SEASHELLS

The pattern of the seashell is very interesting as it comprise both lines and curves. I am interested to explore how analytical drawings can be made based on the fan shaped structure. The dotted patterns (intersection of the lines and curves)of the seashell will form the basis of my design.

RECIPE FOR BASIS FOR ANALYTICAL DRAWINGS: THE FAN SHAPE

1. Using a protractor, make markings on 20° and 160°. Draw a curve to join the two points together.

2. Follow the 90° downwards by x cm and make a point. Join the edges of the curve to the point, forming a fan shape.

3. Draw lines to meet the bottom central point at regular intervals of 10°.

4. Measure y cm away from the curve at 90° . Slide the protractor downwards and draw a semicircle.

5. Repeat step 4 again for about six times.

6. Make a mark at the intersections.Erase all guide lines.

RECIPE FOR ANALYTICAL DRAWING

1. Draw a diagonal line downwards, skipping an entire column and then a straight line upwards.

2. Repeat step 1, moving across the whole of the top row. Starting from the second row, invert the base line and continue the design across the row.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the remaining rows. This time,offset the entire pattern one dot away from the initial point.

4. Complete the entire row and start with the inversion. Repeat steps 1-3 for subsequent dots. FINAL ANALYTICAL DRAWING

The drawing on top is symmetrical about the central vertical axis. The vertical lines seem to be balanced out by the curvature of the fan shaped, hence the entire design is not so rigid. There is certain degree of overlapping in the design, such that the elements are not discrete. One can view the movement of this design as haphazard due to the vertical zig-zag lines all over the place.

SYMMETRY, BALANCE, MOVEMENT

SYMMETRY, BALANCE, MOVEMENT

MOVEMENT

OTHER ANALYTICAL DRAWINGS

BASIC ELEMENT DEVELOPED FROM ANALTYICAL DRAWING

My analytical drawing consists of overlapping triangles which is too complicated as a basic element. Hence, I have extruded the base element to be a triangle with its midpoints on each side slightly skewed to the centre as shown on the right. The triangle has a width 2cm and a height of 1cm.

EMERGING FORMS IN PAPER AND IN RHINO.

1. Start with one main element and three secondary elements. 2. Glue two secondary base element at different sides of the main element. They should be at the halfway mark of the main one, tilted at a certain angle downwards. 3. For the last unit, stick it on the halfway mark of the upper end of the main element instead to achieve a family of four units. 4. Replicate this design on the secondary elements, treating them as main elements.

RECIPE FOR EMERGING FORM.

AL BAHAR TOWERS RESPONSIVE FACADE / AEDAS

This building is built in Abu Dhabi, an area with strong sunlight throughout the day. Hence, the architect has come up with an interesting solution by creating triangles with sides that can be adjusted. During the day, maximum coverage will be provided by the use of triangles, thus reducing glare and keeping the interior of the building cool. At night, the area of the triangles will be minimised to create a facade that can be illuminated by lights. This is particularly relevant to my emerging form because the base element I used is exactly the same, and I can consider manipulating the size of the of the sides to create different effects.

During the day

During the night

Transformations of the facade

PROPERTIES IN EMERGING FORM USED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.

1. GROWTH: It starts with a single element then branches out to three more elements and each element then branches out again to three more elements.(Pattern formation in Nature, 'In biology, pattern formation arises from growth')

2. ROTATION: Base elements are being rotated in space to create a three-dimensional form.

3. LAYERING/OVERLAPPING: Certain elements are actually above others, creating different levels. This overlap of elements at different orientations produces effects under light.

SCULPTURING FORMS (Scale of 1:5)

Rotating and twisting a tapered strip and eventually coiling it to form a lantern

Emerging form sculptured by my partner

SCULPTURING FORMS (Scale of 1:1)

Both forms are based on the idea of rotation, the one on the left explores rotation in three-dimensional space while the one on the right rotates about a plane. The idea of growth is also present in the two sculptures. For the former sculpture, the elements are progressively increasing in size. In the latter, we can see that there is a point of origin and the elements are branched outwards.

SCULPTURING FORMS (INTERACTION WITH THE HAND)

Twining around the arm. Dispersal from the hand. Growth and spreading outwards from a point on the arm. Paper model of the lantern.

SCULPTURING FORMS (INTERACTION WITH THE HAND)

SCULPTURING FORMS (SCALE AND EFFECTS)

The emerging form should be scaled down by a factor of 2. In addition, the elements can be gradually increasing in size to symbolise growth.Balance is achieved by having modular elements forming a fixed core and loose lines that are free flowing.

SCULPTURING FORMS (EFFECTS WITH LIGHTING)

Layered light: Light will be shone through the inside of the lantern. As it consists of three overlapping layers, shadows will be produced on the overlapped parts. Hence, this creates variation in the intensity of the shadow produced.

