Through Glass Paradoxes

Drawing and scratching on Yupo

2010-05-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Renee Nelly Pean painting on Yupo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDw3gYv--2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AQoPIGiB9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttf9CF5_2EY

CHROMOGENIC MATERIALS Exhibit

2010-05-15T15:37:00.001-07:00

CHROMOGENIC MATERIALS Exhibit

2010-05-15T15:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqPlVaEOffw

Scratching with a cotton swab on weighing paper

2010-05-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5bjugaSXzk

Scratching with a burin on weighing paper

2010-05-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYvSpoj1NLQ

SSI TM. + Weighing Paper

2010-05-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

OPENING NIGHT

2010-05-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Photographs by Sonia Brenner

2010-04-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

2010-04-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

SSI TM + Yupo

2010-04-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

SSI TM + Paper

2010-04-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

SSI TM + Black Foam Core

2010-04-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

SSI TM + White Foam Core

2010-04-28T05:42:00.001-07:00

SSI TM + VYCO

2010-04-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

SCRATCH THE SURFACE INK TM. Tuesday April 27

2010-04-28T05:07:00.001-07:00

General view at 10:30

CHROMOGENIC MATERIAL AGENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

2010-04-26T02:12:00.000-07:00

Final Review

2009-05-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

Shift_ShadowScape

2009-05-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

Wall Shadow Studies

Construction of Pieces

Mini-Mock Up Model

2009-05-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

GG_SURFedge_Wall

2009-05-06T02:53:00.000-07:00

GG_SURFedge_Frame

2009-05-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

work in progress_team O

2009-04-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

Our "honeycomb" layer that we're still working on the digital realm. We've finished making the cutsheets and waiting for the materials to arrive from Richmond, VA.
The form is following the sun movement around the room.

We'll be installing the two-layered system in a corner room.
The glass used for the window in the room is highly reflective from the outside view.

Many pieces of our "soft" layer that we have to sew together.

2009-03-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

2009-03-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Shading Device Trials

2009-03-24T12:52:00.001-07:00

As we are moving in the direction of a double or triple layered curtain system, here are some renderings of what a "shading" layer might look like...still working with the diamond-shaped geometry.

GG_Prototype_17

2009-03-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

HANGING SYSTEM:

DETAIL SKETCHES:

Walking Light Wall_Dynamic Shadow Studies

2009-03-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

Wall movement shadow casting studies on site.

Wall rotational movement with multiple spot light sources.

Wall rotational movement with a single light source.

2009-03-17T12:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.theverymany.net/2009_03_01_archive.html

GG_March_17

2009-03-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

PRECEDENT:

PROTOTYPE:

Possible compression technique

2009-03-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

Using a string through one of the mountain folds, the structure can be easily compressed by pulling on one end of the string. If we made a frame to hold the structure, we could use the servos with the micro controllers to pull on one end to create this compression. The servos would be placed at every third mountain fold to give slight variability throughout the structure. The servos could work independently in order to make a multitude of compressed and uncompressed states along the length of the wall

Earlier wall studies cont

2009-03-10T12:09:00.001-07:00

We also wanted to possibly create a wall that incorporated moving modules. This study uses one sheet which folds together to create multiple equal square modules. The movement quality of this study is lacking compared to the others

Earlier wall studies

2009-03-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

A study using a different type of folding/retracting which creates a wall that starts upright and folds to become curved.

GG_March 10 Midreview

2009-03-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Site:

Latest Prototype:

irregular folds

2009-03-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

This study used the same type of origami model as our previous study except that this one used a completely random set of folds to make the wall. The movement of this study follows the same type of compressing movement as the first, but it does not fully compress. However, this study creates a different set of geometries through the wall when compressed unlike the first.

2009-03-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

Reposting our cloth study video because it depicts how we would like our wall to possibly move in and out much like a wave.

Team O Geometry Exploration, continued

2009-03-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

By creating a pocket on the surface, we were able to filter the colors and and direct the lights with more control.

