Inter 9 Lucy Moroney Technical Studies

LIFECYCLE OF MATERIAL STRUCTURELIFECYCLE OF MATERIAL STRUCTURELIFECYCLE OF MATERIAL STRUCTURELUCY MORONEYLUCY MORONEY

3RD YEAR3RD YEAR

LIFE CYCLE OF MATERIAL STRUCTURE

I propose to examine the lifecycle of my structure through material and structural studies. I use four levels of permanence in my building; an excavated cavity which uses earth as surface, the infill of framework using reclaimed earth, a lightweight, yet rigid frame and the ephem-eral form contained within, which is constructed from harvest-ed spider silk.

These forms continually change over the scale of weeks to years and increases a users link to the site, as they watch the building endlessly reform. D/ WEB STRUCTURE

Constructed from harvested spider silk

C/ FRAMEWORK STRUCTUREFramework to support suspended web structure

B/ CLADDED BASE FRAMEReconstituted earth as material

A/ EXCAVATIONUsing earth to finish surface

STRU

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ELEM

ENTS States of Structure

Stirlings red brick trilogy carries influence from Russian industrial and Brutalism styles. The use of mass and suspending mass is a recurring theme.

History Faculty Lib

rary, Cam

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Engineering

Faculty, Cam

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Florey Build

ing, O

xford

My intervention is a reaction to the heroism of the solid in Stirlings mid 20th century architecture.

The mass of the structure becomes lighter as the user moves vertically.

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2.1 Machine and Its Marks

2.2 Working the Earth

2.3 Excavation Formation

2.4 Colour Quality of Earth

2.5 Earth Casting

2.6 Rammed Earth

2.7 Rammed Earth Finish

CHAPTER 2 : EXCAVATION

1.1 Site Plan B. Braun City of Industry

1.2 Production Building : obstructions of sight & hidden

1.3 Site Plan Medical Production Building

1.4 Medical Production Building

1.5 Site Plan Sterile Production

1.9 Plan Layers of Project

1.7 Pocket Classification

1.6 Tree Mapping

1.8 States of Structure

CHAPTER 1 : SITE INFORMATION

CHAPTER 3 : CLADDED BASE FRAME

3.1 Loam Cladding

3.9 Printing Apparatus

3.10 Printing Timeline

3.7 Large Scale 3D Printing

3.2 Contaminating Circulation

3.3 Base Framework

3.4 Digitized Clay Formation

3.5 Cladding Framework Test

3.6 3D Printed Ceramics

3.8 Extruding Loam

CHAPTER 4 : FRAMEWORK STRUCTURE

4.12 Defining the Horizontal

4.11 Preventing Torsion

4.10 Vertical Principle

4.9 Stiffening the Vertical

4.8 Branching Rod

4.7 Two Layered Test

4.6 Twisting Towers

4.4 Branching Structure

4.5 Vertical Elements

4.3 Equal Spacing

4.1 Framework Breakdown

4.2 Circulation and Structure

CHAPTER 5 : WEB STRUCTURE

5.3 Wind Structure

5.4 Coloured Structure

5.5 Final Web Model

5.1 Harvesting Spider Silk

5.2 Scale of Material

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N 1.1 Site Plan B. Braun City of Industry

Founded in 1839 as a local distributor of herbs, the Braun pharmaceutical enterprise expanded onto its current site in 1992 as James Stirlings city of industry. Situated on the outskirts of Melsungen, Germany, it is home to B. Brauns infusion delivery systems manufacturing facility. B. Braun is one of the largest suppliers to global health care today.

Manufacturing of IV administration sets

Central Power Plant

Cafeteria

Goods Distribution Centre

Parking Garage

Europe Building

Administration

Circulation Bridge

Medical Centre

Disused Railway

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4.6km to Melsungen

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3 Top Floor Car Park View

4 Connection Bridge

5 City of Industry to Melsungen

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N 1.2 Production Building : obstructions of sight & hidden

The Production Building is situated on the highest point of the site, backing onto shrub land.

