myLight is a “Do It Yourself” luminaire intended to provide a user with a memorable experience and appreciation for design and fabrication. Made from durable mylar, myLight is hand assembled by the user following a video as a guide. The object becomes more than simply a store-bought lamp as the user is involved in its production and takes pride in its assembly. PROJECTiONE is focused on process in conjunction with final results. myLight shares this experience directly with users. The visual complexity of the laser cut system adds to its beauty while the simple method and repetition of assembly makes it easy and fun to build. We hope the process can be a shared experience for multiple users gathered around a single myLight.

myLight is based on a component system that can be modified to create multiple shapes, sizes, and colors of luminaires, and the current system has been designed for easy handling and assembly by any user. The “Teardrop” is our first version in the line and is now available for sale! Please check back for more styles to come in the future.

Teardrop $375.00 USD
Luminaire Dimensions: 11”w x 17”h
Contents: 15’ UL listed cable and socket assembly, polystyrene hardware and cable tie, 286 laser cut mylar components
Custom designed / fabricated packaging
Made to order, ships in: 1-2 Weeks

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PROJECTiONE has been a collective focused on the relationships between digital and analog processes in design and fabrication. The individual has been removed from the collective in a pursuit for true collaboration, but as our thesis year ends we recognize the importance of our individual interests after graduation. We have determined separate paths after PROJECTiONE, but look forward to potential future collaborations. Elizabeth Boone has been focused on the pedagogical potentials of PROJECTiONE for new students. She is seeking employment as an architecture instructor and is interested in working professionally to become licensed in the near future. Eric Brockmeyer has further developed an interest in interaction design and physical computing and will be attending Carnegie Mellon University in the fall for a Masters of Tangible Interaction Design. Adam Buente and Kyle Perry intend to continue pursuing the focus of PROJECTiONE through a new venture, starting up a design company based around the potentials investigated this year. They hope to keep up the momentum of PROJECTiONE, pushing towards an interesting new practice and future projects.

For general information about PROJECTiONE, contact us at info@projectione.com.

Feel free to contact us individually:
Elizabeth Boone: elizabethboone@projectione.com
Eric Brockmeyer: ericbrockmeyer@projectione.com
Adam Buente: adambuente@projectione.com
Kyle Perry: kyleperry@projectione.com

INTRODUCTION:

Radiance covers a standalone brick fireplace in a mid century ranch home in Broad Ripple, Indiana. The clients rarely used their existing wood-burning fireplace and wanted to change its function. We proposed an ambient lighting piece that still hosts traditional qualities of the hearth. As an artist and an architect, the clients’ liberal and eclectic design aesthetic allowed for a great degree of freedom and risk-taking during development. They considered this project as commissioned artwork rather than a client-based architectural intervention, adding to their collection in the home. Radiance is intended to exploit the qualities of the hearth by re-centering the focus of the home and providing an ambient environmental effect.

The project was initiated through the clients’ interest in our plyLight sketch prototype, based on its subtle reactive lighting effects and human tracery. We expanded on these ideas, focusing on visual and systematic complexities of the work. By creating simple geometry and interactions at local levels we could render complex reactions and forms in the overall scheme. Though it was developed and organized through its sub-components, the result is a continuous system which reacts uniformly.

DESIGN:

Radiance was inspired by various shelf mushrooms, based on their form, organizational structure, and component geometry. The mushroom has a distinguishing set of gills that alternate in lengths from the stem’s center point. The lengths of these gills forms a repetitive pattern intended to cover the largest surface area under each mushroom cap. This pattern has been abstracted into our system to arrange each pod, defined as a radial set of 16 plastic components with an LED placed directly behind each. The wiring for the LEDs is embedded within the surface of milled MDF, further expressing the pod’s organizational system. A Passive Infrared Sensor is located at the centroid of each pod, acting as the trigger for the parts around it.

Surface area coverage was important for the project as the poured plastic components and electronics are expensive and time-intensive. The patterning made coverage of the fireplace feasible meeting both our design criteria for density and fit within our timeline. A Grasshopper definition was developed to create the overall pattern and generate final fabrication files, including toolpaths for acrylic and MDF milling, as well as wire length calculations for each component.

