organization in3D:

- Attract & Repel Force

- Multi-type agents

The attractive and repelling force works an outside interruption to the existing organization.

The threshold decides the influence area of the force. The value decides how much the force can affect agents’ motion. Those two behaviours seem to work much better in 2D. When repelling threshold is set in 3D, two flows will repel from whole vertical extrusion of the repelling circle.

SO 04.a1.3 Random Wandering-L+ Multipath Tracking + Attract Force Attract Threshold = 200 Attract Value = 1

052

SO 04.a2.3 Random Wandering-L+ Multipath Tracking + Repel Force Repel Threshold = 40 Repel Value = 4.6 Max Repel = 5

The multi-agent behaviour describes two agents interact with each other. SO 04.b1.1 shows the trajectory of the targeted agent that following the wandering and flocking behaviour. So 04 b2.1 shows the second agent are released after the target agent and will track the trajectory of target agents. The seeking agent has a relatively larger number and higher moving speed.

SO 04.b2.1 Random Wandering-L + Flocking Behaviour + Target Agent Moving Speed=0.8 Max Speed=8.37 Max Force=3.36

PS 01 - Wall

PS 01.1 Loops = 30

PS 01.2 Loops =60

PS 02.1 Loops = 20

PS 02.2 Loops = 40

PS 01.3 Loops = 90

PS 01.4 Loops = 120

PS 01.5 Loops = 150

PS 01 Non-directional Movement + Cohere + Separate + Align N=700 / Vision Radius=780/ Cohere=0.19 / Separate=0.18 / Align=0.08 2 x Curve Emitters

PS 02 - Steps

The prototypical space is the first attempt to make architectural space using swarm behaviour. The first row shows the continuous wall generated under flocking behaviour of two groups of agents released from the edge of the box. The second row shows the steps generated using multi-paths tracking behaviour. The input path is set according to the dimension of the staircase. The initial starting points of the agent are set according to the curvature of the wall. The bottom row shows the varied domain defined under multipath tracking behaviour.

PS 02.3 Loops = 60

PS 02.4 Loops = 80

PS 02.5 Loops = 100

PS 02 Random Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Stepped Lines) N=600 / 2x Surface Emitter / 9x Paths Polyline Threshold=500 Projection distance=47 Polyline Radius = 10

PS 03 - Ground PS 02 Weaving Wandering-L+ Multi-path Tracking (Stepped Lines) N=600 / Bottom Surface Emitter / 12vx Paths Radius=20 / Rotation=1

PS 03.1 Loops = 30

PS 03.2 Loops = 60

PS 03.3 Loops = 90

PS 03.4 Loops = 120

PS 03.5 Loops = 150

D.2 Prototypical Space

056

D.2 Prototypical Space

D.3 Week 4 Conclusion

Thesis’s Findings - Architecture as an interface 01 Material Engagement Roughness Bring Sense of tactility. Due to the plasticity of concrete material and strategic construction, the roughness becomes an embedded quality of form. As mention in Alison and Peter Smithson’s House of the future44, they mentioned the tactile quality invites people to touch and enhance physical engagement with the material.

02 Continuity of Space The form is generated through the behaviour of the form. As mentioned by Greg Lynn in Animate Form45, with the animate approach to architecture brings a more advanced system of a dynamic organization. The forces and motion are set at the moment of formal conception, which creates a continuously changing structure, allowing a fluid experience of space.

03 Blending Nature into Building 43 Craig W. Reynolds, “Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model,” in Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH 1987, vol. 21 (New York, New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 1987), 25–34, https://doi.org/10.1145/37401.37406.

44 Peter Smithson, “GASTRONOM ICA,” Online.Ucpress.Edu, 2001, http://online. ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article-pdf/1/1/18/344550/gfc_2001_1_1_18.pdf.

45 G Lynn and T Kelly, Animate Form, 1999, http://courses.arch.ntua.gr/fsr/140262/ animate_form.pdf.

058

The typical ground produced using swarm algorithms allows nature to be part of a dialogue with the interior. It makes building more natural, allows a deep connection with the landscape and life of the surroundings

D.4 Week 4 Reflection

01 Rethink the notion of savageness and roughness.

How to differentiate the two notions and how do two notions affect the thesis? How does the bottom-up approach in gothic relate to the savageness?