NVIEW OBSTRUCTIONS & CONCEALMENT

1 Visitors Car Park

2 Disused Railway

3 Top Floor Car Park View

4 Connection Bridge

5 City of Industry to Melsungen

1 2 3 4 5 6

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SITE

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N 1.3 Site Plan Medical Production Building

The Production Building is situated on the highest point of the site. The Medical Production Building is the only department on site, which runs twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. 300 tech-nicians and 300 apprentices occupy the production building on three shift rotations.

My project focuses on the line between the production and social spaces. Stirling used these rooms as a border between the sterile and the landscape and designated social spaces.

Passage that divides production and social

View from clean room to break room areas

Change space and clean room

Break room interior

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N 1.4 Medical Production Building

The Medical Production Building is the only de-partment on site, which runs twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. 300 technicians and 300 apprentices occupy the production building on three shift rotations. My project aims to break into this process and modify the circulation be-havior of the worker, who traditionally only moves between the car park and their work station.

Air filer and air-conditioning technology

Infrastructure, granulate preparation and distribution

Clean room production

Final packaging and logistics

Energy supply

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production section

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Visitors Gallery

Plastic IV unit

Sterile Change Over

Machine Technician

Raw Material Storage

Break Rooms

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1Plastic IV Unit Production

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Injection Molding Machines

Tube Production

Drip Chamber Production

Final Assembly Machines

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N 1.5 Site Plan Sterile Production

LEVEL 4 Infrastructure, granulate preparation and distribution

Lurkspace in Section

Loitering Pockets Within Shrub Land

Lurkspace Pocket P.6

C.+1500cm C.+830cmC.+420cm

C.+1430cm C.+720cmC.+370cm

C.+1250cm C.+650cmC.+310cm

C.+1100cm C.+600cmC.+250cm

C.+1020cm C.+520cmC.+190cm

C.+960cm C.+490cmC.+60cm

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1.6 Pocket Classification

The original form of the pockets were from map-ping the concealed spaces behind Stirlings Florey Building, I began to define the volume between the lines of site and trees.

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A catalogue of how the pockets of space behind the production building developed.

Void spaces simply left by tree dimen-sions

P.01 P.02 P.03 P.04 P.05 P.07 P.09P.06 P.08 P.10

P.01 P.02 P.03 P.04 P.05

P.06

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P.10

Tree canopy and Stirlings Florey building carve away at the volume

Tree canopy voids leave elongated pockets

Combination of solid and frame creating volume. The machine begins to emerge

Lightweight frames trace the contours of the volume, leaving potential inhabitable space

Frame work varies in the vertical

Playing with the den-sity of the contour.

Layers of pockets are no longer straight up and down, they begin to twist

The column be-comes part of the void

Colouring different surfaces of the frame

1.7 Tree Mapping

Stirlings break rooms for the production staff are de-signed to feel as if they are sitting among the tress. Pockets blur the boundary between Stirlings order within the production building and the shrub land behind. The seemingly chaotic woodlands are ordered into four rows.

Early pocket models explored the blurring of the boundary between the landscape and the sterile interior. They sought to puncture and envelope the break rooms, absorbing the users into the intervention space.

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The pockets have a built in circulation, which is organic to the form.

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N 1.8 States of Structure

Similar to Sam Taylor-Woods time lapse of a still life, my intervention onto Stirlings site has its own life cycle. It is in a constant state of flux; one spire in the process of being build, one degrading and another in a ruined state, waiting to be rebuilt.

The structure contaminates the sterile spaces of the production, drawing the users into fan-tasy spaces.

Still Life, Sam Taylor-Wood

Spire Lifecycle : 104 weeks

3 Weeks 7 Weeks 10 Weeks 88 Weeks 90 Weeks 104 WeeksTimber frame containting circulation ramp

Prefabricated framework secured into lower tim-ber frame. Infill of base commences

Loam has been clad on the lower frame.Harvesting of Spider silk commences

Inner self supporting structure, fabricated from woven spider silk is completed.

Majority of spider silk structure dissipates with the wind

Loam in fill on the base begins to degrad, leav-ing the structure un-stable. The cycle begins again

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EXCAVATION1:200

Visitors Entrance

1.9 Plan Layers of ProjectSI

TE IN

FORM

ATI

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LOAM INFILLED BASE1:200

Lurkers Entrance

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STRUCTURAL FRAME1:200

Workers Entrance

SPIDER SILK HARVEST AND WEB STRUCTURE1:200

2.1 Machine and its Marks



2.4 Colour Quality of Earth

2.5 Earth Casting

2.6 Rammed Earth


CHAPTER 2 : EXCAVATION

2.1 Machine and Its Marks

My first concept of forming these pockets was cen-tered around the idea of working the earth of the site to form the pockets of space.