DETAILS:

We constructed a steel frame that would enclose the existing fireplace, giving us the ability to fabricate most of the project offsite and assemble, predominantly, in their home. The frame bolts together so it can be disassembled for travel and reassembled onsite. All hardware is recessed in the frame to maintain clearance around the fireplace, and each corner embeds set screws in order to tighten against the fireplace and level out the project without drilling into the brick. Three sides were assembled completely before sliding the piece around the fireplace. Then the fourth access wall was then assembled utilizing embedded magnets in the MDF for attachment to the steel.

The MDF is the structural armature for all wiring, sensors, circuit boards, and plastic components. On the front side, the main LED wiring is exposed to express the organizational pattern while the reverse side contains all sensor, power, and serial wiring. Color is applied to this layer and masked with clear acrylic.

The acrylic acts as a protective layer for the paint and brings out the richness of its color. Its milled areas catch the light of the LED’s, traveling through its clear portions. This tooling occurs in areas where the pods do not overlap, further expressing order as well as adding texture.

To create an ambient and subtle reactive lighting piece we found it is necessary to dim all 512 LEDs individually. To do so, we developed our own Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufactured through a third party vendor. This PCB houses our Integrated Circuits (TLC5940NT dip-28, made by Texas Instruments) utilizing Pulse Width Modulation (PWM or dimming) on each of its 16 outputs. This allows for the individual fading of each LED. Each of our PCBs corresponds with a pod of 16 elements. These elements pulse slowly out from the center when the sensor is triggered. The Passive Infrared sensor (PIR) is controlled by allowing only a small viewing angle through the acrylic surface, blocking infrared light from all but a designated cone of space off of the surface. These viewing cones have been tuned based on the existing spatial conditions of furniture, walls, and function of the home. Pods are in groups of three and run independently off of eleven individual Arduino Pro Mini microcontrollers.

Each urethane plastic component is part of a multistep mold making process. We began by iteratively 3D printing potential forms. The positive powder prints are then sanded and coated in preparation for a two-part urethane rubber. Points in the mold were created to locate 3d printed jigs used to place a bolt and plastic spacer in each part which fastens to the MDF. We chose Smooth-Cast 325 as our poured plastic material due to its fast cure time, durability, and translucency. 512 hand poured components were created at 12-13 parts per hour with very little variation between parts.

INTERACTION:

There are two pulses that occur after triggering a pod’s sensor. A primary ‘pulse’, that fades to full intensity and quickly fades off, followed by a secondary ‘pulse’ which fades on quickly but dims slowly over nearly a minute. This pattern can be interrupted as new users trigger a pulse creating the dynamic lighting affect seen in our video.

Similar to the lighting effects of fire, Radiance creates dynamic changes in intensities across it surface. This makes the piece enticing to watch and because the pulses fade in and out so smoothly the lighting is not overbearing. There is a distinct difference in the lighting qualities throughout the day and into the night as the piece becomes more and more the central component bringing warmth and light into the home.

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bitMAPS was initiated through a client’s interest in a sketch prototype, and developed as an inexpensive patterned wall system. It integrates a custom design through a repeatable mold and integrates multiple functions of the room. The project is intended to create a clean but complex texture that is engaging to sight and touch, encouraged through embedded switches, custom storage compartments and openings for light and air ventilation.

The prototype was developed using sheets of intentionally pierced bubble wrap as a vacuum form mold for plastic panels. The process was further refined with a repeatable High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) mold. The dimpled panels are created by vacuum forming .06” white polystyrene over the mold. Edge conditions were particularly important to address, each panel had to interlock perfectly to generate the appropriate tiled effect using a hexagonal “bubble wrap” pattern. Positive, negative and flat plugs were milled and inserted into the mold based on printed templates. Oriented strand board was milled for each panel to accommodate for the negatives of the corresponding polystyrene tile, acting as spacer and providing the system with rigidity.

