Design of Business (5)

Balance |
In the chapter 5, the author gives us some examples about how to balance the creativity and reliability. The furniture company in Michigan, Herman Miller Inc.,  tried to use design thinking to build up the culture of this company. Hence, the company did not focus on the finance of selling numbers, (of course they care about the numbers, but they didn't let the finance issues control the culture) but on the product design. Furthermore, they gave designers full power to research "What is the chair of the future? What is the chair people really need?" In this case, the CEO, Hugh De Pree, tried to introduce "design" into the company's culture and even the strategy.

Comparing to some companies in Taiwan, for example, HTC, this year this company faced the most selling depression. The CEO, Wang Shuei Hong, thought the problem is on the sales team and public relations team. Hence she spent 12 million dollars on inviting Robert Downey Jr. for their new advertisement. However, this company's main product, smart phone, is just the follower of Apple or SamSung. Moreover, they don't care the customer service and the software embedded in their smart phone is not good, basically the engineers just revise the scheme and some features of the original android operation system because the engineers' job is to make sure that the OS can work only! People can hardly see any value from "design" in their product. No wonder that the price of HTC's stock reduced 90% in one year.

Back to Herman Miller Inc., Equa chair or Aeron chair are both the products from "design". Hugh merged the design the business strategy as a solution for this company. Not only strategy but also the culture of this company is created with designers. The designers in Herman Miller Inc. are very important and no one except the CEO can interfere them. Designers know how to create the effective solutions for users, however, the financial department, engineering department or sales department don't. Hence, Herman Miller Inc. let designers to lead other department and make whole company move forward with the designers. The designer are not looking for the reliable but effective solution, they don't stay in the same place and use old workable method to maintain the operation of the company. They are going to change something, and pushing the mysteries through the funnel. Many companies are looking for a solution how to combine design and business, I think Herman Miller Inc. has a good result.

Southwest is also a successful company which create an effective solution for customers. The company break the rules and re-think the demands of the customers. Hence, this company gives up the "hub-and-spoke" mode but adopt point-to-point mode for customers. Therefore Southwest Airlines can offer cheaper price and reduce the flight time. As Herman Miller Inc., Southwest is also back to the original point to review the demand and structure of the business, with the thinking of a designer.

Prototyping |
In a design-orientation company, the employees usually don't have fixed positions but work in different projects. By working in different projects, they are mixed with other people and generate an effective solution for the project. Hence, co-operation is important in design-orientation company, people work with each other for a short time. After the project, they are designated to other projects and keep co-oping with different people. Flow to work, which can help a company push mysteries through the funnel and produce the prototypes of the products. However, this structure is not good for generating algorithms and reliability, a company cannot always be "prototyping company". If a company only operate in "flow-to-work" mode, it is unstable. The products of this kind of company can hardly have stable quality. So, the company still need the departments which can keep generating algorithms for company and maintaining the profit for research and design departments. 

Constraints |
Roger Martin also depicted how to turn limitations into the opportunities. Actually, this is a fundamental issue of design. In the first year of MArch program, we were taught to looking for the constraints from the context because those constrains are the clues for designers and help them make decisions. Hence, this concept is pretty common in design. Without any constraint, the designer can scarcely complete his/her design because there are too many possibilities and the design is going to divergence.

Robot Light Drawing

Project Description |

It's very exciting that we are going to play with robots! This project requires us to use robot arms (KUKA) to accomplish a series of tasks including 3D locating, maze running and light drawing. In the beginning, all of us need to be trained for several days and get familiar with KUKA|Prc which is a plug-in of Grasshopper in Rhino, and then, play with it! In this project we need to use robot rams to accomplish the light drawings in dark. The geometry may be a new design or from the previous models (we can use digitizer to scan it), and use KUKA|Prc to generate the drawing paths for KUKA.

Robot Light Drawing, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015 

KUKA Robot Arms |
It is very lucky for us that UM's policy is to let students contact new technologies without being afraid of breaking them (of course, need to be trained in advance). UM gives us a lot of freedom to play with those big machines and thus we can gradually get comfortable with them. While we were trying those robots, trials and errors helped us figure out how to control the robots. Furthermore, sometimes we can figure out how to use them in a better way (our instructors and TA are always telling us that we don't have to follow the settings which are defined by others because we may find a better one). We appreciate it, and indeed some beautiful works hence are created because some particular settings and methods are adopted.

