Applying my sculptie to second life

I have done a very basic sketch of what I envisage my design looking like at this stage.  The neighbouring buildings are extremely large so I made them partial in order to not occupy excessive space.

This is a wide extended view of my preliminary design in the space.  I think I may have scaled the neighbouring buildings slightly wrong as there should be more space between them.  For this purpose however I feel the idea is well illustrated enough.

This image is my avatar standing within the form looking out.

Next 3Ds Max idea

I've created this sail like structure that would be constructed with PTFE-coated glass fibre fabric (same as the millennium dome) and would cover the top of the building. I would have it slightly transparent and have parts opaque to create interesting light patterns.

The Patterns would be based on my lazercutting project, with the idea of branches and shadows.

Site

I have chosen my site where my group's 1:100 model was located.  I want to position it between two existing buildings where there is a far amount of space.

My design proposal would be located between these two buildings.

There is a fairly large space between these two buildings.  The building on the left is a storage facility and the building on the right is a car repair shop.

Colleague Profiles

Here are some brief descriptions of the colleagues I'd choose to work with:

Sarah:

Studying Engineering and Science, passionate about the environment and the outdoors.  Sarah has a quirky personality and she's interested in colour and dynamic and fun spaces.  Sarah would need a workshop to design and build that would be not only practical and functional but also youthful and exciting. Incorporation of the outdoors into the interior space is also something she would like considered.




Bob:

Studying fine arts at Elam, Bob is passionate about photography and design. He would expect an aesthetically pleasing space that would be ideal for taking and editing photos.  The room would need to be filled with light but also allow him to control the light coming into the space for certain photographic situations.






Elena:

Elena is studying Architecture but is passionate about rock climbing and other sports like skiing, skate boarding and surfing.  She would need a large space that would encourage physical activity but would also allow for an environment that would be comfortable to work in. This would need to be open plan and let in a lot of light.





Chris:

Chris is studying Architecture and is musically oriented. He would like a space that would allow him to play and produce music whilst also providing inspiration for design concepts. He would like somewhere to store his guitars and a good computer desk but also a large drawing board to work on non digital projects.








I feel like this group of people working together would create a positive and dynamic environment.  For me i'd like a space that could be private but also allow socializing, let in lots of light and give the impression of space. I'd like a large desk and good storage.

Matrix Research

My matrix building is the 'Millennium Dome' in London. It is made predominantly of plastic and the main feature of it acts (in a way)  as a giant tent over the main building. I think it would definitely be interesting to explore this idea and consider a plastic exterior for my design.  I like the structure as it's very horizontal and really utilises contemporary materials and methods of construction.

Learning about tensile structures in Tech, it'd be interesting to apply some of that information to my design, using the same plastic that is used in this dome. I assume that this building is a tensile structure, which makes it physically interesting, as I imagine all the support comes from the top of the poles.  Given the shear scale of the building that suggests it was a highly engineered design.

Trading day

We had a 'trading day' today of reactive architecture in Second life.  What ended up happening however, was an impromptu crit of our "reactive architecture" as we all needed to ground our ideas and create something more appropriate for the brief. My slide thing didn't work as I hoped it would,  I can't work out how to get objects to rotate in the ways I want them to.  Frustration Station.  The idea was to have a door that when touched, became a ramp/slide, something like a glorified drawbridge.  But the sculptie wouldn't move in the ways I hoped, so effectively, I gave up.  I adjusted the initial shape and made it hollower, to become something you could be inside.  I came up with this shape and included stairs to a platform.  The idea was that the large walnut like thing would rotate around an avatar standing on the platform when touched.  While it didn't rotate as I thought it would (Shocker) it rotated in quite an interesting way.

Here are some images of what I produced:

The stairs and walnut shaped form

Within the shape after a rotation

Further immersion in the shape

See above

I wasn't too clear on what we were supposed to be doing and it showed.  Judy recommended refining the shape and having a movable 'landscape' by using an extremely large prim. I might look into this but I don't feel I was really focusing on the task at hand with this piece and I need to reassess my angle.

Considering ideas for my Gathering Project

I have decided to base my colleagues on some of my engineering friends, if they were to start a firm in the future. The friends I have selected are all quirky, enthusiastic and enjoy the outdoors.  I want to capture a youthful spirit within my building and allow for a variety of activities that would enable dynamic uses of the space.

To start with I looked at playing around in 3Ds max and making different shapes that I could use for my reactive architecture piece.

The Bowl 

Experimenting with 3Ds max

Creating a shape that I could use for a piece of reactive architecture

The beginnings of the "yoyo" form

I thought the "yoyo"  idea could be interesting as a sculptie in second life that could b used to open a threshold but it didn't really provide me with the effect I was expecting.