The patterning of the panels originated from a bitmap image. Each pixel was carefully choreographed to communicate a pattern at multiple scales. This tuning was achieved using a specifically designed grasshopper definition; slide bars allowed for variable proportioning of positives negatives and flat pixels, as well as variations in distortion and noise.
For this specific residential application, bitMAPS was applied on two walls and the ceiling of the client’s bathroom. Fluorescent cove lighting was integrated, washing the adjacent painted walls with light. Many features of the space which would normally be separate components were integrated into the paneling system, resulting in an unbroken pattern. The light and vent switch are completely hidden, integrated behind the panel system using capacitance sensing. Simply moving your hand in front of the specific dimples engages either the lights or fan. The “console” houses the majority of the bathroom’s accessories. Custom panels extrude and recess from the rest of the system, hiding the magazine rack, toilet paper dispenser, and iPhone holder within a series of polycarbonate shelves. Other considerations such as the fan vent and skylight feature perforated panels allowing the passage of light and air.

The balance between analog and digital techniques was critical to this project. Because the vacuuming forming process reveals every imperfection in the mold, it was necessary that the base mold and plugs be precisely machined. The timing of the vacuum process required similar precision in order to maintain consistency throughout the project. In order to remove the excess material after forming, a stationary armature was attached to the bed of the 3 axis router, locating the part for cutting by a saw bit.

This project has provided an opportunity to develop an idea into a feasible product, which incorporates building systems and various functional elements while serving to define space. The integration of a unique, client-driven, pattern into this system adds another layer of meaning into the finished piece that addresses a client’s specific needs. Hopefully, this process will lead to future clients and further development of the system.

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PROJECTiONE was recently invited to be a part of a marketing piece for Ball State University. The 90 second video story will be featured on the Ball State University website. It includes interviews from the four of us paired with a handful of expertly shot B roll of the 3 axis mill, laser cutter, 3d powder printer, and our projects. There is potential that the footage will also be used to produce a longer more detailed video for the Department of Architecture.

In addition to the attention within the University our work has been shared on a number of design blogs,
notcot – bitMAPS, CNC pen, Morpholuminescence
Core77 – bitMAPS
Archinect – Morpholuminescence
Dwell – Lightforms
Moco Loco – Lightforms
Rhino – Morpholuminescence
Thermwood – CNC pen
Fast Company – bitMAPS
Schweppes – bitMAPS
Trends Now Magazine – bitMAPS
Device – bitMAPS
fubiz – bitMAPS
Cardonizer – Business Cards
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After several inquiries we are making the soundtrack to our videos public. The songs featured in our videos are chosen after hours of careful consideration. We would like to credit the featured artists listed above.

We would like to invite everyone to attend our final thesis presentation this Thursday April 15th at 1:45 – 4:00pm in the College of Architecture and Planning’s first floor gallery. The presentation will cover our entire body of thesis work / research, and will be followed by an open discussion. The exhibit of our work will remain on display in the gallery until May 10th.

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What is PROJECTiONE: We are a collective of four designers/fabricators/students pursuing a common question. Our project is based on a shared love of making, a pull towards new understandings of technology and a unique and uncommon design aesthetic.

We have reached outside of the University through our website PROJECTiONE.com creating a network of readers who have followed our project as it has developed. The website has helped to brand PROJECTiONE as its own entity. PROJECTiONE.com is a reflection of our process. We take pride in highlighting our details, methods and finished work. We feel that our design is strengthened through the bold and strong communication of its history.

Logistics: We work as a collective. Our design/fabrication/branding decisions are based on argumentation and compromise as any good partnership must be. However we have narrowed down our decision-making to three types: logical argumentation, passionate pursuit, and collective gut reaction. There are times when a reasoned argument is necessary to establish why a certain decision should be made and it takes a reasoned ear to hear it. At other times a member of the collective will pursue a course on his/her own to a point which the collective may latch on to or pull against. And finally but most infrequently a member will make a suggestion which is immediately agreed upon by all members of PROJECTiONE. There is no one way to document all the decisions that go into any one project and we therefore share all credit for each design detail and interactive experience. Though we have various strengths approaches to design, we are partners in the pursuit of our common goal.