The test movement for Robot Drawings, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Tools, Limitations and Opportunities |
Making is based on what tools and materials we use. Therefore, "tooling" is an important issue in design. After the test run of the robots, we had some discussion about making, designing and thinking. Actually these three things should be one thing. Making is designing, and meanwhile making is also thinking. Hence, tool's limitations and logic are sometimes the boundaries and opportunities of thinking and designing. For example, if the architect is required to use only a hammer and nails to build up a house but other tools such as saws, knives or rulers. The house may be very odd but unique. The identity is from the tool (the hammer), and the design/thinking/making process is constrained by the hammer and the gestures of the architect while she/he is using it. Based on the same reason, the robots can also generate the unique works which can be made only by the robots. In Adam Holder's lecture, I asked Adam a question about the qualities of the digital tool (the qualities that only can be achieved by digital tools). Adam gave us a good example to this question, 3D movies/animates. 3D movies/animates can offer audiences spectacular experience and this experience can only be transmitted by digital technologies. Back to the tools, the computer, projector and the 3D glasses are the tools which can offer the unique experience for people. But, the tools are also define the limitations of the works.

Movement types in KUKA|Prc

The original geometry, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Robot Drawings |
In this summer, we have many projects and those projects are telling us the limitations and the opportunities of the tools. Especially in this project, we use KUKA|Prc to draw the geometry we design. There are 4 different movement types in KUKA|Prc, P2P, Linear, Spline and Circular movement, each movement has its own characteristics. First step, we sample the geometry and get a few points. Then we use different algorithms to generate the respective drawing paths of robot arm based on those points. The pictures below physically shows the difference among those movements.

P2P Movement, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Linear Movement, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Spline Movement, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Cicular Movement, Jeff Boyer & T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Void, Solid and Block

Project Description |
Project003 requires us to design a block which can present the void space and solid material with each other when they are aggregated together. Meanwhile, CNC router is the machine we need to use in this project. The material of the frameworks is foam with which we are going to cast 6 blocks. On the other hand, reusing the molds is an important issue for the project. After casting, those blocks are going to be aggregated together and the voids hence are completed, furthermore, the compositions have to present the relationship among the blocks. Erwin Hauer's works may be reference for us because strong relationship between void and solid is represented in his works.

Void Block, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Design |
I try to keep the same design element in this series of models. The wormhole-like form is the element I want to continue. In the first project, I tried to use fabric to create the void space, and this wormhole-like shape is generated at that time. During project 2, I kept the shape and turned it into solid, aggregated them and obtain a series of variation. Thus, this time I turned it back to void space again and used it to generate the space and connect all blocks with this void. Therefore, the design started from the continuous void space (an endless wormhole which connect two diagonal vertexes of a block), I cut the void space with the surfaces among 9 blocks and insert the each part back to each corner of a block.

Continuous voids pace through blocks

Re-arranging the void spaces

While aggregating them together, the separated void spaces are connected together and hence complete the original void space. Further, although only shallow void spaces show up in the elevation of the composition, the diagonal perspective shows the penetration of the void space. Viewer can look though the all the blocks and the spaces blocked by the blocks thus connected.

Rhino model of the Void Block

Aggregation of blocks

Error Propagation |
The goal of this project is to deliver the digital model to physical world as possible as we can, hence, overcoming the errors which may occur in each phase. Although the errors in each step are slight, however, the propagation of the errors can cause a huge distortion in the final result. Also, the aggregation of the errors is a serious problem. Therefore, controlling the error or compensating the effects may be the most difficult part in this project.

Diagram of Undercut

The software for CNC router we used is MasterCam, which is a toolpath simulation software and and can generate the milling code for us. The setting of the router is complex and the drillbits have many limits.

Milling process of CNC Router

The components milled by CNC router

Before milling the components, we have to check if there is any "undercut" in the file. Undercut is not allowed in CNC router because the router cannot mill the undercut part and will ignore it. And, the draft angle also has to be considered  in advance, or the de-molding will be very difficult.