I began looking at archaic tools and crafting meth-ods, such as the Archimedes screw. At this point of the project the aim was to devise architecture from a simple construction method. Testing allowed me to see the validity of the concept

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Archimedes screw

Injection molding machineInjection molding machineInjection molding machineInjection molding machine

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Drill Part 2 in W

hite Clay

Drill Part 1 in C

lay SlurryD

rill Part 2 in Clay Slurry

Retractable Drill Bit - Chancing its diameter as it forms the plastic clay

These experiments are based on the idea of turning the soil into a slurry so it may be drilled and worked into a form. The experiment with the drill that changes diameter was performed on three different harnesses of clay. The test did not generate a shell like wall that could be developed into a form.

Drill Component Parts Motion of Drill Part 2Motion of Drill Part 1


Using the basic motion of the breast drill, the vari-able-diameter drill piece was tested in three states of clay. The tests were unsuccessful in finding a way to control the outer shell of the pocket being created.

Open-pit mines of Chuquicamata in northern Chile

Ifugao Rice Terraces, Philippines


Systematic removal of material from the earth. Carv-ing a cavity into the site to grant access to layer levels of the Production Building.

Carving Volume Model Studies

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Inspired by the striations in colour that mined earth reveals, I began to investigate how I could achieve this effect within the scale of my project.

Cerro de Pasco Mine Utah Moab Potash Mining Flint Mines, Neolithic Britain

2.4 Colour Quality of EarthEX

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2.5 Earth Casting

Paolo Soleris CAST EARTH is a structural material made with earth and calcined gypsum that can re-place wood or steel framing in residential and light commercial buildings. It has the properties of tradi-tional earth construction, augmented by superior esthetics, rapid construction, and affordable cost.

The process consists of rapidly pouring an entire building in place, removing forms shortly after the pour. What makes this possible is calcined gyp-sums fast set rate to a wet strength sufficient to support a wall, at an unexpectedly low concentra-tion. Fifteen percent calcined gypsum provides surprising strength immediately after setting. Steel reinforcing is not used

Smoothing freshly packed concrete on a sculpted retaining wall.

Smoothing with con-crete float after being poured over chicken-wire reinforcement

Spraying concrete slurry with water to set properly.

Drainage will be installed in the base of the excavation and fed into the fire water reserve.

layer of reinforced bar concretelayer of sprayed concreteplastic membrane

rammed earth

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Cast and carving earth - Paolo Soleri Amphitheater in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

2.6 Rammed Earth Reitermann + Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin, Germany

7.2m height and 0.6m thick rammed earth wall. Rammed earth wall contains large fragments of bro-ken brick, as well as gravel, which constitutes 55% of the material. The coarse grain mixture, with minimal moisture content reduces material shrinkage to only 0.15%

Rammed earth is method of construction that uses reusable form work. Other materials can be added to the mix to improve compaction, such as ground glass, shredded rubber tyres or natural fibres. Once the wall is constructed the form work can immedi-ately be removed and the wall is then ready to take structural load.

Moist EarthMixture of sand, gravel,clay & concrete

1. Framework is built and a layer of moist earth is filled in

3. Next layer of moist earth is added

4. Successive layers of moist earth are added and com-pressed

5. Framework is removed leaving rammed earth wall

2. Layer of moist earth is compressed

Reinforced PlywoodFrame

Pneumatic Backfill Tamper

Visible Layers of Compacted Earth

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With traditional form works, the boards on both sides are held apart and kept together by spacers. Climbing form work allows the step down effect that I was inter-ested in from the mining aesthetic.

Climbing Form work

Form work for Rounded & Curved Walls

Form work without intermediary spacers


COMPLEX RAMMED-EARTH CONSTRUCTION an eco-friendly alternative to cement-based methods. Parts of Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain and the Potala Palace in Lhasa are built from rammed earth.

