110228 - instrument

This expanded notion of materiality…liberates form from a dualist approach that separates ideas from substances, objects from subjects, and production from perception. Today, abstract and dynamic materials can be precisely measured and visualized with the aid of digital software, and merged with concrete materials used to produce the design of built forms. It allows built forms to address multiple causes and hybrid concerns, and allows us to redefine the role of function in built forms…

Farshid Moussavi 
The Function of Form, 2009

Design a form with a function – an instrument for tracking and filtering sunlight. Designing this instrument will not separate ideas from materials; it will aim to address ‘hybrid concerns’ within a particular material logic. Consider how sharkskin merges material and function while simultaneously being hydrodynamically efficient and resistant to microbial infection. Consider how Francois Roche’s building “that never dies” works as an instrument tracking the moon through the sky, and how drawings of the project associate paths of celestial bodies with geometry of the building.

Microscopic image of sharkskin

 

Francois Roche, R&Sie(n) – 

The building “that never dies”

SUNLIGHT FILTER

The instrument will track and filter sunlight with a graduated series of apertures and fins. It will reflect material logics of units and strands, curving and twisting while distributing apertures and fins of varying depth. Explore potentials for the instrument to address hybrid concerns – how can it filter sunlight and simultaneously create enclosed spaces?

Construct a physical model of the sunlight filter from two-ply bristol board. Build it to the following specifications:

• width = approx. 9”, length = approx. 18”
• depth of apertures/fins must vary at least between 1/2” and 3”
• apertures and fins must filter sunlight differently for different times of the day and year
• the physical model of the sunlight filter must be rigid and self-supporting

Use Rhino to study how aperture and fin configurations control the passage of sunlight and to study how the sunlight filter is associated with geometry of units and strands.

TRACKING DOCUMENT

Develop a document tracking how the light filter controls sunlight. This document must show superimposed shadows for at least five different lighting conditions occurring at different times of the day and year. Use Rhino to render shadows from multiple views. Compose the document in Illustrator.

110220 - sun path geometry

Here is a Rhino model of sun paths for New York City's latitude for summer solstice, equinox, and winter solstice.  You'll notice that each hour is divided into three segments of 20 mins. each.  So bring this into your landscape model, scale as necessary and render a sequence for each of the three days by placing a directional light on each point aimed toward the center of the dome.

This will be more labor intensive then using Rhino's sun animation tools, but will yield accurate results.  Hopefully it will give you a better idea of sun path geometry.  Let me know if you find any problems with the model.