Secondly, we must leave a thin skin among each component because it is not allowed to drill through the material. Hence, the thickness will be the first error which is inevitable and the thickness cause the mismatch while assembling. Furthermore, the density of the foam is an crucial issue while de-molding, however, the high density foam is too thick to fit into the machine. Thus, the robot arm became a foam cutter (thanks to Asa for his kindly help!) for us.

Asa and his robot arm

When milling was done, we made some de-molding tests to figure out how to take off the frameworks from plaster without damages. We are going to use the same molds to cast 4 to 6 models, hence the molds need to be protected well. We tried Murphy's oil, dish soap, rough surface, polished surface, tape and the wrap plastic. The conclusion is: wrap plastic.

Wrapped component

De-molding of the Void Block

Although the wrap plastic can prevent the plaster from sticking on the foam, the plastic is hard to wrap on the component without wrinkles. Moreover, the texture of the foam and the router are both covered by the plastic. In some cases, the designer wants to keep the trace of the tools (router), however, this is a trade off. After all preparation works, the plaster still caused the largest error in the whole process, even though we cast so many models before. The curing time, mix proportion and the material of mold we use are all different from those before, so there were still many unexpected problems.

Void Block, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

4 Void Blocks, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015 

6 Void Blocks, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Review |
We talked about "unexpected" factors during review. Because the goal of this project is to deliver the digital form to real world as possible as you can. Thus, I feel that the material is only the media for representing the "ideal" model in digital world. However, the real model still has its magic because of the light, the shadow, the color and the tactility of plaster, and the traces left by plastic. All those real things can not be shown in Rhino. To connect the gap between digital and physical is the mission of digital technology group, but what we need to do is not only single directional but bi-directional. To deliver a digital form to real world completely is not the whole but a small part of digital technology, most part of digital technology is to deliver the real world to virtual environment.

Robot ARM Training

KUKA in Umich

KUKAPrc | 

The training course of robot arm has several phases, and the first training is quite simple: use Axis movement mode to move robot arm to specific position in KUKAPrc software. KUKAPrc has several alternative movement mode for users such as axis mode, xy mode (linear), point to point mode spline mode, etc. Simulation in Rhino Grasshopper is very convenient for new users because it shows the limits of the robot arm and easy to use.

Axis Practice in KUKAPrc

After axis mode practice, we use KUKAPrc to control the robot arm pass through a maze. The maze is not complex, just for us to understand the xy mode and how the six axes operate together. Also, we simulate the path movement in KUKAPrc and test different movement mode to get familiar with KUKA.

Maze for KUKA

Movement Simulation in KUKAPrc

Sean Ahlquist, Kathy Velikov and Catie Newell

Sean Ahlquist | Controlled and uncontrolled

Sean's works make me think about an artist whose works are also mostly made with fabrics, Do Ho Suh. Suh's works make me feel that he tries to control the fabrics and make them approximate to some rigid material. All the fabrics Suh used are all cut precisely and every piece is calculated well. Somehow it makes me feel that the fabric looks like fuzzy glass or semi-transparent metal. However, Sean's works have some uncontrolled factors, especially the performance of fabrics, but the fabrics present their nature and beauty in Sean's works. Although Sean use a lot of digital tools to simulate the results, however, I think the natures complete the works. Those uncontrolled factors play a very important role in Sean's work.

Hyper-Toroidal Deep Surface, Sean Ahlquist, Prof. Achim Menges, Boyan Mihaylov, Viktoriya Nicolova, 2013

Staircase-III, Do Ho Suh, 2010

After Sean's speech, we had some discussion about the gap between digital tools and physical models. It is very difficult to feedback the experiment results to digital environment because the forces offered by fabrics can hardly be measured, especially, the forces from fabrics are multi-dimensional. Sean has established a very complete simulation environment and made lots of simulations before the designs were scaled to 1:1 models. Nevertheless, the forces from fabrics are difficult part to simulate, the performance of the forces is too complicated. How to address the complexity is always a big issue of virtual simulation. I think we could use the bridge plug-ins to connect the software which is not originally for design (especially, architectural design usually does not need to simulate the forces of the fabrics).

