MODULE 1I D E A T I O N

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To dive into the project I began with the set readings. I found them very stimulating particularily the Ball reading with passages about the patterns that are inherent in nature. My explorations here, are for me a way of rationalising some of the images that are explained in the piece. I also collected and collaged in a few things I had seen throughout the week that I felt relevant.

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To get a complete grasp on some of the themes discussed in the readings I needed to find a form that embodied some of these concepts. The pinecone is a natural object that intrigues me. With its interesting form and patterns, it’s shape often varies over different species, yet is set to continuously adhere to underlying rules that develop its inherent form. It linked into the reading via the passages about how pattern is so unique yet follows guidelines in na-ture, guidelines that we see recurring. In the case of the pinecone the evidence of a spiral pattern is constantly repeated in every variation.

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The spiral shape really interested me so I furthered my research beyond the shape into the realm of underlying formative processes, and into other natural phenom-ena that share the same growth pattern. The differences are great, however many natural species have some spiral form built into their evolutionary process sometimes clearly visible other times hidden within. This formation goes right back to the seminal beginnings of development; the DNA helix spirals around it’s self, the very building block that natural species and us humans share. Scientists and mathematicians alike are all very interested in these spiralling forms. The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical configuration that is used to describe this natural phenomenon. The use of mathematics to understand and define these occurrences in nature with their differing forms and patterns has given rise to new designing techniques. These techniques rely on such mathematical sequences or rules to build forms. Parametric design is a new and exciting field that many architects are beginning to employ in their work that has also helped me in developing precedents for my form building.

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This exploration is concerned with the lapse of time and the growth of the pinecone. It changes from a smooth tiny bud into a strongly patterned form at the completion of its cycle of growth. At the final point the cone the dries out and falls to the ground, the end of its development. But even through this stage of death the cone goes through more changes; it turns brown, dries out, opens up, allows for the seeds within to escape and then begin the cycle again. All of these processes have been starting points. Interesting concepts to try and translate into a lantern.

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In order to make sense of the natural element I did some more in-depth research about the pinecone. I found out more about the natural processes that the cone goes through in its cycle and a few interesting physical changes that I have attempted to map in these studies. I have attempted to explain the most important aspects of the natural cycles that I intend on focussing on within my lamp design and mapped them in a silightly less conventional way as was encoraged by the lecture content and exemplefied in various formats.

The first study is concerned with shape or form and the development the cone goes through from small to large over its lifetime. The top is focussed on the basic shape where as the bottom, using seeds and nuts, is also looking at size but defined by the clustered scale like nature of the cone’s surface. Then I moved onto expressing the phenomenon of opening and closing. As the cone ages it changes in size but also in two other interesting physical formats. It changes from being a closed form, impenetrable and strong to an open more delicate formation. The cone also goes through a colour change from light bright green to brown and then dark black as it ages.

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The GHERKIN by Norman Foster is a striking building that sits uniquely within the London skyline I find it particularily useful as a precedent for design because it has shown me how humans can utilise shapes found in nature and then construct them in such a highly precise mathematical fomat that they produce a truly sci fi like building. It is rationalised though by a natural form the gherkin.

Another informative quality in this building that interested me was the fact that the shape of the building was not a purely aesthetic descision but instead it was formulated with consideration to the way that wind is channeled throughout the city. The form perfect from minimising strong winds rushing through the London streets. For my lantern design I would like to be able to explain that form nhad come about witha a careful consideration to light/form/function not just purely aesthetics.

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With spiral ideas in mind and also a strong want to emulate the form of the cone interestingly I attempted a bit of a model with wire. In terms of form I started with the idea of emulating a shape similar to Norman Foster’s Gherkin.

I then tried to extrude the wiggly cone to see what might happen, I went from tight wiggles to long loops, from dense to more open and then from controlled to loose and random. The manekin helped me begin to conceptualise how the form might fit to the body as a lamp/ lantern how it could effectively relate to a person using it.

I feel that this study has its merits but is a little less expressive than I had hoped in relation to my natural process. Pattern and form I feel are somewhat absent two factors that are integral in the natural growth of a pinecone.

Following on from the previous studies on surface I found this article on Arch Daly about this pavilion. The dragon skin pavilion is an architectural art installation that was constructed in Kowloon Park, Hong Kong. Students in a test study workshop held at the Tampere University of Technology for Finnish Architecture, origi-nally designed the installation in 2011. I found the form to be a stunning example of how shapes placed in a careful computer generated arrangement can emulate a form derived from a natural concept. Although today we do not have dragons to base our designs on it was interesting to see how the students were inspired by the natural phenomenon of reptile skin and looked at a range of reptilian counterparts to derive the concept behind the “Dragon Skin Pavilion”. For me this design was most inspiring and pertinent to the computer component of the project. The design utilised a combination of new materials, contempo-rary digital design and fabrication methods. This fusion of tools allowed for precision and a very speedy construction phase to be undertaken. It directed my thinking about form building to look at the surface as a series of parts like the individual ‘leaves’ of the pinecone working together to build the form. Light is also interestingly dealt with, filtering thorough the gaps of the pavilion rather than being directed through particular apertures. Again there is a evidence of repetition to create the pavilion, the triangle is reccuring defined both by the material and by the negative space the form creates. This precedent I felt nicely encompassed some of the ideas covered in the mathematics in design lecture. With the information about parametrics and the beauty that it can develop.

