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DIGITAL DESIGN + FABRICATION SM1, 2015 Dynamic Armour

Jichuan Yu & Tom Harper(657686) Paul Loh

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ContentIdeation--------- 4Design----------- 13Fabrication----- 21Reflection------ 38

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MEASURED DRAWING

The object I studied is a plant support; it has very interesting geometrical shape, which is a ruled surface. All the wood sticks in this objectis actually straight, which means the this object is very simple to construct however it creates very interesting visual ef-fect and volume inside.

1.0 IDEATION

Jichuan Yu

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The length of wach wood stick is measured directly by mea-sureing type, it is 90mm.

I made a circle with sticky tape and then used ruler to measure the length of the sticky tape to determine the radius, it is 11mm.

Making a right triangle by using sticky tapeww to de-termine the angle that the sticks rotate from vertical direction. And using PolarArray command to array 9 units of that to

form this one.Firstly, I tried to consider this geometry of the plant support is formed by this single units.

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The geometrical shape used in this plant stand is ruled surface. According to the definition of the ruled surface, if every point on a surface there are is a straight line through that then this surface is ruled. We can see in this object, every wood stick used in this object is a straight line and they are rotated in a certain angel and together to form the object.

It is interesting that the logic and geometry of the ruled surface is

OBJECT ANALYSIS widely used in objects or structures that we can see everyday. From architecture to small craft work. One of the important features of this ruled surface is the complex but fascinating pure geometry created by those simple lines. I think people like this geometry because it is constructed with very simple elements like straight line, however it creates visual complexity. Behind the complex geometry, it also shows the charm of simplicity.

The reconfigured object try to use a ruled surface to cre-ate a volume. It is basically formed by joining three of this single unit together and this volume is able to accommdate body.

This takes the advantage of thetrancyparency and com-plexity of ruled surface.

RECONFIGURED OBJECT

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In terms of the personal space, this kind of the geometry can provide a effectively defensive layer for the user as user can get into the volume created by those sticks. At the same time, both the user and surrounding people would not feel uncomfortable because the second skin does not block the view of any one. It only provides the individual distance.

Borrowing the idea of a mask helmet, this cage grid does not has to be attached to body to give the pro-tection of the user. Those net mainly composed by batten also provide protection to the personal space without covering the users body, instead, it provides a comfortable distance and space for both users and other individual.

DESIGN CONCEPT 1 DESIGN CONCEPT 2

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This small unit plate are placed over the users body like the amour of a Japanese warrrior. They overlay and overlap each other and provide a defensively protection layer to the users.

2.0 DesignJichuan Yu

& Tom Harper

DESIGN CONCEPT 3

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Taking the original section and profile form of the plant stand, the first thing we considered is what aspects in this form could be the best to integrate to our design and how those aspects could benefit our second skin? And the first idea we borrowed from the object is the transparency. Considering the second skin need to be wearable and accommodate the body, we think the transparency is a very good way to incorporate the body and second skin. People who wear the second skin would still be visible and it is highly related to the experience of both users group and surrounding people. The effect we want to achieve is the protection of individual personal space however it should still allow the good communication and interaction between people.

And we further developed our third idea and concept in the Module 1. We designed and created plates to attach on the base. By this means, the plates can be used to provide protection to the user.

And the plates are not still; they should be able to make movement. This derives from our idea of a dynamic system. We intended to create a dynamic and adjustable system because we strongly believe that the personal space required by users may vary depending on the situations. Therefore, the second skin should be able to allow wearer to adjust their functions in different context.

Instead of making the physical personal space, we aim to use the plate

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND CONCEPT

as a indication or a signal to show the emotional status of the user, and in this way tell surrounding people the desire of the user to have personal space. In other words, surrounding people could know and tell the desire of users of personal space simply through looking at the plate. Although it does not necessarily create a large personal space, it creates a warning effect that is very similar to some wild animals sending warning signal when they are stimulated or in danger. It potentially create space by keep people away from the user.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND CONCEPT

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Joints The joints that connecting all components together is essential because we not only need to use joint for assembling but also to use them for achieving the design intent. Since the second skin project is distinctive design and the joints we need are highly customized which means we could not easily get the ideal product from market. This make us to use 3D modeling tool and 3d printer to produce the ideal product.

JOINTS

This is our original design of joint. It is mainly inspired by a model showed in class, which used a ball joint similar to lego toys. We thought this could be a good solution to our mechanism.

This intervel is used to allow the plate to fit in.

This gap is used to accomo-date the base elements.

The ball joint here is very flexible allow all the movement.

JOINTS PROTOTYPE

This is the joint produced by 3D printing at this stage.

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PANEL DESIGN

In order to achieve the goal of gaining attention and awareness. We tried to design the plates to be eyecatching. For each single plates, we wanted them to have two different colours and when they are flipped they can show the changing of seond skin. For example, the side on front could be warm colours like green, and the other side is some co-lours like red that is able to well send the signal of warning.

MATERIALITY

We tried to use oak wood to be the material of base grid, because it is light in weight but they are relatively strong and rigid, which means they can stay very stable while put on the body. However, as human body is not a rigid object, the base grid made of wood product isn ot soft and adjustable.

Therefore, with the suggestion of our tutor, we tried plaster tude and found it is a perfect material for our project be-cause its great flexibility. It basically attach to body and would move with the body motion. In addition, the softness of this material also make it easier to fix them in the connection point.