In our second project review, we had similar discussion about "controlled factors" and "uncontrolled factors" in design. Typically we try to controll everything while we are designing a building, but somehow those "uncontrolled factors" may bring you to a beautiful result. Therefore, we may start to reconsider our design strategies and decide what factors we will control and what we will not. For example, in the project002 of MSMS (Master of Science, Material System concentration), students are required to use wax to make their models. While making, they melt the wax and used some gadget to dip into the melt wax and put the gadget into cold water to cool it down again, and finally, they can get unexpected forms. In this project, solidification of the wax is totally uncontrollable, thus the final models are all out of the designer's imaginations. However, the unexpected results sometimes are beautiful, the uncontrolled wax play an important role in this design.

Kathy Velikov | Systems

It is interesting that interactive systems become an important part in architecture. Kathy's North House has several systems and they are all connected together, which means that those systems can communicate to one another. Furthermore, those systems have a mesh structure and start to form an internal internet. From this point of view, these connected systems can be viewed as a primitive model of IoT (Internet of Things). Those "things" including air conditioner, refrigerator, microwave, fans, windows, television and smart phones have a mechanism (for example, voting system) to deal with some problem, and this also might be a primitive form of AI. All the things in the house share their information and each object take a part in the decision making. However, the system structure in North House is a central controlled system, this is not really intelligent system because the communication is only one-way (if each system operates independently, that's like a telephone, but if all systems are bundled together without a central unit, that's like internet). Moreover, all the object should be online and search information by itself and offer all the information it has to all the others, just like Kevin Kelly said, in the future, each objects has its small electrical brain (chip), and those brains will connect together as a big brain and then all the object are going to turn into a big intelligent creature.

Bird Flock, non-central control system

Catie Newell | Material

Salvaged landscape gave me an inspiration about material. Operation is simple, the burned wood are cut and aligned very well in one side. Moreover, they are stacked very tightly and create a very clean wall (with a door which has a irregular shape).  The variation of each wood shows up the process of burning and the material characteristics, meanwhile those woods create a random shape in the back. Furthermore, the gaps between those wood filter the light because the the burned woods are not rectangles but like double heads spindles. Hence, the burned parts create some spaces for the light, and also those burned woods created a perfect black interior wall, a perfect background for the lights.

The work Specimen also shows the articulation of the light. The reflections of the normal fluorescent lights are skewed and distorted on the surface of the glasses. in other words, those lights are re-shaped along with the material and thus change the specimen room. Furthermore, the glass is a transparent material, but the reflections expose the virtually invisible ripples, just like the contour lines of the glass. I think that the articulation of material is a good example for us because we sometimes focus too much on finished object but the materials. As Tim Ingold described in his book, Making, in his 4As class, students are required to gather many objects (or garbage), those objects look dead and they are without any future and energy. However, Tim asked his students to call those object with their material: a coke can is aluminum, a bag is plastic, a wine bottle is glass, etc. From the moment, those object keep their journeies and start their lives again, they begin a dialogue with nature, environment and time. There is no ending and the result is opened rather than closed, the just like Henry Moore's sculpture and the one full of oysters.

To sum up, the material's life is endless, thus it is opened and not finished, but an object is dead and trapped in a cage, there is an end unless we view it as a material again.

Infestation Piece (Musselled Moore), Simon Starling, 2007

Design of Business

The Funnel |

Through the training in architectural school, design thinking is not a new concept for us. However, Roger Martin describes it so clearly and logically, thus the design thinking is turn into a method that everyone can learn. He illustrates the process of knowledge formation with a "funnel", and actually "design" is the process for generating knowledge when mystery goes from top of the funnel and through the neck, finally to the bottom. 

Knowledge Funnel, Design of Business, Roger Martin, 2009

It is quite similar to what we learned in architectural school. First we need to analyze the site and find out the problem (or the mystery), and then we use logic and intuition to figure out the possible solutions. Through practice and experiments, we gradually establish the algorithm to address our issues gracefully and smartly. Actually, this process is not only for architecture design but also for other disciplines. Martin took McDonald as the example to demonstrate how design think worked in business. McDonald catch a mystery and made it go through the funnel. In the end, the mystery turned into a valuable, systematic and feasible methodology for company. 