Rammed Earth House, Boltshauser Architekten, Zrich - water flowing over the surface is slowed by the ceramic tiles, reducing weathering.

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Earth is a sustainable resource, which could reuse part of the excavated soil earlier in the project.

Efficient to heat and cool, thick earth walls being an excellent insulator and utilising passive solar heating in the winter and passive cooling in the summer

Need finished surface coating to resist water

Exposure to the elements hastens its life cycle.

Long life span of over 100 years

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CHAPTER 3 : CLADDED BASE FRAME

3.1 Loam Cladding





3.3 Base Framework

3.4 Digitized Clay Formation

3.5 Cladding Framework Test


3.8 Extruding Loam

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Four states of loam consistency: liquid plastic semisolid solid

Extruded loam is more efficient with high clay con-tent. Ideal Mix: 50% clay 50% silt Cement additive as stabiliser

Expect 0.1% shrinkageThe cement acts as a stabilizer which covers the clay minerals and prevents water from reaching them and causing swelling and cracking.Mix needs larger aggregate of 5mm-10mm to prevent latter water erosion

Plastic loam has been used for thousands of years to fill gaps in log houses where the logs are laid horizontally. In traditional European Fachwerk houses wet loam (usually containing cut straw) is thrown on an interwoven mesh of twigs, branches and bamboo sticks.

Using a loam infill to enclose the base of the plywood frame base.

Traditional Wattle-and-Daub Building Technique

Loam is soil composed of clay, silt, sand and occa-sionally larger aggregates such as gravel or stone. This mud construction method can be traced back to ancient times. Light clay construction can be found five minutes from the site in Melsungen, Germany. It has various construction benefits such as helping control air humidity.

The varying conditions of the materials involved in the loam mix contribute to its overall strength. Soil dug from depths of less than 40cm can contain plant matter when using earth as a building material it must be free from plant matter.

IMPROVING MIX

Cement Additives

Natural Fibres such as horse hair

Adding large aggregates to reduce clay contents

Straw (0.5-2 cm)

Wood ash

Light Clay Construction / Melsungen GERMANY

4km from Stirlings City of Industry, the town of Melsungen is populated with wattle and daub construction

Melsungen, Germany

City of Industry

VISITOR

FACTORY WORKER

LURKER / INVADER


The interior volumes will act as ramps to filter the users into the structure. My intervention will act as a social contamination for the otherwise separate circulation paths of the worker, visitor and lurker.

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Spiral Framework

Plan

Front Elevation

Stabilising Members Loam Skin Infill

CNC machined Marine grade ply cut

Timescale of weathering ply

1 week 5 months 8 months

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3.3 Base Framework

Spiral ramp is constructed from 50mm layered plywood.

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CONSTRUCTION

1. Assemblage of CNC machined framework

2. Thatched surfaces between CNC contour

3. Loam mixture sprayed on and built up in layers

Waag Society, DUS Architects and Arne Hendriks, worked together with some local traditional mud workers. During the three days of Amsterdams PICNIC Festival 2011, the hypercrafted pavilion grew every day.

Framework of the building is printed with a wood-cutter from a computer model. As soon as this hull is printed, the building can be finished with local available material such as clay or mud.

This concept of combining the digital and tradi-tional craft is a thread I want to carry through my project: Hypercrafting.

3.4 Digitized Clay FormationC

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Using a 1.5mm thick card frame, I mixed a clay solution with high water ratio to extrude through 1mm diameter opening. The experiment highlight-ed the need for a supporting vertical element.

Variable effects can be achieved with pressure of extrusion

Layering the extruded mixture

Used Soleri mould technique to form clay

Rather than stacking across the gap the clay mixture replicated the form of the under card

Irregular extrusions with more intense extrusion pressure

Using the clay extrusion in alternate layers to replace the need for straw fill

Paolo Soleris mould forming techniques of dragging a cut profile around un-formed clay to achieve shape. This technique was used in this example for finishing the form of the extruded clay

3.5 Cladding Framework TestC

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LArtisan Electroniques Unfold Project is a com-bination of artisan techniques with digital. Using a 3D scanner to track hand movements, by hand the user can form the mesh into a desired form. This file is then exported and printed in extruded coils of clay through the means of 3D printing.