I reassessed my shape and thought about a skateboard ramp or a slide that could be opened and then walked/ridden/slid across, kindof like a glorified "drawbridge."

Final animation

My concept changed considerably since my last post.  while I was initially looking at the things in my day that I do to keep myself sustained, the architecture I tried with this just didn't hold anything interesting or dynamic.  So I decided to change to the idea of how food is a very social activity and how the two could be combined.  I chose a hotel on Anzac Ave as my site and decided to design a roof garden that encouraged the growth of food as well as social interaction.

I feel I represented the idea of stability in the fact that the structure I created has a fragile appearance while actually being sound.  The timber would be durable and the pillars would insure stability of the structure.

Here is the video, or alternatively, the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBsb4I1Tkqk


Here are my peer reviews for this week:

Marina:
http://mojomina.blogspot.com/2011/08/co-ordinates-on-second-life.html?showComment=1316418064294#c2569693831755779837

Nathan:
http://n8architecture.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/design-2-project-2-a-conversation-w-ian-sculpties-in-max-second-lifer-and-other-short-stories/#comment-9

Getting ready in the morning

I made a timetable of what keeps me sustained during the day and I've attempted to turn my morning routine into a stop motion.

Here it is:

The quality isn't too flash so I may make the final video a slightly higher resolution and I possibly need to make darker lines and shading.

Words from the article

STABILITY and FUNCTION RESPOND to CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL PERFORMANCE as ONE-IN-THE-SAME ENTITIES.

We collaborated words that we each took from the article readings and arranged them into a sentence.  I feel like the sentence is actually reflective of the "Architecture Oriented Otherwise" article, despite not really making clear sense.... Nonetheless.  Job done.

My word to incorporate, abstractly or literally into my sustenance concept is STABILITY so I could look further into the idea of a "stable" lifestyle, and the roles necessities and wants play in this.

Our completed sentence.  I feel it's simplicity is a positive aspect.

Here's a pretty little video of my stop motion sentence:

Cool times.  I think in my final video I won't use the full video as it takes a fair bit of time.  For some reason IMovie won't let me use frames shorter than 0.1 of a second...  Gutted.

Sustenance

Definition of SUSTENANCE

1

a : means of support, maintenance, or subsistence : living b : food, provisions; also : nourishment

2

a : the act of sustaining : the state of being sustained b : a supplying or being supplied with the necessaries of life

3

: something that gives support, endurance, or strength 

 

This is the dictionary definition of sustenance, but what came to mind for me, was all the things I did during the day to keep myself happy and healthy,  and the difference between which of these things were necessities, and which weren't.  I've been thinking about creating a space that tracked the process of my day, and then looking into the limitations of something like this.

Crit day

On Thursday we completed our first peer review which was a really interesting exercise.  My piece isn't as effective in the light but it was still interesting to see how it interacted with the sunlight.  I completed as much of the matrix as I could and I'm relatively happy with the end result. I feel if I were to reo this project I would look at possibly trying different shapes as opposed to just the cube form and possibly make the cut outs smaller for a more subtle effect.

Model in the sunlight

Matrix (unfortunately don't know how to rotate)

http://nicksarch102blog.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/week-2-3-animation/#comment-3 Here is my review of Nick's waking up project.

final lasercut model V2.0

I experimented with a few different light colours and ways of having the cubes:

Lazer cut model times

Well its a bit official, i'm a retard.  I got the sizing wrong for the outer wood layer of my model so while the lazer cutting looks great the gap between layers is too small and isn't what I was after, nonetheless it looks pretty cool lit up.  I made the cut outs a lot bigger which doesn't look as good as the smaller version so that's a shame and something to consider for next time.  Here are some photos of it lit with the white light:

The picture directly above is the model without the outer layer to show what it would've looked like if I had of used a paper exterior.  I think it is interesting but less effective.

I the proceeded to scatter the offcuts around the base to explore the leaf effect:

I'm going to try and hang the pieces around so if it were lifted up they would drape around the shape as if they were leaves falling.

Lightshade times V2.1 colourful times

I used a coloured light to try some different effects.

Lightshade times V2.0

Based on the feedback from the minicrit,  I created these two models.  Each have 4 layers.  I wanted to see the difference between having paper-card-paper-card and card-paper-card-paper.  Having the paper on the outside creates a much softer light, whilst having the card on the outside is more effective in the shadows and silhouettes of the shape.  I lit both up using a variety of lights to see the effect and I think the images look quite interesting.

The top images are with the card on the outside and the bottom are with the paper.  there is quite a noticeable difference but I would rather have the card as I feel the stronger silhouette better portrays the effect I was going for.  I also decided based on feedback to "scatter"  the cut out pieces to reflect leaves on the ground.  The result looked quite nice and would be good to implement on my final design