From the lecture, we had some discussion about Blu Homes. It is another example to demonstrate the funnel. Blu Homes has a mystery which is "can we build a house in 40 weeks from nothing?" and this valuable idea is going through the funnel. During the process of establishing the algorithm (reliability), so many issues need to be addressed. For example, we talked about supply chains and how to integrate them together. The supply chain is a big deal because a product can not be delivered without a stable supply chain. Especially, "buildings" haven't been treated as pre-fab products before, so there is no supply for this kind of products. Hence, Blu Homes need to use the supplies which are not for architecture and try to combine them together as a stable, reliable, systematic and profitable supply chain. It's really difficult, especially each supply has its own culture, rules, laws and specifications. However, this is the neck point of the funnel, once they push the mystery through the neck point, a valuable and stable profit generator is born!

Connecting to Kevin Kelly's book, this may be the way to generate information (knowledge) with higher quality. Also, the knowledge can be accumulated in a systematic way which is repeatable and reliable. So, people can easily access that method and duplicate it. Once it is easy to access and copy, the knowledge starts to flow to every corner in the world. Generating, spreading and accumulating, three characteristics of our final destination.

Meta Skills

Meta Skills |

As Kevin Kelly depicted in his book, What Technology Wants (2010), the technium has its own autonomy and evolves with human beings, the similar discussion occurs in Meta Skills by Marty Neumeier. Especially, Kevin and Marty both mentioned that the future of technology must head to the destination, which has three characteristics:

1. Generating information more easily and with more quality

2. Spreading information more quickly and more widely

3. Accumulating information with more accessibility and with more quantity

Meta Skills, Marty Neumeier, 2012

While heading to this destination, the machine is getting "smarter" and "human-like". Hence the machines can help us deal with more information, and the information technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Brains, Search Engines, Internet of Things and Robots require smarter machines.

So, what are "smarter" and "human-like" mean?

Marty mentioned that machine Learns to make only from making. The mechanism is similar to "machine learning". Machine learning requires a series of training patterns, the design of training pattern is a tough task for engineers. Taking image process as an example, the training patterns include tons of images and each image has a topic. During the training process, engineer may show a picture of dog to machine, and tell it this is the image of a dog. Then, engineer shows more and more images of dogs with different scales and different angles to machine. After thousands or even millions of iterations, the machine starts to build up a recognition system of a dog. Not finish yet, the second phase for machine learning is that the machine begins to train itself. Engineers connect the machine to the internet, and the machine start to search all the pictures of dog on the internet. The machine filters out those pictures without dogs and test its recognition system to see if any mismatches happened. After billions of iterations again, the machine formally operates in the real world, meanwhile it continues training itself without any breaking. It feeds the errors and the mismatches back to its system and re-write the source code by itself. Eventually, the machine knows how to recognize the images of dogs and also how to fix the system, and also, how to train itself! 

I think this example is good to illustrate the details about how machine gets smarter. Getting smarter is just the first phase, getting smarter by itself is a Meta Skill. I believe that the machine will evolve into the second level intelligence, meanwhile, human beings have to evolve to second level too (or 3rd level). 

Image Recognition - Semantic Segmentation, Chenxi Zhang, Liang Wang, and Ruigang Yang, 2010

Also, we apply this concept to many other technologies such as digital communication. We training the communication system by sending a series of encoded message through the channel which has noise and interference and decoding the messages at the receiver terminal. Then, check the bit error rate (BER) feedback those information to transmitter, and the transmitter can adjust the amplitude or the bandwidth for next transmission. Furthermore, digital communication is entering a new age that is mesh structure such as LDPC code. The mesh structure is also mentioned by Kevin and Marty respectively in their articles. The each transmitter sends the message to every receiver (in a possible range) and each receiver get all the possible messages from all possible transmitter. And, if some message is broken during the channel, other receivers can offer an unbroken one. So, those receiver are connected together and communicated to each other to achieve higher resolution. Most important of all, the single training evolves into group training. The BER can thus approximately reduced to Shannon's Boundary which is the limit of communication. (Claude Shannon was the father of modern communication theory, who was graduated from University of Michigan, too!).