02 Bottom-up approach.

What I understand the bottom-up approach is a decentralised system and autonomy in parts. As mentioned

by Alex, the bottom-up approach has become possible for mass production in the digital age. The gothic is built from the relationships between figures and configuration. Swarm is built from the relationships between agents. Indeed, swam and gothic are both built from organization and relationships. Whether it is possible to apply the configuration in gothic to the organization in the swarm?

03 Continuity & Flows – Discontinuity & Disjunction It is worthy to think of how to amplify the continuity of the agents. Whether one group of agents can change behaviour over time and what if the other group of agents interrupt the flow? What is the meaning of continuity and disjunction in architecture (Experience? Flows? Closure? Transparency?)

04 Material Using EPS as mould has a sustainable concern. To some point, thesis need to address design intent in choosing material and construction approach. What if it is compounds of different material with different kind of property that robot that copes with?

05 Site Next step is to explore formal architectural language (based on relationships) and using the site as a testing ground (based on the issues and opportunity of the site).

060

E.0 Site Analysis As mentioned, the thesis proposes an abstract machine that able to generate a series of an organisation adapting with the condition of the site.

-The issue and opportunities of the site become the initial input of the system -The site as a condition to test out the system

E.1 Site Plan 01

The Fishermans Bend campus will host Melbourne school of engineer and the faculty of architecture, building and planning. Sitting in the industrial precinct, new campus aims to create a place for making and testing, enhancing flexible and large-scale research. The proposed urban landscape intends to facilitate the learning activity and vision of the campus46. Adjacent to the Yarra River, the campus is at risk of flooding, which will be reason to trigger later design of the wetland. The site works as initial input of the algorithm and a condition to test out the system.

The vision of the new campus -Industrial Legacy -Connection with city -A place for making and testing -Centre of the innovation precinct

064

46 “Fishermans Bend Campus,� accessed August 19, 2020, https://about.unimelb. edu.au/priorities-and-partnerships/fishermans-bend.

E.1 Site Plan 02

Habitat Corridor A syntactic structure is an environment for nature and architecture to coexist. The thesis will propose a system of the elevated walkway as a connected habitat corridor from the Westgate Park to the campus park. The site was historically consisting of low-lying wetland and heathland47. To restore the ecological habitat with the new syntactic environment, enhance the resilience and biodiversity of the site.

066

47 “Fishermans Bend Campus,� accessed August 19, 2020, https://about.unimelb. edu.au/priorities-and-partnerships/fishermans-bend.

E.1 Site Plan 03.1

The diagram shows future proposal of the Fishermans Bend campus

by Grimshaw Architects. The future tram station sitting on Turner Street will be the main public access to the campus. The hatched areas are the massing of the future building which will be constructed under a few stages. The building 1A and building 1B will be completed by 2030 as stage one. The building 2&3 planned to be developed over 20 to 30 years48.

Primary Open Space The thesis sees the opportunity of choosing the primary street (highlighted in yellow) as a condition for introducing an elevated walkway. The street is adjacent to the edge of all future buildings. The proposed walkway intents to work as basic infrastructure, blending nature into buildings and providing the different interface with existing heritage building and Northern edge of the building 3. The shed design celebrates the industrial legacy of the site. The followings are the list of varied interfaces that later elevated walkway will respond to.

Varied Interface - Edge of the building - Existing Heritage - Industrial Shed - The northern side of the Building3

068

48 “Fishermans Bend Campus,� accessed August 19, 2020, https://about.unimelb. edu.au/priorities-and-partnerships/fishermans-bend.

E.1 Site Plan 03.2

Sacrificial Surface Water System To deal with flooding issue on site. A sacrificial surface water system is proposed, consisting of a water channel and wetland. The later new wetland proposed will potentially work as a water storage solution49.

The later landscape of the site will try to guide the surface water into wetland.

070

49 “Fishermans Bend Campus,� accessed August 19, 2020, https://about.unimelb. edu.au/priorities-and-partnerships/fishermans-bend.

E.1 Site Plan 03.3

Welcome Corner The yellow area highlights the potential social spaces that the syntactic structure will mainly focus on. The chosen spots are the key entry spots connecting to public transport50. The later infrastructure will see the opportunity to enhance learning, meeting and working activity on spots.

072

50 “Fishermans Bend Campus,� accessed August 19, 2020, https://about.unimelb. edu.au/priorities-and-partnerships/fishermans-bend.

