Concepts/Experiments

I'm still getting a handle on the software side of things so these concepts are coming out a lot like experiments in using the software.

Lotus/Wheel Concept

Some quick concepts combining the lotus flower with the eight spoked wheel (a lotus flower with eight "sides")

Experimenting in TopMod, creating a simple shape from a tetrahedron.

TopMod3d is a free, open source, portable, platform independent topological mesh modeling system that allows users to create high genus 2-manifold (watertight) meshes.

Then playing with the shape in Rhino to create an eight sided lotus.

Digital Fabrications

I found a nice book today called Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques, by Lisa Iwamoto.

























I just started reading it but it seems to be a good introduction to digital design. One point in the introduction gave me a clearer idea of what digital design is.

Architects have been drawing digitally for nearly thirty years. CAD programs have made two dimensional drawing efficient, easy to edit, and, with a little practice, simple to do. Yet for many years, as the process of making steadily shifted from being analog to digital, the design of buildings did not really reflect the change. CAD replaced drawing with a parallel rule and lead pointer, but buildings looked pretty much the same. This is perhaps not so surprising - one form of two-dimensional representation simply replaced another. It took three-dimensional-computer modelling and digital fabrication to energize design thinking and expand the boundaries of architectural form and construction."

The book covers five different methods of digital fabrication and shows how students and architects have used these methods in their projects. The methods covered are as follows:

Sectioning.























Tessellating.



















Folding.


















Contouring.




















Forming.

Folie Presentation

My folie design as presented in Week 3.