When the surface is fully open, more lights pass through showing off the colors and when the surface is closed, less lights pass through making the Radiant Light Film almost invisible.

mountain folds / valley folds

2009-03-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

While trying to connect modular pieces presented on a previous blog "Radiant Light Film and simple geometry," we ran into trouble and frustration - mostly frustration. This led to simplifying the geometry into a square with one diagonal mountain or valley fold.
Mountain fold is when the fold is raised up and valley fold is when the fold is pushed down.
To add a more irregular pattern, we decided to rely on chance and a coin. Head means mountain fold and tail means valley fold. After many coin tossing we ended up with these three different shapes.

2009-03-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Team O Geometry Explorations

2009-03-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Our first explorations dealt with the origami fold that Chris developed last week. The animation shows how the surface expands, but the geometry is not completely accurate as the surface areas of the faces are changing slightly.

Taking the original cut pattern and altering the vertices produces different variations in the fold pattern. Here are two screen shots of the definition file showing how the vertices can be altered according to some kind of logic, such as sine curve, or a linear curve. The results of the altered cut patterns are shown following the definition files.

Now adding another layer of movement, we imagined the surface composition as something that can grow from a single point and expand to become a curtain or shading device.

To go a step further, if we reconfigure the folds of the original origami to align with each other we get a more 3-dimensional surface that could act as a shading device (still thinking about the interaction of these geometries with the 3M radiant light film). The openings vary according to the same logic that we developed earlier with explicit history (mapping vertices according to basic functions)

Walking Light Wall_Midreview

2009-03-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

The flowing + rippling motion of the structure is created through the interconnectedness of each module. Whether it is activated by hand or by step, the whole structure reacts individually and wholly. The Film is attached to each individual module, and reacts is the same gradual change motion of the structure, as the structure moves and changes, so does the color of the reflection and refraction of color through the film.

The following prototype aims at looking at the physical mechanism to control the movement of the previous wall as one walks down the sidewalk along it. A piano key-like mechanism was utilized to control the rotation of the wall. As one walks down the side walk, their pressure exerted on the ground would "press on the piano key" pulling a pulley that rotates individual segments of wall. The wall would appear to move with the pedestrian as they progress along the path.

GG_Mock-Up 01

2009-02-23T23:08:00.000-08:00

GG_Propasal 3

2009-02-23T23:05:00.001-08:00

GG_Propasal 2

2009-02-23T23:02:00.000-08:00

GG_Power Supply Conversion

2009-02-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

Converted a typical ATX Computer Power Supply to a lab power supply. You can get multiple variations in voltage out of this. The one we are using is 3.3 volts, perfect to run most LED's.

Precedents for Cloth Structures

2009-02-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from the web of ideas on how we can start to structure our facade system. Enjoy.

GG_Prototypes 3+4

2009-02-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

System Sketches

Additional Etched Panels

Acrylic Rod Panel

Structures for Glass Cloth

2009-02-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

In lieu of printing out today, I'll just post our investigation into structuring our glass "cloth" idea. The first series of images deal with specific scenarios for how we are going to give our facade structure, or at least how we are going to structure our interactivity.

Radiant Light Film studies

2009-02-17T12:08:00.001-08:00

Color study using a sheet of Radiant Light Film and a source of artificial light.
Different angles reflects and filters specific lights associated with those angles.

Fold number one

Fold number two

Fold number three and four - we ran out of Radiant Light Film.

Fold number five

Surface study, metal, aluminum

Surface study, metal, brass

Surface study, metal, copper

GG_Interactive Wall Precedents

2009-02-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Cloth Studies

2009-02-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

This short animation, made in maya, is of an idea about how we might begin to let our cloth, paper, or glass structure move. The movement follows the same idea that our previous studies followed with some sort of outside movement triggering installation's movement. To the observer, we would hope, after some tweaking of the model, that the installation begins to look like a wave across the wall.

Early animation studies

2009-02-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick animation study, made in maya, we used early in our design process when we were still trying to decide what direction we wanted to take our project. The idea is the wall or window would be comprised of a doubled layered system of polarized glass that would rotate depending whether a person was in front of the wall or not. If the person was in front, the circles of polarized glass would rotate obscuring the person's into the building. This idea was an earlier version of the grasshopper studies done by James.

Radiant Light Film and simple geometry

2009-02-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

Radiant Light Film is a multi-layered reflective film with blue, magenta, and gold transmissive color shift (reference the post below). By applying simple geometry to a flat sheet it gains structure as well as varying colors.