F.0 Architectural Language

F.1.1 Catalogue_Elevated Walkway 01 Column

01

01

02

03

Active Area on Site

01 01

03

02

01

Behavior Configurations

Input Matric 01.1 – Datum of Z

Agency The catalogue section starts to seek the agency under the condition of the site and built a new architectural language. The elevated walkway will mainly affect on the main tuner road and inner primary street. The walkway is generated using multi-path tracking behaviour. It is the interface from the ground plane to +2rd/3th floor. The initial input of the system is the size of the road. The supporting elements located on the two sides. The connecting line of chosen supporting position becomes the path for agents to track and later become the walkway.

Achitectural Language The bottom diagram shows the process of generation. There are three groups of agents. The first group of agents move along the elevated path (+2r/3thfloor) showed in dark blue colour. The second group of agents move from the elevated plane toward pathway, shown in light blue colour. The third group move from the ground towards the path, generating the vertical elements. The changing of the slope decides the type of vertical elements as column, staircase and ramps.

Generation Process

The right matrix shows that the system of elevated walkway able to adapt with varied height and provide different shading method.

Matric 01.2 – Solar Response

02 Staircase (1:30)

03 Ramps (1:12)

F.1.2 Catalogue Datum in Plan

6.0m 5.4m 4.8m 4.2m 3.6m 3.0m 2.4m 1.8m 1.2m 0.6m

Z Datum

0m

0

078

0.75 1.5

3

6

The left diagram shows the individual path of the agents.

The red number represents the Z value of agents along the trails. The varied density of the path contributed to the varied architectural elements as walkways and floors.

F.1.3 Elevated Walkway Moment of Organization Changefulness / Adaptability / Scalability The form emerged from the behaviour of agent adapting with site condition. The form is one possible moment of the organisation. The bottomup approach makes system changeable, adaptable and scalable.

Roughness – Syntactic Structure The rough condition of the form offers an unfinished condition for nature to coexist.

6.0m 5.4m 4.8m 4.2m 3.6m 3.0m 2.4m 1.8m 1.2m 0.6m 0m

0

080

2.5

5

10

20

F.2.1 Catalogue_ Landscape 01 01

01 Hill 02 Path 03 Wetland 01

02

03

Active Area on Site

Architectural language – Wetland and Pathway

Agency

The new landscape will mainly be responding to the flooding issue on site. The agents are released from the surfaces above and below the ground. Two groups of agents will seek the path set on the ground, later forming the walkway, represented in yellow colour.

The first raw of the matrix shows the system able to adapt with varied giving topography. The red lines represent the wetland for storing water. The varied density of path and number of agents offer different solution responding to the solar condition. In system, 2 surface condition generated as shown in section.

One is solid and smooth for activity, the other is loose and rough, allowing water to permeate.

Section

Behavior Configurations

Matric 01.1 – Datum of Z

Generation Process Matric 01.2 – Solar Response

082

F.2.2 Catalogue -Datum in Elevation

4m 3.2m 2.4m 1.6m 0.8m 0m -1m -2m -3m -4m

Z Datum

-5m

0

0.4

0.8

1.6

3.2

The black lines are the path of the individual agent while the red number represents the Z value of agents along moving.

The agents released belong the ground moves from -5 meters to the ground (0m) forming the wetland while the agents above the ground (+4 meters) forms the elevated activity area.

084

F.2.3 Landscape

The enlarged detail shows elevated activity area and pathway above the water.

This new landscape considers wetland as synthetic part of the structure.

086

F.3 New Territory

A Connecting The left image shows the first proposal of new syntactic structure on site. The elevated walkway (A) have a height clearance of 6 meters allowing future tram to operate. It connects the western and the eastern side of campus and some activity area above the ground.

The walkway could extend further along the main Turner street to the Westgate park.

B Eroding, Inserting and Attaching The walkway (B) is the same system with smaller scale adapting with the size of the inner street. It starts to interact with the edge of the building as eroding, inserting and attaching.

C Transforming

D

B

C

Landscape C starts to investigate whether landscape could transform gradually into the elevated walkway.

D Coexisting The wetland(D) shows how water and new landform emerge and coexist. Water is the syntactic elements of landform. The landform will further facilitate nature in a long term.

A

088

F.3 New Territory

The perspectives show views from the wetland to the city. The rough condition makes landform undefined and unfinished.

The walkway flows fluidly from ground to a higher level, bring the varied level of openness and closure. The rough edge offers informal spaces along with the building envelope. The proposal presents one possible moment and combination of the system. It highlights the synthetic condition of the form, allowing nature to coexist. It also indicates its capacity to generate varied spatial quality and serve a varied function.