Low Density Parity Check Code, 1963

Andrew Holder, Don Hart and Robert Adams

Andrew Holder |

The lecture given by Andrew Holder, who is an fellow in UMich, is about the projects he had made and the how he used digital tools to approach the design. He said: we see architecture as a sculpture rather than a hollow shell. This is different from what I learn in architecture school. Sculpture has no space in it, so sculpture is one of the things we wouldn't use as our architectural concept. However, it did inspire me because the sculpture he made is full of amazing space. The space is not inside the sculpture but outside. The space is created in the moment when two or more sculptures are placed together. The space exists among the sculptures. In his work "48 characters", those balloon animals are put together and interact with one another, even with the environment he made for those animals. Those animals start to define the space, just like the columns in a building. After the lecture, I realized that a hollow shell (the way we usually treat architecture in) define only the space inside the shell, but the sculpture define the space outside itself. Therefore, the space defined becomes larger and those sculptures are connected together within a space. Also, his works make Moriyama House, which is designed by Ryue Nishizawa in 2005,  occur to my brain. The house is separated into many small white objects, and those objects are placed on the site to form the space in between the objects, "the space without functions". And, the space defined by those objects is connected to streets, neighborhood and the city.

Furthermore, the conversation about digital tools is also what I am interested in. While using digital tools, Andrew tried to hide the trace of the digital tools. He tried to make it look not digital. It's interesting because it's just like when you sketch something but intentionally cover the pencil trace on the paper. Also, while he was making the balloon animals, he kept his hand off the models to avoid hand prints. The characteristics of tools are removed (even the trace of "making" are removed) to stay in pure material and forms because animals are born rather than being made. It is difficult to remove all the traces of tools, I think there should be a lot of technical issues to address. However, the issue is not about digital, it should be about "tools" or "artificial". Just like the watches that Tim Ingold mentioned in his book, if we design a watch which can produce another exactly same watch, how do we define the line between nature and artificial? Or, as Kevin Kelly said, the technium has autonomy and it should be viewed as a living creature. Perhaps Andrew did not connect his work to this issue, but his works actually lead me to the thinking about the boundary of human beings and machines.

Don Hart | 

The first thing I can recall from Don's lecture is elevator pitch. 3 parts of story, situation, conflicts and solution, can quickly organize the structure of an idea, and, most important of all, this story is really good. It is a good method to quickly deliver the ideas to people.

Robert Adams | 

In the class, we had the discussion about the "relationships" among objects. It attracts me because relationship is one of the research topics of my thesis. In architectural design, we still use modeling based tools to design a house, however, we barely describe the relationships clearly and logically in a readable language. Most architectural designers constantly use their eyes to check the design. For example, every architect knows the size of a parking lot in Taiwan, however, architect still needs to maximize the amount of parking lot manually. Actually, we have tons of algorithms for spacial optimization but still use our creative (talent) to achieve the maximum number.

In the very beginning of IC design history, engineers drew the layouts completely by their hands, and also they did need to optimize the size of chip. However, engineers started to use description language (VHDL or Verilog) to describe the behaviors of the circuits instead of drawing those wires and transistors. Verilog was born in 30 years ago (1984) and this kind of language may be traced back earlier. However, we haven't clearly defined the relationships among components in architecture, thus we can hardly use a language to describe them and let computer or robots to design for us. As I know, some labs have their own languages to design architecture but those languages are still in the lab versions. Another example I know is Esri CityEngine, but the scripts describe the forms (or sizes, shapes) rather than relationships. Rhino Grasshopper describe forms mostly, Processing describe only graphics. Christopher Alexander's article, A City is Not A Tree, illustrates the  the system is space, I think that's the closest concept of the relationships script. I believe that machine will take over many routines from architects, so architects need to level up the design, the 2nd level design. 

