[des]dobrar Installation: Lecture and Opening at UP

On May 16, 2012, at 10:00 AM, we, Atelier UM+D, will have a conference and the opening of our newest interactive installation [des]dobrar, at the Architecture building of the Universidade Positivo campus in Curitiba.

Parametric design and digital fabrication techniques, and electronic systems of sensors and servos controlled with Arduino boards were used in the design and fabrication of this installation that will offer a dynamic and reflexive experience in a circulation space on the university campus. In the lecture, Atelier UM+D’s owners will address these topics in the context of research in the design process, as well as its theoretical basis, on which we are also producing a publication that will see the light soon.

They will present, among other things, a video of an analysis I did for visualizing the reflection rays originated form a person passing thru and triggering the installation movement of reflective pieces. I’m very proud of it and looking forward to share it here.

Update: Besides Parametricismo, we are on the media: Universidade em Curitiba recebe instalação inspirada no movimento.

Ligações Urbanas Installation in Curitiba

Permanent installation commissioned to Atelier UM+D by the department of tourism of the City of Curitiba, for the information service center at Rua 24 Horas, completed in November 2011. To cite our release:

The urban depth emerges physically and sensitively in different manners, in an arrange specific to the user and to the multiple relations made possible by the city, inside a connectivity between the parts and the whole. Distinct components link forming an interlocked arrangement structurally specific to the site.

It was an excellent opportunity to investigate generative systems of lightweight structures and complex connections. We start from a Delaunay triangulation of a pseudo-random network differentially extruded following a set of attractor curves and we extend the connecting nodes’ geometry to stabilize the structural parts in the direction perpendicular thereto. This extension changed the secondary status of the connectors, turning them the main pieces. The whole parametric process consists of five Grasshopper definitions and one RhinoScript separated in stages to allow team work. As a result, 540 unique pieces of polystyrene were CNC cut and assembled with screws.

Author: Atelier UM+D
Team: Gustavo Utrabo, Juliano Monteiro, Pedro Duschenes, Ernesto Bueno, Lucas Issey and Marcela Furtado.
Year: 2011.
Location: Rua 24 Horas, Curitiba, Brazil.
Status: Built.

More images on the Atelier UM+D website.

On-going Adventure

Is that Zaha? No, is that Ushida Findlay? No, is the on-going project of a workshop that we, at Atelier UM+D, are doing with a bunch of architecture students here in Curitiba.

Is the most complex structure I've work with so far... and is going to be build! (when we solve the assemblage :)

Radiolarian walls at Beyond Media 2009

Radiolarian Egg Pavilion

This is my contribution, done on March for an ongoing research project for a pavilion to hold a sculpture at the Barcelona campus of UIC, where the ESARQ is.

Like the other Radiolarian project, it’s conceived and directed by Alberto T. Estevez, head of the Genetic Architectures research line. It consists of an ovoid-shaped structure also designed as an interpretation of bone structures of Radiolarians. Its design develops a series of irregular hexagonal cells that are repeated in a tessellation of a surface and generate volumes that, following the logic of bone structures, are thickened at nodes forming spikes and leaving rounded holes.

The non-standard geometry outcomes from programming and modeling methods using RhinoScript and the Rhino3DE’s Math Plug-in.

Honeycomb script published in aU

On April, 2009, in number 181 of Brazilian aU Magazine, Affonso Orciuoli published the article: TI aplicada à arquitetura: o antes e o depois (IT applied in architecture: before and after), in which he exposes the uses of scripting, parametric modeling and digital fabrication in architecture. He mentions some experiences like our Tooling workshop or the Radiolarian Walls project and shows one of my experiments: the Honeycomb script. This is a simplification of Andrew Kudless’ script that I’ve originally prepared for teaching RhinoScript. Here is shown in a mid stage. Recent versions have improved efficiency making a more elegant code.

Thanks to Affonso for inviting me to collaborate in his article.