The printnig of ceramic is a concept I wanted to implement as a method of applying loam to my base. This hypercrafting method allows for higher accuracy with extruding clay and has the ability to build in structural cross sections into the walls it prints. The next issue here is one of scale. There examples are of 15cm protoypes, whereas my project will be printed 15m high.

3D sensor interface scans the hand as it sculpts virtual space.

Air pressure forces clay through syringe nozzle

Plate moves down on the Y axis; the nozzle never moves its position

10cm

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Using the reconstituted soil from the excavation process of the project, the interior form could be printed onto the skeleton frame.

Rather than the lining being a pure product of a digital form, the process itself could start to hand craft. For instance, in the example below shows the result of a flux in air pressure while extruding the layers. This effect could not be digitally designed, but created through the mak-ing itself.

controlled air pressure

loam mixture

Structural stability of the loam can be achieved through layering or changing the extrusion shape from the nozzle.


Contour crafting is a developing technology which works with digital forming of concrete without shuttering. The benefits of this technology is the ability to create double curved surfaces.Material is added incrementally and therefore these processes are called additive or deposition fabrication.

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Large scale contour crafting, which uses a con-crete solution. This detail shows a cross section of a house wall, 400mm total thickness.

Shiro Studio architects and D-Shape: using CAD modelling software they are able to print large scale structures.The system deposits the sand and then inorganic binding ink. The exercise is repeated. The millennia-long process of laying down sedimentary rock is ac-celerated into a day. The printing proceeds in 5-10mm layer sediments, with the end result having the equivalent compressive strength as Portland Cement.

Positive: This process achieves large scale pro-toypes with the aesthetic of layered sediment, similar to the rammed earth

Negative: This process could not take place onsite due to the apparatus and excess powder

Positive: Displays the potential of up scaling and uses a material similar to the consistency of loam used in spray application. Also uses an onsite printing apparatus.

10 meters

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Foster + Partners used this techique of rapid protoyping, traditionally only used for sketch models, and up scaled it. This method, intended to be used in the finished architecture, could produce complex geometric forms.

Positive: This technique can produce large protoypes with fairly intricate ex-truded layers, with a typical diameter of 9mm.

Concrete 3D printer being developed at The University of Arizona College of Architecture Material Labs.

The clay solution they use is still in a highly plastic state. The rate of printing is 1 meter in 1 minute (a relatively high speed in comparison to other techniques).

1.5 meters

9mm

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3.8 Extruding Loam

The method of contour crafting depends on the consistency of the material and the speed which it is printed. Based on the previous case studies, I se-lected an extrusion process. I also want to adapt this process so it can be fabricated on site.

Average temperature in Melsungen, Germany

The optimal temperature for printing loam solution is above 10 Therefore printing would take place between June and October

5cm extrusion contour crafting of concrete solution. Comparable scale to the end use in my project.This example prints 1 meter in 3 minutes.

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Fine aggregate loam mix

50/50 loam to reinforced clay mix

Mix clay consistency for it to easily extruded

Tightly packing clay into set dimension

Using a mould to emulate the end extruded result

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combining mix with 3ml of water

Time to Dry Out: 96 hours

Shrinkage Rate: 1.6%

plastic mix achieved

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46cm

Ideal Mix

Based on the soil consistency of the site (high clay content) I conducted a material test of 50% Loam mix and 50% reinforced clay. Based on this mix the material took 4 days to dry out completely with a shrinkage rate of 1.6%; therefore not compromising the integrity of the printed skin.

Soil condition of the Melsungen area: Soil grain size distribution of loams with high clay content

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0.002 0.020.006 0.06 0.2 0.6 2 6 20 60


This process uses reclaimed earth from the earlier excavation stage. The loam is combined with rein-forced clay mix. The mechanism being part of the structure allows for repair as the structure begins to degrade.

The printing armature uses the inner circulation ramp as a track. The appa-ratus allows for it to extend in the x,y,z directions for irregular profiles.

Loam and air pressure tubes are fed along an inner track within the ramp.

Spiral ramp built into wooden frame

Reclaimed soil from excavation process

Soil processor combines clay and loam mix

Loam mix

Air pressure

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50mm

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30 layers of loam mixture





Drag arm, smoothing the inner surface of the printed layers

Openings can be factored into the printing process as a devise for improv-ing light and air quality.