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PRECEDENCE STUDY This project uses vertical section to create a unique and very interesting visual experience for the users. I think what we can learn from this project is how they take the advantages of the profile and section works. Firstly, it is the transparency, the sec-tion and profile give people a interesting visual experience between hiddenview and transparency, it is well mixture be-tween transparency and darkness when the section overlap each other. Secondly, it is the visual complexity. When the section pat-tern overlap each other they are no longer being viewed as a single pattern, especially when movement is created, the pattern of each one interact with each other and together contribute to the dynamic complexity of the pattern.

3.0 Fabrication

Jichuan Yu

& Tom Harper

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DESIGN OF PLATE

Inspired by the precedent study, we use single lines and extrusions to connect the sides of the quadrilat-eral. Compare to the idea of changing colour, this one create more interesting visual effect. Expecially, the visual complexity is further developed by the over-lapping of plates and the movement. We believe the variation of pattern created during the movement can achieve our goal of warning effect. They are gener-ated by laser cutter by using Luan Plywood.

DIGITAL MODEL

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Prototype optimisation

At the initial stage , this shape of joint produced by 3D printer is a very successful design because it basically achieved all the de-sired results. The round hole is used to allow tubes to be insert-ed in and the gap in the middle part is used to accommodate the plates.

This small one is used to put and attach to the joints and make it secure and prevent it from mov-ing.

We gave up the idea of ball joint because we need all the plates along a row to move uniformly and along a single axis. And the great flexibility of ball joint make it very hard to achieve this ideal motion.

The movement now is simplified by insert-ing the tube into the hole. When the joint is rotated, the plates attached to them would rotate along only one axis.

For the final refined design of this joint, it mainly overcomeed this problem by us-ing screw. It also allows a small degree of movement horizontally when adjusting the screw.

Digital Model

One of the major problems it has is the gap here, it can not hold the plates very tightly.

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DETAILLING

This item use magnet and 3d printing product to create a ' switch' like mechanism. There are mainly two functions of this item.

Firstly, it is used to release user's hand from the second skin. The end of the strings would be tied on the small item attached on the magnet. Therefore, users do not need to hold the strings all the time. Secondly, as the small item above is able to move along the larger magnet, it allows user to adjust the movement of the second skin easily.

This joint is mainly used in all the fixing point between the two layer of plastic tube in the base.

This joint is used to connect all the end of a tube and make a connection neat by hiding the cutting edge.

This detail joint is used to insert all the tube and make sure they stay in the desired spacing.

Fishing string is selected to be used in our project be-cause they are extremly strong and able to pull all the plates up.

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Model

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The final second skin project is mainly com-posed by four components. And we basically follow these procedure to construct our physical model.

The base tube.

The joints.

Plates.

Strings.

Fabrication Sequence

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The first layer of the base consist of one single continuous loop and all placed through this joint.

The spacing here is controled by the fix-ing point and joints.

The joints are put on and give this base rigidity.

The second type of joint that used to accommoate plates and used to raising them up.

Plates are put on to finish.

Assembly Drawing

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Photos of Final Project

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4.0 Reflection

Jichuan Yu

For the final Second Skin Project, we are very happy to see that most of our mechanism involved in the project work very well and helped to achieve our ideal visual effect. After all the testing and changing in physical model from the materiality to the dimension of a component, the physical model finally achieved our ideal design concept and visual effect. However, there are certainly things have the potential to be push and explored further to have a better result. For example, the design of plate could have the potential to create more interesting visual effect. And other things like what kind of material and joint design could make a neater crafted project are all interesting to improve and explore.

However, despite the result of second skin project, I believe the most important things I learnt are idea, concept and mythology of the digital design and fabrication.

Firstly, as an architecture student, this course give me a heuristic idea of influence of digital driven techniques and methods on design industry right now. As more and more three dimensional model-ing and other digital driven techniques are developed and involved in design industry, we need to understand what requirement now for the designers in these days. As it is suggested in the Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture(Bernstein, 2008): “The consequence is that architects are becoming much more directly involved in the fabrication processes, as they create the informa-tion that is translated by fabricators directly into the control data that drives the digital fabrication equipment.” As we used digital modeling, laser cutter and 3D printer during the fabrication process, we gained a very good experience of this transformation in design industry. We came to realize the close relationship between physical model and digital computability and the great opportunity and convenience it creates. We are able to control all the details and changes in the digital modeling and get them quickly generated from the fabricator. Then go back to our digital model to make refinement after testing the physical prototype. We get our final desired model by repeating this pro-cess. In my opinion, it is this kind of experience that helped me to learn and truly understand the idea of digital design and fabrication.

Secondly, it is the idea of third industrial revolution. This idea is quite influential to me because it trig-gers me the awareness of a transformation we are going through. We are stepping into a new age that people can produce their own customized product, which in The Third Industrial Evolution is re-ferred as ‘distributed manufacturing’. ( Rifkin, 2011) In our project, we realized that we are no longer need to be limited by the manufactory market, those digital driven new technology enable us to produce highly customized product much easier than before.

In addition to all that, I had a really good and unique experience working with my partner who is a student from engineer faculty. The work is done in a very collaborative way by a design student who focus on the overall visual effect and a engineer student who focus on solving the mechanical prob-lem in order to achieve the ideal effect.

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Appendix

Bibliorgraphy

Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing /Branko Kolarevic. Spon Press, London, c2003

Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture/ Philip Bernstein, Peggy Deamer. Princeton Architectural Press. c2008. pp 38-42

Not whole fence by ball-nogues lines baseball field in texas. (2011, November). Retrieved from http://www.designboom.com/architecture/ball-nogues-studio-not-whole-fence-11-11-2014/

The third Industrial Revolution / Jeremy Rifkin. Palgrave Macmillan, C2011.pp107-126

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