F.4 Week 6 Reflection

Design Development It will be worthy to think about the role of the designer in decision making. Instead of just form-making, the thesis should continue to investigate the architectural application of the system and see whether the system could stretch over the ground. The design could start to introduce movement in the vertical direction, enhancing the verticality of the site. And thesis should continue to build up new possible architectural language using swarm intelligence for gap future design.

Fiction of Future Construction The next stage of the thesis will shift the focus on investigating swarm robotic construction, as a way to inform design. The staging and construction approach can be essential. Subtractive can be reused for additive, under the consideration of sustainability.

092

G.0 Swarm Construction

G.1 Swarm Robotic V.2 To construct giving the rough quality for synthetic structure, the thesis proposes a new swarm robot and construction method. As inspired by the precedent study, it is a novel swarm robot will tunnel into the soil and leave hold void spaces with fibre mesh. It is consisting of expandable drilling bit, forefoot to remove soil and wheels to move and fibre mesh as the tail.

Screw pattern and linear motion of the expandable drill bit51.

51 Junseok Lee, Christian Tirtawardhana, and Hyun Myung, “Development and Analysis of Digging and Soil Removing Mechanisms for Mole-Bot: Bio-Inspired Mole-Like Drilling Robot,” August 4, 2020, http://arxiv.org/abs/2008.12229.

Expansion mechanism expandable blades52.

52 Lee, Tirtawardhana, and Myung.

of

the

Soil removing mechanism53.

53 Lee, Tirtawardhana, and Myung.

Expandable air pipe mechanism54.

54 Ariel Calderon et al., “An Earthworm-Inspired Soft Robot with Perceptive Artificial Skin Soft Robots View Project Duckietown Chile View Project An Earthworm-Inspired Soft Robot With Perceptive Artificial Skin,” Iopscience.Iop.Org, accessed October 3, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ab1440.

G.2 Fabrication Procedure

Sequence 01 Start with the initial position.

Sequence 02 Extend drill bit and expand the blade.

Sequence 03 Rotate drill bit and crushing soil.

Sequence 04 Retract drill bit .

Sequence 05 Move forelimbs forward.

Sequence 06 Remove soil to the side with forelimbs.

Sequence 07 Return to the initial position.

Sequence 08 Inflate pipe to expand fibre mesh.

Sequence 09 Repeat excavating procedures and move forward.

Sequence 10 Twist and change direction.

Sequence 11 Move forward with changing direction.

Sequence 12 Leave fibre mesh to hold void space.

098

The construction procedure is proposed based on the existing system. The Peri panel55 hold contains soil. The soil is excavating from the park which later on will form wetland.

Two sizes of robot work at the same time. Red as the primary structure, the robot in blue providing surface condition.

The system is very similar to the logic of the secant piling wall56.

The expanded fibre mesh will hold void spaces. We will pump self-compacting concrete57 with Helix micro reinforcement58 to flow into all tunnels.

Peri panel

Helix steel

Secant piling wall 55 “TRIO Panel Formwork,” accessed October 3, 2020, https://www.periaus.com.au/ products/formwork/wall-formwork/trio-panel-formwork.html.

56 “Secant and Sheet Piled Walls | Keller Australia,” accessed October 3, 2020, https:// www.keller.com.au/expertise/techniques/secant-and-sheet-piled-walls.

G.3 On-site Construction

0 0.215 0.43

0.86

1.72m

57 H. Okamura, K. Ozawa, and M. Ouchi, “Self-Compacting Concrete,” Structural Concrete 1, no. 1 (March 2000): 3–17, https://doi.org/10.1680/stco.2000.1.1.3.

58 “The Concrete Reinforcement Revolution Is Here – and Helix® Micro RebarTM Has Already Won - Helix Steel,” accessed October 3, 2020, https://www.helixsteel.com/ news/the-concrete-reinforcement-revolution-is-here-and-helix-micro-rebar-has-alreadywon/.

Construction Sequence 01 Build peri panels and transport soil

Construction Sequence 02

0102

0 0.134 0.268

0.536

1.072m

Swarm robotics tunnel into soil and expand fibre mesh to hold structure

0 0.065 0.13

0.26

0.52m

Construction Sequence 03 Casting self-compacting concrete

Construction Sequence 04

0104

Remove soil with hydro vacuum extractor 0 0.065 0.13

0.26

0.52m

0 0.065 0.13

0.26

0.52m

H.0 Synthetic Environment 0106

H.1 New Territory V.2 After the proposal for new construction, the swarm behaviour is recalibrated with mechanical behaviour. Here it shows the unique aesthetic created by machine and system. It indicates how the agent flows from ground to walkway, which becomes the path for leading the stormwater into the wetland. The roughness of synthetic structure creates a passive condition allow nature to co-exist and grow. Also, it highlights the continuity and extension of space.