The first attempt at applying simple geometry, perfect square and right triangles, resulted in a fabric like surface. Radiant Light FIlm was mounted on to the sheet of yellow construction paper.

This sheet was scored on both sides. It starts out as a flat sheet with a field of homogeneous colors then when force is applied, the surface folds into a figure that reflected different lights in varying directions. Because the paper was able to move in any direction, when force was applied, it folded into infinite number of shapes.

To have more control over the surface three things will be examined: different structural folds (by manipulating the folding lines), different colors associated with specific angles of intersection (between light and Radiant Light Film), and different materials for Radiant Light Film to be mounted on.

1. Only one side of the surface is scored limiting the folding to one direction.

2. All the vertical and horizontal lines are scored on one side of the surface while all the diagonal lines are scored on the other side of the surface.

3. Alternating lines are scored on the two sides of the surface.

4. The surface is divided into quadrants and lines on quadrant 1 and 3 are scored on one side of the surface while the lines on quadrant 2 and 4 are scored on the other side of the surface.

5. The surface is divided into quadrants. Vertical and horizontal lines on quadrant 1 and 3 and diagonal lines on quadrant 2 and 4 are scored on one side while vertical and horizontal lines on quadrant 2 and 4 and diagonal lines on quadrant 1 and 3 are scored on the other side.

By limiting the method of scoring to be symmetrical on the surface and the number of lines, five different types of structures are formed. It's interesting to note that the simplest system of scoring only on one side of the surface derives the most number of shapes.

Walking Light Wall

2009-02-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

Precedents for Walking Light Wall

Light Study through Layered Radiant Light Film and Plexiglas

As the light film is placed at different angles towards the incoming light, it produces an array of colors, dependent on the way the light strikes the material. The addition of a polarized layer will create the possibility of the surface to morph on itself as it moves. The polarized layer will establish different angles at which the light passing through can be seen by the viewer.

Diagrammatic structure studies

Prototype 1

Prototype 2
This prototype expands on prototype 1 by adding a new axis of motion as each cell rotates in its position. The rotation when combined with the polarized film, will create different viewing experiences as light seemingly pulses through the structure.

Prototype 3
This prototype uses the same basic structure established in the previous prototype. This prototype took into account the possibility of creating a facade for a building. A tension membrane layer was added to dampen the light coming through the structure and into the building to create a less intense lighting environment for occupants. The fabric would adjust in height above the glass surface to create varying color arrays cast on it as sunlight passes through the radiant light film.

Prototype 4

Prototype 5

2009-02-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

GG_OLED

GG_Form Exploration

2009-02-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

The overall form of this wall was not the goal of this exploration. This was aimed to explore the possibilities of a panel system looking at the scale of the panel itself. Here we were exploring a system of overlapping scales. This allows for a Chanel to be placed on two sides of each glass panel which would one house LED's and two act as a structural connection. These tow edges are always concealed behind another panel leaving the other two edges exposed. This allows for possibilities of both lighting the surface of the glass and lighting the exposed edges.

CF_Presidence

2009-02-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

Cartier Foundation, Jean Nouvel, Paris France

New Trade Fair, Milan, Massimiliano Fuksas

GSW Headquarters, Berlin, Sauerbruch Hutton

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Steven Holl, Kansas City

Experiments with Grasshopper

2009-02-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick facade studies that we did using Rhino's parametric plugin Grasshopper. I'm not sure how to upload the ghx files but I will do that as soon as I figure it out. For now we'll have to settle for screen shots and animations. The idea is that individual panels will open or close depending on some sort of interaction with people. If the panels were made with a layered system of polarizing glass, it would interactively reveal or obscure certain views into a store, newsroom, office...etc. I haven't figured out how to actually make generative "components" with Rhino yet, so that is why there is such a wacky component diagram in the second screen shot.

Precedents for Kinetic Design with Glass

2009-02-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

Precedent: Troika Cloud installation at BA terminal 5

The firm posted the following description: "Troika was commissioned by Artwise Curators to create a signature piece for the entrance of the new British Airways luxury lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. In response, we created 'Cloud', a five meter long digital sculpture whose surface is covered with 4638 flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture. Flip-dots were conventionally used in the 70s and 80s to create signs in train-stations and airports. By audibly flipping between black and silver, the flip-dots create mesmerizing waves as they chase across the surface of ‘Cloud’. Reflecting its surrounding colours, the mechanical mass is transformed into an organic form that appears to come alive, shimmering and flirting with the onlookers that pass by." See the video at: http://troika.uk.com/cloud?image=18

GMP_Glass Precedents

2009-02-10T07:07:00.001-08:00

High Bay Warehouse, Ludenscheid, Germany
Schneider + Schumacher

The glass on this German lamp fitting warehouse was designed as two facades. One that appears during the day and one apparent at night.