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Em abril de 2009, no numero 181 da brasileira Revista aU, Affonso Orciuoli publicou o artigo: TI aplicada à arquitetura: o antes e o depois, no cual ele expõe os usos do Scripting, a modelagem paramétrica e a fabricação digital na arquitetura. Ele menciona algumas experiencias como o nosso Tooling workshop ou o projeto das paredes radiolárias e mostra um dos meus experimentos: o script do Honeycomb. Este é uma simplificação do script do Andrew Kudless, que preparei originalmente para dar aula de RhinoScript. Aqui mostra-se numa etapa média. Versões recentes têm uma eficiência melhorada, providenciando um código mais elegante.

Obrigado ao Affonso por invitar-me a colaborar no seu artigo.

Radiolarian Ceiling

Continuing my collaboration in the Radiolarian Walls project, I presented an alternative design for the ceilings, which served as the starting point for the continuation of that part of the project by other colleagues in the research line.

Also, I did some advice to these colleagues, suggested modeling strategies and developed some scripts to generate different patterns of holes for the roof.

Radiolarian Walls project

This is a project conceived and directed by Alberto T. Estévez within the Genetic Architectures research line at ESARQ. Is an opportunity to get research ideas to the real world, addressing a client of Estévez who requested the interiors of a therapy and treatment office in Barcelona.

The project consists of a system of dry-walls and ceilings designed as an interpretation of radiolarians bone structures. This project develops a series of hexagonal cells that repeats as a tessellation throughout a plane and, following a bone structure logic, generates volumes that get thicker at nodes, forming spikes and leaving circular holes. From the modeling point of view, this is done from a grid of hexagons, each with a circle inscribed in its center. The size of the circles corresponds to another system for increasing diameters that define it.

My work began when, due to a rethink on the size of wall panels, I had to set another hexagonal grid, and therefore, recalculate the diameter of circles. After, I rebuild the methodology of modeling from the new circles and hexagons, so that they could contain spikes and holes in a single NURBS surface per cell. Once the new methodology was solved, I implemented it in RhinoScript, creating an automated tool for modeling complex surfaces that form each cell of that panel.

As part of the script, forms are generated oriented for machining a Polystyrene foam panel in the three-axis milling machine, one side at a time.

Projects posting on hold

As you can see in previous posts, I’m showing some old projects, already published in my projects page, originally meant to be like a portfolio for research in architecture in English, Spanish and Portuguese. But since that page is built and hosted in Google Page Creator, which is going to be shouted down, I’ll prefer to wait until these googlepages were migrated to Google Sites to see if I can continue publishing, of maybe just post here… let’s see.

Iterative Vs. Recursive Branching Systems

A comparative study on re-writing systems and its implementation in formal models of emerging branching structures.

Development of models of different iterative systems (as loops) and recursive systems (self-repetition) is done through computation: D0L-systems, L-systems (with LParser based programs), and RhinoScript.

This study is part of my ongoing PhD research on the extrapolation of structural systems of trees for developing generative architecture.

A tree-like pergola was created as a simple example of the many applications offered by the iterative branching system developed.

Posted in g.d.e.s

Pear Biomimetics

A research project for the introduction of biomimetics as an architectural design strategy based on Louis Sullivan’s methods for developing botanical forms, digital visualization and Rapid Prototyping techniques.

During the process, I learned NURBS modeling, I improved skills for working on isosurfaces with metaballs, and I came out with an idea of a system of urban development in a high-sloped site.

The project was directed by Dennis Dollens, professor of Architectural Projects 1.1 at the Master in Genetic Architecture, ESARQ – UIC, 2003.

This project has been exhibited in ‘Emergence: Visualization, Parametrics, Manufacturing’ at the H2O Gallery, Barcelona, March 2003; and published in the book: ‘Genetic Architectures / Arquitecturas genéticas’, SITES Books/ESARQ - UIC, Barcelona, 2003.