Digital refining: new winery for “Consorzio Vini Tipici di San Marino” _[boards]

These are the boards I arranged for my thesis presentation:

 

Digital refining: new winery for “Consorzio Vini Tipici di San Marino” _[abstract]

This is an abstract of my thesis project Digital refining: new winery for “Consorzio Vini Tipici di San Marino”, supervisor Prof. Alessio Erioli. 

The work, that led to the design of the new winery for “Consorzio Vini Tipici di San Marino”, started with research about the shift of paradigm (from mechanicistic to ecological) that is affecting all the fields of human activity and consequently the architectural one. The new paradigm reveals how life on Earth belong to a big single web-system structured on many levels. This system is composed by all the environments and by all the living creatures that composed them, mutually influencing themselves in a cyclical way. The application of these ideas in architecture develops a new sensitivity that, starting from deep researches in the field of biology, studies how natural systems grow, differentiate and relate themselves with the external environment. The extrapolation of these natural laws, and its application in architectural field, allow to study, in depth and in a more efficient way, the relationship between the project and the environment (physical, cultural, social) which is located in.

From this point of view was developed a research on the algorithm of phyllotaxis: a system of natural closest packing that plants use to organize the arrangement of their lateral organs (leaves on a stem, scales on a cone axis, florets in a composite flower head) to optimize their exposure to rainfall and sunlight. The algorithm was reproduced, through the use of parametric design software (rhinoscript and grasshopper), and utilized for a case study on the generation of architectural shape. Subsequent elaborations allowed to link the algorithm of phyllotaxis to Incident Solar Radiation analysis on the architectural surfaces. In this way I could differentiate structure's permeability to sunlight on the basis of environmental data. The interaction between the algorithm (endogenous bind) and the solar gradient (exogenous bind), allows to generate an architectural shape directly influenced by the environment in which is located.

This research was applied to the design of the new winery for “Consorzio Vini Tipici di San Marino”. A winery is a complex system that made necessary a deep analysis of the relationship between the inner activities and the environmental factors. This interaction, between project and site, allowed to organize a gravity system of reception of grapes, with a remarkable increase of quality of produced wine. Besides, sightseeing areas were integrated in the inner work spaces to permit a complete comprehension of the “wine cycle” by the visitors. Solved the functional structure of the building, the algorithm of phyllotaxis was used to create multiperformance membranes that perform structural function of covering and adjustment of sunlight permeability at the same time. In this way, in every area of the winery, variation of sunlight permeability allowed to create heterogeneous working environment in which coexist working areas (with excellent natural lighting levels) and storage areas (with low lighting levels that contribute to a better maturation of wine).

phyllotaxis pavilion 02

this is another evolution in my pavilion project.
i used two Fibonacci's number (13 and 21) different from previous experiment, in this way i could obtain smaller panels that make more evident the modulation of holes.
i modified the tubolar shape, so in the middle of the generator curve the pavilion section is more similar to an ellipse than a circle.
to obtain a more standardized shape of the triangular panel (in previous experiments they are more stretched in pavilion extremes), generator curve is not divided in equal part but division lenght change with the distance from an attractor point (which influences pavilion radius also).
for this pavilion i created a double membrane, it's thicker near the ground (to be more resistant) and became thinner going to the top.
the modulation of holes is achieved by an attractor point placed near the middle of the curve generator.

You can download the script here!.

phyllotaxis pavilion 01: paneling

Just some improvement in the pavilion:
I modified the script and now pavilion structure can comply modifications of the soil. I also created a linear frame for each triangular face, so I could catalogue and analyze them one by one.

pavilion + ecotect

I've seen, on atelier nGai site, a very interesting tutorial on the use of Ecotect and Rhinoscript.
I took the script made by Ted Ngai and adapted it to my pavilion.
I created a mesh similar to the pavilion shape, I put it into Ecotect and analysed Incident Solar Radiation during a day. I obtained values for every mesh faces, I saved them in excel and after brought them into my pavilion script. In this way I created a new pavilion: hole size on triangular face depend on Incident Solar Radiation value on that face during a day.

phyllotaxis pavilion 01

The code (based on the previous phyllotaxis analysis) realizes a pavilion along a selected curve. Pavilion internal radius is influenced by the distance between the curve and an attractor point. Holes-size is related to the distance between the curve and another attractor point (placed in this case near curve's midpoint). In this way holes become smaller moving towards curve's midpoint.

Download it, here.

phyllotaxis 01

From wikipedia:

In botany, phyllotaxis is the arrangement of the leaves on the stem of a plant. Phyllotactic architecture optimizes access to moisture, rainfall and sunlight.
The basic patterns are alternate, opposite, whorled or spiral.
The repeating spiral can be represented by a fraction describing the angle of windings leaf per leaf.
Alternate leaves will have an angle of 1/2 of a full rotation. In beech and hazel the angle is 1/3, in oak and apricot it is 2/5, in poplar and pear it is 3/8, and in willow and almond the angle is 5/13.[2] The numerator and denominator normally consist of a Fibonacci number and its second successor. The number of leaves is sometimes called rank, in the case of simple Fibonacci ratios, because the leaves line up in vertical rows. With larger Fibonacci pairs, the pattern becomes complex and non-repeating. This tends to occur with a basal configuration. Examples can be found in composite flowers and seed heads.
The most famous example is the sunflower head. This phyllotactic pattern creates an optical illusion of criss-crossing spirals. In the botanical literature, these designs are described by the number of counter-clockwise spirals and the number of clockwise spirals. These also turn out to be Fibonacci numbers. In some cases, the numbers appear to be multiples of Fibonacci numbers because the spirals consist of whorls. The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiraling pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.

                                      

I created a script based on Fibonacci spiral. Spiral are created along a curve selected by the user. Radius of the tube-shaped surface on which are settled spirals is influenced from the distance between curve and a selected point.

This is my first attempt...I’m working to improve it!!
You can download it here!!