0108

H.2 Week 9 Reflection

Next step:

01 The thesis needs to focus social implication.

02 Explode more how the notion of digital naturalism inform the design. How could human and nature co-exit in the design and how it creates an impact?

03 Focus on the issue and opportunity of site. What is the long-term effect of synthetic structure on site?

04 Ecological aspect: pulsing strategy – bio-infiltration? Redundancy in the system, different rate of admission system. Sacrificial – remedial issue.

H.3 Digital Naturalism The Final design proposal: The proposed design is one section of the swarm landscape located at the western edge of the site. The thesis proposes an elevated bridge structure extended from the park and connect to the future building. The design is integrated with flooding management strategy and the native ecosystem. It examines the performativity of system informed by the swarm intelligence. It is the implementation of new digital naturalism. The design approach and consideration will be further demonstrated in following series of drawings.

H.4 New Territory V.3_Plan 01

H.4 New Territory V.3_Plan 02

H.4 New Territory V.3_Plan 03

H.5 New Territory V.3_Section A.1 As a passive tool to integrate with nature, the design introduces water and soil as key elements of the system.

It makes a fundamental shift on the material. Soil is not just construction material but also will be maintained as a live system. It is a radical step to introduce a new building type.

0120

H.5 New Territory V.3_Section A.2 The slightly varied agent behaviour contributes to the varied density of the surface. The size of the swarm robot contributes to the thickness of the surfaces. By allowing agent flowing through the site horizontally, varied interface with different height is emerged and layered, together contributed to a live infrastructure to facilitate native ecosystem. The soil used in construction will be deliberately left to fill in the gaps between surfaces. Those gaps later allow rainwater to flow through and eventually discharged into the wetland.

0122

H.5 New Territory V.3_Section B.1 Flooding Scenario The new structure is designed to mediate flooding issue of the future fishermen’s campus. There few strategies highlighted in the design.

01 Wetland as detention Area The wetland designed to held water for a period until the storm water level has fallen and water can be therefore discharged to Yarra River by gravity.

02 Ramps as a water channel The agents flow from wetland upper to connect the bright which naturally form the water channel leading the rainwater from bridge to the wetland by gravity.

0124

H.5 New Territory V.3_Section B.2 Flooding Scenario 03 Bridge as rainwater surface collector As showed in section, the surface of the bridge is stepped down to the park allowing rainwater to naturally flows to the wetland. The timber deck is elevated with steel bracket ensuring the use of the walkway even in heavy storm scenario.

04 Column as temporary surface detention The road surface underneath the bridge is inclined to lead water to the surface detention underneath each column. The detention structure consists of infiltration and drainage layer able to retain small amount of rainwater.

This strategy ensures the use of the Fisherman’s Drive in flooding period.

05 Network Shown in section, the road surface detention and column surface detention are all connected to the rainwater storage pipe. The section shows in the extreme storm event, the rainwater will be pumped to storage in the wetland and later discharged by gravity to Yarra River.

0126

H.6 Swarm Connection This image is the view from the car underneath the bridge. It shows the approach to the UoM campus from the wetland. The inclined stone walkway extends park seamlessly to the campus.

The gaps bring the lights to the walkway.

Overall, it creates a certain level of enclosure and openness between the park and building.

0128

H.6 Swarm Topography This is image is a future projection of new swarm topography in the background of the existing urban environment and future campus. The structure humbly sprawling from the ground and flows between the building and nature. It is a design for the future, embedding a solution to climate change and indicate how human adapt to the environment. Also, it indicated a new condition that human and nature not just co-exist but facilitating to each other as one synthetic part.

0130

The model shows the trace of the agents’ movement and robot construction.

The movement is embedded in the form of the structure.

H.6 Physical Model

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The flows of the agents become the flows of the walkway. The characteristic of the behaviour contributes to the gaps of the structure and provide the possibility of the nature infill. The swarm becomes technique to weave the movement, material and function together.

H.6 Physical Model _Detail

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Schedule 01

Schedule 02

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Schedule 03

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A Synthetic Environment for Nature and Architecture using Swarm Intelligence

Yuhan(Psyche) Hou, 743234

Studio Supervisor : Paul Loh Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne

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