Status: There is a failure in modern theory and practice to address the increasing availability of digital tools. The current theory of digital fabrication is focused predominantly on the new tools of making, CNC machines, rapid prototyping technology and BIM and parametric modeling software. We believe that these tools allow for a shift in the methods of an informed practice but do not and cannot exist without a tangible relation to the human aspect of design and making, what we call the analog. Secondly there is a growing recognition by schools and theorists that interactive architecture is inevitable and though slow to adapt, architecture will need to address the proliferation of augmented reality and reactive systems. These have become accepted across our society and the expectation is clear that our buildings must respond to environmental (background/ambient) and human (foreground/direct) stimuli.

Many projects highlighted in periodicals and in academic journals are based on intangible software tools rather than the tangible constraints of making. It has been argued that CNC equipment has allowed for the development of unique components such as contoured blobs and therefore these projects do consider the realities of fabrication. We feel that such an approach is limited and forces the irrelevant digital form into a wasteful object, and is ignorant to the details which are essential to architecture’s success.

Our project is engaged in the question of how digital and analog methods reinforce one another in support of a practice constrained by the realities of making.

Arc: Through a series of projects, explorations and interventions PROJECTiONE investigated this question. This broad spectrum of approaches enabled a varied and diverse understanding. We started the year with an intervention in an exhibition space, performed a series of interviews with top designers and fabricators in New York City, developed product scale designs and pursued full-scale client based products. Each project can be viewed uniquely but collectively it defines the arc of our searching.

Our first project Projection was an opportunity to reflect on how we worked with the digital and analog tools at our disposal. This was an introspective process allowing us to focus very specifically on how and why we made design decisions using a laser cut, three-axis CNC mill and steel fabrication equipment. In order to gain a broader perspective of how practitioners address these issues we met with a group of designers and fabricators in New York City. The interviews that we undertook during that trip reinforced our understanding of how small digitally savvy practices address making. In reflection it became clear that our approach required us to be serious fabricators and serious designers, a feat few of the firms have achieved.

We discovered that a practice grounded in making must straddle the threshold between design and fabrication but also between analog and digital. Based on internal reflection and an understanding of our contemporaries’ position, we moved forward with several small-scale products. Each of these projects highlights a unique understanding of the boundaries between analog and digital and was also an exploration into how our practice can and must embrace material explorations and research.

Finally we moved into the realm of large scale client based projects. This set of projects gave us some insight into the challenges of adapting our methods and practices to the needs and requirements created by a client. Again each project addresses our question on multiple scales. How can a large scale project become aesthetically unique using the analog and digital tools available? How can a client’s design and performance requirements align with our own interests in the conversation between analog and digital? And how can this project become a serious attempt at creating a sustainable practice that addresses these pressing issues?

In educating our clients we were able to reflect on these questions. We have learned the value of clearly conveying our ideals to the clients through these projects. The evidence of our success and failure in answering these questions is in the documentation of our process through video, images, models, and contracts.

Reflect: This project has been most valuable not because we have seen these projects in their completion but we see ourselves in each detail. We committed ourselves to each decision and process from design to fabrication and understand that our value does not lie in the sum of our projects but the sum of our experiences.

This is PROJECTiONE.

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A special thanks to our thesis studio professor Josh Coggeshall for his enthusiasm and support throughout this process, and the Institute of Digital Fabrication for providing us access to the tools and space required to accomplish these types of projects. We would also like to thank our advisors, Bob Koester – Director of Center for Energy Research, Education and Service, Sonne Palmer – Professor of Architecture, Paul Puzzello – Instructor of Architecture, Donna Sink – Instructor of Architecture, Mahesh Senagala – Chairperson of the Department of Architecture, and Dr. Carol Tiernan.

LIGHTFORMS is based on the same production system used in Luminares. The profile curve of the shade is first generated in Rhinoceros and can be customized to any shape. A Grasshopper script interprets this curve, determines the number of components needed, and lays out each simple component with its necessary intersections. The parts are laser cut from mylar and hand assembled in descending order using a series of simple locking joints to link piece to piece and column to column. This produces a highly precise and strong shade that retains extreme detail and ornament. Time saved in production of digital files is spent on the assembly of the piece, allowing for entirely custom elements that are assembled similarly. The development of the project has been driven by physical prototypes continually feeding back into the script in order to add more complexity.

