Digital Fabrication » Akanksha Rathee

reinFORCED

agajz — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 23:12:13 +0000

The design idea used to create the tile was a method of force fields. In creating this seamless pattern multiple spin forces were merged together and the effect of field lines was extended for better visualization and incorporation into the water evacuation system.

Force fields working with a different set of constraining circles.

Every line of the system is represented as an “escaping” curve. Each point tries to get away from the force field quickly, leaving those paths behind and creating the data tree structure. By playing with parameters like length, force, radius, distance in between, we could create a controlled distortion according to these field lines and force center.

Water evacuation tangencies meet force fields

The tile is divided into 3 parts according to the water evacuation points on the external edges: 2, 3 and 4. The force fields were placed accordingly on splines starting from these points of reference.

Overall composition of 6 tiles

The slope of the tile decreases gradually outwards following the rhythm of the water canals and pattern, enhancing the water evacuation.

The reference for the picture and original grasshopper script is: http://www.designcoding.net/force-fields-revisited/

Our edited grasshopper definition

To discover our milling strategy we experimented repeatedly with RhinoCam. In the end, for our design, we selected the 12 mm ballmill as it gave us the optimal finish and kept our machining time within the 2 hour limit. We first ran a horizontal roughing to carve the canals then curve machining to overlay the thin contour lines. In the end we didn’t do a perimiter engraving in order to allow for continuity of the lines over the edge and side of the tiles.

RhinoCam simulation strategy

circle 3D

pongtidasantayanon — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 20:20:40 +0000

Our approach was to create 5 large circles and to connect them to the base using a simple peg-like joint which could be moved around in our experiments and fixed for presentation. With a focus on the transition between 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional space, the intention was to create a sphere-like object out of circles that could be manipulated by a central ring through which they were threaded, and distorted by changing of their diameters.

we made a conscious decision to eliminate the need to deal with the ends of the rods, as the capacity for the plastic rods to rebound out a secure position was too great. Thus, we instead designed joints which we could feed the ends of the rods through, creating a relatively strong connection through friction which was still loose enough to allow for the pulling of the ends and the tightening of the loops. In testing our joints we bore holes into the base in a pentagonal radial grid so that we could have the regularity of a pentagonal alignment, and we achieved a number of formations which reflected our initial intent, but the circular ring joint was not as easy to move. Without the ring we created two movements (pictured), but the other joints and our base treatment afforded us more flexibility to experiment further with different formation that could be more dynamic and fun.

The product is the result of our experiments with different configurations on the base and different levels of interation between the circles. Linking and twisting them together counteracted the rebounding forces of the rod and reduced the number of counteracting angles threading through the central circle. As a result we achived assisted movement from 2d to 3d using the ring as a control point. As this movement involves only four rods, the 5th is introduced as a control device activated by tightening of the circle.

(Click to see animated gif. of the movement)

(double click to animate!)

Toxic

ecetankal — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:17:45 +0000

Ece Tankal – Akanksha Rathee – Dhwani Patel

The simple module unit is designed to create a curvilinear structure with linear wooden elements. Each unit comes together to form circles of eight or ten with joints possible in multiple dimensions. These unit circles create numerous possibilities of iterations with a vertical stacking of spheres. The curves can be manipulated in two half circles joined in opposite directions to increase the flexibility of experimentation.

We tested the stability of the structure through multiple options and the final result is a balance between the height and weight distribution of the spheres. The resulting structure is extremely light and is supported only by 4 laser cut pieces. This also gives us the advantage of reaching a larger height with less material because of the porous nature of the design.