More work

Pink Shadows

I can't work out why my shells have suddenly created themselves some pink shadows. It only shows up in 3d, with the openGL engine. They appear to be directly below the shells, and appear as red lines when you change the settings to wireframe. I kind of like the aesthetic, but does anyone know how to get rid of it?

modelling

modelling one of my sketches (these are going to be screenshot posts)

a test module

Still fairly primitive (thanks, tech assignment) but I quite like this. I envisage the cuts as led lighting in panels, or glass pieces. I'd like some more complexity, but that will probably come as I develop this. The rendering error with two objects on top of each other has been done on purpose, I wanted to see glass in the model and the resulting effect was most satisfactory.

Progress

Still a bit slow. But this is pretty jazzy, hey?

Blowing bubbles

I've been drawing on archicad this morning. So many lines! On Mike's instruction, I am drawing things that create "bubble" spaces that humans inhabit, such as cars, television etc.. as a precedence study. check it out! Edit: apparently drawing means modelling, not drawing. Oh well, it was an interesting experience..

Council Visit

I also visited the council today. They had files on my site from 1899 (can you believe it?!?) and a large collection of plans. Restaurant specific stuff was missing, but I got a good copy of what looked like the current plans, it is interesting to see how they divide the bottom level into three retail spaces, as well as how the upper story apartments are laid out.

Monday

Decided to work at home today because I find it more productive. Also: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10883267

It makes for sad reading. Looks like the content of that 99% Invisible podcast is heading our way.

Also got the book about the japanese sleeping hotels

Empire of the Sun

I watched Empire of the Sun on Wednesday night. Lots of broken stuff, interest in the lived-in aesthetic. Will post a proper review/ opinion when I'm feeling more awake.

Plaster Cups

Had a go at casting plastic cups. I was looking the gritting, lived in nature which described the human condition from trainspotting and empire of the sun. It also served as a mobile, and it has been identified that the duality in the surface condition could be a reflection on the presented environment and reality contrast. I connected them, and the spaces in between were also interesting, and a little bit reminiscent of the current facade idea. I cast this, and it sort of looked like an engine, which I liked because of the industrial connotations and aesthetic. I'm really sorry about the spelling and grammar. I'm really tired. Also the images are of a poor quality because I took them with my phone; the first years tell me that this works better for 123D Catching because it works by identifying corners. Progress!

Other Ballard books

Are there any other Ballard books that would be worthwhile looking at? Crash is apparently quite well known...

Ballard and Mobile

Today I got hold of Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard. I have begun to read it, and so far it has been a good read. The parallels with the film Trainspotting are quite interesting- I feel that it illustrates that architecture is not as much about the space as how the people inhabit it. The ruin of Shanghai due to the people, and the lived in sensation I find interesting, and it is an aspect that I am trying to portray with my Mobile. The mobile's actual physicality is an interesting problem - how do you 'show' the lived-in nature of a space?

So far I have:

-Considered layers of planes showing 'dirt' built up- this could be done with laser cutting patterns onto transparent material, or routing 'bumps' into things on purpose. 123D catch experiments become relevant here.

-Wondered if a collection of the lived in objects, or impressions of them, would be interesting.

Personally I think that neither of these is a particularly good idea, one seems too 2D and the other too literal.

Self-checklist for tonight

-Digital model of interior stuff
-More site-specific stuff (how is it going to interact with existing, what is there, space)
-Deal with floor-walls interaction
-Complexity

-Explore and continue the cycle
*Talk to the OML guys about grasshopper

Tuesday

Tuesday has been a bit of a day. The photos have been roughly sketched over without much success, I felt that the more interesting moments happened when I put the models together in interesting ways and photographed them. From there I attempted to model the hexagon lattice. The model itself is a success, more or less, but it is very tedious and required some actual maths and thinking. I'm impressed that archicad could handle it. I then shuffled it across to max for the more precise and less tedious node movement and the soft selection function, and whilst it works fine it doesn't look that fantastic and leaves me feeling cold. I need to actually design more of a space than a component, and sort of dig in and do it. Judy is currently here and it seems like a waste to utilise her abilities but when I don't really have anything interesting or spatial to show her it doesn't sound productive. Also I think my hexagons are too big, and whilst I can fix this, designing a space is more important. Lastly, Mike and Judy, I am imagining that the main gaming space is a procession through (more or less) a very very large spiral staircase, with the gaming happening on the extensive landing areas. Do you have any ideas about how this would work? It feels like it lacks complexity.
Also, can I post BIMx files here or something so you can feel my work as I am doing it, rather than once or twice a week?