The colored diffuser is achieved by applying a gradient unique to each component, allowing each part to be read both independently and as a whole. The color was laser printed on mylar, and precisely located in the laser cutter bed before being cut. This technique lets us apply in color(s) or patterns to any shape, increasing possible outcomes.

The custom scale and shape of LIGHTFORMS are highly accessible because the most complex portion of the process, the geometric calculations, are automated using a script. Our intention is that these can be sold in clusters of a few, or scaled up towards a site specific installation of many more creating an etirely unique environment.

Currently, those shown are on display as the Begley Art Source Gallery in Evansville, IN.

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The Begley Art Source, A Division of the Evansville Museum Shop, has recently invited us to feature a selection of our work in their gallery. The Begley Art Source is a consignment gallery for artists and designers, and has consulted with area corporations and individuals to develop their art collections, heightening connoisseurship and broadening appreciation and understanding of the visual arts. This represents our first step towards commissioned work and development of product design marketed towards a specific user group.

A new 3.5 foot by 2 foot CNC Marker composition entitle COWS was completed. Using a new technique of creating line work in Rhinoceros, the image was rendered with brown and blue marker on a heavy weight paper, stretched over a thick wood frame. The intention is that this piece would become part of a series of graphic and organic CNC Marker compositions reaching up to 10 feet in length. Five different mylar LIGHTFORMS were designed and assembled for this specific installation, ranging in size between 9 and 15 inches in height. They currently illuminate the front space of the gallery, and are also intended to develop as a series of different colors, scales and shapes. Plylight is also featured, located in the day lit meeting area. Over a two-day period a full scale Bodhi Tree was sculpted as the centerpiece of PROJECTiONE’s featured work. The Bodhi Tree was composed of 3,000 pieces of laser cut maple and cherry veneer, and took 24 hours to assemble.

Our work represents the first site specific installation featured at The Begley Art Source gallery. We hope that placing our work at this location will spark commissioned work for new ideas or adaptations of these concepts at a larger scale.

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PROJECTiONE has developed a position on how we would like to practice through self reflection and trial by fire execution of client-based work. As seen in our client-based strategy post, we have developed more appropriate definitions and descriptors of our processes. These descriptions have evolved over time and through reflecting on our experiences with actual clients. We used this process as the basis for generating our contracts. It was immediately apparent to us that our work could not be contained within a single contract or practice structure and we therefore developed the following client relationships/contracts. They are: Product to Client, Process to Client, and Seed Money. These relationships are described in more detail in the following diagrams, but they allow for a greater degree of flexibility in dealing with clients with varying expectations. It is expected that our clients may be traditional owners, fellow designer, or manufacturers looking to invest into innovative usage of a material or process.

This comparison was developed as a means of best understanding the internal PROJECTiONE process. By reflecting on our process over the course of our work together we developed this set of descriptions which represent us. This thought experiment has served as the basis for the development of our client relationships and our own practice structures. The comparison is not intended as a critique of traditional practice structures but it is a standard against which our practice can be most clearly represented.

In this structure the client is interested in a sketch or prototype previously developed by PROJECTiONE. They realize the potential of the design and would like to adapt it to fit their needs. During the development of the design, the client approves the product after the Informed Design phase before moving into the Production, and Assembly and Installation phases.

PROJECTiONE is commissioned by the client to apply design thinking/processes to their unique problem. The client approves the design after the Critical Thinking phase and again after Investigation and Testing, and Informed Design.

PROJECTiONE partners with a Manufacturer/Designer/Venture Capitalist/Investor to provide seed money used to develop an initial concept. PROJECTiONE then interrogates the material/process/idea, investigating innovative technologies, methods, and applications. The deliverable of value is typically the knowledge generated.

This version of Bodhi Tree was customized and designed for a residence in Evansville, IN. The clients originally articulated the desire to replace an existing plastic tree, with something more expressive and elegant. The system was reinterpreted for this specific application, consisting of more than 3,000 wood veneer components, which were redesigned at 2/3 scale of the original piece for residential use, increasing the complexity of the overall pattern and rigidity of the system. The wood species and pattern chosen was based on existing color tones and design of the space. In order to streamline the installation process, the components were prefabricated, sorted, and packaged offsite and brought to the client.

