瓣 Ban

Ban is a pavilion which has been constructed for the Beijing Design Week 2012. The Chinese title refers to flower petals, and similar to the way that the shape of a flower is created by its bent petals, Ban is constructed from bent polymer sheets which form a self-supporting structure and create shapes and volume from a multitude of leaves.

Based on Orproject’s research into anisotropic sheet morphologies, the geometries have here been used in a structural orthogonal orientation and form a system of columns, arches and vaults, all based on single-curved elements. The resulting field of lines takes the viewers eye across the structure and into the sky, and like a giant flower Ban is hovering in the air above Beijing’s ancient Hutong roofs.

Project Credits

Project Manager: Shuai Yang
Project Team: Kevin Wang, Marian Ma, Qiuwen Shi
Photographs: Jasper James, Orproject
Sponsors: SK, Penghao Theatre

Hotel G

A composition for orchestra manifests as a spatial surface within the ceramic cladding panels, forming the new façade for Hotel G, a boutique hotel in Beijing.

The existing building requires a refurbishment of the deteriorated upper parts of the exterior, and Orproject’s proposal envisages the installation of a new cladding in front of the existing walls. The complex morphologies of the ceramic panels are to be manufactured using a simple, semi-manual form of multi-point forming: The heights of a field of pistons are positioned according to 3d data from the digital model. Then the clay for each panel is draped over the field to form the surface. Adjustments by hand are necessary before the shape is left to dry and fired.

The geometries of the façade have been derived from a digital analysis of Ligeti’s composition. Ligeti’s Atmosphères uses large clusters and sound textures which slowly merge from one into the next, resulting in an atmospheric field of sound. In its translation into space, the time dimension has been placed vertically, moving towards the sky. Therefore the slow musical transformations are resulting in a vertical orientation of the façade morphologies, which is useful in Beijing’s climate in order to avoid shallow inclinations of the facade.

The complex clusters are turning into a continuously altering surface geometry, and Ligeti’s use of micropolyphony is resulting in a micro shifting of the façade formations.

A Skyscraper That Grows Like A Tree

The function of the aerial roots of Ficus spp. other than to provide nutrients is to structurally support the branches of the tree. Consequently the roots have a tendency to grow downwards vertically, which makes their morphologies suitable as a structural system for high rise construction.

This has been tested with A Skyscraper That Grows Like A Tree. The proposal utilises a growth simulation to form the exoskeletal structure of the tower that defines the extent of the building skin and floor plates. The conglomeration of the roots result in a multi-layered façade structure which, based on its location and orientation, is used to form single and double skin systems, separate rooms within the façade structure, and multi height atriums to control the climatic performance of the building.

Data Reassignment

AUDIO ANALYSIS

Audible sounds are vibrations at certain frequencies of a medium around us. Sound waves always propagate through a physical compressible medium, such as the air. The air oscillates longitudinally back and forth, and causes our tympanic membrane to vibrate in the same way. However rather than noticing differences in the air pressure around us, we recognise the frequencies at which the vibrations occur. This already constitutes a natural level of abstraction between the information which is recognised by our ear, the differences in air pressure, and the information which is perceived by our brain, the corresponding frequencies.

The same is the case for digitally recorded sound waves, the audio data, which can be used for digital sound analysis: They are air pressure values at repetitive moments in time. The volume of the sound waves can be extracted from those data easily, it is defined by the maximum and minimum pressure value within a certain duration.

In order to extract the frequency values from those data, a mathematical method is used called the Fourier Transform. Using the Fourier Transform all the simultaneously occurring frequencies of a sound can be calculated, and from those it is then possible to define the base frequency of a tone together with its overtone spectrum, and based on that any other information relating to the frequency aspects of the sound. The frequencies and volumes of a sound usually change over time, which is reflected in the analysis.

DATA REASSIGNMENT

However, precisely defining a frequency requires constant data for a certain length of time, which do not exist for a sound which is changing quickly, and as a consequence the outcomes of the Fourier Transform will result in blurred data.

In order to sharpen those data and to extract precise frequency information, a reassignment of the values to their closest peak can be applied. This reassignment requires a time window length to be assigned, which can be chosen as longer or shorter, and which will enhance the focus on either the harmonics or the impulses of the sound. In a complex harmonic situation, such as in rapidly changing spectrums or in human speech, we can choose at which intensity to focus on either the harmonics or the impulses, but we are not able to precisely define both at the same time.

Lattice

Structural network pattern generated by audio data shifts.

Chuan

An interesting result of the data reassignment, especially when transformed into 3-dimensional morphologies, are the repetitive data accumulations in parallel strata, which are caused by the analysis of the sound according to different time windows. The strata generation has a tendency to be linear, however shifts are occurring at intervals which realign the data according to the harmonic transformations of the sound sample.

For the piece Chuan, the human voice has been analysed with a relatively short time frame, which focuses the analysis onto the guttural sounds rather than on the longer lasting harmonics. The geometry results in a mostly vertical lattice, with complex joints at the points where a shift occurs from one alignment towards the next.

Termitizer

Agent-based Simulation

Termitizer is a digital behavioural simulation program, based on the movement and construction patterns of termites. The building behaviour of Macrotermes sp. is regulated by different stimuli, but pheromones take the most important part. The role of these phoromones especially in the behaviour of Macrotermes subhyalinus has been studied in physical experiments by O. H. Bruinsma.

Distribution of the Trail and Cement Pheromones

Within Termitizer, the behaviour of a varying number of agents is defined through the simulation of pheromones, especially the trail pheromone and the cement pheromone. The self-organised system is a combined dynamic model and growth model, controlling the movement of the agents as well as their construction activities.

Simulation Results

The results of the construction behaviour are similar to those found in the experiments of O. H. Bruinsma: A generation of ‘building sites’ at certain distances, which eventually result in the formation of towers, arches and vaults. After 2000 iterations specific paths have been formed, and the construction sites have been placed around those at intervals covering the area to be enclosed.

The project was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Holt.

Anisotropia 0.1

Exploration of possibilities for view and light transmission through a lamella surface.

Project Credits

Photographs: Frank Ufer

Kyma 0.2

Exploration of pattern generation using multi-linear scale and bending transformations.

Atmosphères

In a similar way that A Frozen Sound is the transformation of a sound into space, Atmosphères is the translation of a composition. Based on Atmosphères for orchestra by György Ligeti, time, peak-frequencies and melodic ranges have been translated from time-based dimensions into spatial dimensions, the object becomes a three-dimensional transformation of the orchestra piece.