The envelope of the building is a double skin system, with horizontal rods of light sandwiched between two planes of glazing.

During the day, the glass skin responds to the intense light by altering its color and transparency. At night, the facade is lit with different patterns and at various rates, symbolizing the work going on within.

Rhoen Clinic, Bad Neustadt, Germany
Architect: Unknown

This glass roof pavilion spanning a complex of brick health clinics in Germany was the world's first glass-covered cable-net structure. Identical sized glass panels hang like shingles off of a cable net. The curved form of the roof was derived from computer parametric calculations.

GG_Prototype_1 - Material Experiments

2009-02-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

Experimenting with LEDs using various plastics

First we wired up an LED and made a chipboard channel to shield the LED from sight and to direct it through the edge of the plastics.

We tested this setup with several types of plastic...

Clear plastic:

Frosted plastic:

Colored plastics:

Overlapping plastics:

Plastic rods:

And finally engraved plastics:

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

2009-02-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum

Neutelings Riedijk Architects

Glass design by Jaap Drupsteen

Jaap Drupsteen's glass design for The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum is a field of relief images of iconic Dutch television shows. Each panel has a raised color image, printed using a powder printing process especially designed for this facade.

The glass powder printer was developed by TNO Industry, based in Eindhoven. The printer translates an image in cymk format into specific quantities of red, yellow, and blue glass powder. Once the powder printer prints the images onto a sheet of glass, it is heated at a specific temperature to mold the powder onto the glass. The heat applied is carefully controlled to keep the glass frame from deforming.

Using a very simple technique, similar to stain glass design, Jaap Drupsteen creates a field of colors / images / information to envelope the building.

As natural daylight hits the facade, it is filtered to form another layer of colors / images / information through reflection. The artificial light from within the building have the same effect outwardly, becoming an iconic part of Hilversum's skyline.

Syllabus

2009-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

SUMMARY: The primary objective of the workshop/seminar is to develop a real scale portion of a glass/plastic interactive façade. The course examines a design workshop paradigm that tights together: 1) the culture of glass. 2) parametric design techniques, 2) 3D fabrication, 3) New materials that interplay with light.

SEMESTER LAYOUT: Each session will include a half an hour session were one topic regarding the culture (history, theory and technology) of glass will be addressed. The talk will be related with the readings required for the session. The class will be prepared to discuss the topic. The rest of the class will be dedicated to the exercises and iterative prototypes development.

SETTING: We will meet on Tuesdays in Campbell 325 from 4:00 to 6:45 p.m. On some occasions the class will meet in Campbell 105, the computer laboratory, and in Campbell 132, the CNC Fabrication Lab. We will be developing 4 prototypes in groups of three/four people. The process of production of the iterative prototypes will be evaluated as a whole. The weekly uploading of the work in the class’ Blog and the edition of a booklet by the end of the course will be required. The primary software and hardware used this term is: Generative Components and Parallax Basic Stamp Module; both will be provided by the school. Class participation will count towards 10 percent of the grade. Full attendance is expected.

TEXTS: Each day of class the instructor will send by e-mail the required readings for the following class as well as the text with the assignments due the following day of class if that is the case.

PREMISE: A new type of post-digital experimentation has called into question the "muteness and inertness" of traditional glass architecture and its transparency. We will be working on the definition of the novel “trans-apparent” condition of glass designing and building full scale envelope prototypes for a polemical urban context such as Times Square in NYC.

The following schedule is subject to revision.

January Trans-appearance

20th New Glasses. Course Overview.
Introduction. Transparency/ Trans-appearance.
Smart Materials and the Light Environment.

27th Smart Geometry.
The Metaphor of Crystal in Art and Architecture.
Generative Components hands on example: free form with hierarchical control geometry.

