Client
Undergraduate Thesis
Overview
The concept of machine has profoundly influenced architectural design, prioritizing functionality, efficiency, and economy. However, the traditional 'form follows function' paradigm overlooks the machine's potential to reinterpret and reshape human-environment relationships. This thesis aims to explore the antithesis of machine and its broader humanist aspirations. Machines, as autonomous agents, go beyond mere responsiveness, offering a sensuous cohabitation between humans, the environment, and the machine itself.
Client
Undergraduate Thesis
Industry
Architecture
Service
Architectural Design
Industrial Design
Digital Fabrication & Prototyping
Duration
9 Months
The Challenge
The transformative system is incorporated with several kinetic mechanisms to create an ideal kinetic motion that influence architectural spatial conditions in a meaningful way that alludes the human usage of the space. Several kinetic mechanisms include origami, rigid body motion, flexible elastic joint, and pneumatic actuation. The challenge was to develop an integrated systems of the four kinetic mechanism to work together smoothly.
The Solution
We employed a chain of command system that uses one mechanism to actuate another to simulate multiple forms of motion, including bending, arching, expanding and contracting. Multiple test prototypes of single-axis rigid body, multidirectional rigid body, and pneumatic arms were fabricated to simulate specific forms of motion before integrating into the final prototype. Using Solidworks and Arduino, we were able to simulate and partially realize the designed motions both digitally and physically.
The Result
The scaled prototype of a transformative architectural pavilion was imagined to be deployed in Antarctica, where changes in environmental conditions, such as air pressure, temperature, and sunlight, happen constantly and drastically. The practical usage of such structure was not part of the thesis. This thesis was to merely present a scalable system that could potentially be applied in transformative builds in architecture practice.