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This sketch proposal was concieved with all of the main processes in mind - growth, spiral form and the concept of going from closed to open. After the first pro-posal going the way it did I really tried hard to go back to the formative origins. I was particularily concerned with the spiraled pattern element the further I developed my form. Beginning from a lightbulb moment I had when I saw a picture of wire in a magazine I used chicken wire and moulded and twisted a form into shape. I was sort of thinking that the wire might be similar to the “leaves” of the pinecone and in the back of my head I thought that I might be able to translate aspects of the Dragon Skin Pavilion into the design. However as I went on the form began to change and morph into a more spiraled shape. I furthered this test by attempting to attatch leave shapes to the form, it was a bit of a flop be-cause the pieces kept falling off.

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This building is the Bahai House of Worship (or Lotus Temple) it was usfull for me because it expresses possibilities in the lantern design in a few different categories. Firstly the temple is also created with reference to natural processes, it uses the lotus flower as its inspiration but I felt as though it could also be likened to the top of a pinecone shape too. The forms of the petals are constructed in such a way that they cluster together to fomulate a very interesting striking built form that I feel familiar with from the drawings i have done of the pinecone form . There are also interesting lighting lessons to be learnt from this building the light emenates from within the petals but also is defined on the exterior quite beauti-fully. There is also a organic yet geometric feel to the shapes that build the form thus it might be a good example to look at when translating the leaves into a built form.

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This iteration was a bit of an extension on the previous trial with the chicken wire. I attempted using finer wire and then coupling it with plasticine to make the form into a softer realisation. I also focussed on repitition of small shapes to build a larger form and then using even smaller elements clustered randomly to build a slightly different form, my sketches simply outlined this intention but then when I created it into three dymensions my intentions became a little less clear - actu-ally they totally changed direction. The form morphed into a spiraled, patterned and softened shape with dark and light ends. The end with no covering would let light out freely where as the covered end would keep it hidden. Possibly a nod to the concept of open and closed, life and death as noted before in the growth of the pinecone.

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Friedensrich Hundertwasser I found to be an interesting source of inspiration. I originally was drawn to him because his buildings and artworks are deeply con-nected with nature and natural forms. I looked at some of his ouvre and found that a common theme that reoccured was the use of the spiral pattern. This pat-tern can be found in all sorts of natural phenomenons from the unborn baby in the womb to the unrolling of a fern and the wirl of cloud formations in the sky. All of these things grow and develop from the spiral shape.

His use of the spiral is evident in the plans of buildings he designed and in many of his artistic and design creations. Seeing his work again reconnected my inten-tion of emulating the spiral form in my lantern design.

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This is my “satisficed” design. I have attempted to meld all of the influences from the natural process and the things I learnt from the past iterations into the final product. It has a clear connection to the spiraled form, pattern on the surface and I have translated the open/closed theme into the tighness of the spiral and the thick and thin alterations in form. I wanted to develop something that could be a lantern but also be held almost worn by people.

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PINE CONES HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON WITH PINEAPPLES, ARTICHOKES, PALM TREES, AND SUNFLOWERS. YOU ALMOST ALWAYS FIND THAT THE PATTERNS OC-CUR IN FIBONACCI NUMBERS.

Shape, pattern and form are the building blocks, the ways we can analyse and explain the natural phenomena that surround us. Philip Ball outlines some very interesting concepts that only begin to delve into the myriad of intricate and complex underlying reasons for the shapes we see around us. His article began my concept development process, some of the themes he spoke about I found hard to reconcile where as others, often those that had a vivid description accompanying were easy to understand. My immediate reaction was to find something for myself that could embody the issues of form and natural process, hence my use of the pinecone in my understanding of a natural process to draw from. The pinecone has taught me a lot about really looking at natural forms, patterns and shapes. It has highlighted recurring phenomena and outlined simple ways to explain such complex processes.

In terms of designing looking at other designers is always good. This module has encouraged me to question how an architect, designer or artist comes to their finished product. It has opened my eyes to how various inspirations shape a project outcome and how nature is often a strong informative factor for even the most manmade looking designs.

Developing designs with a clear consideration for a natural element has been fantastic for me, whenever I felt drive begin to wane I would simply return to read-ing and learning more about the informing pinecones and each time find something new and exciting that I could motivate my designing with. I am not entirely satisfied with my final outcome, like every design though more could be done. In the following modules I hope I can refine it to such a state that it looks and expresses the natural process of the growth of the pinecone that I have found so interesting.

REFERENCES

Ball, Philip (2011): The Shapes of Things. In Shapes: Nature’s Patterns, Oxford University Press, pp. 1-35

http://www.archdaily.com/215249/dragon-skin-pavilion-emmi-keskisarja-pekka-tynkkynen-lead/23-pekka-tynkkynen/

http://www.strangebuildings.com/gherkin-building-london-uk/

http://plus.maths.org/content/perfect-buildings-maths-modern-architecture

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

www.hundertwasser.at/index_en.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conifer_cone

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/fibslide/jbfibslide.htm

http://www.3villagecsd.k12.ny.us/wmhs/Departments/Math/OBrien/fibonacci2.html

http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/environment/webstuff/pinecone.html

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