SectionSection 4342

Design panelsAssignment 2Group - Aishwarya keshav, Pablo Franco

03Final design

02Final design

01Midterm - final design & process mock ups

2 PROCESS

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2 3

The second assignment intended to make the process of making the final project easier. The class was split up into smaller groups where each group was tasked of designing their own 1/16”=1’ scale model of a carbon fiber facade pan-el that would be attached to the existing facade panel in IIT’s Material and Metals building.

Each group produced multiple iterations of the design and went through the complete process of constructing the panel. Molds were milled from MDF, then vacuum formed with polystyrene, two layers of carbon fiber and resin, then trimmed, sanded, and finished. This allowed to the students to become comfortable with the process of working with cardboard fiber with the ultimate goal making a full scale mock up.

The panels that were created by the students, were then presented and voted upon for the final design that would moved forward with the construction of the full scale mock up. Things that were taken into consideration were design, complexity, ability to break down into smaller parts, and ape-tures. From this point out the class would work as one team, on one design.

SectionSection 4544

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Group - Carlos Davalos & Bowen Lu

This assignment was to design a façade panel of which pattern will be applied onto a real size curtain wall system. The exercise requests fully understanding of digital fabrication processes, in terms of Rhino modeling, RhinoCAM pathway generating, CNC operating, and carbon fi ber curing techniques.

This panel design utilizes the fl exibility of carbon fi ber by handling curvy shapes. The design is simple and shows the smooth curves that carbon fi ber can be formed into. The concavity and variation is shallow and simple to ensure a better surface quality before the use of vacuum bagging technique.

The design consists of four female molds each milled individu-ally on CNC router, and then shaped with vacuum forming. Openings are cut by CNC profi ling to provide different lighting qualities as well as view.

04The opening on the panel allow sunlight to be brought through to the inner side.

02Female mold of design with the vacuform layer.

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03The panels needed to be spray finished with a top coat for uneven surfaces.

01Rhino is where the panels were designed and modeled before sending the data to the CNC to mill.

SectionSection 4746

Group - Eric & Zhitao2For our carbon fi ber panel design we explored the possibilities of organic forms. We found this an appropriate and excellent exploration based on the methods and materials we were using, explicitly the CnC and its ability to carve complex shapes and the carbon fi ber and its ability to form and stay strong in unusual shapes.

Our process began with a design of carbon fi ber to be layed up on a male and female mold made of 9”x7”x2” pink insulation foam with a polystyrene cover in order to release to resined carbon fi ber panel.

The design process for this panel began with a Voronoi cell pattern. Once we arrived at a pattern we found pleasing we created a pattern of Voronoi cell bumps. This was achieved by taking the original cell geometry, raising it, and then scaling down it towards the center of each cell.

After the geometry was cut on the CnC router we had to adhere polystyrene to the top of the molds to allow the resined carbon fi ber to release via a vacuum former. Our fi rst attempt at vacuum-forming the polystyrene was a complete failure due to a lack of holes drilled into the molds to allow the styrene to pull through. Once this problem was rectifi ed the polystyrene molded to the foam, however it did not form perfectly. We suspect this problem was due to the high of a draft angle around the molds edges. Additionally the heating involved in the vacuum-forming process deforms the pink foam molds.

Once the polystyrene was formed on the molds we were able to resin and lay up the carbon fi ber over it.

For our second iteration we sought to further our exploration of organic Voronoi patterns. Our second design consisted of a

Second Iteration

Foam Mold being Milled

MDF Mold Roughing

Carbon fiber layed up on foam mold

MDF Mold

Polystyrene form over mold

Over-resined carbon fiber

SectionSection 4948

Laying up carbon fiber

Presentation

Molds with holes drilled for vacuuming

Spraying with Duratec

Vacuum-formed molds

Unsanded, sanded, and cleaned panels

SectionSection 5150

03

Group - Jake, Raliegh, Mina

Our intention for the second assignment was to create a facade panel that was simple in design and construct. We did not want to create anything that would require extreme measures when constructing. We knew the tools and experience needed to create such and extravagant facade design was probably not possible.

So we simply lofted a series of various sized circle into one surface to create a dynamic interaction between the size apertures and its distance from the curtain wall. Different sized apertures would allow for different views. The sizes of apertures would also allow for a decrease of solar gain, yet still allow for natural light.

Four distinct panels were created to test the levels of peaks and valleys that could be achieved by the carbon fi ber. Peaks and valleys were okay, but the extreme twists where extrusions met tended to be an issue for the carbon fi ber.

We also faced issues of cutting the holes in the carbon fi ber for the apertures. Computer issues and milling limitations kept us from fulfi lling the true vision of the apertures.

In the end we were able to create a carbon fi ber surface that showed the strengths and the weaknesses of carbon fi ber. Stark edges and lines were achieved and can be easily achieved at a larger scale.

01Final scaled mock up

2

SectionSection 5352

Milling of MDF mold.

Vaccum Forming and mold Carbon fiber and resien drying on vaccum formed mold.

SectionSection 5554

Entry 1 - Bowen Lu & Carlos Davalos

Carbon Fiber

Transparent Material

This proposal aims at experimenting carbon fiber and composite ma-terial as an architectural way of expression. The flexibility contributes a visual impact of being free form, as well as the physical composition makes it possible to retain its shape in terms of structurally reliable. The opportunity of providing tremendous amount of natural light is qualified, and the super lightweight offers possibility to many other aspects. This composition can be divided into five pieces with equal amount of work as each part requires an installation of one piece of transparent material.

Arch 435Design Competition entries

3 The third and final assingnment was to take the existing curtain wall in M&M. From the

selected design from the design charette, the students began to construct a full scale facade that would be structurally independent of the facade. The idea behind this fabri-cation is to demonstrate the use of composites as an exterior building application

Entry 2 - Eric Schwartzbach and Zhitao Hu

arch 435panel design

zhitao huEric Schwartzbach

The panel consists of five cells, because the idea is having each team to construct one cell therefore reducing the difficulty in terms of fabricating.

While the design/ form is still negotiable, I thought this would be a good initial design for us to demonstrate carbon fiber’s characteristic and ability.

SectionSection 5756

Entry 3 - Jacob Harney, Mina Rezaeian & Raleigh Howard

Panel Window line

Side View

Cut Lines

Entry 4- Winning design - Aishwarya Keshav & Pablo franco

SectionSection 5958

4” maximum heightmum height

1. 2.

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4. 5.

53-3/8”

53-3/8”

31.5”

Fabricating 1/4 of the full panel

Winning entry

Due to material and tool limitations, the students were only able to create a small, but still 1:1 mock up to put on the curtain wall. The construction of this portion was still challenging in regard to the challenges faced when constructing other objects at this scale.

Instead of polystyrene being used for the base of the molds, a primer was used to make the molds nonpourus. This was the only difference between the small scale assignment #2. Everything else was the same which made the task of scaling up a lot easier because the students already knew familiar with the process. So the milling, sanding, trimming and finishing were all the same. The panel was broken up into smaller pieces do to the constraints of the CNC machine. They three breakdowns were conntected using an overlap in between the panels and some bolts to hold them all together,.

SectionSection 6160

Scale Model Fabrication process

Milling the wooden moulds on the CNC