Architecture Design | Smooth Operator installation design and fabrication process

Hey Steemit Artist Community,

Smooth Operator was a architectural installation that explored the material carbon fiber to create structurally lightweight structures. This post should illustrate the process of design and fabrication through visual representation as means to communicate the systematic approach to the design solution. As a conceptual framework, I looked at rhizomes and rhizomatic systems to understand non hierarchical networks and relationships.

This project begin using Rhinoceros3D a precision modeling software to create various aggregations as a visual study for the project. This software is a powerful tool, not only to lockup a digital model, but also for future fabrication purposes. This software is what I personally use for most of my projects for all disciplines (i.e. sculpture art, architecture, construction/ shop drawings, scripting and coding for CNC mills, 3D printing, and any other output necessary for rapid prototyping.)

The first milestone was to find a unit that can create the desired aggregation. Once we had a few variations of the field condition, we began to fine tune the unit. Knowing the fabrication challenges a few parameters were need to begin the iterative process. One of the first parameters was that each unit that must have 3 nodes for connections. The second was the unit must be planar and finally the third parameter was that the unit cannot exceed the proportion ratio of 1 to 3 per module.

This was the module that I decided to go with. So we began to mockup a 1"=1' scale and began testing the application of the carbon fiber strips and epoxy resin. Below is a quick animation I made to illustrate the process of laminating the carbon fiber strips and also knotting the joints for durability.

After a few study pieces, we decided to begin fabricating our installation. The process began by taking our digital model from Rhino3d and create a "g code" for master cam. (surf cam is software that runs most CNC mill machines such as Master Cam.) We milled the unit using 30 lbs high density foam which we wrapped and glassed using carbon fiber mesh strips with epoxy resin. Below is an animation showing the process of assembling the units then combining them into a larger network.

This was the final images of the proposed installation

This is an image of the presentation to the design jury panel.

All in all this was a really fun project that I wanted to share with you all. If you have any interest in carbon fiber, CNC milling, Digital fabrication or any of the content mentioned above... feel free to comment and I will try my best to answer any question you have.

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Thanks,
Namzke