Lantern - Stiffening development

Through this workshop we have experimented with a number of different materials (such as wire and starch) in an attempt to stiffen the bottom portion of the tissue lantern.  

Through this process we have concluded with applying an iron on stiffening used in sewing.  This application enables us to form a stiff lower portion to our lantern and is relatively light weight.  

Lantern concept development

Lighting up the Chinese lattern

Movement in Nature

2 Vechiles - Task 1b

A - Flying Vehicle

 



B - Non flying Vehicle -  Zip Line

2 Vechiles - Task 1a

Initial coffee cup form

Peer Review - Des.

Team Des. were tasked with creating a means of transportation between their two hotel designs on Waiheke Island and in Auckland city that incorporated a renewable and non-renewable energy source of some kind. The idea was to create a means by which occupants could fly over from one point to another (one hotel port to another) and one non-flying transport that would achieve the same intended goal. With their vehicles designs, Team Des. looked into the application of a port area into the overall structure of the design of their hotel on both sites. 

        The team had shown extensive research into various design concepts and how they related to their own design ideas and the idea that neither vehicle conveyed a set definition as to what a utopia or dystopia is but rather that that is all dependent on how the occupants within the vehicles interpret it to be. This gives meaning to the reinvention of a design to convey both and yet neither the idea of a utopia and dystopia-like atmosphere.

The team also used 123D Catch to create 3D versions of a hair brush and a coffee cup as starting points for the development towards ports incorporated into their hotel designs. To further develop their ideas for a hotel development, the team sought to capture 'movement' in the form of a short animation/movie to show this movement within nature, for example the movement of leaves in the wind etc. 

        After the first stages of development, the team came about using a different medium to explore their ideas than the coffee cup used in their 3D creation; a plastic bottle. Des. explored the idea of deformation, melting and deforming the bottle to create a more abstract and significantly more interesting form. This lead to the discovery that when the bottle was melted it created a highly abstract form from the exterior and a simpler, cleaner, sinuous form from the interior.

The team created and two vehicles and explored the different variables of weight, weight distribution and size of materials etc, and recorded the many experimental trials, seeking to improve the design at every stage. The first design trial was a plastic bottle that was filled with an air and alcoholic vapour combination that when ignited creates an instantaneous burst of energy that leads to an immediate forward thrust ( an immediate propulsion system ) that acted as a non-renewable fuel source for the transport design. The second transport design was a simple flying lantern that involved the same design principles as a hot air balloon (the heating of air to create a dense rise of steam that with convection lifts the balloon into the air). Team Des. also designed a third vehicle. Their mock up test model was created using a plastic cup with plastic straws inserted into the bottom that is placed on top of a plastic plate. when the cup is filled with water it then rushes out from the straws, seeps beneath the plate and creates forward momentum to move the vehicle.

The team become interested in the idea that their hotel could be a very elaborate and abstract form that was buried underground as a means to convey an interesting aesthetic. There basis was to create a form from which the occupants can interpret the ideas of a utopia / dystopia like environment in their own way. Team Des. presented a large amount of work, research and development that detailed their vehicle designs and their hotel form and structure. The overall presentation was well prepared and themes were well conveyed in a fairly professional manner that was easy to understand. 

 

Staircase Design - Auckland City Hotel

This design view shows a vertical cut section of a staircase element and shows how people are able to travel simply from one floor to another;

then a horizontal cut section to convey the multi-functionality of the staircase design as more than a means of moving through space but as a means of providing a place to sit and rest. This view also helps to convey the overall form of the design as well as this idea of an organic, flowing element within a more geometrically based hotel design.

Matrix - Auckland City Hotel Staircase

This Matrix defines the the primary masonry stone material that becomes the full structural form of this staircase design intended for the integration with a hotel design based in Auckland City. A/L/D have designed this staircase/well element to be in direct contrast with the buildings overall form, creating an organic flow in a more geometrically based structure.

Material Card

Between Two Floors - Drawings and Documentation of designs

'A parallel of horizontal terrain and vertical plains' 

The Island staircase is made up of multiple layered plains, and focuses on the horizontal movement rather then purely vertical.  

The horizontal plains mimic the undulating and irregular terrain of the island in a more conformed manner.  Not only the varied placement of steps but the disintegration of materiality reflects this organic nature of the island (yet possible with a more dystopic approach).  

The staircase encourages this concept of parallel (to the earth) motion, of  traversing across a space between two levels.     

   

Between Two Floors - Task 3

A / L / D produced two half set of stairs at 1:5 using Archicad.  These designs/models will eventually translated into CNC Models through the CNC Router.





CNC Cut Wire Models - Island stairs

ArchiCAD 3D model - Island step 

CNC Cut Wire Models -City stairs

Between Two Floors - Concept development

We've been interested in the form of distorted lines and planes and how they can create a dramatic sense in related to space.

From the research we created archiCAD file of the initial staircases' form. The irregular curves joining two planes together and eventually the distance gets shorter and shorter and finally meet at one point.

Research - Stairs

Staircase definition - 'A construction designed to bridge a vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps' 

Between Two Floors - Task 1

ArchiCAD Modeling Task - As a team we created/modeled a handless coffee cup and jandal (applying different materials to the objects) using ArchiCAD.

Final Plant Room Design

Island Plant room

City Plant room

A / L / D was influenced by the notion of movement through the design workshop of the plant rooms.  Both designs evoke the concept of motion and movement but in contrasting manners.  The Island plant room literally moves as an adaptable structure that can change form and shape to created varied atmospheres for those who inhabit the space.  In contrast the City plant room is a solid fixed structure, yet embodies this idea of motion through the organic, fluid form of the wall.  

Review 2 - VJ

VJ have formed two distinctively unique and exciting designs through workshop four, movement between two floors.  The work as a whole draws great links to the writing of J.G. Ballard and his ‘Ultimate City’.  Their means of movement between two floors have clear parallels to idea’s explored in Ballard’s ‘Ultimate City’ yet show two differing interpretations of his writing. With one staircase immersed in the concept of Utopia and the other Dystopia. 

Their dystopian movement between two floors is designed for the Waiheke site.  Made up of multiple frames and layering this stair case plays on the idea of confinement.  As the occupant ‘moves between two floors’ the staircase becomes smaller, dangerous with no barriers.  This concept of dystopia is challenged through materiality with the use of timber, adding an organic more Utopian style to the otherwise very dystopian design.           

In contrast to the Waiheke site the staircase design for the city site encapsulated a more organic Utopian style.  The design is based off a self-contained pinecone. Varying steps appear as the needles of a pinecone, creating a unique form of movement between two floors in the hotel.  A more industrial approach to materiality (metal, steel etc) contrasts its organic form yet helps to create a more evident link to their work on Waiheke. 

   

VJ have clearly developed a comprehensive vision for their hotels through workshop four and their explorations of movement between floors.  J.G. Ballard is a clear precedent for their body of work, with designs that greatly contrast and complement one another through the incorporation of Utopian and Dystopian notions.