Читать книгу Rethinking Prototyping - Группа авторов - Страница 11

In the M1, the array of interconnected cells serve as secondary support to the overall structural system, while, more critically, providing a means for differentiating the spatial conditions underneath the primary membrane surface. The geometries of the bending rods are calibrated to act as stiffening struts spanning between the upper and lower level of the meta-scale bending-active network. Within the cellular structure, a series of tensioned textiles further stiffen the system and serve as the media for diffusing light. The fundamental relationships between the boundary condition for the cells, the structure of an individual cell and its relation to its neighbour are most readily represented in physical form-finding studies, as shown in Fig 5. Yet, due to the complexity of those combined conditions specifying the geometry, which successfully resolves all of those parameters and constraints, is more readily accomplished in the spring-based environment where active manipulation of local and global behaviours is possible.

The spring-based modelling environment in Processing exposes variables related to the simulation of bending stiffness. Using the vector position method, the ratio of stiffness in the springs defining the linear beam elements to the degrees of constraint in the nodes can be varied to express differing amounts overall stiffness and curvature, thus implying different material properties. The lengths of the linear beam elements are exposed locally and globally enabling for the acute management of bending-active behaviour when multiple elements interconnect. These two capacities allow initially simple topological and geometric arrangements to be formed into the complex relationships defined by the physical cell models and made suitable to the context of the interleaved bending-active structure, as shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 5 Rules for bending-active cell structure (Ahlquist, 2012)

Fig. 6 Form-finding sequence for cells in spring-based modelling and simulation environment, programmed in Processing (Java) by Sean Ahlquist (Ahlquist, 2012)