Spiraling earth, Atlantida Church, Eladio Dieste

Light perforations - Rammed Earth House, Bolt-shauser Architekten, Zrich

Rotating X,Y axis arm

Air pressure control, to manage extrusion





5cm

Machining can print 3 layers of loam at a time, as this is the maximum height the loam is stable at before it is dried. Must wait 4 hours between each three layers.

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CHAPTER 4 : FRAMEWORK STRUCTURE

4.12 Defining the Horizontal




4.8 Branching Rod

4.7 Two-Layered Test

4.6 Twisting Towers



4.3 Equal Spacing

4.1 Framework Breakdown

4.2 Circulation and Structure

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The tower structure will be machined and assem-bled with plate steel off site and installed as one unit.The aim of the following experiments is to find the ideal combination of horizontal and vertical elements, and for the framework to remain light weight, yet rigid enough to support the web struc-ture at the top.

Framework is fixed into rigid loam base.

Horizontal Element

Vertical Structure

Web Structure

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The framework is constructed in layers which conjoin to form an internal spiral with the structure, which is used for access.

Framework is embedded in earth work below

Spiral Framework Structure - Alice Studio at Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne

Irregular circular spiral testEarly concept modelof the framwork

5cm

5cm

5cm

2mm Wood Connectors

Shearing Motion

Each level rotates 10 from level above

Rigid base represents loam frame base

1mm Plastic Frame

4.3 Equal Spacing

Basing the structural study on the three structural components of web geometry

10

2cm wide vertical members were evenly spac-ing 5 horizontal plates. The tower was secured into a rigid base, emulating the loam base of the pockets. The structure twisted under lateral forces. When the model was under compres-sion, the load initiated the tower to go into a twisting motion - failing under torsion.

Two limiting factors of the test was the mate-rial used for the vertical members - balsa wood - and the equally spaced horizontal members. Varying the spacing might yield more interest-ing forms when contorting the vertical ele-ments. Next time a more elastic material to be used for the vertical pieces.

TEST ANALYSIS

RESULT

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30 m

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Load: 300g

Evenly spaced horizontal pieces. Hexagon profile is used for the frame to approximate irregular faces of original pockets

Load: 900gLoad: 500g Load: 1100g torsion in motionLoad: 700g Load: 1300g fail point

Test Model Materials

Vertical member: 2mm thick balsa wood

Horizontal brace: 1.5mm polypropylene sheet


Experimenting with varying spacing and flexible vertical members.

Test Model Materials

Horizontal brace: 2mm card clad polypropylene sheet

Vertical member: 1.5mm polypropylene sheet

16 vertical members, radial notches

The material used for the horizontal member was not rigid enough to keep the vertical strips in place. The test was a first step towards creating towers with branching pockets. The next tests need to be more methodical with spacing and progressively dividing into multiple pockets.

Testing flexibility of tower Tower distors easily under compression

Bottom viewTop view

9cm4cm

2cm

1cm

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Testing the ideal profile for dividing horizontal breaks in pocket towers

90 distortion

Rigid

Radial T profile is rigid.The down side is that the forming of the vertical is limited.

Rectangular profile is stiff in the short cross section direction.- yet provides no resistance in the opposite direction.

Alternating rectangular profile pieces. Allows only 5 distortion.

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4.6 Twisting Towers

At this stage I was trying to find a basic combina-tion of vertical and horizontal elements to deter-mine the form of the finished towers

The changing diameter of the plates distorted the vertical element.

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Vertical members are arranged radially to be stiff under lateral load.

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TEST ANALYSIS

The rectangular profile of the vertical members makes them unstable when in torsion. If they remain vertical they perform in compression.

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4.7 Two Layered Test

This was a basic test to find a way to use fine verti-cal rods, without the need of pinning them to a fixed plate in order to stand up.

6.5cm

1cm

1mm1mm

40 vertical elements

5cm

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40 vertical members alternated between the larger and smaller diameter frame at the top of the tower. This created a two layered test. The inner pocket acted as a stabilizer for the outer layer to maintain its central diameter.

