We're finally done!!

Our final panel! Sorry it's so small, but click on the image for a better view.





And our final model! We made two skins: one that was clear acrylic to show the transparent uncrumpled condition and one our of white museum board to show the crumpled condition. We think it turned out pretty well!








Crit went really well and we are gearing up for Graduation weekend. We had a good time with this challenging project, thanks for checking out our blog!

--Jess and Allen

Almost there!!

We're on the final stretch! These are our almost-final drawings that should be about ready for final crit (next Friday), so now we're mainly going to focus on finishing our physical model. It's going pretty well so far, and we're going to work in studio today so we should be in pretty good shape!











Will update soon with more physical model info.

And Final-ish Model

So we've started fabricating/assembling our final model. Of which, at the moment, we only have a couple parts so far. First is the third floor slab.




















Here's the building's skin.

We'll be sure to update as we progress with the model.

Final-ish Drawings

We're starting to finalize our ideas and figuring out all the details, so here are the drawings showing all the new developments! We'll be updating with our final drawings, last sketch models and the final pieces of our project!

New Study Model!

So we've taken a different route with the skin; we've simplified it. Again, to make sure it works, we've come up with another physical study model. It works for the most part but there may still be a few kinks to work out. As you can see in the first picture, it's the skin in its most orthogonal form, and when the front facade is pulled backwards, much of the southern portion of the building then "crumples" including the south and west facades and the roof.

Finally.. some Grasshopper!

So we've been saying along that we're working on our arduinos and Grasshopper, but we have yet to really fully explore the options for modeling our building concept. At last, a video of our Grasshopper/Rhino model! I did not have it hooked up to the arduino (though it does work, with just the push of a button!) so I was just using a number slider to create the rotational motion of the main columns. This is just the start; more floor slab and facade to be added later. Enjoy!

Capture your screen in seconds

Cool Folded Building

Allen just found a really neat example of a building that has crumpled floors similar to ours (though it doesn't move!) but it makes some pretty interesting programs out of the forms generated by the crumpled floors. Check it out Here!

Videos!!

We have two videos for your viewing pleasure: The first is a video of our sketch model for the initial concept of our swaying building, and the second is the more fleshed-out design for part of our moving facade. Enjoy!

Swaying Building from Jessica Butler on Vimeo.

Sorry this one is sideways!

Facade Configuration from Jessica Butler on Vimeo.

Moving Facade!

Hey guys-
We've finally started implementing our ideas into a fully moving and functioning facade! Our idea first stemmed from using the idea of the four-bar linkage to create a swaying building, but it has now evolved into a building the crumples! It's all based on the angle of the sun and swaying columns, creating a building the gradually crumples into itself over time. Below are the preliminary drawings of the idea:





The structure of the building is mostly straightforward, but we are currently dealing with the issue of how to configure the skin which will move and crumple with the building. We're really excited about the idea, but now we just have to make it work! Below are some photos of the configurations in study models that we have been working out to help visualize the building and facade.


Floors:


South Facade tests:


West Facade test:



Videos of our mechanized tests will be up shortly!

VIDEO!

Finally, here it is: a video of our working chair mechanism!

Chair Mechanism from Jessica Butler on Vimeo.

Today we started really fleshing out ideas for our building, so we will be posting those in the form of sketches and drawings over the weekend. Let's just say it will be interesting!

Arduino Time!

We have finally completed the final model of our chair in both detail model (full scale) and full chair model at quarter scale. But first, here's our process model that we used to figure out our gears:



So here's the final product!










So it's the same concept as before, Person sits, the seat and racks move down which turn the gears that makes everything happen. These first 2 pictures are the "before" state; here's the chair in its final position.






So we have tested it and it does work; there's only a couple of quirks to work out concerning friction, etc. But other than that, we're excited! It's hooked up to the Arduino and Servo (which was wired and programmed much with the help of Josh and Andrew) with a button so that we can rotate it up and down. It's pretty nifty.

Lastly, the full chair model:

Models to Come...

Hi all, so things have been a bit crazy lately with a class trip to the big apple, but here are some images from our Rhino file of our chair! We're moving on to final models of our mechanism, and then we're going to start working on building-scale applications. We've just started working with our Arduinos and it looks like it will be an adventure.




We met with Richard and Simon last Tuesday and came up with a new iteration of the chair, bringing it out of the "box" haha sorry. Pun intended. Hope you like it!

Final proposal?

Progress!

Jess and I are rather satisfied with the direction where going, namely, our "box" chair.










So the premise of this proposal is basically a box which transforms into a chair. Building off of our preliminary concept, the armrests and the back of the chair come into action when a person sits on it. The downward motion of the "button" is connected to a rack and pinion system which then rotate a system of arms/links that will both elevate the armrests and rotate the back of the chair into their final positions.

The idea behind is that, as a box, it would be easier to store and could serve as an additional footstool, small coffee table, etc. We are still discussing ideas concerning whether it would lock into the chair position, the materials, possibilities for ergonomics, shapes, etc. Here are some rough ideas:

Concepts!

So after our brainstorming session, we thought of some ideas:





Firstly, a basic translation of pressure to rotation to linear motion again through linkages. Here, the basic idea is a armrest that will elevate up from below the level of this chair's seat. It will be triggered by the "seatee's" weight utilizing the rack and pinion to rotate one of the linkages to elevate said armrests.

Another,

















We went ahead and tried to apply it onto a larger scale, such as a facade. Here rotating members span horizontally which are then attached to linkages which will orient panels. Through varying the lengths and positions of these linkages, different movements and positions of these panels are possible. Again, we are just exploring possibilities. The last example you see here actually uses a scissor jack system however, in which long screws control the expansion/contraction of the associated linkage system.

...a bit delayed but..

I've finally gotten a hang of this blog stuff! Anyways, I'll follow suit and post my "found object"

I essentially found a "walking" bug. It's a mechanical walking bug toy (which belongs to my roommate by the way and is also nonfunctional at the moment). It uses a fixed linkage system between the legs allowing it to walk forward.















As you can see, there is only one motorized part of the legs, that is the rotating cylinder powering the middle leg which is connect to the other two legs. This connection allowed for this cycle of movement forward.

Gears and Software

After brainstorming ideas for things we could design with our combined mechanisms (rack and pinion and linkages) we started doing research on different types of linkages and came across this very cool video of a Watt's linkage:

We now have a really interesting concept for a chair that we want to design. I think we're actually going to end up cutting the Watt's linkage out of our chair for now (more drawings to follow) but we discovered the Mekanimo software from this video which is really cool. I also just got the Autodesk Inventor software last night, so I'm going to start playing with that and finally, Allen found a nifty plugin for SketchUp called sketchy physics which might come in handy too. So now we have options of how to figure out how everything is going to work with our gears and linkages!

Hello World!

Hi everyone! So Allen and I have been working hard over the weekend brainstorming and you'll see the product of that soon, but until then, here is some info on my chosen object for this little project! I got a fancy-shmancy ice cream scoop, and Allen will follow-up with his walking bug.


I had fun learning how to model in 3Ds Max to put this together, mostly because of the organic forms of the handles: