The exercise aims  to understand the various aspects of milling machine, the ability for it to make an architectural detail and to understand its constraints on design.  Focusing on the use of milling tools in order to get specific forms, the exercise was to design a hexagonal tile of size that would be tangential to the points given so as to create a seamless repetition of patterned designs thus the pattern should allow rain water to flow seamlessly in order for it to make its way out of the pattern.

Design:

The concept and the goal of the pattern is to create a seamless flow on organizing curvilinear lines, this is achieved  by the use of different levels of curvilinear pattern linked to each other, it is derived and inspired from a series of abstract patterns that were extracted to study water flow thus from diverse animal patterns seen on different kinds of animals and organisms. This pattern works as rainwater collector diverting excess water to a specific area when interconnected for the reason that each lines are levelled up to bottom, sloped gradient from higher centre of tile to the lower edges. Coming from the middle point of the tile, when channelled to each other it creates a slide through and through, so that water are collected into a specific area. The extruded lines also creates a rough surface that has the capability to trap dirt, for safety reason the pattern is designed as a non slip surface.

Process:

The process initiated various curvy linear lines within the hexagon and whereby understanding the flow patterns, further this lines arranged at different levels to get a clear idea of water flow, then with the help of 3d modelling various curves were examined and its flow were studied. This patterns were tested with the help of CAD-CAM stimulation and milling tools, giving a clear idea of actual formations. Hence a final prototype was derived through it and milling G-Code were exported. This G-codes were feuded in milling machine. The milling was done on 50mm Thick Styrofoam. Through intensive milling, a foam mould for casting tiles was produced. In order to cast a concrete tile the mould surface was finished with Vaseline so that the concrete won’t stick to the mould and multiple tiles can be produced through single mould. Further it was poured with concrete and dried for 12 hours. The tile was taken out from the mould and settled for another 12 hour in order that it is completely dried out. The process was repeated and multiple tiles were casted. The Vaseline on tiles was cleaned through water and finally tiles were dried and polished.

Renderings:

Brief of the exercise:

The exercise was to design a famous Panot hexagonal cement floor tile as designed by Gaudi in 1904.One of the particularity of this design was supposed to be the capacity to be inserted within a larger assembly and to create continuous patterns across several tiles.

Concept:

When it comes to the notion of continuity within an assembly of tiles repetitive look of the whole flooring sometimes becomes mundane, so to break this repetitive laying was the major concern along with the channeling of water on a surface which should be controlled by the level difference within the pattern. And even in water channel the intent was to achieve the water flow which gives the sense of surprise in the journey.

We started with the idea of illusion. We thought of creating an effect of crack. This gives us random look in the overall flooring even though the tiles are of the same pattern. We wanted to surprise the user while walking on this tile, thus by illusion of crack and randomness in the flooring we can always make user to look at the pattern.

 Execution:

To achieve the end result we used 3d software to simulate the pattern. We used the plugin where particles are collided to the surface and it gives various patterns. This collision can be controlled as per the expected end result.

Then we used rhino cam(plugin for rhino) where we defined the strategies for the milling process of the mold. We used two ball mills, 12mm for pen for the carving of the mold and 3mm pen for the final finishing and engraving. Once the molds were ready we applied four layers of sealant at interval of 15 minutes to dry and then wax before pouring concrete into the mold. Each time took 12 hours to dry.

After getting all the tile we cleaned it with hot water to get rid of extra wax and then it was ready to lay cracks all over the place.

To create the tile, we began with a process of experimenting with the possibilities and limitations of the parameters of the hexagon – mainly the shape, size and quantities of the water excavation curves.

L-System

Voronoi Web

Bent Whirlpool

Lofting Curves

 From this early point of experimentation, we moved into simplifying the process and the design. The result was to take a direct inspiration from natural. A beautiful, naturally occurring phenomenon known as the channel country.

Seemingly chaotic in many senses, the channel country follows a very simple order – the water flows along the path of least resistance, slowly creating rivers and networks in its wake. Ever changing, yet ever lasting.

The process to take this idea into a reality came when exploring tools in rhino. We understood that we could use the variants of gradients in an image to create depth on a 2-dimensional field.

From the drawings, it was a long and educational experience to understand how to transfer the imagined images into drawings, and then into a 3-dimensional field in Rhino.

The final output of the tiles into a built form was an interesting experience to say the least. Working with compressed foam-board had limitations of its own. Our mould suffered a crack after the first pour. Prior to that, machining had resulted in the CRC Milling Machine cutting a line through the side of the mould, leaving a hole to be filled by Stucco.

Although the cold weather significantly slowed down the progress of curing the concrete, we were able to overcome this by efficient time management to produce 6 full tiles as per the brief.

The thought was to overcome the limitations of the milling machine and the concrete hence present a tile that would appear to be visually soft and contrast to both the nature of the material and the machine.

To achieve our goal we focused on two main aspects the first being the use of shadows to make the material more vivid and the second designing to maintain the values which we are able to mill using the machine.

Hence the idea of forming a regular pattern was ruled out and the approach was to simulate the nature of the woolen fiber. 

In order to achieve the desired simulation an image of the wool was inserted into Rhino, Grasshopper and Photoshop. Various permutations and combinations were done to provide the dramatic effect we wanted to create.

We then used this as the basis for our design in Rhinocam where various strategies (curve machining, parallel finishing) were tried.

In order to take take advantage of the milling machine only points at different levels were given the shape formed as a resulted generated purely by the machine itself.  The final strategy with the tool of ball mill 12 used were horizontal roughening, hole pocketing and engraving.

The mold was then cleaned made non porous using epoxy. Vaseline was then added in order to prevent the concrete from sticking to the mold. The mold was then again experimented on with by trying to changing it’s the nature using the Vaseline.

As the purpose of the exercise was to create tile pieces to cover the school’s patio floor, we decide to create an image concept to represent what we think is the essence of the school and the advance architecture at Iaac: The students.

That’s why we decide to create “Topography Faces”, a trilateral symmetry design that represent thinkers of the new architecture.

With 3 diferentes face designs in 3 different corners of the tile, the design becomes a complex pattern formed by the rotation of the title to match with the next face and finally forming a topographical surface for water flow.

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)