Project007 Flat Form

Unfold command is especially helpful to manufacture a digital model by unfolding and flattening the 3D form.

2D framework based using affinity command

3D framework by projecting the 2D framework to a bulging surface

build geometry base on a set of 4 points

unfold geometry

powercopies

geometry controlled by affinity factor

geometry controlled by bulging surface 

Project006 Powerful Replication

Power Copy is especially powerful when dealing with cellular architecture envelope, which requires much labor in replicating units following the same rule.

Instead of picking unit cell grid point one next another (a-a-b-b), my unit grid point is partially intersected (a-b-a-b), in order to produce a sense of weaving.

 One way of the framework control is through the peak height control of the base

Project005 Framework Form

Peace Bridge_Santiago Calatrava

Framework is one of the dominant methods in generating 3D form. More crucially, framework form is highly relative to the aesthetic of building structure and the technique of building construction, which can be radically expressive, like the work of Santiago Calatrava.

Modeling framework form in CATIA enables the optimization of the framework at the technical behavior level by simulating stress distribution in STAAD. The stress analysis via STAAD is coming later.

Project004 Folding Forms

Folding forms are all about the relationship between parts and the whole. 

The example I tried to model is interesting to me in terms of the static of the hexagon part and the dynamic of the interstitial part and their changing proportion of their occupancy when the whole is folding. 

Modeling the folding form is like examining the algorithm of folding. The individual panels, the folding frame, and the assembly of them are the three elements of folding form. Meanwhile, the factor that process folding can be tricky. It is the last constraint of the parts before the whole become unique. In this case, I set the folding factor in two ways, either the angle of individual panels or the angle of the folding frame.

change angle of folding frames

change angle of individual panels

The only thing out of my expectation is that the hexagon part is actually not planar, which makes sense when I focus at the small area of the example picture imagining the folding process happening there. So the paper has to be bent a little when trying to make the form physical, or there may be another sub-folding system within the hexagon parts. 

Reading Response 001: Keepers Of The Geometry

Before computer-aided design been wide spread in architectural practice, architects are keepers of the geometry for sure. While the emergence of computer-aided design is optimizing efficiency, creativity, legibility, it is shearing the jurisdiction of architects, transforming the authority of design process.

It is all about the new roles and new relationships that have been generated by CATIA, one of computer-aided design softwares, For those who have a speciality in operating CATIA, the simulation of the collaborative physical knowledge of the entire design team enables them a new role in the office as competing with others. For those, similar with Morris, who have speciality in working on the concept phase of design and hold a positive attitude to CATIA,the people who operate CATIA become their apprentice, modeling a range of ideas and reconfiguring the master-apprentice relationship.

What new role CATIA team should play in an office? It is still squabble. What I believe is that CATIA cannot think, so it cannot control the design process only. It should be a problem on specialization of labor and how the speciality feed back the design process, thus being integrated within the entire design process.