Extruded light: My emerging form is made up of extruded elements. Shining light at different angles will produce shadows of different thickness.

SCULPTURING FORMS (EFFECTS WITH LIGHTING)

INSPIRATION FOR EFFECTS

OVERLAPPING LEAVES

I chose this picture of overlapping leaves because I like the varying thickness of the lines. This is because the leaves are not flat surfaces. They are placed in different orientations and angles such that they create this random pattern. Hence, I could work with extruded elements that do not form a flat surface to achieve this effect.

Furthermore, I like the idea of overlapping as it will produce different intensities of shadows. I can incorporate this to my design by having multiple layers instead of a single skin. I could also explore how forms can overlap in different directions to create balance and reduces rigidity.

SKETCHES OF EFFECTS

Layering with different orientation

Having two different forms overlapping Experimenting with cut light (thin leaves of the palm tree)

RHINO SOFTWARE

Surface from planar curves

Mirror

Copy

Rail Sweep 1 Curve

Wine Glass

READING REFLECTIONS (WEEK1)

Briefly describe three stages of analytical approach advanced by Kandisky and how you have applied this process to your found pattern.

In the first stage, Kandisky highlights that we should pick out a simple overall form. As the image we choose may be made up of horizontal, vertical and curved elements, he suggests that we should be focusing only on one characteristic of the picture. In my example of the seashell, I can choose to focus on the curves, the lines or the dots.

For example in my found pattern, I focused on the way the dots are arranged and try to build up my design from there.

In the second stage, he says that we should identify tensions in the structure. For the spider web, tensions are the straight lines that extends outwards, supporting the whole frame.

Using the model of the spider web, I reduced the number of sections and came up with the tensions as the eight main lines intersecting one another with an angle of 45°. These lines act as guide lines for further development of my analytical drawing.

In the third stage, translation occurs. Translation is a process of trial and error where I played around with the shape, lines and spaces to come up with a found pattern. In the lecture, the three main themes we were instructed to explore on were symmetry, balance and movement. Based on the guide lines in the second stage, many possible combinations of analytical drawings can be explored. The following two found patterns are based on the guide lines in stage two. For the pattern on the left, I focused on negative and positive spaces. Because of the alternating white and black spaces, our eyes are guided to imagine pie shapes even without the distinct lines cutting the across the pattern. I chose to have 4 lines per section to increase the amount of black spaces so that it balances out with the amount of white spaces. For the found pattern on the right, my main focus is on creating movement. Hence, continuous lines are used instead of discrete lines and which will encourage the viewer to follow the lines that extends outwards.

Balance Movement

READING REFLECTION (WEEK 2)

Describe the formation process behind your found pattern. Are there specific moments of the transformation from your found pattern that you can emulate or stimulate in your emerging form model?

According to the reading, 'emergent behaviours cannot be deduced or predicted by a focus on the properties of the individual pattern', this suggests that we should not only look at the base element itself, but rather the composition as a whole. From my analytical drawing, there is no clear/distinct base element as it is made up of many intersecting lines. One can view it in terms of zig-zag lines of uneven length with radial lines extending outwards, overlapping triangles with different lengths or even diamonds and straight lines intersecting. Therefore, I decided to pick out the base element as a triangle and after which, I noticed there are some points on the triangle. I simplified it to the midpoints of each side and pushed it inwards to form my final base element.

Based on the found pattern, I realised that I can use the concept of rotation as suggested by the curve nature of the seashell to neutralise the straight lines used in my base element. The first design is based on rotation of the base element to form the shape of a flower constituting six elements. Then the whole 'flower' is copied to form multiple 'flowers'. In Rhino software, the array polar function is used with a number of six and rotation angle of 360. As suggested by the reading, the boundary conditions are the 'flower' and subsequent copies are made from there. But the only difference is that no spatial segregation is present as all the pieces are joined together.

In my found pattern, there are overlapping triangles. As the emerging model is three dimensional, this 'overlap' can be seen through having multiple layers forming a spiral. Hence, from top view, the base element seems to be overlapping those below but they are actually two separate layers.

Lastly, the final emerging form represents growth to me. It starts of with the base unit and three more units are then attached to it, two on the lower half of it and one on the upper half. Two additional units will then be attached to the secondary unit, ensuring that one unit will always be above the mid-point and two units will be below it. It continues to multiply, creating transformations of rotation and layering along the way.

CREDITS

1. Seashell, http://mi9.com/wallpaper/sea-shell-animal-picture_79716/2. Karen Cliento, September 2012, 'Al Bahar Towers Responsive Facade, Aedas', ArchDaily http://www.archdaily.com/270592/al-bahar-towers-responsive-facade-aedas/3. Overlapping leaves, http://patternity.org/search/shadow/page/4/