Saturday, January 30, 2010

mesh + air muscles = new structural system


What are air muscles? I know, right. Well, in short..
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/musclebody-kas-oosterhuis.html

The air muscle is an actuator that works like the human muscle. It contracts by thickening. A balloon is pumped with high pressure air, inflated, and the muscle shortens. This can pull substantial weights--400x their weight. True story. Typical DCmotors or pneumatic actuators can exert 16x their weight. Largest standard muscle is 11", weights less than 3 oxz, and can lift up to 154 lbs. Air Muscles work when twisted, bent around corners, or under water.



Source

program--further development on gateway for mars



So here's the idea at 2 am on a Friday night. 5 sectors with cross over

1. Hospitality--visitors stay for hours-days as they get settled on Mars
(a) Lobby
(b) Restaurant
(c) Bathroom/baths
(d) Air locker to change for exit

2. Communications
(a) I'll research this...

3. Environmental Conditioning
(a) Outdoor space for walking
(b) Conditioning center
(c) Air locker to change for exit

4. Extra vehicular activity
(a) Rover parking for tours

5. Space base
(a) Where rockets land! Will also research

6. Shop
(a) Area to fix Rovers/shuttles

early exploration of materials and methods

ok truth is i just really wanted to work with rubber






found this as a tedious technique that good produce beautiful results for a larger mock. needs some refinements. or i can just make toys that looks like sea animals...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Initial program


Public program is at less restricted areas

Module concept



The modules are printed flatly



The field of modules are compressed to pop into a form

connections and inflatability


Ok..so here is the concept..my 3d printers print a field of rings with intelligent placement of threaded connections and intelligent systems between the rings. The connections are longer or shorter, as the tolerance of the connection informs the heights of the rings. The rings are then threaded by a pliable rib system. The printers proceed to compress the field of rings and ribs to create a domelike structure, which is then staked in the floor. Each ring of the structure individually inflates, creating a fully pressurized and enclosed environment.

After reading http://www.robotecture.com/catalystcity/readings/required/LunarArchitectureAndUrbanism.pdf I realized a need for the following, which I respond to by topping the rings with an inflatable and conical membrane.
-Radiation management
-Vibration + noise control
-Thermal management
-Pressurization

Also, solar panels on exterior of inflatables. Coool.

Conceptual hysical model coming soon! I promise!

Connections derived from the scaffold

Sunday, January 24, 2010

pomegenerate conceptual sketches

various volumetric configurations of pomegranates





ewwwwwww

i was youtubing "how to bake in grasshopper," and these were the results presented
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+bake+in+grasshopper&search_type=&aq=f
haha..i think that grasshopper labeled the command "bake" just for that purpose.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

biomimetic concept




Formbot concept
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyzVtTiax80&feature=related

The concept:
-Formbots programmed to understand how to connect to other bots, depending on specified design
-Formbots individually release inflatable forms
-The formbot continue to release structural epoxy into the inflatable form
-The formbot connects to the formbot next to it and repeats the process
-A conglomeration of these create a structural volume
-Forms move and restructure themselves elsewhere

Thursday, January 14, 2010

so how do these little guys work?



Starts at flower and flower expands and becomes skin and then kernels grow and multiply to become a pomegranate.

pomegranates and architecture and aliens, oh my!





FAMILY: Punicaceae. The genus Punica only has two species: P. granatum L. and P. Nana L., the former mainly cultivated for its fruit and occasionally as an ornamental tree, and the latter only ornamentally as its fruits are inedible.



-Tolerant of drought, salt, ferric chlorosis and active calcium carbonate
-The plant´s needs during winter are small, and the length of winter dormancy is correlated with temperatures below 16ºC. The fruits tend to split if rain falls during the harvesting period
-Pomegranate is a traditional crop in all the countries which border the Mediterranean Sea
-Some trees may live longer than 100 years
-The root is knotty, consistent and reddish, well developed and extremely absorbent in saline soils
-Numerous suckers grow beside the trunk and have to be eliminated occasionally
-The bark, known as pomegranate bark, has traditionally been used for the alkaloids it contains although the trunk and bark of the branches contain similar quantities of the same
-The trunk is more or less round, erect, ramified, with alternate open branches, sometimes prickly at the apex
-The ageing bark shows cracks and takes on a greyish colour. It appears knotted ant twisted. The tree itself varies in appearance from drooping to erect
-The trees usually have only one trunk although in some countries they form various trunks from the suckers which are allowed to grow from the foot of the principal trunk.
-The buds are lateral and are found on the axils of the leaves
-The terminal bud sometimes becomes a thorn, sometimes grows into a flower or cluster of flowers, or simply falls
-Since the plant does not therefore possess real terminal buds, growth has to be from the lateral buds, for which reason the tree is included in the sympodial species
-Leaves are entire, smooth, opposed, with no stipule, sometimes verticillate, hairless, oblong, deciduous and with short petioles
-The fruit is a fleshy berry denominated balausta, thick-skinned, complex, enclosed by the thallus, with various polyspermal cavities separated by tenuous membranous partitions (carpelar membranes)
-The interior is filled with many fleshy seeds, prismatic in shape, with pulpy testa and woody tegmen, very juicy
-The ripe fruit is greenish yellow or brown with reddish areas which may occasionally occupy the whole surface of the fruit

-The tough, leathery skin or rind is typically yellow overlaid with light or deep pink or rich red. The interior is separated by membranous walls and white, spongy, bitter tissue into compartments packed with sacs filled with sweetly acid, juicy, red, pink or whitish pulp or aril. In each sac there is one angular, soft or hard seed.
-Around 600 seeds
-Seeds and surrounding pulp: aril
-Aril: Specialized outgrowth from the funiculus (attachment point of the seed or hilum) that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the pomegranate fruit. The aril may create a fruit-like structure (called a false-fruit). False fruit are found in numerous Angiosperm taxa. The aril is attractive to fruit-eating birds and is non-toxic (all other parts of the yew are toxic), serving therefore to promote dispersal of the seed by birds, which digest the fleshy aril as a food source, and pass the seed out in their droppings.

-The great structural peculiarity consists in the presence of the two rows of carpels one above another, and in the fact that, while in the lower series the seeds are attached to the inner border or lower angle of the cavity, they occupy the outer side in the upper series, as if during growth the upper whorl had become completely bent over. From here.