Material Journey to Uni

MATERIAL JOURNEY

My Daily Visual Diary

Every day I set an alarm 2 hours prior to my classes so I can take my time to get prepared and have breakfast.
The first thing that I would be feeling in the morning is my duvets that kept me warm throughout the night, The quilt is made by cotton and duvet is filled with goose down.

[Alarm clock]

[Duvet]

When I get out of my bed, I usually turn on the heater as it will be quite chilly in the morning then head to shower. My room has wood parquet flooring, and tiles in the toilet. My feet feel cold when I step into the shower.

[Heater]

[Wood flooring]

[Toilet tiles]

After washing up I will head to my kitchenette to prepare my morning dose of coffee, and make my breakfast. My kettle is made my stainless steel but has a plastic holder to prevent us from getting burnt but at the same time maintaining its sleek look.

[Kettle]

While waiting for the water to be boiled and breakfast to be cooked, I would put on sunscreen and make up which I usually display them in a plastic container and some of it in a canvas pouch. The Plastic container has a glossy surface while the canvas pouch feels rougher.

[Make up container & pouch]

Finally after getting dressed, I would then pick up my bag which is also made by canvas and check if I have had all of the stuffs that I would need to bring – Room keys, card holder, oyster card, sketch books, pencil case, mobile charger and phone.  

[Longchamp bag]

[Daily necessities]

13 Nov 2016 - 3D Printed Ceramics

SPECULATIVE DESIGN II

To Imagine Possible Futures

1.    3D PRINTED CERAMICS

The future of Architecture

A fresh perspective to an established craft was created by applying these exponentially evolving conception and fabrication techniques to existing design now a days that do not traditionally involve digital technologies. 

Data Clay: Digital Strategies for Parsing the Earth

Location: San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design

This exhibition looks at the ways in which leading researchers and practitioners are experimenting at the intersection of digital technology and ceramics.  This range of diverse products and sculptural forms are based on design, art, and architectural sensibilities.

“Curators Del Harrow and Joshua G. Stein explain that these new artisans are drawn to clay's unfamiliarity at a larger scale and its unique material properties that make it more difficult to predict, including slump and shrinkage. While it is not as easy to work with as more stable materials such as concrete, engineered wood, and steel, clay has more potential for experimentation when it comes to translating the digital to the physical.”

As clay has been used very frequently for over 27 thousand years, this research is still under experimental stage and remains accessible to specialists and general public to advance future applications. By using 3D ceramics printing now, it is now being adopted in complex hybrid systems. This pushes ceramics to the forefront of innovations in the future design fields by combining the futuristic of digital era with the traditional craft and skill based knowledge, offering the best of both worlds.  

Opinions

In my opinion, I think that this 3D printing ceramics method will be one of the greatest inventions for the architecture world in the coming years. This could mean that lesser craftsmen or workers are needed in the industry. But on the downside, this could also lead to the descending amount of crafts talent within our society for our future generations. Moreover, this 3D ceramic printing method is very time consuming as it takes a long time to produce a single piece of artwork. Major issues while creating clay artwork have to be solved such as collapsing of objects and sturdiness of the clay to withstand high pressure and temperature while being installed as an element of a building. Although it is precise in producing crafts, the machinery might need a lot of maintenance and it could cost sky high for the company itself to invest in such technology. 

Bibliography

1. Another Rapid-Prototyping Feat: Ceramic Bricks Made With 3D Printers (2017) Architizer. Available at: http://architizer.com/blog/another-rapid-prototyping-feat-ceramic-bricks-made-with-3d-printers/ (Accessed: 11 November 2016).

10 Nov 2016 - Gravity Defying Insoles

 

SPECULATIVE DESIGN

To Imagine Possible Futures

The speculative design process doesn’t necessarily define a specific problem to solve, but establishes a provocative starting point from which a design process emerges, The result is an evolution of fluctuating iteration and reflection using designed objects to provoke questions and stimulate discussion in academic and research settings.

GRAVITY DEFYING INSOLES

Man’s desire to fly has now become a reality.

“As the world’s leading innovative tech company, S/TECH has partnered up with NASA to come up with a revolutionary anti-gravity superconductor insole that is able to block and reduce the Earth’s natural gravitational pull. This new technology completely revolutionizes the way we live, work and play. We will be more energy efficient, no more congestion, no more pollution.”

This project have drew inspiration from the initial idea of hover board merging with superconducting magnetic discs that was invented by NASA in 1999 – S/TECH is a future technology company that makes superconducting insoles that explores another possibility that one would celebrate their lifestyle through walking.

Opinions 

Technologies are invented to make human’s life easier and with this speculative design of gravity defying insoles, it sure evokes an upsurge within the community when it is available in the market. Questions will also emerge, such as is this really safe to use? Have this been tested for all age and all different health conditions users to use?  As new technologies are being invented, it is also in a way making us human lazier as day goes by since our daily activities that needed energy will be replaced or assisted by new inventions of technologies. This is a very interesting project, but a lot more elements have to be taken into account in order to produce a new product to be widely used.  