Although the spacing of the central diameter was maintained while loaded in compression. The pocket failed in torsion motion. Therefore there needs to be a rigid element which pre-vents the central diameter from moving.

TEST ANALYSIS

RESULT

Supported by pinning to a rigid structure above

Christmas tree instillation at the V&A, Studio Rosa.

4.8 Branching Rod

Test generated as an exploration in branching the vertical elements to create pockets within pockets

The test is a combination of pre-twisted vertical compo-nents and longer straight components.

While creating branching pocket structure, I am also interested in creating a fixed plate within the structure for the later web structure installation.

Combination of vertical and pre-twisted rod

5cm10cm

Pre stressed structure secured to a fixed plate.

AA INTER10 2008/09 eco machines

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A combination of straight and twisted vertical elements

As the tower fails the vertical elements do not attempt to buckle in compression. Rather, they twist. This motion tightens the central members which are already twisted clockwise. The central diameter shrinks, destabilising the whole tower.

Central diameter must keep vertical elements stiff and in place, in order to support the above weight. Straight members must be kept at shorter lengths to prevent torsion.

TEST ANALYSIS

RESULT

20g 40g 40g 40g

11cm

8cm4.5cm

2.5cm

3cm

3cm 2.5cm2.3cm

1cm


Shortening the fixed points between the thin rod to minimise bending motion.

Bracing elements to keep the vertical members straight rather than twisting

40g load. Black members begin to bend and kink under compression.

60g load. Green members slightly twist 80g load. Although members are bend-ing the members are still holding

Plate ElementsCross Brace

The horizontal component shortens the verticle members, making it stiffer in bending motion under compression

1cm

4cm

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10m

Under the 200g load, the red members remained intact. They are spaced with a minimum distance of 1cm.

Black members fail in bending under the weight. They were the largest verti-cal span of 5cm

The black members failed first as the horizontal plates pulled vertical mem-bers too close together in the opposite direction, causing a kink.

Green members were the next to fail. The largest span between horizonal plates here is 4cm.

200g 200g 200g 200g


This following set of experiments is finding the optimal combination of vertical plates to stiffen the 1.5mm rod arranged in a hexagonal plan

Rigid base emulates being secured into loam frame base

These hexagonal plates are used as a simplified form for the following tests. I am trying to use these experiments to identify a simple principle which I can later apply to a more complex formed plate.

Vertical elements secured into the wooden frame by threading through the wooden frame

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The rod naturally twists when a different diameter plates are secured.

The addition of the secured plate at the top increased flex under load.

Having two plates of the same diameter above one another slightly stabilised the rod composition.

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Vertical elements cross over, countering torsion motion.

Crossing the direction of the string to create stabilityAA INTER10 2008/09 eco machines

By having two sequential plates with the same diameter and crossing alternate vertical rods as a form of cross bracing, the structure becomes stable.

With enough lateral force the tower fails by the plates shifting their position.

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100g

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500g

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Combining the structural principle gained from the experimentation and the original aesthetic for revised form

P/1 P/2 P/3 P/4 P/5

P/6 P/7 P/8 P/9 P/10

P/11 P/12 P/13 P/14 P/15

Each plate uses hexagonally positioned connection points for the vertical rod. This method also allows to create spaces within each tower by modifying the interior cutout.

4.12 Defining the HorizontalFR

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P/7

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P/13

P/15

P/19

11cm15cm

5cm5cm

5cm11cm

13cm6.5cm

1.57.5cm

Plan View of Tower

Using this principle, each tower can be unique by simply modifying the shape of the horizontal plate. As long as the tower contains se-quential plates with same diameter at the base, mid and top of the tower (blue in diagram); intermediate plates (cyan in diagram) can be added to fill the spaces between for the aesthetic. These structures can be fabricated and assembled off site and implanted onto site.

CNC Steel Plates Cut

CHAPTER 5 : WEB STRUCTURE

5.3 Wind Structure


5.5 Final Web Model



700 meters of continuous thread can be collected from a spider in each sitting

Collect silk onto spool

Spider secured in order to extract silk

in the early 19th century Raimondo Maria de Termeyer discovered that threads ex-tracted from the spider itself produced a higher-quality silk. An 1807 engraving shows de Termeyers extraction device. The spider is clamped by a sheet of wood with a half-moon aperture for its abdomen. A winding machine draws out a continuous strand.


