Ok… Now I'll leave it for today

I've got to get started on this GC otherwise I'll fall way behind, i just keep getting side tracked.

Still going, the feathers

The issue I'm facing is i want to angle these at 35 degrees which is lower than the winter altitude as i don't want direct light and glare rather diffuse light from reflection and daylight to create an illuminated ceiling.  They are oriented true north but getting this angle right is proving difficult.

 

I can get the size and angles correct in Max however my splines are not converting into a surface, they just disappear, and its getting really frustrating

Done! Outstanding! Blocks out direct light, whilst maintaining a visual link to the sky and allowing daylight. I’d like to say I'd use a reflective material for this one, but that may prove troublesome for approaching aircraft. A flat white will do it though, same colour as the Brolga feathers.

I think this offers a lot in terms of fabrication. Keeping the louvers flat will allow for laser cutting also.

But I've got to leave this project for now to work on my GC sun shading device. I may post some pics up once i have some better direction, and made some progress.

One more, But i have my final idea sorted

I’m not all that happy with this one it does what I'd like it to, but its not the one. Whilst the crayfish tangent got me a little sidetracked in terms of structure, i think it weakened my concept of the Brolga. I’m staying up tonight to develop a new and final approach to this, the idea will be one of feathers, like the feathers open on the upstroke to allow wind to pass through, i hope mine open to allow light penetration. We’ll see what happens

Been working all day on some framing variations for the glass portion of the canopy

The idea is to examine the interior spatial qualities of each variation, my renders aren't really working for me though as presently they are coming out far to dark, which seams to be becoming a theme throughout my designs.

So this here is starting to get close to the Lobster Cuticle Structure idea in terms of form but it still has a ways to go yet. My renders are still coming out a little dark which I’ll address before presentation time however if it turns out i need to allow more natural light in i have a strategy to allow this also.

I’m really starting to like the openness here, the lightness, exposure and form. I may try a few very different approaches

The canopy working

Perhaps the beginnings of a moire

My ideal framework for the station cover based on the the curves of wing movement during flight of the Brolga.

Populating this using GC is going to prove challenging especially considering the accuracy required and the huge number of files different files within differing softwares I'm working in.

The hope is that the end result will be a structure weaved like the nests of the birds on site.

Quick snapshot of some more development

Sooo… worst week ever, ended up in hospital, great… but i wont go into details because this is a design blog, so… I’ve finally made some breakthroughs after banging my head against the wall for a few weeks. I’ve known what i wanted to do for weeks now, but getting the image out of my head and turning that into a physical or cad form has been difficult to say the least. My canopy is developing but my main hold ups are ensuring enough natural light penetration exists for the subterranean spaces whilst being true to the form i want to produce. I wont be going into my tutorial today as i don't want to loose any momentum on this, but I'm hoping a flood of posts will keep everyone updated on my progress.

Revising Ideas of fabric and shelter

After examining the variations below I'm reconsidering my building fabric. the idea is to bring more light and a sense of openness to the spaces, allowing nature to penetrate, whilst maintaining the industrious nature of the building through the form.

The aim is a fairly simplistic form fabricated through tessellation whilst utilising contours to manipulate light penetration.

Exploration, Structure, Canopy, Variations

Metro tunnel cover

Here's an exercise done in GC. It started to give me ideas about how this may begin to work as an underground tunnel for my metro.

I have this idea about maintaining some sort of visibility to the underground rail links from the surface. By making the tunnel responsive to both path and surface height, i have this idea of platforms extending out like partially exposed worm holes which allow light from the surface to penetrate the tunnel and allow users to see and understand the network.

Just some basic sketch phase screen shots

So this is where I’m at, I’ll try do some hand sketches over these to help explain what it is your looking at, when i get the chance.

Where the station is now located

Basement Level:  Metro/Rapid transit

Ground Level:  Public space/Retail

Upper Platform: High Speed MagLev Platforms

Perspectives

Sectional Perspectives

Seriously though, what can we take from such an observation? Biomimicry?

On a serious note, the co-relation to the Moreton Bay Bug has really begun to start me thinking about the structure supporting the platforms in the station. I recently spotted this image online of the inside of a turtle shell (another species common throughout southeast Qld) and found it fascinating. Whilst it is commonly referred to as a shell (which is usually thought of as an exoskeleton), this is only external, and also contains a partially frame based endoskeleton.

So what might the structural properties of the crayfish shell offer my building in terms of biomimicry? This is something I think I'd really like to investigate further during this semester and next, time permitting.

Microstructure of the crayfish cuticle

Schematic illustration of the elastic-plastic deformation of the endocuticle under compression in the normal direction (a) and in the transverse direction (b). The dashed lines mark the shape of the specimens after deformation. (c) Schematic figure of the deformation of pore canals compressed in transverse direction. When observing the cuticle surface (transverse I), lateral broadening caused by collapsing pore canals is visible. During observation of the cuticle’s cross section (transverse II) this broadening is also occurring, but does not become visible. (d) Schematic sketch showing the orientation of the fracture plane in samples tested in transverse direction

http://www.mpie.de/index.php?id=2647