Manufacturing Madness

We took out the architecture van to get materials the other day... this vehicle has about 30 thousand miles on the engine, and 400 thousand on the interior. We share it with the Florida center, whose long-haired minions throw canoes on its roof and venture out to map the bed of the river twice a week- so it has a sporty roof-rack. This roof rack was no help to us, neither for carrying materials nor being cool.

We have ordered an asinine quantity of strange things from obnoxious people, and settled in to a good 17 hours of laser cutting.

Some images follow- your guess is as good as ours what they mean-

Lazarus as Architectural Nightmare

No images this time, will upload them soon. Today we budgeted and tested. We subbed one material for another, so we can spend the saved money on more hinges, to make it BIGGER. This will also make it heavier- and its performance may suffer, no way of knowing before we build it.

This is going to be a marathon of cutting.

The stuff doesn't cut fast, either.

Test pieces look promising-


The thing, whatever it ends up as, will have none of the original delicacy of the origami. Sad, but also way more kick-ass. I mean kick-ass like burn-marks and bullet-holes.

Monstrous.

Like a creature....

...one that might not move for a hundred years and then one day start to stir, and local townspeople whisper in cafes of the coming tectonic maelstrom. It wobbles, creaking, to its feet like a rusted megatron, shaking off a century of silt and debris- its flaps moving up and down, in and out, faster as it begins to shed the grogginess of its ancient hibernation...

Amalgamated Mammalcraft

I'm sitting here thinking about the way this thing might end up, I figured it was worth mentioning. The thinking I mean. I imagine that it is somewhere between a delicate lunar greenhouse barn and a port-a-ledge. But also maybe like a doily. And possibly like a crab. Tough to say. Here are some of the things in my head as we consider what our work might yield:

Magic

While we toiled away at the waterbomb folding, The Lovely Miss Darci (as she shall henceforth be called) tried her hand at another youtube tutorial: the magic ball. This we also converted from crease pattern to cad linework, and proceeded to laser cut. The results were quite nice-






Upon seeing the handicraft rendered by The Lovely Miss Darci, I was reminded of a project I had seen a few months ago from a student at the Bartlett, check here:

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/emperors-castle.html

By the way, that is the best blog ever. The project is epic, and really a magical way to think about a thesis, plus the model and graphics are breathtaking.

Our interests are more mechanical-

We plan to make a tectonic structure using the principles in this fold. We have broken down the folded surface into its triangular elements, and have tracked down a "living hinge" to provide the folding quality.

Problem number one:

The hinges have no memory and very little directionality (pictures and links to the hinges later). The tessellation wants to unfold as the hinges strive to right themselves, returning to their flat or open state. We needed a counter-force. For this we devised a simple tension toggle and built a larger, component-based model. We are enjoying the primitive quality of the whole thing, and hoping that its eventual manifestation will, at first glance, appear somehow complex, but upon closer inspection reveal a relative simplicity and economy of means.

Process Images

Here are some past images (also on the flickr link from the previous post).

These show our process from:

1) Finding the waterbomb tessellation by Eric Gjerde and its associated youtube tutorial.

2) Converting the fold pattern to and autocad line drawing for lazer cutting;
Scoring with the laser produces a uni-directional fold option, for folds that go the other way, we had to perforate the paper by cutting a dashed line.

3) Wrestling with the actual folding process

4) Speculating in a physical model how this might become a "wall"

Again, all information, links, etc are in the previous post.

Waterbombs Away

This post will be a tasty collection of links. We've recently been inspired by the work of these artists|architects on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/owesen/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9874847@N03/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/langorigami/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/origomi/collections/72157600003010122/

We wanted to see how these patterns might be manipulated, either through digitizing and then modeling parametrically, or by direct conversion into something architectural, say a wall.
To begin, we gathered information:

info sites:
http://www.ronresch.com/ http://www.generatorx.no/20070126/pioneer-ron-resch/ http://www.origamitessellations.com/2005/06/01/alex-batemans-tess-program/ http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=how+to+make+3d+tessellations&aq=4m&aqi=g4g-m1&oq=3d+tessellation&fp=1&cad=b

turorials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXIVHjws15U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyX-T4y_INQ

books ordered:
http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Tessellations-Awe-Inspiring-Geometric-Designs/dp/1568814518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267644178&sr=8-1
grasshopper:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/origami-with-grasshopper

From here, we intend to toy with the grasshopper files until we can create a more in-depth folding mechanism that will respond to parameters. First, we have collected this information and begun folding the basic waterbomb tessellation designed by Eric Gjerde and the magic ball tessellation by I Don't Know- these are the tutorials listed above. We have experimented with a few different papers and stretched one of the patterns in rhino to see how it responds and then folds. We have also procured two origami programs that we are currently unable to figure out-

programs:

http://www.langorigami.com/science/treemaker/treemaker5.php4

http://www.origamitessellations.com/2007/01/23/new-version-of-tess-alex-batemans-origami-tessellation-software/

instructions for TESS program (click second search result)
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=tess+origami+program&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&fp=c5aa4278f68e4a4

Also, this is a wonderful TED lecture by Robert Lang:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/robert_lang.html

We are currently playing with these folds, learning their rules, and have begun to speculate- it should be noted that we are not purists, for we have definitely drawn crease patterns in CAD and laser cut the paper sheets in preparation for folding. Our hope is that what we lose in quiet contact with material (the brilliantly crafted hand folding you've seen by the aforementioned artists) we may gain in time for innovation and re-interpretation.

More, larger images can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26440532@N07/sets/72157623424525225/

Miscellaneous Debris

The last few weeks began with a cerebral rebellion against the Digital Project maelstrom. There was a lot of Jersey Shore, Pregnant and in Peril, and that reality show about Johnny Weir. Also some drinks. Maybe some Monster Truck Rally. Slowly our minds began to function again- but that was by no means an indicator of coming success. These are screen shots from the design of an ill-fated cardboard monstrosity we built in an effort to do something, anything. Also some other images of strange solids we considered waffling in Grasshopper (after enduring indescribable condescention(sp?) from the individual who possessed the needed script).