Spider silk weaving has been practiced since the 16th century. By adapting these harvesting tech-niques, I propose to house a spider farm at the top of each of my towers. As well as containing the spider farm itself, the thread will be extracted by hand and woven into rope which will be used to generate the self supporting thread structure.

This golden cape, exhibited at the V&A, is the largest garment ever made entirely of spider silk. the golden 4m-long cape took four years to create from the silk of 1.2m golden orb spiders.

Loom woven fabric

Maintained natural gold colour from harvested silk

Each thread is made from 96 twisted strands

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Examples of spiders covering the same spans as my tower exist in nature.

Trees rising above the floodwaters became safe havens for web-spinning animals in Sindh, Pakistan. Under these conditions the spiders create communal webs

Spanning 200 meters, draped upon seven trees.Lake Tawokoni State Park

Females lay up to 3,000 eggs in one or more silk egg sacs. Average life span is one to two years

Spider Forecast - weather condition of the site determines the activ-ity of the spider farm as they are exposed to outdoor elements.

Dormant

Less Active

Highly ActiveThe spiders can be farmed on the structure it-self. A fair amount of free infill web would occur, as well as the hand harvesting to gather mate-rial for the rope structure.

Egg Sacs1 day

Larva14 days

Nymph30 days

Young Adult90 days

Adult730 days

5.3 Wind Structure

Basing the structural study on the three structural components of web geometry

Harvested thread will be twisted into thread various densities for desired strength. 3 classes of fibre for the 3 functions of fibre in the structure

Elastic Properties of Spider Silk

Stiffness

Elasticity

Stre

ngth

Stre

ss (M

Pa)

Strain (mm/mm)

Yield

The abdoment of the spider contains 3 to 4 spinnarets. Each spinnaret has many spigots, each of which is con-nected to one silk gland. There are at least six types of silk gland, each producing a different type of silk. It is similar in tensile strength to nylon and biological materials such as chitin, collagen and cellulose, but is much more elastic, in other words it can stretch much further before breaking or losing shape.

The Cathedral of Wind is the per-fect case study for demonstrating the basic spider web structure in three dimensions. I would like to incorporate this principle into the center of my tower structure, as a self supported insta llation.

2.8mm

200 threads

T.1 T.2 T.3

Bridge Thread

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Radii Thread

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Spiral Thread

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The Cathedral of the Wind, Sean McGinnis

500 threads 800 threads

4.73mm 5.63mm

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Instillation within the tower

Similar to the simple experi-ment of sitting a white daisy in dye, I propose to feed the different groups of spiders dyed insects. In this way the silk they produce will be coloured.

Anchor points are incorporated into the frame, in order to suspend the structure

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5.5 Final Web ModelW

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The spun silk is woven into the centre of the tower structure. The tower itself becomes the anchor points for the supporting threads.

5.6 The Harvest

The spiders inhabit the structure and are selected by the handlers to extract 700 meters of silk in one sitting. Theharvesting devise is built into the floor of the structure.

The spiders are kept within a sandwiched breathable fiber sheet, stretch between the tower plates.

Handlers secure the spiders into a devise built into the base to harvest the silk

Harvested silk is spun into rope to be used in the sus-pended central structure.

Spiders can catch insects within the fiber as well as be-ing fed dyed food to alter the silk colour.

The collected thread is used to construct the structure below by hand.

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Spiders are secured into a spider friendly hinged clamp.

Silk is wound onto a reel

The intertwined fibres are used in construtructing the below structure,

using the surround tower structure as the anchor support.

The harvesting devise is built into the floor. The spi-ders are selected from the above farm and their silk is extracted by trained handlers.

A process similar to twisting twin to form rope will manufacture the thread for construction.

The process of intertwining the coloured silk will have an effect of weaving thread rainbows, similar to the Gabriel Dawes Thread project

41:100

Spiral Framework Stabilising Members Loam Skin Infill

330 hoursRammed earth excavation

360 hoursPrinted loam infill of frame

168 hoursInstillation of framework structure

8760 hoursHarvest and construction of inner web structure

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Inspirations

Documents

Inter 9 Lucy Moroney Technical Studies