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Minima Maxima
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Minima Maxima
This installation is the winning entry to the NOVEL competition at Woodbury
University, formed to promote faculty research through fabrication. It offers
funding to pursue a research proposal within the framework of juried
competition. Selected proposals were given free access to the digital
fabrication facilities, funds for materials, and three months in which to complete
a project for a juried exhibition.
At
the core of minima(maxima) lies an infatuation with the possibility of creating
much out of little, and of the ability to harness productive overlaps among
oft-isolated realms. Structural theory, physics simulation and digital
fabrication are brought together here through the use of advanced parametric
modeling.
The
processing capability of modern computing has brought about great form-finding
potential, though often at the expense of legibility, efficiency and
constructability. minima(maxima) seeks to recapture these traits through the
deployment of a 3D tensegrity structure. An initial sketch network of
compression and tension members is digitally translated and refined using
real-time physics simulation, yielding an optimized structural solution. This
optimization process, combined with the efficiencies native to tensegrity,
helps to ensure the reduction of structure to the absolute minimum. Fabricating
the structure is (in theory) a straightforward and easily scale-able mode of
production.
One
of the greatest challenges to the deployment of mass-customization technologies
in the real world has been the indeterminacy embedded in projects as a result
of unforeseen conditions. This is especially true while building with
tensegrity – the ‘final’ formal outcome is dependent on material behavior.
Furthermore, there is an embedded flexibility and sway to the system – at once
problematic but also poetic. To accommodate this constant state of flux, the
historical approach has been to deploy stressed skins – flexible fabric,
meshes, nets – which can accommodate a high degree of formal malleability.
minima(maxima) seeks to re-evaluate this relationship toward greater visual
consequence through the use of a large-scale prismatic textile composed of
laser-cut 3D tetrahedra. Once again, real-time physics simulation is deployed
to determine an optimized stressed-skin solution, which is subsequently
subdivided into triangulated components.
The
fabrication strategy is one of simplification and swap-ability, designed to
make maximum use of the available fabrication tools. Compression members are
lengths of off-the-shelf aluminum ‘T’ section, while tensile wires are assembled
and ‘tuned’ thru the use of cable and turnbuckles. Prismatic textile units are
unfolded, nested, and laser cut from glossy card-stock. Each component is then
folded and joined through rivet connections.
This
proposal posits a non-linear approach to the use of advanced technologies,
making productive work of the overlaps and feedback to be found among the
realms of design, computer science, engineering, and fabrication. In working
beyond the scale of the model, there exists the possibility to bind these
diverse fields together through a process of full-scale prototyping, tuned
toward the use of common digital fabrication technologies.Thanks to: Woodbury
University Digi-Fab Lab, Michelle Wilson, Ahmed Shokir, Robbie Mehring, Brandon Kemp, Anali
Gharakhani, Esther Sahagun-Soto, Michael Kuroda + Others
University, formed to promote faculty research through fabrication. It offers
funding to pursue a research proposal within the framework of juried
competition. Selected proposals were given free access to the digital
fabrication facilities, funds for materials, and three months in which to complete
a project for a juried exhibition.
At
the core of minima(maxima) lies an infatuation with the possibility of creating
much out of little, and of the ability to harness productive overlaps among
oft-isolated realms. Structural theory, physics simulation and digital
fabrication are brought together here through the use of advanced parametric
modeling.
The
processing capability of modern computing has brought about great form-finding
potential, though often at the expense of legibility, efficiency and
constructability. minima(maxima) seeks to recapture these traits through the
deployment of a 3D tensegrity structure. An initial sketch network of
compression and tension members is digitally translated and refined using
real-time physics simulation, yielding an optimized structural solution. This
optimization process, combined with the efficiencies native to tensegrity,
helps to ensure the reduction of structure to the absolute minimum. Fabricating
the structure is (in theory) a straightforward and easily scale-able mode of
production.
One
of the greatest challenges to the deployment of mass-customization technologies
in the real world has been the indeterminacy embedded in projects as a result
of unforeseen conditions. This is especially true while building with
tensegrity – the ‘final’ formal outcome is dependent on material behavior.
Furthermore, there is an embedded flexibility and sway to the system – at once
problematic but also poetic. To accommodate this constant state of flux, the
historical approach has been to deploy stressed skins – flexible fabric,
meshes, nets – which can accommodate a high degree of formal malleability.
minima(maxima) seeks to re-evaluate this relationship toward greater visual
consequence through the use of a large-scale prismatic textile composed of
laser-cut 3D tetrahedra. Once again, real-time physics simulation is deployed
to determine an optimized stressed-skin solution, which is subsequently
subdivided into triangulated components.
The
fabrication strategy is one of simplification and swap-ability, designed to
make maximum use of the available fabrication tools. Compression members are
lengths of off-the-shelf aluminum ‘T’ section, while tensile wires are assembled
and ‘tuned’ thru the use of cable and turnbuckles. Prismatic textile units are
unfolded, nested, and laser cut from glossy card-stock. Each component is then
folded and joined through rivet connections.
This
proposal posits a non-linear approach to the use of advanced technologies,
making productive work of the overlaps and feedback to be found among the
realms of design, computer science, engineering, and fabrication. In working
beyond the scale of the model, there exists the possibility to bind these
diverse fields together through a process of full-scale prototyping, tuned
toward the use of common digital fabrication technologies.Thanks to: Woodbury
University Digi-Fab Lab, Michelle Wilson, Ahmed Shokir, Robbie Mehring, Brandon Kemp, Anali
Gharakhani, Esther Sahagun-Soto, Michael Kuroda + Others
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