Reversal

Looking at the 斗拱 (dougong) in Chinese architecture and thinking of ways to incorporate this into my design (one of my original ideas) made me experiment with flipping the skeleton around. I like the more enclosed feeling form it has created and the resemblance to a lotus flower. The reason for the 斗拱 was to give the roof a wider overhang, protecting the structure from rain, and to enable the eaves to be upturned, permitting light to enter despite the extra wide eaves.

I thought I could build a roof structure using using dougong and turned the skeleton around to allow this. I don't like how complex the structure is becoming though so I may think of another way to create the roof form I want without using dougong. The upturned eaves will also give the form a resemblance of lotus petals turning up and the ends. 

It is taking me too long to figure out how to do this in Rhino so I will export my file and try it in Revit for the concept.

Concept Development

A sketch of an option for a roof.

Concept Development

Using SketchUp for the first time. I've been experimenting with how the files I create can be transferred between programs. Starting in TopMod I have made shapes which I have imported into Rhino and played with. Then I have tried exporting to Revit and SketchUp to play around with the programs. It is the first time I have used any of these programs (except Revit). 

The screen shot below shows an idea I have been playing around with of having a central column. Cables come from the column and over the skeleton to suspend the floor. The column could also be used to support a roof, though I'm not sure a roof is needed as I'm still not too clear on what we are doing with the hexagonal grid structure our buildings are meant to fit into. The finished concept will obviously not look like this, I'm just playing around with SketchUp to demonstrate my idea.

Octahedron Concept

Another concept along the same lines. This time extruding 4 sides of an octahedron in TopMod and arranging in Rhino to create my 8 sided lotus concept.

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.