We considered Bodhi Tree for this application due to its necessary involvement between designer and client. Over a two-day period the system was installed with the direct involvement of the family members, who helped with the overall design intention and assembly of the final piece. In this way, Bodhi Tree became more than a foreign object placed in their living room. It became an experience that the family will remember as well as an object that redefines how their space feels and is used.

We found this interaction between client and designer/fabricator interesting as it relates to our process. The client’s direct involvement with the design and assembly changed how value was placed on the project, as they became more than a consumer. They were part of the assembly and decision making process, directly affecting the outcome of their project. Assembly became more than labor, and design became accessible. We hope to continue engaging in this type of client relationship in the future.

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This is a prototypical process growing out of our previous experiment CNC Pen, combining precision digital tools with loose analog tools. This method has been further developed as a study of the relationship between these tools. The process includes translating a raster image file into vector format, separated into various color levels. These vectors are then turned into surfaces and translated into g-code for the router. In this instance we have used a 3-axis CNC router to drive 12 Copic Ciao markers on museum board. The precision of the machine is offset by the bleed of the marker and the porous nature of the board. Feed rate and Z values relate directly to speed and pressure of the hand. The image chosen is of the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence Italy from our time there this summer, specifically for its character and color. The nature of this technique and of the place seemed to align. While a certain level of precision is maintained through this process, the inevitable inconsistencies of markering transform the product into something looser. This close relationship between the digital and analog and the innovative use of these tools grows directly from our design platforms.

The product took over 12 hours of file prep and 16 hours of machine time (with testing), embodying our feelings on efficiency. The result was not created faster than a hand rendering, nor does it appear to be machined. The method allows for a new way of making. Repetition and customization are provided for in the process, as well as a dialogue between digital and hand craft. We are happy with this result and look forward to pursuing the next step. For us this piece represents the very important first step in the process.

In an attempt to begin understanding the marketing of our process and design thinking, we have decided to market and sell this outcome. The hope is that the documentation and representation of process will allow a consumer to understand its making, becoming less concerned on only the outcome. The product gains value through its process of making.

This prototype is for sale on ebay here.

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Information about the wood was collected through a Computed Tomography (CT) Scan. This technology is traditionally used for visualizing structures within the body. The CT scan takes X-rays of the wood in section using increments as small as 5 millimeters. The scan of curly maple (above) reveals the grain of the wood.

This data was translated into three-dimensional information by tracing a single grain line in Rhino. The resulting vectors were lofted to create a surface which represents one year of growth in the tree’s history. This process was incredibly time consuming; over 125 sections were analyzed to produce an outcome that was as accurate as possible. Once the surface was generated it was translated into G-code using Mastercam for our three-axis CNC router.

The evenly milled surface was achieved using a half inch bull nose bit with a 1/100th of an inch step over taking over an hour and half. Due to the complex nature of the grain, the milled surface did not precisely follow a single grain line as we had intended. A sanding process was necessary to remove imperfections and smooth the surface. The final piece was finished with Tung oil which protects the wood, enhances the patterns in the grain, and expresses a much richer wood tone.

Although the results from the curly maple were beautiful, using a wood with a looser grain would have been a much better fit for this process. The challenge came from manually interpreting the imaging data into vectors; because the grain was tight it was easy to confuse the grains from one image to another. The juxtaposition of the natural form of the tree’s curvatures and the rigid edges of the sawn lumber makes a statement about the conflict between industrial processing and the materials natural tendencies.

It reminds us of Michelangelo’s slaves; in each unfinished sculpture the curvature of a human body emerges from a large cube of marble. The project embodies the concept of the value of inefficiency. Although this process was tedious, the final outcome is much more valuable because of the time and care that went into making it. The only way to produce this was through a CT scan repetitive tracing, and cautious sanding. The result is a beautifully worked piece of wood that a passersby cannot resist touching.

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