Stefanie Judd638809

Virtual Environments Semester 1

Week 4Group 5

Module 2: Design

This week’s lecture was given by guest speaker Dr. Alex Selenitsch. He talked to us mostly about form, composition and matters. A major theme of the lecture was the idea that 1+1=1, and that two things can come together, just as two things can come apart. I have used various methods or strategies of composition in the creation and growth of my lanterns design. I used the composition idea of interference patterns. My lantern has three distinct layers which all allow light to pass through creating a new pattern when the light overlaps. ‘Assemblage’ was also used in my design, as there are various triangles of different size joint together to create a circular over all shape.

Thomas Heatherwick is a well-known designer and Architect, using the ideas of special effects in many of his studio’s projects he is able to cre-ate designs that interact with their surrounding environments. For exam-ple; in Heatherwick’s TED Talks (2011) video we see his famous ‘Rolling Bridge.’ Though the design of the bridge is intriguing to those who see it, it is less the design that people are drawn in by, but rather the move-ment of the bridge as it changes from a flat ‘normal’ bridge into a ‘work of art.’ It is different and unfamiliar as it is unlike any other bridge that opens up, this one rolls into a polygon/circular shape.

Scheurer & Stehling’s “Lost in Parameter Space” investigates the varia-tion between abstraction, and reduction. Abstraction is lessening the complexity of reality so that it can be defined more simply and easily. On the contrary, reduction is determining the best way to transport it, whilst at the same time not altering it.

These ideas link to the readings in module one, we can see parallels between the way Kandinsky created more abstract pieces though abstraction, and Polling’s focus on developing individual and separate designs.

Week 4 Lecure and Reading Response

Contour MethodI experimented with the contour method, to aid in creating my digital model. Be-cause both sides of my lantern are sym-metrical i used only half of my clay model to demonstrate this method. I initially cut my model in half to expose the vertical cross section

Secondly I drew a series of lines across the bisected mod-el, and then cut through the whole model to produce the five pieces shown below.

These pieces can be used in Rhino to create my digital model by tracing these shapes and using appropriate methods to combine them to form the lanterns shape.

Digitised Model

Steps to create my digitised model:

1. The first thing I did in creating my lanterns shape was to create a sphere2. I then turned gumball on and used it to elongate and pull the sphere into an oval or egg shape3. Using another oval shape overlapping the original shape at an angle, I was able to use the boolean difference command to subtract the overlap of the second oval from the first to create figure four.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Figure 4

Digitised Model Cont.

Step 5 Step 6 Final Product

Steps Continued:

5. Step five involved pulling up and pushing down parts of the side of the shape until it resembled my clay model.6. To complete the model and create the ‘bump’ in the centre I created the shape shown in the step six capture and once again used boolean difference to create a cutout in the base of the model created in step 5. I then placed the curved ‘bump’ shape back into the centre and my model was complete.

Orthographic Images

Using Paneling Tools

To create the ‘skin’ of my lantern I used panelling tools on Rhino. I created a grid (figure 1) so that I could apply different panels to the outside of my lantern. Initially I used the wave 2D panel shown in figure 2, however it did not line up correctly and there were visable gaps between each triangle.

I then changed the wave to a simple triangle and it formed what can be seen in figure 3.

Figure 2 Figure 3

Figure 1

Figure 4

Further Developing My Design

Side View Top View

Main outer section (yellow)

this is the outermost section of the lantern, and will be the most visable. I went into the paneling utili-ties and created these triangular holes in each of the larger triangles. The triangular holes increase in size as they approach the opening at the top of the lantern. These shapes I created are similar to that of my emerging form where I used many triangles and connected them to form a 3D shape with a star opening.

Further Developing My Design

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

Inner Section (Green)

This inner section is the middle section of the lantern, between the yellow and red part. The Idea is that I will put tabs on the edges of each colour part so that I can connect each part to form three layers so that the light travels through these three layers and creates an interesting shadow.

Further Developing My Design

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

The Bump in the Middle (Red)

This is the innermost layer. I used the same method as the other sections to create the triangular shapes and cut-outs. This is the first layer the light will shine through, so will direct light through the other layers.

Bibliography

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/bigart/images/g_architecture_3.jpghttp://www.vam.ac.uk/users/sites/default/files/heatherwick_studio_lightbox_rolling_bridge.jpghttp://www.heatherwick.com