New York is trying a one year long experiment by closing Times Square to the cars and offer it to pedestrians. Good thing is as long as it is a time limited experiment nothing seems to have been really adapted for pedestrians so it looks like a sit-in invasions against the evil-poluting darl forces of cars (!)
Contemporary techniques of layered fabrication can alter the abilities of designers to engage with the material properties and performance. Increased geometric control, digital production methods and a stronger implementation of material science offer the potential to constitute a new material behaviors of future building components. These processes can be used to address local changes in the building component´s definition that alter material organization, structural behavior and performance over time. The material consequences have the potential to change the way we will construct and design buildings. Rapid Prototyping technology evolved in less than 30 years from a proof of concept state towards an elaborated manufacturing technology. Recent Innovations allow the simultaneous print from two source model materials and can create a total of 21 interpolated types of digital materials that contain specifically addressable physical properties as e.g. tensile and flexural strength or modulus of elasticity. The technology operates with a steering technology that allows the synchronisation of eight print heads (6 for material and 2 for the support structure) heads with 96 individual nozzles. The implementation of physical properties shifts the role of the model further away from mere representation towards a manufacturing process. This investigation of a future implementation of RP technology for 1:1 applications seems therefore justified. These innovations can be synchronized with present-day 3D CAD modeling tools that allow the successful implementation of performance data derived from Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or energetic simulation. The research is centered on how these recent developments in the field of Rapid Prototyping Technology can be employed for a study on performance based material composition with different structural systems. The research has accomplished the first phase that was centered on gaining parametric control over a series of material compositions (including weaving; knitting etc.). The next step will assign the performance based digital materials to probes that are tested by Institute of Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen University and the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung in Berlin
The research develops a parametrically driven foam structure that has auxetic properties. Auxetic material expands under pulling forces contrary to common materials. The research parametrically drives a spacefilling component derived from metallic foams ( see also: Negative Poisson's Ratio Polymeric and Metallic Foams adapted from Friis, E. A., Lakes, R. S., and Park, J. B., "Negative Poisson's ratio polymeric and metallic materials", Journal of Materials Science, 23, 4406-4414 (1988).)
RP Prototyping of Auxtetic foam structure
RP Prototyping of Auxtetic foam structure
Multi material printing allows for an implementation of internal geometries that control movement constraints without additional building components as hinges etc. The material itself contains structural qualities that block or allow certain dynamic properties.
Modells generously sponsored by Objet Geometries
Internal Pneumatic system (with Bernhard Sommer, Energy Design, Die Angewandte Wien) To combine inflatable structures with the RP technology introduces dynamic qualities to highly customized building parts. The quality of the structural performance, the appearance, the transparency and the permeability of such parts can be changed continuously. These changes reveal and exploit the digital structure in a unique way. Rapid Prototyping thus is used not anymore as “proto” typing, but becomes a production method in its own, which leads to complete new applications in building construction. Looking at the development of Rapid Prototyping technology from its earliest phase in the late 1970ies to its first commercial application in the late 1980ies and to the diversity in print materials we encounter today, we can expect to leave behind the usual scope of a model´s scale. The impact of this material integration will leave its traces in the applications, concepts and processes of design creation.
Study on material organization that is derived from particle animation.
Geoff Manaugh (BLDG BLOG) is everywhere nowadays ! Tomorrow, friday he'll be organizing with Liam Young an all day long symposium in the AA called Thrilling Wonder Stories: Speculative futures for an alternate present.
Eduardo McInstosh sent me another very interesting work he did, questionning the contemporary human as an individual and providing him the ideal tool for this purpose:
Those municipal buildings are located in the core of Mumbai and host families in transit between two housings. They are entirely made of prefabricated elements such as gypson panels and steel structure and introduces an interesting urban insertion.
This musical chair has been designed by two students from Waterloo University in Toronto, Shamir Panchal and Ray Wang:The Tagore Chair, dedicated to this mystic and visionary man, is a seat of sublime action, a platform of energy and music upon which knowledge and understanding rest, but only momentarily until they are uttered to the world. The chair is a place for Tagore to work both spiritually and physically. A system of pistons, springs, and guitar strings turn a seemingly static piece into a dynamic instrument sensitive to the movement body. Although strange and unbalanced at first, the chair and user achieve a state of equilibrium, creating a space of harmony and silence in which to explore the innermost worlds. It is the seat of the deepest emotions and creative powers, where musical perfection abounds, where the beauties of language persist, and where the visions of the mind take form.
Following few pictures of the work of, the polish born artist Jerzy Goliszewski.
Here is an article on Wired.com about a google street like program called Wild Style City where you can draw graffiti with impunity in the virtual streets of San Francisco. The issue is then that most of graffiti interest comes from the fact that it is a form of transgression towards the constituted system which obviously is not the case here...
Michel Macreau could be said to be the French Jean Michel Basquiat, drawing and painting on the walls of Paris far before the re-born of graffiti. An exhibition currently introduces his work in La Halle Saint Pierre in Paris until August 28th.
Peter Jellitsch aka Zoarchitect sent me some pictures of his last Angewandte work called Laser Engraving, hl series. He uses old wooden surfaces (old doors, used tabletops etc.) to engrave his bichrome project's representation in it just like we used to do in school with a pen or a knife. Results are some kind of fossils belonging to an unknown past.
Here is a project I wanted to publish for a long time, House of Laminar Torrents is a project designed by Jintana Tantinirundr and Belle Tang for Richard Sarrac's Pratt Institute studio which was tryingto investigate how to optimize the introduction of natural light by the mean of standard manufactured VELUX products.
