s h i f t

tomos ::: parametric furniture

2010-03-19T12:25:00.005+01:00

These are some images of my competition entry for the street furniture competition organized by Architecture for Humanity in Chicago. My work was chosen among the finalists.

tomos (Greek word for “cut”) answers to the need for redevelopment of underutilized spaces with a multiplicity of different solutions. Infinite opportunity of utilize at user’s disposal are embedded in this single object.
Its complex morphology creates diversified spaces such as:
- seats with different height (for adults and children)
- an horizontal plane useable as a table
- inclined surfaces for relax and sport
Prerogrative of tomos is to supply a variety of function in order to integrate itself in every situation and contribute to the redevelopment of different neglected spaces.
Structure of tomos is based on principle of tomography: section with 2 cm of thickness are placed in series with a distance of 2 cm from each other. In this way is maintained fluidity in object’s morphology and a remarkable ergonomic comfort in the seats. This is also a solution for saving a considerable amount of material.

A single tomos (length 470 cm) is composed by 117 pieces, obtained from 6 PVC sheets (dimension 200 x 300 cm). Productive process is optimized clustering pieces in each sheet in order to minimize waste. In each piece are designed holes in which will be inserted steel bars with a diameter of 2.5 cm in order to guarantee cohesion and lengthwise stiffness to the entire structure. Bolts, with a thickness of 2 cm, will be placed among the section to maintain them in the desired distance (2 cm).
A CNC milling machine is utilized to obtain all the pieces from 6 PVC sheets. During the cut every single section is identified with a code (carved on its surface), that determines its assembly order and assure a considerable speed in this operation.
Sections that compose tomos are moulded in order to guarantee high resistance performances to external stresses exploiting less amount of material; moreover PVC owns excellent features of recycle so that discards produced during manufacturing process can be straight recycled. Simplicity in assembly operation was studied in order to permit a future disassembly of the structure and its reuse in the following season. If this will not take place, all the structure will be recycled considering that PVC and steel are material with excellent features of recycle.

recursive triangulation [vb.Net]

2010-03-16T15:23:00.009+01:00

This is one of my first attempts to learn vb.Net.
I tried to recreate a script I realized in rhinoscript some months ago (link).
This tessellation is based on the use of a recursive function. Triangles are divided in two parts until the distance between triangle centre and his projection on the surface is shorter than a value adjustable by the user in Grasshopper called "dist_tolSrf" and the lenght of hypotenuse f each triangle is shorter than another value called "dist_tolAng".
You can download Grasshopper file here.

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

2009-12-19T11:30:00.014+01:00

I realized a second model for my thesis presentation: a connection of six panels scale 1:10.
As shown in the pictures I realized structural grid and frames separately.
The load bearing structure of every panel was realized in plywood cut on measures obtained from my rhino files, inner part of the panels was realized in MDF wood through a CNC milling machine and was placed in the structural grid.

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

2009-11-10T19:46:00.029+01:00

At the end of the design process I dealt with a prototyping phase. The aim of this phase was to analyse structural behaviour of a multiperformance membrane and to show the variation of every single component originated from the same “genotype”. Prototyping had also the purpose of demonstrate the capacity for managing and producing a complex shape generated by an algorithm.
A section of a membrane with is respective inner floor was selected for the prototype; I optimized the file for the print dividing it in 7 parts and clustering it in a bucket (25x20x20 cm).

After some little adjustments with Netfabb, the prototype was produced with a Z-Corp 3D printer at SILAB, University of Bologna, with the help of Giovanni Bacci.

The parts of the model were imbued with cyanoacrylate to provide them hardness, after that were assembled in the final mock-up.

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

2009-11-03T00:48:00.039+01:00

These are the boards I arranged for my thesis presentation:

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

2009-10-28T00:30:00.026+01:00

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

2009-03-27T16:21:00.005+01:00

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

2009-03-14T19:05:00.009+01:00

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

2009-03-01T21:13:00.006+01:00

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

2009-02-18T15:31:00.027+01:00

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

2009-02-08T12:12:00.028+01:00

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!!

surface tessellation 01

2009-02-06T17:23:00.030+01:00

I've seen on opensystem blog an interesting script that uses squares to tessellate a surface.So i created a similar script that uses triangles instead of squares. It's a little bit more complicated because it creates lofted surface in the end.

This script is based on the use of recursive function. Triangles are divided in two part until the distance between triangle centre and his projection on the surface is less than a value adjustable by the user. After that are created 3 different curves in each triangle, that are lofted to obtain a surface.

You can download the script here!!