Anyway, here are some images from the day's work. I think I might ask one of the OML guys about how to do this particular element on rhino+grasshopper tomorrow, for this particular aspect at least I think that having it defined parametrically with extra editing power might be an advantage

Weekend's work

Sunday morning model making

So it's a rainy sunday morning- what better things are there to do but curl up in front of the heater with a coffee and make some models? At this point i'm investigating spatial arrangements re: cross-programming with a kindergarten. Following UN Studio's example, I am hoping to derive a form from the function, and hence I am engaging in rapid prototyping. The quality isn't amazing but it's more about how the spaces just need to get realised. =]

Anthropometrics

memory banks

more dehumanising imagery:

Battery

And just because it's friday:

And just because it's friday, and sometimes my design makes me feel like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1bHBthJN9w

As far as disorientation goes there is also this:

As far as disorientation goes there is also this:

Travelators

Are an interesting (and lazy) way of controlling movement through a building. I like how it takes away the choices from the gamblers, as sometimes you get the feeling that that is all they have left

Mobiles again

It has sort of struck me that I have not really dealt with the three-dimensionality of the mobile, what I have proposed so far has been garbage and planes or layers work. This is going to have to be addressed in the near future, although all that hits me right now is 'space junk' which I could run through 123D catch. Also, when I imported this into archicad, it didn't want to scale upwards. the x and y axis scaling worked fine, however. Perhaps I should be doing this in Max?

CNC Routing

My routing test has come through from the week before the semester break. It took a long time, and there was some sort of scaling issue, despite checking it beforehand with Franca it still turned out far too small. However, the level of detail is nice, and it has given me insight into how the router works. I will show mike this today

Mobiles

Just a thought- mobile could have multiple laser cut 'layers'. The burn and cut marks could be in reference to the 'lived in feel' identified in trainspotting...

Note to self- functional architecture- zoos, hospitals, prisons. circulation. Koolhaas- cross-programming. 

entry- draw in, trap. disorientation.

more thoughts

entrance important -drawing in and no escape. perforated otherwise, illusion of freedom. or jail cell bars?

Interesting imagery

I like the gritty, used and abused feel that this has. It reminds me of the buildings of trainspotting, where all that separates the 'old' and the 'new' is some crap on the ground, blood smeared on the walls, a decrepid old chair....

123d first test

UNStudio Website

I have been browsing the UN Studio website, as instructed. I was hoping for more circulation diagrams, and writing describing them and how they work. There is a distinctive style in a lot of their projects, and I was especially taken with this wall section:

I find the multiple layers interesting. For me, the outside layer comes across as solid, and impermeable, like one could not escape, but the large perforations from the interior allude to a false sense of freedom. 

123D Catch 2

The manual stitching takes ages and I can't seem to export the scene- it looks like patience is required given the lack of help videos. Also, it would appear that the quality of light and reflectivity of the object greatly affect the result. The spray can I was using as a test object's top has not come out well at all. The rest, however, seems to be quite effective.

Theory Pt 2.

I have also looked at Rem Koolhaas's S,M,L,XL for inspiration, and really enjoyed the opening reading about "The Wall". I think that building as a divisive power, and cross-programming to encourage public thoroughfare (and provide spectators) are aspects that I need to consider, whether it is just a bridge through the site, or I have a semi-transparent roof that they can walk on, a tunnel, or a structure with some other purpose like a kindergarten or a zoo.

Theory

I have recalled the library's copy of 'learning from las vegas' so as to understand the literature and theory we are supposed to have dealt with, and so far I have failed to do so.

As far as the battery casino goes, I am interested in Le Corbusier's idea that the building is a machine, and the general 'economic' and 'mechanical efficiency' drive of modernism. I find the contrast between the 'economic and efficient' casino as opposed to the rich and luxurious boutique casino facinating, and should investigate this more.

123D catch

Following Judy's suggestion on monday, I am playing around with 123d catch. Here's a taste of a tester: 

Re: 99%

So, many ideas were discussed in the podcast -99% Invisible- 78.

To me the most disturbing were:

-The multi-bet and multi-reel system, which made you place a bet a lot larger than you imagined, and frequently getting partial wins. The sense of winning even though you're losing- gladly walking into the snake pit- I find distinctly unsettling, even if I have experienced it with similar versions on a Pokemon gameboy game when I was a little kid.

-Following on from this, the extent that they have gone to to make it feel like you are not spending money. This is a fairly common concept nowadays anyway, with the mighty 'plastic fantastic', spend first-ask questions later mentality we have with credit cards. To have these incorporated into casinos is just wrong. A great business move, but the person who issued this must have absolutely no conscience whatsoever.

-Thirdly, the 'drawing in' of people using the inset screens and legacy levers. It would appear that casinos understand gamblers very well, and have developed ways of drawing them in. This seems equally evil, but as a designer, I seem to have less objection to it. The 'drawing in' and entrapment of gamblers into my battery casino is an important aspect of my design, and I should look at ways to achieve this better.

-Next, the 'flow' gamblers. I can appreciate that gambling to many people is about escapism, but when a machine has been designed to a point where it would be more disruptive to collect coins than continue gambling, there is a problem.

Lastly, the 'chaining' to the machine with a card, and general dehumanisation of gamblers is an aspect I too should consider in my design.

I will leave you with a particularly apt cartoon which Marina brought to the table on week one which summarises how I feel about this:

99% Invisible

https://soundcloud.com/roman-mars/99-invisible-78-no-armed-bandit -hands down, this is one of the most disturbing things I have seen on the internet, and I have seen plenty of disturbing stuff in my time. Will post an opinion piece after I listen to it again,

Hamish

Giving this thing another go

So i'm going to try and give it another go. I can see the value in it, even if I seem to lack the inclination. I'm going to try and run it more like a tumblr blog, with pictures and fewer words, and more posts.