2013_design_student journal

Virtual EnvironmentsM2: DesignStudent number: 598292, 637052 Semester 2/2013Tracy Zheng & Misato Inoue

Defining Personal Space

Personal Space is the area around an individual which evokes a feeling of discomfort or threat when intruded.

--Misato

Heterotopia is a concept in human geography describe the spaces that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror.

--Tracy

In our current design, it is about the moments of concentration of mind which is concurrent with isolation of the body (i.e. crisis heterotopia). Also in terms of geometric space, it has a strong indication of 3 dimensional territory which can be marked out by the physical boundaries, or an intimidating effect of our second skin.

Virtual environments M2: Design

Tracy Zheng & Misato Inoue

Defining Personal Space

Another definition for personal space could be the protection of one’s territory, thus intimidation could be a way of defining this space as intruders will know that they are not to enter that area. This gave me the idea that protection of personal space does not have to have a physical barrier, but rather the appearance of a feared object or form can prevent people from entering your private space.

---Misato Alex McQueen - Savage Beauty

Alex McQueen - Savage Beauty



Mapping out personal space

Personal space varies between individuals, but there is certainly the shared instinct that there is a space in which each individual will consider as ‘too close’ for their comfort, and will instinctively feel guarded or uncomfortable. These spaces however can be distorted or controlled if the individual is in a crowded area.

Though personal space can be thought of as a whole, not every part of your comfort zone is evenly spaced out. For example people will feel less uncomfortable if there was someone standing behind them rather than in front of them. Personal space within the upper haf of your body, especially the head will have a wider zone as it is directly in the field of vision.

Material System Employed for Design AnalogyPanel and Fold

The key feature of the fan which inspired our current design is that all its panels fold and unfold evenly (i.e. with same degrees interval between each frame)fluently in sequence, but limited to the relative position of the frames and the hinge point.

This inspired us on using the body joints (e.g. the shoulder and elbow) to facilitate the movement of our second skin.

System Analysis

Photo of the fan

Components of the Fan





System analysis

The main mechanical movements of the umbrella is the expansion and contraction of the ‘arms’ made possible by the movement of the hinges, which get locked into place by a rider latch. This enables the umbrella to keeps its shape and structure when opened up to fulfill its purpose as a form of protection from rain and sunlight.

The folding and expansion of the arms allows a small surface to become larger by helping the skin to be stretched outwards as far as possible. Of course the rider locks create a parameter for how far our the arms can extend.

Material System Employed for Design AnalogySkin and Bones

A Wearable Tetra Shed

Visually it is a simplified origami folding structure as a tribute to the Tetra Shed, which as a single module, has been designed to be a modern garden office.

Functionally, it creates a personal space where one can concentrate on work, study or any small scale Intellectual activities (e.g. reading, drawing or just simply day dreaming).Also it encapsulate the sense of Stability and Security which are essential for our personal space.

“When I am thinking, I want my spirit and body both be protected by my little shed, so that the whole world of noises and distractions would simply disappear”. ---Tracy

Front (open) Back (open) Back (fold)

Modular Structure (easily attached or unattached to each other)



Sketch Design and Model Development

Origami

Inspired by the shape of the origami, especially the head part, the shed space wouldn’t be complete or secure without a “roof”.





Sketch Design and Model Development

Using previous knowledge from the umbrella’s skin and bone system, I was able to create a diagram of the movement of these bone structures to see how they affect the skin visually (ie: from smooth surface to folded, sometimes crinkled surface when compressed)On the diagram on the right, the red arms show the wing when it is folded up, the blue when the wing is half folded, and the black when it is completely extended.

The materials which make up the wing will be flexible enough for it to be able to be pulled forwards to cover the side of your arms completely in a way that encases your arm.



Precedents By Tracy Zheng

1. Adam WalkerAural Architecture: By changing the topography of the surface made with Rhino scripting, the group managed to change the basic nature of sounds, achieving either noise reduction effect or sound amplification.Key features of the structure: 1) The intersection of a surface gradient creates voids which allow sound movement; 2) A solid (e.g. sound proofing) happens at structural support points to create a free-standing surface. Outcome: The final surface form would be milled and cast together with a rubberized plastic resin (solids) and arranged in a repeated pattern.

