[NTUT] Digital Fabrication: [DF 2013] Group 4 :Digitalize

Goal

Structure -Standing

Hoping to create a strong structure that can sustain itself was the first priority when designed the structure. Different from hanging the model, the standing model could show the unit composition of the design structure.

Form -Crystallization

Came from the idea of Bionics, we used parametric tools to create the crystallization form. Inspired by the nature form, several designs were proposed during the study process.

Composition1 -Minimal Surface

Minimal surface is a common way while applying parametric tools into design study. Derived from several spatial design studies, we found out that minimal surface is a very good way to show the spatial perception.

Composition2 -Voronoi
We applied voronoi to create the crystallized shape. we considered voronoi a interesting and fast way to create lots of geometrical units. So voronoi was the first priority while choosing the foremost parametric method.

To Begin With
Hand-made mockup

Inspired by the several concepts above, we applied some simple material to study the form of the basic model.
Parametric tools were applied in the next step to control the fabrication procedure and design details in a more precise way.

Fabrication Process

Part 1. General form fabrication

Proposal 1 - voronoi/applying weave bird to create surface from basic frame/scaling to create minimal surface

scaling

problem -
1.this proposal created lots of irregular polygon surfaces, might cause structural problems during the procedure.
2.Applied weave bird would create mesh instead of surface, which made the following step harder to operate.

Proposal 2 - voronoi/applying weave bird to create surface from basic frame/create a curve in the basic frame/scaling the curve to create minimal surface

problem - hard to make the connection part of lofted surfaces smooth.

Proposal 3 - Wearable Installation
In order to create a free form to match the shape of human body, some parametric method were edited.

Proposal 3- voronoi/create planar surface without using weave bird/create a surface in Rhino that matches our body/eliminate cells which were outside the shape

Create basic unit

Create joint

voronoi

Cone surface and unit cells

Final form( eliminate cells outside the cone shape )

Part 2. Joint fabrication
Proposal 3 was chosen as our prototype to study following details. Joints design study and structural stability are our mainly consideration.

Proposal 1 - "Crown shape" Joint

Problem -
1.The shape of each part are irregular polygon, which made the fabrication procedure more complicated.
2.Too many joints were needed in order to make the structure stable, and the procedure will be prolonged if such amount of joints were required.

Proposal 2 - Applied metal gadget as joint.

Process - Pepakura designer/3D model fatten to 2D wire frame/fabricate model by connecting metal gadget and each cells

Part 3. Installation in NTUT Design Department

Base on the research in the past several studies, this project aimed to make an installation mockup in the hall of design department. A thin and 3 meter tall cone shape is decided to match the vertical void space.