Designing and Fabricating a Chair as a Conceptual Model for Architectural Design

Transcription

1 Tamkang University Tanshui, Taiwan Designing an Fariating a Chair as a Coneptual Moel for Arhitetural Design y Chen-Cheng Chen Design Stuio EA408 is one out of nine stuios in the Department of Arhiteture at Tamkang University. These nine stuios work iniviually an eah stuio, with approximately seven or eight senior stuents, has its own assignment to omplete. The ojetive of the EA408 stuio is to enale eah stuent to reate his/ her own esigns using 3D omputer tools. In aition, our aim is that EA408 stuents learn to use CAD/CAM software to effetively transform their thoughts into atual esigns. The stuio mainly uses form Z as its software. Most of the stuents alreay know how to use AutoCAD an funamental 3D omputer graphi funtions efore they enter the program. This artile is a presentation of esign work omplete in the EA408 stuio in the spring of a First Stage Design Desription The stuio s program egan in the spring. Drawing inspiration from Taiwan s Aror Day, we suggeste that stuents hoose one kin of plant to raise, an we were hoping that the plant woul grow with them an their esign projets. Perhaps they oul even fin similarities etween their plants an their projets. The first assignment was to esign a transformale hair in eight weeks. We were looking for a esign that might reflet the plant that eah stuent was raising an we also require that the transformale hair oul atually e manufature. They ha to use plywoo as material. The transformale hair was originally virtual, esigne on the omputer, ut we expete the hair to e mae real an stan on its own groun. Figure 1: Four hairs in one y Yun-Fang Huang: (a) hair for one, () hair for two, () roking hair for two, () roking hair for one with a ak rest : form Z Joint Stuy Journal

2 a Four Chairs in One From the eginning, Ms. Yun-Fang Huang, the esigner of Four Chairs in One, planne to make a long foling hair, ut the plant she ha hosen to grow, an onion (Figure 2), influene the esign in a ifferent iretion. She hange the shape of the hair, using harateristis of the onion, speifially its roun shape an the shape of its slies. The esign egan as a hair for one (Figure 1a), ut graually aitional foling possiilities were evelope, whih le to aitional types of hairs, namely, a hair for two (Figure 1), a roking hair for two (Figure 1), an a roking hair for one with a ak rest (Figure 1). So, altogether, there were four istint possiilities. Beause of this, eah setion of the hair eame ruial to the overall esign. The esigner spent many hours graphially exploring the hair, as seen in Figure 2a. She then hange the size of the hair many times until the final esign was omplete, as shown in elevation in Figure 2. In orer to proue the layout seen in Figure 2, we use the Unfol funtion of form Z. We lai out the hair onto the XY plane of the moeling environment an we then transferre it into the 2D rafting environment of form Z, where we omplete the onnetions an joints. The esign ha more than 82 parts, whih require five 120 m 2 plywoo oars (6mm thik) to manufature them. To save material, we laye them out lose together, whih was one manually. These five layouts also allowe the milling mahine to work more effiiently (Figure 2). As we reahe the final stages of our proution, we realize that the hair was heavier than what we ha originally antiipate. While we onlue that some parts oul e eliminate, we i not o it eause we were out of time. Figure 2: Four hairs in one rawings an onstrution y Yun-Fang Huang: (a) setions stuy, () setion of onion an elevations of hair, () layout for fariation, () the parts uner milling. 89 Designing an Fariating a Chair

3 One or Three Chairs Figure 3: Ciliate esert-grass. Mr. Cheng-Yuan Huang, the esigner of this projet, orrowe his title an inspiration from Amerian artist Joseph Kosuth. In aition, the long legs of his hair reflet an influene y the plants he ha hosen (iliate esert-grass, Figure 3). First, he moele a long-legge hair in form Z an then he use the lightning funtion to projet a shaow onto the groun. He trae the eges of the shaow an erive a asi line, whih he then use to proue the lower hair in form Z. The thir hair was mae y the shaows of the first an seon hairs. Therefore, the esign is title, One or Three Chairs (Figure 5). Next we ha to figure out how to atually make the first an the seon hairs. The preliminary esign i not inlue all the etails of the hair, so we ha to think through arefully aout the onnetions, joints, an earings, efore we oul move to the proution phase (Figure 6). We were ale to set up three axes appropriate for manufaturing the 3- imensional shapes. However, eause of time limitations, stuents ha only learne how to use flat utting, whih is what the hair was esigne for. Figure 4: Skethes of hair esign y Cheng-Yuan Huang. The projet ha more than 300 piees (Figure 7). We use six 120 m 2 plywoo oars of 3mm an 6mm thikness, whih ompliate the projet further. At this time we ha to reesign the etails, using omputer software, pretty muh as we i uring the preliminary stages. We ha to reesign some of the parts an re-ut them to fit our initial esign. The finishe hairs (Figure 8) appear to e han mae, thanks to all the etails that we worke out. However, presently, the hair is not strong enough for someoy to sit on. Thus we think that steel will e the perfet material to manufature it with in the future. We shall e ale to o it using the same esigns we alreay have. Figure 5: Chair shaow stuy y Cheng-Yuan Huang : form Z Joint Stuy Journal

