Digital Fabrication » Luca Gamberini

Underwater

Luca Gamberini — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:39:51 +0000

The exploration of the natural forms in the Catalan Modernism has been conceived with the water. In this tile the flow becomes both form and function. The organic form and natural topography seem to be the results of the natural shaping process the sea water produces by touching upon the sand bed. The topography of the tile represents the dualism between liquid and solid: what was once a product of the water flow now is the pathway which drives the water to some constrained estuaries. Tile by tile the continuos and smooth submarine environment takes form within the water and sand.

The milling process has been evaluated with three different ballmills: a 12 mm diameter one to remove material, a 6 mm one diameter to mill the designed shape and a 3 mm ballmill to finish the outputs.

Once the mold was finished we applied 4 coats of sealer and let it dry. Then we applied a layer of vaseline so that the cement did not stick into the mold. Next step was to pour a mixture of cement, water and additives. The mixture dried for 8 hours. After taking the piece out of the mold, the surface has been cleaned out of the vaseline and the oil has been applied to uniform the finishing.

To be continued… (once we have more tiles)

Hyperblob

Luca Gamberini — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:30:01 +0000

Derived from a hyperboloid of 1 sheet, the Hyperblob is a free standing structure made up of 25 2mm fiberglass rods, 33mm long, through two 3D printed rings, 150 mm in diameter. Hyperboloids can be found in architecture and are based on the concept of a ruled surface: through every point on the surface lies a straight line. Hyperblob is an exploration of curvature through the use of straight lines. The structure has a variety of movements, in all of the cartesian coordinates, due to the 3D printed joints.

The Digital Fabrication world has introduced the magic of 3D printing to a variety of audiences. As students, designers, and thinkers it was our task to explore this new technology and create a joint was only possible using this process. Using this criteria we produced a repetative joint that comprised of openings, angled at 20 degrees, as well as a bi-axial interlocking connection mechanism. Constrained by a bounding box of 50x50x100 mm, we printed 26 individual joints that when combined form two seperate rings. The Hyperblob comes to life when rods pass through each ring allowing the structure to stand, move, and deform depending on the users manipulation.

Light is more

Luca Gamberini — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:31:21 +0000

First Digital Fabrication Exercise is concluded. The school’s courtyard is now hosting the final towers made by laser cutting. Our final result is a free-standing structure that looks back at the building rationality and simplicity to reach the top. The structure has been first thought as an assembly of X shaped pieces. These pieces has been then optimized removing material and allowing in this way the soft bending. Some extra pieces drive the bending pathway creating a solid assembly, while others are arranged as crosses to avoid the horizontal movements. The overall composition looks thin and light as it was preferred to concentrate the material along the height only where necessary in order to get higher.

The tower raises through the combination of three types of joints which work with friction and blocking strategies. The first type makes possible the connection between the external X pieces, the second one allows the interlocking between the X shaped pieces and the horizontal frame, while the third type joins the vertical crosses with the horizontal frame.