As part of the ninth edition of the BEYOND MEDIA festival hosted by Image in Florence, Italy, the SPOT ON SCHOOLS exhibition explored the didactics in the field of architectural design and of the new media of communication, while focusing on the most recent development of the use of digital technologies for design research in the field of education.

The Institute for Digital Fabrication was invited to show work at SPOT ON SCHOOLS on the mezzanine in the Stazione Leopolda. Three projects were included: Morpholuminescence, Bodhi Tree, and Veneer Luminaires. The exhibition design/fabrication team was comprised of the members of PROJECTiONE. The exhibit took five, twelve hour days to install, remained up for about a week and was disassembled in three hours.

Comprised of hundreds of custom laser-cut petals, stems, and hinges, Morpholuminescence was transported in checked luggage and shipped in pieces, fully arriving one day prior to the opening (three days were scheduled for its installation). A large custom clamp was designed and fabricated to hold the 75+lb project from the existing structure at the Stazione. The tricolor LEDs were adjusted to compliment the natural tones of the other two projects displayed.

Assembled and compositionally designed completely on-site, this version of Bodhi Tree required laser cutting of over 10,000 components from hardwood veneer. The system was customized for this exhibit by increasing the overall size of the veneer component to decrease installation time, and reversing the two types of wood for a different effect. A monofilament net was used as a structural system to allow for precise hanging of the piece.

The Luminaires were also constructed on-site from hardwood veneer along with lightweight acrylic armatures and fluorescent lighting. This luminaire design was specifically derived from the lighting system used and was arranged to create a field in balance with the other projects. Three variations of size were constructed to highlight the variability in the parametric system.
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Developed in the Spring of 2009 during “An Inconvenient Studio”, reFLEX is an experimentation in adaptive systems, sensor technology, and micro controllers. This short project was meant to explore new materials and ideas in this arena. The practice of designing and developing such a product has given us insight and an understanding into the capabilities of adaptive systems.

reFLEX is a first effort in creating a bottoms up collective in which local behavior has an immediate impact on the system’s behavior. This prototype was developed using a minimal amount of material and is actuated by nine individually controlled muscle wires which allow the tower to bend in response to light intensity values provided by four small variable light resistors. If reFLEX were to exist in a group of hundreds of similar responsive entities, the collective behavior would be governed by the simple rules created for the individual.

Contraction of the Nickel Titanium muscle wire takes place upon heating or the running of current through a length of the wire. This contraction allows the wood veneer springs to flex and return to its upright position. Further development of this concept could allow for the creation of reactive screening elements or continuously adaptive photo-voltaic alignment systems.

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MorphoLuminesence is a kinetic ceiling prototype, originally described as a simple surface in Rhino. The surface was triangulated into panels or ”petals” using a combination of the PanelingTools plug-in and manual modeling based on a specific tessellation logic. “Morpho” consists of these kinetic petals, laser cut from white acrylic, which hang from stems of clear tubular acrylic with planar elbow joints. The acrylic tubes were laser cut using custom fabricated jigs to create angles and grooves along each piece. The compound joints of each petal were created using unique laser cut acrylic angles and pivoting model airplane hinges. The surface is actuated using monofilament attached to small, high torque servos. The servos are mounted to acrylic towers above the MDF top surface, providing maximum leverage. Variable value RGB LEDs, above the petal surface, are tuned across the visual spectrum to provide a wide variety of lighting effects.

The MDF soffit was modeled in Rhino as a network of the stems. Although the original form was a NURBS surface, the tooling patterns and g-code where generated using Mastercam. The preview modes allowed us to tweak the step sizes until we could achieve the right aesthetic. The ridges allowed material to be placed where it was structurally needed to keep the petals stable and fixed. The top of the soffit became the circuit board for the LED’s and base for the servo towers.

A series of prototypes informed the shape and structure of the components that create the overall form. Acrylic panels were flexed to their breaking points, fishing line was stressed, and multiple materials were tested for the
rigid top surface including, HDF, MDF, Particleboard, and High Density Foam.

The surface reacts to people standing and moving beneath it, as Arduino micro-controllers are used to receive infrared sensor data and to control the position of the servos. The sensors detect speed and direction of people in relation to the piece. If a user stands still for a long enough period of time, the petals will retract into the completed surface, but once activated by human occupation, the piece opens and closes pods.
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Indiana has a long tradition of producing hardwood veneer from regionally harvested trees. Made of Indiana hardwood veneer, these prototypes highlight some of the more subtle properties of hardwood. The thinness of veneer allows wood to bend, twist, and glow—revealing latent and innate qualities of thinly sliced wood. These qualities are exploited in projects that reveal the lightness of this typically heavy material.

Hardwood veneer Luminaires were developed with the Institute for Digital Fabrication using laser cut and tiled black cherry. The model used to create the lamps is a parametric Grasshopper file. This allows the user to select, create, and edit contour curves from which the form is created. Slide bars within the software adjust the size, rotation, and density of tiles on the form. This process gives the designer precise control for immediate visualization and a choice from an infinite number of iterations.

This is a shift away from using a predetermined shape, and towards a set of editable rules that create the form. It is critical that the rules be made with production methods, materials, and formal design in mind. This is achieved through prototyping and refining the model.

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Bodhi Tree exists as an interrogation of component based design and an exploration of alternative design processes as part of collaboration with Steve Deters from UCLA, who led a workshop with a group of Ball State University graduate architecture students in collaboration with the Institute for Digital Fabrication. The project began as a series of explorations with wood veneer, in order to understand its physical properties, assemblage, and component fabrication. This effort produced a single component, assembled into a unit which can be multiplied to create any surface: wrapping a column, suspended from a ceiling, or climbing a wall. The curvature and tension of twisting the veneer strengthens each unit to form a stable and resilient lattice.

An important aspect to this project is the relationship between the designer, the material and the process: pre-installation design was limited to the component, allowing the freedom for customization and sculpting of the surface during installation–the resulting overall lattice geometry being the result of this self-organized form-finding experiment. This very intensive design – fabrication project provides an understanding of component based systems and their ability to propagate as gradient assemblies of variegated densities, strengths, and geometries which are able to catch or filter light and transform space.
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Twist was our introduction to sensor technology and kinetic architecture. We began with simple LEGO NXT programming, sensors, and servos to investigate its uses in achitecture. TWIST focuses on transition spaces in order to create an awareness of self and of others in space. The lycra fabric twists using an inner, acrylic frame connected to a belt driven gear. The rotating frame stretches the fabric into a gill like opening which allows users to see beyond. The intention of the project is to speculate on a kinetic window shading system that could replace current installments. The shades would only open as the user walks by allowing light to be softly blocked throughout the day. The system is component based and can be expanded to any window size. It has the potential to become a graphic from the exterior as well, tracking movement patterns throughout a building.

This project combined accurate laser-cutting and precise hand work in order to accomplish its movement. The acrylic system was designed and tested numerous times in order to determine its necessary shape and possible strength, while each two-sided lycra panels was hand sewn around this frame. The kinetics are driven by a series of custom laser-cut gears and rotating arms that amplify movement.

This project helped us realize the limited abilities of the technology we were using but provided the incentive to engage in systems with more potential.
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