Msc1G4:Page6
TUD 4
Bewar Ahmed - Nino Schoonen
Media:Report.pdf
Introduction
In response to our collaboration with Arwin and the study of what is the influence of cell structures towards
characteristics of the TPE surface we have set up this report. For our MSc 1 studio Non-standard and
Interactive Architecture (by Hyperbody) we are currently designing a furniture for joggers. For this furniture
we came up with a set of different fitness-activities which all have their own requirements regarding the
material and the softness of this material.
In order to choose an adequate structure for the TPE for our furniture we’ve done some research.
In this report we will firstly discuss the research method we have handled. Secondly we will state all our
research results. After that we will end our report with a conclusion, a reflection and a discussion for a
potential follow-up study.
The research method For our research we handled the method of research through design. This means that we designed three different patterns in Grasshopper. Each pattern with a different cell structure with the aim of manipulating the softness of the material. After finishing the designs, we printed the patterns with a 3D printer. This in order to examine the deformation, soft-, and hardness of the patterns after imposing a force on it.
The research
Requirements
As said before the designed furniture has
different requirements conform
materialization. There are parts that need
to be soft, parts that need to be hard,
parts that can be hollow etc. We started
our research with mapping out the
different requirements. The figure on the
right shows the different requirements.
Fragment
After it was clear what the requirements
are for each part of the furniture, we
chose a fragment of the furniture to focus
on. Focusing on a small fragment was
necessary considering the time and
manpower we had.
Patterns
For the chosen fragment we designed 3 different patterns, each with different cell structure. For inspiration
we looked at the nature, research that had already been done and haphazardly designing figures in the
hope to invent something useful. After some days searching for the right patterns we came up with three
totally different structures as shown below.
3D printing
Our next step, after designing the three patterns, was to print out what we had designed. As printing
with TPE is something not usual, printing with TPE was a research on itself. Luckily we could get some
help from Serdar Asut from the Building tech print lab.
Results
Conclusion
The TPE experiments can be printed after the holidays at the Building Tech print lab so our
conclusions follow…
Discussion
LECTURE POETEINI SETAKI In the presentation of Foteini Setaki given on Tuesday the 31st of October we got inspired by the idea of using recycled plastic for our furniture. For this reason, we did some research into using recycled plastic as a filament for our 3D prints. The conclusion of our research was, in short: Recycling plastic is an intensive process that takes a lot of time and energy. The process includes collecting, washing, shredding, adding chemicals a reforming the plastic. Beside the insensitivity and the time taking process recycled plastic hasn’t the same characteristics as TPE. The most important characteristic is the flexibility of the material. Shortly that is the reason why there is not chosen for recycled plastic as main material.
LECTURE MILICA PAVLOVIC At the start of this course we’ve analyzed the activity on the site during different times of the day. Knowing who is around the area helped us define what target group we should design for: a furniture for runners. After this exercise we started to remap the experience of going for a run (as explained in the lecture of Milica Pavlovic). We observed that Kralingen is an amazing area for runners, but giving runners the option to do a run combined with sport-exercises on a parametric furniture would be an interesting addition for runners. User remapping helped us define this concept. Continuing this approach, we’ve came up with a set of passive workouts. We zoomed into these activities by looking at the movements happening doing these activities and the relation to the surface and the human body. We translated these activities into sections, which we used to make a complete form using clay models.
H. Bier and S. Mostafavi Structural Optimization for Materially Informed Design to Robotic Production Processes The additive production approach Mapping stress lines using Karamba gave us insights in the structural forces and tensions happening in our macro geometry. This exercise enabled us to generate a point cloud inside our geometry, based on structural loads. By optimizing point cloud densities based on generated stress lines we are dealing with the so-called demand driven architecture. Of course, load bearing aspects is just one of the demands we need to deal with in our sub-divided components, but rain, usability patterns, assembly methods etcetera are also demands that could be added in later stages. We focused on the efficiency of material usage and load bearing demands because we felt like this was a logical bottom-up approach, adding further demands later onwards.
Also, a lot of our research is based on experimenting with the characteristics a semi-flexible 3D-printable TPE material. Designing a variety of 3d-patterns and printing these at the Building Technology print-lab, we are integrating digital production processes with material characteristics. Doing such experiments is of a great value because now we can judge the materials bending behavior and learn from the production process, manipulating the patterns from these conclusions and we even combine these structures with each other in order to generate an even more efficient structure. (Bier & Mostafavi, 2015) Optimizing structural load bearing The objective of our research Our aim was to find the right porosity in TPE, forming a smooth and soft surface.
