Parti, form, and performance art

Continuing the drawing element from my initial designs, I think Carolee Schneemann's performance art piece Up to and Including Her Limits would be a fitting way to tie the projects together.

For this reason, I decided to experiment with her form in creating a suitable parti diagram and seeing if kinetic spaces of the building could be identified from this process. Below are my results using the first image. I initially noted that her whole body was in movement via a single dashed line, but it became apparent that in that instant, her legs, hips and one arm would be doing the movement. I then indicated the vertical motion of her legs and arm via a thinner purple dash. The final geometry seems to be very simple (a connection of squares and triangles), but perhaps this will work well in the site context in relation to the Story Bridge and sheds. I'll most likely explore this configuration.

Inflatable enclosures

As a response to site flooding and a development of the transparency of materials I explored in the canvas structure of project 1, I've decided to look in to inflatable architecture as an element of my proposal. Obviously it will only be used in a certain area as the structural qualities create a limitation of its application.

From exemplar studies, there appear to be 2 kinds of inflatable spaces:

1. Inflated structural elements with occupiable space in between; 
2. Inflated enclosure.

 1. Inflated structural element: 

Alexis Rochas' Aeromads installation

Pros: Forms can be manipulated and highly controlled, allowing for the creation of walls and multiple spaces.
Spaces inflated/deflated independently of each other.

Cons: Flooring would be too delicate and impractical if it were to be inflatable.
As a roofing structure it wouldn't be entirely weatherproof.



2. Inflated enclosures:

Clean air pod performance at Rolling Stones concert

Top to bottom: 1960s inflatable by Jersey Devil
1965 Environment Bubble by Banham & Dallegret
1967 Pneumakosm by Haus-Rucker-Co
1970 Clean Air Pod by Ant Farm

Pros: Inhabitants can respond to form in high and low pressure undulations of the material. Large expanse of space.

Cons: Form seems to be very limited to a bubble or 'packet'-like shape.

The structural inflation seems most practical in terms of the activities taking place, and also allows for the spaces to be changed (inflated independently), removed (deflated), and also even attached to another moving element to create two volatile spaces in one.

Week 10 - Interim presentation and reflections

My final panels I think work well visually. I tried to incorporate a few elements that allude to movement and also are indicative of my node's activity.

Feedback from Zuzana indicated that I need to work on my graphic presentation re my sections in order to show more depth and distinguish placement of certain elements. She also suggested that I think about where I want to site my building for Project 3 and the relationship flooding has with it, as I explored advancing and receding in this assignment.

Structurally, the device would have worked better if there was rigid framing in the centre to help distribute load more efficiently.

From other students' work, I think the idea of folding and bio-mimicry are ideas I'd like to explore. Folding in particular as the materiality of my design is well suited to that (although I obviously won't be using cardboard as my whole building, I think elements of folding that are translated into other materials will be interesting to explore).

After working on this small node for so many weeks, I'm really pumped to start on a large scale design, as I feel the last two projects were particularly difficult for me as I'm admittedly terrible at small-scale architecture. I already have some ideas about which architects and buildings I want to look at but I guess that all depends on the brief we get.

Week 9 - An analogue series

To continue the sliding motion I explored in the design of the sliding chair/frame, I wanted to install a track that now runs horizontally in order to frame views available from the breaks between the canvas sails. I feel like this is the natural progression of this particular element, as it now ties in the activity of the node with the surrounding site's views in order to further the drawing experience. 

Although very simple on the face of it, trying to find details of a two-way sliding track was very difficult as the wheeled roller I used obviously can't be utilised to slide sideways. For this reason, I looked at ball-bearing tracks but also couldn't find anything. Perhaps I'm Googling the wrong search terms. In any case, I just made a horizontal slider on my model to show how it could work in lateral movement as well.

My model is constructed from cardboard to reflect the importance of this material in the node. I later added in the printed canvas rolls but forgot to take pictures of it.

It only struck me as I was making the model that I wasn't really happy with my node as it didn't feel very architectural. Although there were interesting elements to my design, I think the fact that there was no definite sense of enclosure, or the juxtaposition of open and closed spaces was the reason for this. As a result, I will definitely need to consider this in my final project.

Week 6 - A room for the transformative body

I found this task a bit challenging in that all my components already encompassed movement - the rolling canvases, sliding seats, and hinged cupboard door. I initially wanted to isolate rolling as the movement for the seating, but then found it really confusing trying to differentiate it from sliding as it already existed in the component. For this reason, I decided to extend the sliding component and incorporate the motion of advancing and withdrawing as I had found from site observations.

I first sketched a few different ways this could be achieved through simple pivoting:

After doing a bit of research on furniture design, I was taken by this simple idea of corrugated cardboard furniture which could expand and retract - exactly what I wanted.




It's clear that this material works best when the corrugation runs vertically, as the depth allows for excellent transfer of loads. 

I did a few sketches to see how it would work, the realised that there needed to be a top plate of sorts for the actual sorts to make it a seat. I used cardboard tubing that's also prevalent in the structure, but this time cut them in half as arches. This would help to distribute loads. They're also aligned so that the lines follow your legs when you sit, making it more comfortable than if they were to go in the other direction. A smaller hinged flap acts as the interim between that and the rest of the cardboard, being the same depth width as the cardboard in compression, to allow for a flush fold of the seat plate over the top.

To really activate the seat as more than just a seat, I then decided to cut a hole in the centre so it could also act as a framing device. This was realised simply by allowing it to slide on a track up the poles to frame a section of the works on the canvas. Below are a few images from my process and the final device itself:

(Ignore the 'continuous')