Repetition, Variation and Composition

Project Description |

Repetition, variation and composition is the topic of our project. We are required to use WaterJet Cutter to make molds for casting a series of models. Those models should be cut and aggregated together as a composition, 9 models in one composition. By cutting models, the complexity is increased and some unexpected curve or space hence are created. 3 compositions are required in this project. For MSDT students, it is a good chance to re-think the relationship between digital tool and physical model. Generally, digital tool ignores too much information, so we can hardly control the process of making because we cannot see the materiality on it. Furthermore, so many unexpected problems happen in the physical process, hence we need to feedback those information (experience) back to the digital tool to equalize the real factors. And, the gap between digital tool and physical process can be reduced and the design thus can be delivered completely.

Composition No.3, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Composition No.2, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

 Process |

WaterJet Cutter is a powerful machine which can cut through very rigid material such as glass, metal or concrete block. However, the resolution of WaterJet Cutter is not very high (we are not building a space ship, right?), so the issue of imperfection needs to be addressed in the beginning of design. In this project, I choose a form which is with double curve surface and cannot be unrolled. It is easy to use fabrics to achieve double curve surface but with rigid material. The method I adopt is to make a drill to dig a double curve hole in a plaster block, and then the double curve model can be cast with this mold.

Components of the Drill, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Single Curve Drill, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

First Mold, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Molds for Mass Production, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Test Model, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Design | 

The different operations on the basic geometry may produce different results. I focus on the operations and tried to design the strategy rather than the result directly. 3 different cutting strategies are used in this project - vertical cutting, horizontal cutting and angular cutting. Vertical cutting creates the curves as the rainbows which connect together, and hence those curves define a space with a very interesting boundary. Although the composition is a 2D composition, however the space can extend to the the third dimension. Also, I tried to arrange those components to create more space with variations, some space looks like a path, some looks like a square, etc. 

Vertical Cutting, Summer 2015

Horizontal cutting offer an opportunity to stack the components in Z-Axis, and the edge between any two components is an unexpected eclipse. The edges of the space created are totally different from those in the composition No.1.  

Horizontal Cutting, Summer 2015

The third operation, angular cutting, creates a continuous curve which is similar to the 3D version of  that in the first composition. And, the space extrude to the vertexes of the components, the space expands in several directions.

Angular Cutting, Summer 2015

However, cutting the physical models is not easy, so I went back to Rhino models to figure out the cutting plans. I did some simulations in Rhino, and calculated the rotation axis cutting positions for each cut. After the simulations, I can roughly find the positions to cut, however, each physical model has variation, so I still need some adjustments to feat them together. This process make me think of the article about building a cathedral in "Making" (Tim Ingold, 2009). Architect draws the plan of the building, however, the mason craftsmen improvise with the real material. I think we were experiencing a similar process of the cathedral construction.

Vertical Cutting Simulation, Summer 2015

Horizontal Cutting Simulation, Summer 2015

Angular Cutting Simulation, Summer 2015

Scripts and Algorithm |

While we are casting, de-molding, cutting, connecting and polishing the models, we actually are building up our algorithms to the specific material. Once the algorithm is established, the scripts can be extracted from the algorithm. The algorithm is consist of a series of steps which is the foundation of the scripts. And once the scripts are written, all the steps may be represented on robot arms or other digital tools. Hence, the craftsmanship and robot arms are connected seamlessly. 

Composition No.1, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015 

Composition No.2, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Composition No.3, T.C. Kurt Hong, Summer 2015

Elevator Pitch

Hi, I am Kurt, I love design and problem solving. Actually, one of my professional skills is to figure out the algorithm to address the problem. The training in electronics engineering college almost makes me a very logical  person, especially after graduation, I was responsible for the algorithm designing of channel coding in communication ICs such as USB 3.0 and HDMI. I did the job for 4 years. One day, I got a chance to go back to school to study architecture, architecture is always my love. However, I don't want to give up what I learned in EE, so, someday I might establish a lab to combine them together. The 4 years of the R&D job was quite enjoyable to me, so I think, why not be a scientist in architecture? This lab can be a great platform for industry, science, architecture and commercial. R&D job is important to me because I can turn imagination into real thing, and get profit. What I am most interested in is sewing virtuality and reality seamlessly. Imagine that, it is really exciting that people can move freely, immediately between two worlds. Hence we have more space, we almost have 2 earths! What architects do is to creating space, and creating space in this way is more interesting to me!

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