Bibliography

1. Speculative Design: S/TECH ziqqsayshello (2017) Ziqqsayshello.com. Available at: http://ziqqsayshello.com/2015/04/speculative-design-stech/ (Accessed: 3 November 2016).

5 Nov 2016 - Strata Tower SE1

STRATA SE1 – ELEPHANT & CASTLE TOWER

Architects: BFLS – Bogle Flanagan Lawrence Silver Ltd

Strata SE1 is 148 metre high and has 43-storey residential development that creates a dynamic new landmark on the London skyline. It is the first building in the world with integral wind turbines thus it sets a new benchmark in terms of environmental strategy. This development is also a major catalyst for the ongoing regeneration of the Elephant & Castle area in central London, its modest footprint creating additional areas of public realm at ground level.

The client’s brief challenged the design team to develop a concept that embraces energy efficiency, targeting an EcoHomes assessment rating of “excellent”. Located in one of the Mayor of London’s Energy Action Areas, Strata SE1 embraces sustainable design and the latest renewable energy technologies. The wind turbines are expected to produce 50 Mwh (Mega watt hours) of electrical power per year for the landlords supply, approximately 8% of the building’s total energy consumption.

 

Strata SE1 are designed for sustainable living. Sustainable aspects of Strata SE1 include:

– District heating system

– Bespoke high performing façade with an air permeability leakage rate that is 50% better than current building regulations

– Whole house ventilation system with heat recovery to each apartment.

– Low-energy lighting in all landlord areas and 40% of the lighting in each apartment

– Absence and presence lighting control system to all landlord areas.

– Car park lighting control provided with motion detection that reduces lighting by 50% when there is no movement

– 96% recycling of all waste material generated during the construction stage

– Independent analysis by Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited (IES) has compared CO2 emissions from Strata SE1 against the Building Regulations 2006 Part L2 targets. The result demonstrates that Strata SE1 (with the connection to the MUSCo system in place) will achieve a predicted 73.5% reduction in CO2 emissions when compared against the Building Regulations benchmark. This independent analysis also concludes that Strata SE1 is predicted to achieve 2050 CO2 target emissions.

Opinions

After making a few visit to the Strata tower, the security guards told me that the spinning blades on the top of the tower was suggested to be turned off between 11pm and 7am daily as it creates noise and vibration that objetcs the penthouse residences. Since then, the turbines could be hardly seen moving. More complaints of the tower was also concerning the towers heating in an article  “Residents hit boiling point at the eco tower where turbines don’t turn.”

Bibliography

1. Upsher, J. (2017) Two years in our Carbuncle, Building Design. Available at: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/two-years-in-our-carbuncle/5040155.article (Accessed: 3 November 2016).

2. Strata SE1, London (2017) Building4change.com. Available at: http://www.building4change.com/article.jsp?id=473#.WHti4_mLREY (Accessed: 3 November 2016).

1 Nov 2016 - TED Ten's strategies 6

1 NOV 2016 – TED TEN STRATEGIES

KUNSTHAUS GRAZ

Ted’s ten: 6 - Design that looks at models from nature and history

The Kunsthaus Graz is an architectural landmark in the city center, designed by Sir Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. It serves as a bridge between the historic and the modern. Known to locals as the “Friendly Alien,” the blob-shaped structure contains contemporary art, design, new media, film and photography. Although the building makes quite a statement, its environmental impact is very low, as the building's organic roof -- made from 1,288 semi-transparent acrylic glass panels -- generates energy with built-in photo voltaic panels.

Measuring 27,000 square foot, this massive building that rapidly became a city landmark was designed for showcasing contemporary art exhibitions, new media displays and hosting events.

The Kunsthaus Graz is covered by thousands of semi-transparent acrylic glass panels that form a “BIX Façade” (a combination of the words “Big” and “pixels”). Designed by Berlin design firm realities:united, BIX is the 900 m2 light and media installation in the façade of the Kunsthaus in Graz. It makes it possible to program the façade like a computer monitor and to broadcast projections, animations, or messages into the urban space. The conceptual highlights are the individual lighting elements that constitute the screen: not filigree, high-tech LEDs, but conventional, circular fluorescent lamps, arranged on a vast scale.

Opinions

The main features of the building highlights the theatrical performances. Those are the spaceship-like form and the BIX communicative display. From what I observed in pictures, this flamboyant building is blatantly at odd with the surrounding cityscape. This only makes the contrast of old and new more shocking in such an intact historic city center,

The question is, is this large alien building, as an intruder is as friendly as its architects hoped; or whether this humongous, vast structure in its synthetic skin will be acting as a predator, threatening the city scape of rectilinear?

Despite its outrageous alien origins, the building observed some fundamental rules like rising no higher than 5 storey buildings, and its amoeba like body fits between the irregular space between buildings.

Bibliography

1. Kunsthaus Graz Museum

(2017) Performative Architecture. Available at: https://performativearc.wordpress.com/kunsthaus-graz-museum/ (Accessed: 15 November 2016).

2. Spring, M. (2017) Kunsthaus Graz: You sexy thing, Building. Available at: http://www.building.co.uk/kunsthaus-graz-you-sexy-thing/1031297.article (Accessed: 15 November 2016).