Jeffrey Sipprell
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October 26, 2005
New path to the Manifold
This past week we reworked the model based on some of the sectional and connection properties brought up from the previous week. We became fascinated with the sectional attributes of the way voids were formed by our initial petal study and began to speculate how that could be enriched through a process of de/lamination.
Coupling this idea with a desire to create a more easily formed surface - and one that could be tiled in such a way to create an object - we produced a model that looked like an evil eye from the side (particularly with some of the lighting effects we began to conjure through a few quickly performed photoshop dodges). It's getting there and this week brought some further refinement in the shape and some more investigation into how this thing is connected (sorely missing from last week's boards). So tomorrow we'll hit the surfcam, produce some g-codes and start the fabrication. Pictures to follow very soon!
Geometry Rendering - Axon
Geometry Rendering - Plan
Geometry Rendering - Section
Effects Rendering - Axon
Effects Rendering - Plan
Effects Rendering - Section
Posted by jsipprell at 1:06 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2005
Development of the Manifold
Our development of the construct for our plastic fabrication seminar has focused on connections for the last couple of weeks - particularly types of connections that would be found in the natural world. So instead of glued butt joints, we're looking at friction fits, pressure caps, pin connection and corrugation.
The team has been focusing on the area of the flower between the petal and the ovary sac - with a particular area of interest in how spatial voids are created between these different layers - something that is not common in the other flower examples. Which in the end is probably going to push us into a more effects treatment of the final construct that one based on physics and structure. Laminations, voids, and light could possibly be used to create a pretty rich and nuanced final model.
In the meantime, here are some images of a few discrete connection conditions that we might use. This week we've been introduced to the mill and vacuum former so very soon I'll have some pictures of some initial fabrication studies.
Pressure Cap 1
Pressure Cap 2
Petal Study
Pin Connection
Posted by jsipprell at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
More Minimal Surfaces!
The study of minimal surfaces continues with my old friend from the summer, starfish 2. Rather than a purely technical exercise in development, packing and aggregation, this quarter promises a more rigorous analysis into how these things can become architectural. It's a hell of a lot of work since these things require some serious geometric development and manipulation, but I'm interested in pushing the research with some of the skepticism that came from the summer.
The first week, outside of getting everyone on board with these things, has focused on different degrees of transformation to achieve a combination of sidedness, volumetric hierarchy, gradient porosity and/or singular figuration. For example, a first degree of transformation would be to change the way the surfaces are packed, or to change whether they are made from curves edges or straight edges. These studies unto themselves do not illicit any of the above qualities, but when combined in second and third order transformations (hybridizations of the first), some very interesting formal and spatial qualities begin to emerge.
The image links at the bottom represent our most successful third order study which looks at two types of mirroring and rotating (facial and edge) coupled with a systematic manipulation of edge conditions (boundary and curve) to produce a form that begins to achieve the above 4 qualities to various degrees. David agreed that it was pretty successful and we've been assigned the task of 3D printing it this weekend.
Of course concurrent to that venture, we now have to begin studying coral and sponges as a way to exploit the erosion of modularity and the evocation of the figure. This will be done through four general lenses of examination - scale, color, sensibility and performance. I'll post some images shortly of the object or objects my partner and I are going to pursue for study.
Elevational Axon 1
Elevational Axon 2
Sectional Axon
Elevation 1
Elevation 2
Posted by jsipprell at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2005
Beginnings of a Manifold
This marks the first post in what will potentially be a really thought provoking body of research into the fabrication of plastic manifolds. Working again with Jason Payne, who was my studio professor in the Summer, the class has been assembled into groups and asked to examine the drawings of Arthur Harry Church. Our group has chosen the Heterotoma for further analysis and investigation, a flower which looks quite simple in its formal structure, but contains some very elegant multilayered conditions in the area where the petal, receptacle and reproductive center of the flower come together - creating various gradients of friction, compression and tension. We'll be working these things through drawings for the next week, with an eye towards fabrication, but ultimately the crux of the course will center around the physical processes of milling and vacuum forming. As I have yet to do either of these here at UCLA yet, it's very exciting. Now I just have to decide if I can swing the Hawaii trip from a financial and time standpoint.
From the syllabus:
The course extends the accelerating discourse on conceptual and material plasticity in contemporary design. The recent renewal of interest in plastics for construction in both industry and academia couple with evolving methods for its fabrication produce a growing need for new techniques in plastic formation and assembly. Historically, plastic components in buildings have been just that: components, or sub-systems meant to operate within larger, primary systems. Relatively flat panels and sheets confined within larger frames are symptomatic of this way of conceptualizing architectural plastic. Increasingly, however, the allied opportunities of thickness, volume, and mass in plastic have moved the state of the art toward the formation of bodies and manifolds.
That being said, plastic still comes in sheets. The problem, then, involves the development of assemblies of multiple surfaces that do not resolve into panelized systems. We will approach this problem at the moment of interface between surfaces at the detail scale. We will work with the hypothesis that architectural tectonics contain inadequate and misleading logics for the interconnection of plastic surfaces. Instead, mechanisms found in the vegetative realm will be examined, dissected, and transformed into tectonic conditions more attuned to the material dynamics of an expanded plasticity.
Posted by jsipprell at 5:55 PM | Comments (0)