4 Figure 6: Layout for fariation y Cheng-Yuan Huang. Figure 7: Parts. Figure 8: Finishe prout y Cheng-Yuan Huang. 91 Designing an Fariating a Chair

5 Seon Stage Design Desription After ompleting the hairs, the stuents ha a week reak from esign, uring mi-term exams. For the seon stage of their stuio, they ha to hoose a site an esign six separate uilings (one large, two meium, an three small), trying to reognize the ifferenes an the relationships etween these six uilings an the site. We mainly use form Z in orer to quikly raft esigns an this way we traine the stuents to think literally within the software. We also reommene that stuents use lessons learne from their hair esigns in this seon stage, whih took aout seven weeks to omplete. a Innovation of Tamsui Waterfront Stuent Yun-Fang Huang, who esigne Four Chairs in One, hose a site in Tamsui, Taipei County, loate in northern Taiwan. She oserve that, one the MRT onnete Taipei to Tamsui, people flooe to this town, ut visitors i not stay for the views. She wante to esign something that oul keep the visitors oming to this town an hopefully show them what makes it speial. In this ase, she pike six interesting sites an reesigne a little park, an oservatory (Figure 9a), a fishing wharf offie (Figure 9), a wharf, a offee shop, an a post ar shop (Figure 9). She starte with the iagrams of these six ifferent sites, using the same inspiration she ha for her hair esign, a slie of an onion (Figure 9). Looking at this iagram, we an t help ut think of Christopher Alexaner s onense graphi form in Notes on the Synthesis of Form [Alexaner 1964]. She ontinue with her slie esign as she omplete her projet. Figure 9: Innovation of Tamsui Waterfront y Yun-Fang Huang: (a) Oservatory () Wharf offie () Postar shop () Diagram : form Z Joint Stuy Journal

6 Hsin-Yi Square Design Stuent Cheng-Yuan Huang, who esigne One or Three Chairs, pike the newly evelope Hsin-Yi usiness square as his site, whih still has many large empty spots. He reate the uiling mass of the epartment stores aroun this area in form Z. He use the same metho as in his hairs projet. He projete the shaows of these uilings at 3 pm on the spring equinox, the summer solstie, the autumnal equinox, an the winter solstie (Figure 10a). The ege of the shaows eame the asi outline of his esign. He worke har on the plan, elevation, an setion of his esign (Figure 10). He esigne a passenger rige, resting ooth, outoor theater, sitting area, isplay area, an garen (Figures 10 an 11). He use form Z an esigne his spaes applying a onstrutivist s approah. With his projet, he hope to show the relationship etween light an shaow in what was previously a homogeneous plae. a e Figure 10: Hsin-Yi Square Design y Cheng-Yuan Huang: (a) () () shaow stuies, () site plan, (e) setion, (f) elevations. f 93 Designing an Fariating a Chair

7 Conlusion This semester, we foun the stuents thought proesses uring the evelopment of their esigns quite interesting. They use ifferent methos to solve ritial esign prolems an they also resorte to ifferent tehniques for asoring the onepts we taught them. At the en of the semester, the memers of the jury were appreiative of the final results. However, we still have some issues that remain unresolve. For example, Four Chairs in One was too heavy when it was finally manufature, eause weight was not taken into aount when it was esigne on the omputer. Also, Three Chairs in One was too fragile to e usale. These unantiipate prolems remin us of a quote from Mr. Bukminster Fuller: How muh oes your uiling weigh? We nee to keep in min that stuents are always trying to ome up with utting-ege esigns an when these esigns turn out to e repeating esigns that are alreay familiar to more experiene esigners, they are very isappointe. Referenes 1. Alexaner, Christopher, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Harvar University Press, Camrige, MA, Chen, Chen-Cheng, Experiening form Z in TKU- EA408 Stuio in form Z Joint Stuy Report, P74-77, AutoDesSys In., Columus, OH, In our program, the ontent of the first stage esign is iretly affete y the seon stage esign. Consequently, it is espeially important for a teaher to e thinking aout the first stage esign in terms of where it might lea with respet to the seon stage esign. In aition, the seon stage esign ha a shorter proution perio than the first stage, an the esign projets of the seon stage were a it more ompliate for the stuents. Overall, these senior arhiteture stuents ha an opportunity to learn ifferent aspets of CAD/CAM an to use the frienly interfae of form Z. Thus they manage to operate the software effetively an to omplete their esigns in sixteen weeks (meeting twie a week, three hours a ay). Figure 11: Hsin-Yi Square Design y Cheng-Yuan Huang: perspetives of the square. Chen-Cheng Chen is an assoiate professor an oorinator for omputer stuies in the Department of Arhiteture at Tamkang University, Taiwan. He teahes unergrauate an grauate igital esign stuios an ourses for omputer appliations in arhiteture. His urrent researh interests are fouse on information tehnologies in arhiteture an the integrations of omputer-aie esign an manufaturing for onstrution. He reeive his B.A. from Tamkang University, M.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University, an Dotor of Tehnial Siene from the Swiss Feeral Institute of Tehnology (Eigenossishe Tehnishe Hohshule, Zurih, ETH-Z) : form Z Joint Stuy Journal