Infleunce to current design: The exterior surfaces of the shed can be modified to create sound proof (noise reduction) effect.

Further study required: OMA’s Casa da Musica



Garment design for the first Knowlton School “Fashion Schau”(Right):Based on Oskar Schlemmer’s designs for the Bauhaus. It is meant to exaggerate the movements of the body.

Key Features of the design: The piece is based on a crab or some sort of space suit. Its form may be inspired by armor, but the materials betray this fact as it is merely made of bent wire and tissue paper.

Influence to current design: The idea of exaggerating the movements of the body (or body parts)in a meaningful way can be applied to the design of the arm piece of the second skin. Using the elbow and shoulder as anchor points to create a polysurface structure with layered folds (Fig.1), so that the final form would enable the arms to perform a musical movement that is similar to an accordion.

Further Study required: Oskar Schlemmer’s design for Bauhaus

Accordion Fold Paper Wreath

Anouk Wipprecht

Spider dress: Dutch high tech fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht collaborated with Austrian software developer Daniel Schatzmayr to design and create this dress for women, which evokes a sense of uneasiness from surrounding people as the six ‘spider legs’ twitch every time someone gets too close. I liked this idea as the ‘legs’ do not keep intruders of personal space away physically, but rather visually, as the twitching and eerie movement of the spider legs will come across as some sort of warning for those who get too close.



PrecedentsWe are focusing on the personal space of an individual when they are in an environment where either everyone is working (ie: students studying) or relaxing. This gave us a parameter for how we define personal space, and how a certain environment can affect our flexibility of our comfort zone.

My initial idea was to have some sort of wing-like structure on the back that can fold and unfold as the wearer desires, so the wings can either block out the people and noise around you, or it can open up and allow other people close to you to share the space created by the wings with you (eg: the wings can encase both you and someone you are close with). This demonstrates the skin and bones structure and it’s mechanism of the arms and joints.

The wings will be attached to the triangular body of the second skin, at the back, and you will be able to open and close it as you like by pulling the upper side of the wing and extending it till the bones of the wings are fully extended. The wings will have a pattern similar to those on the wings of a moth, and will be able to move rapidly (like the opening of an umbrella) to serve the purpose of startling those around you by the sudden movement.

Io Moth



Effects

Prototyping The Shed

A representation model





Prototyping the wings

Final design



Lost in parameter Space? The key differences between ‘abstraction’ and ‘reduction’ is that abstraction can create a surface using as little information as possible of the original object, as it is able to systematically create a general solution for individual components of an object. For example a circle may have a at least 30 points to create the desired shape, but only 3 fundamental points are needed to provide information on the properties of the object (such as shape, size etc)Reduction on the other hand is not about minimizing the amount of information (points) provided, but about the information being rewritten so as the content stays the same and nominalise the description by removing any repetition of information. These ideas can be related to the tasks undertaken in module 1, as we had to explore and understand as much as we could about our chosen material system (ie: mine being the umbrella) and utilize these information that we absorbed by creating measured drawings and analytical sketches.

--Misato

ReadingsTED talks – Thomas Heatherwick Thomas Heatherwick had grown up with constant exposure to craft, inventions and designs and had therefore created an attachment or communication through design. He mentions that the large scale buildings around him felt “soulless”, but the small scale had materiality and “soulfulness”. When he is commissioned to design something, he seems to focus on the object of design as a whole and aim to evoke some sort of emotion out of those who admire his work. For example, he described how he “couldn’t help but feel that a beautiful thing had broken…” as he was commissioned to design a bridge that opens. He had looked at the steel bridge as a whole piece and focused on the way it worked rather than what it was. Another example of his designs is the power station located in the “worst part of Britain”. He aimed to design a power station that would instead of keeping people out by fencing it off, it would pull people in by the nature around it by making it a power station park where people are able to look at the scenery from the power station park. It seems like

Heatherwick focuses on keeping everything as a whole and not in separate parts, as well as evoking emotion and creating effects by sorting for symbolic importance of the design and working from the fabric to the format, structure and aesthetics.

--Misato



2013_design_student journal

Documents

protection of personal

personal spacepersonal

private space

terms of geometric space

misato heterotopia

fan virtual environments

virtual environmentsm2

current design