February Glass and the City

3rd Making Motion.
Color, Luminism & Kinetism
Prototypes proposal discussion.
Basic Stamp Micro Controller hands on examples:
Nitinol Wire and Servo.

10th Metropolis and Mental life.
Prototype: iteration 1

17th Building the Empire of the Gaze.
Prototype: iteration 2

24th Glass: From Utopia to Globalization. Curtain Wall as a Mass Media.
Prototype: iteration 3

March Functional, Phenomenal and Performative Glass

9th MID TERM REVIEW. Guest Critic: Rosa Urbano. MIT D-Lite Laboratory.

16th Glass Architecture Paradigms.
Prototype: iteration 4

23rd Glass Technologies.
Prototype: iteration 5

30th Glass and the Luminous Environment.
Prototype: iteration 6

April Functional, Phenomenal and Performative Glass

7th Phenomenology of Transparencies and Reflections.
Prototype: iteration 6

14th Interactive Glass Façades.
Prototype: iteration 6

21st Urban Mega Screens.
Prototype: iteration 6

28th Hiperreality and Transparency.
Prototype: iteration 6

May Final Prototype

5th FINAL REVIEW

Course Content

2009-01-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

UVa Spring 2009
THROUGH GLASS PARADOXES:

TRANSPARENCY / TRANS-APPEARANCE

INSTRUCTOR: Rosana Rubio-Hernandez

“To grasp spatial relationships and orient oneself in the metropolis of today…requires a new way of seeing.” (KEPES 1944)

Premise

Recent developments in engineering at the level of optics have transformed Modern industrial glass in a multiple variety of specialized materials that reinvent light as architectural meta attribute. They explode a bigger range of optical and mechanical interplay between them, light and individuals. They have lost part of their transparent nature in favor of expanding the possibilities of thermal and visual light. They can dynamically change their levels of transmission, reflection, diffraction, translucency, transparency and opacity; they can also transform day light into electricity and even transport it, influencing the very architectural and urban features.
In the past fifteen years, as well, some of the most vibrant experiments in architecture have used computer technologies to develop new types of geometries-with curves, facets, and non-standard shapes-and to fabricate architectural elements directly from digital files without working drawings. The incorporation of feed-back systems has also gradually created totally new human environments that are not passive wrappings but active processes.
Building on these investigations, a new type of post-digital experimentation has called into question the "muteness and inertness" of traditional glass architecture and its transparency.
We will be working on the definition of the novel “trans-apparent” condition of glass designing and building full scale envelope prototypes for a polemical urban context such as Times Square in NYC.
We will be exploratory as well as critical with the technology and with the context itself, i.e. in this environment precedent glass architectures can be read as accomplices of consumerism and new glasses as definers of a commerce that is polarized in mass and elite societies. On the one hand, the hybridization of conventional glass with LCDs and LEDs, and on the other, the translucency and information encryption as common denominator of elite boutiques. Thus, we, as designers, will be arguing that there are some other opportunities for the novel glasses to perform in an urban milieu.
To contextualize and move our work we will be drawing in the culture and history of glass, delving in technological as well as in literary, artistic and architectural sources; starting in the mid-nineteen century and focusing specifically in the recent techniques, theories and practices.

Assignment
Students, working in groups of three or four, may develop a one to one prototype of a glass/plastic envelope, which responds to the urban environment in real time. The work in progress will be up-loaded weekly in the class´ blog and edited in a leaflet by the end of the course.
The process starts with a design proposal that challenge some of the disciplinary questions that the new materials and techniques trigger. Dynamic light and optical effects as spatial definers, the blurring of the boundary between ornamentation, information and publicity as well as issues of visual and haptic perception, will be taken into consideration no less than questions of comfort and sustainability, among others.
The geometry and structure of the envelope will be digitally designed and fabricated.
Students may also design the interactive performance of the construction:
Input—sensing environmental stimuli.Processing—interpreting input data.Output—correspondingly changing optical or luminous conditions in real time.
Pragmatics of this construction will include:
Research on materials: optical films and glasses, LEDs, LCDs and Solar Cells.
Research on Generative Components and Rhino scripting.
Making motion and interactivity: sensors and actuators.
The class will meet for one session each week in hands-on working sessions and will include guest lecturers and critics and discussions about the required readings. A few introductory lectures and exercises will be followed by individual designing, testing, and iterative prototyping.