Native Vegetation

Focusing on using native vegetation  from site photos.

Sydney Residence

Sydney Residence

Sydney Residence

Night Render

I produced another night time render for the scheme. This is based on a Kerkythea render with Photoshop work post render. I am used to including clouds coming from stormy old England, so still in the habit of it!!! The lights were created in Sketchup then given luminance in Kerkythea. Only some light, fine linework was brought in from Sketchup. 

Sydney........new city.........new computer

Since my last post I have sold my belongings, including the old iMac and moved to Sydney. I've been without a computer and software for a long time now, but have recently invested in a new laptop which has enabled me to blog again!I have been lucky enough to get a job a McCullum Ashby Architects in Sydney, where I have been able to gain great experience to date on a numerous luxury residential schemes. 

Above is an image of one scheme which is currently being prepared for DA (Planning) in the Sydney area. The site is close to a Walter Burley Griffin designed residence. The Above image is influenced by the Marion Mahony Griffin Watercolours which she produced for Walter Burley Griffin and Frank Lloyd Wright. Examples are pictured below.

Tensile Structures Document

Frei Otto Soap Film/Light Eye Attempt

Frei Otto developed a method using soap films to work out the shape and form for some of his tensile structures. The forms derived from soap films were extremely efficient and lightweight. Examples are pictured below.

Again, I used Grasshopper, Kangaroo and the Weaverbird plugin for Rhino to produce similar forms digitally. I used 5 anchor points, created stiffer 'cable' springs for the edge of the surface, and then ran the Kangaroo physics to see the result. Below is a screen shot of the simulation. 

I was pleased with the similarity of the resulting form, but the mesh pattern isn't very tidy. It wouldn't be a very neat or sensible cable system. I  will attempt to address this issue in coming weeks. Below are images of the tensile form I produced. They could be used to hang from columns to support a larger network of tensile roof system, or be pulled down and anchored to the floor to create light wells in roofs. To see more on Frei Otto's soap film experiments click on the link for an interesting youtube video demonstrating numerous soap film form finding exercises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxeUFVVfVrQ

Tensile Structures

Whilst at university I did a small research project into the tensile structures by Frei Otto. I made numerous tensile structures of my own using similar methods to Frei Otto. The models pictured above were produced with tights. This is a very effective way of producing interesting tensile forms. 

I have continued exploring the Kangaroo plugin for Grasshopper and have been able to produce very similar tensile forms digitally to those which I produced physically. There is a further plugin required to produce such forms called Weaverbird. Below is video of the simulation produced with the software. 

The final 3D models had a neat mesh and were fairly effective at imitating the real life behaviour of the tensile models I made. Below are a few images of the final tensile mesh, thanks to the Grasshopper Kangaroo Weaverbird software.

 

Kangaroo......

I've been playing around with Kangaroo a bit more recently. This form is simply a grid of lines, each of which are springs. all the points along 2 edges are anchored and then 3 separate intersections are snchored. It creates really interesting forms. This tool would have been really interesting to use to develop my Thesis project.The waffle would be an accurate guide to follow with the timbrel vaults.

Rotating squares.....

Just something I did a while ago in Grasshopper and then rendered. Thought I'd post it!!!!

Into the world of Kangaroo.......

I've been learning the basics of Kangaroo recently. I revisited my uni project in which vaults were created in Grasshopper by lofting a number of catenary curves. I have watched a few helpful tutorials and have created a vault like form using a basic set up,  involving springs, anchor points and a force in the Z direction. In principle it is similar to physically hanging chains, but with the force being applied upwards in the z axis. 

Staircase

I was browsing Dezeen the other week and came across a really interesting staircase by Paul Cocksedge. I was particularly interested in the 3 diagrams showing how the staircase design evolved. I am unsure what software was used for the design process but I instantly thought that Grasshopper would have been a great tool to explore the potential design solutions and parameters. It resulted in me producing an algorithm displaying how it could possibly have been used.

Lamp

I wanted to create a new bedside lamp. To explore my idea I used Grasshopper 3d. Designing something that I had the ability to construct was obviously at the back of my mind throughout the design process. This simple design consisted of a sequence of 10 square frames, with sides of 150mm. Each square is rotated around a central axis slightly, resulting in the top frame being at 45 degrees to the base frame. 

Grasshopper enabled me to play around with timber sizes, gap sizes and the amount of rotation before I finalised the design. I used the Grasshopper model to create a simple formwork with allowed me to drill the dowel locations accurately in order to create an accurate and consistent amount of rotation. I constructed the lamp out of an off cut of american white oak I acquired. 

I was hoping to use a 'funky' vintage bulb I saw out and about in a bar. Turns out they are bulbrite bulbs but they cost a fortune to ship in to the UK!!! Check them out on the link!

http://www.bulbrite.com/news-media-1-266-BULBRITE-Introduces-Comprehensive-Nostalgic-Collection.php

Bedside Table

There hash't been a post for some time now, but I am back!!! I have been busy making actual physical objects!!! It's always good to get out of the computer and construct things I feel.This bedside table was constructed from the pine of an old church pew which was removed from a local church. I clear coated the timber box to give it some protection, and sprayed the legs with gloss white paint! 

Overall, it cost £10 in spray paint. So I was pretty happy with that!!!!

A bit of atmosphere.....

Most of my Marrakech images have been set in glorious sunshine or sunsets etc. But speaking from experience, Marrakech does experience clouds and rain. I wanted to create an atmospheric scene and found a cracking sky online, which I later exaggerated to create this quite dramatic scene.The base render was really simple which I produced with a trial version of VRAY for Sketchup. I'm still learning how to get better quality base renders and still rely heavily on Photoshop. I created the detail through overlays and exaggerated the shadows in photoshop.The original model was produced with Rhino Grasshopper in order to generate the catenary parametric vaults.