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(REclaimed Material + Residual Process + Passive Assembly) = VALue

Designed around the concept of reclaiming waste material and composing it into a functional objects, ReVal is a self contained method of production which provides a passive platform for design.  By introducing an automated method of breaking down a functional surface into non uniform pieces within a certain scale, fabrication material can be much more efficiently used.  Based on milling as a method of fabrication, the form can extremely flexible, yet the output pieces being cubically based chunks are still fabricatable. Built from a single grasshopper function, it takes a surface the through analysis of rates for curvature and position relative to gravity evaluates this surface returning scaled "chunks" of the surface.  Several options/ iterations are presented allowing the designer to consider aesthetic, function, and form in selecting and editing a final piece.  The system then automatically produces a block/ pin joinery method, producing a broken down model of masses ready to mill.  ReVal proposes that contemporary methodologies of design and fabrication, parametrics/ milling, can be conceptually implemented to produce value from that deemed waste as an approach both conscious of economy and environment in making. 

Proposal to Address Change in NYC Subway System

In evaluating the current state of the MTA transit system the growing divide between the infrastructural system and the end user interactivity raises serious concern about the efficiency of the functionality of the Subways.  (i) station is proposed as an informational interface and economic engine which at the point of confluence seeks to synthesize the system with its users through branding and information transmission.  The form derived as a mediation between program, an entrance to a  subterranean system, environmental mediator, water/ dispersion and solar alignment of surface and acknowledgment of urban vertical occupation as relating to visual axis.  Cladding this form is an information and advertisement LED display system which continually updates the user with current transit system data.  This display system is held in a series of colored custom milled aluminum panels whose color reflects the dominant subway line for which the entry serves evoke the iconic form of the subway car window as they transition across the faceted surface.  Supporting these panels a structural systems meets at cylindrical nodes, which serve as lighting for the entries interior, crossing aesthetics, structure and function into one architectural moment.  The lights, which are easily accessible from the outer surface are capped with brushed aluminum radial caps which contain and high intensity LED icon of the subway line contained within, further developing the branding/ visual accessibility of the system.  Each station entryway, displays all currently available information, which is normally dispersed throughout a  station in various often temporary wasteful formats,  into a stable and predictable readout system, which is available before one even enters the system.  The advertising space, which flows across the surfaces display panels is oriented in all primary axis, service not only sidewalk traffic but urban vertical office traffic as well, in a density 9 times that of the average current station.  (i) station proposes a genesis for a true rethinking of the NYC subway system, in response to a greening culture which is information dependent and brand conscious.

Programmatic Integration Installation for the Japanese Shinkansen System

Aurora: A brilliant display of bands or folds of variously colored light in the sky

Aura: A distinctive but intangible quality that seems to surround a person or thing; atmosphere

Aura is a response to the highly saturated culture of Japan and the speed of the Japanese Shinkansen system.  Embracing the beauty of a complete immersion in color at a simultaneous velocities Aura, produces a wall scape that can respond the the experience of the occupant and the passer by.  Designed as an installation into existing bullet train station, Aura addresses two simple typologies, the bench and the vending machine.  The form flows from a continuous bench surface to a series of steel ruled surface slits.  These steel fin’s axis allow visual permeation from seating surfaces across platform and outwards from within the station run perpendicular to the axis of an incoming train, creating a wall of color.  The linear aggregation of the Aura bench when chromatically sequenced undulate ,allowing a blending of color.  The result on a train bypassing the station is a flash of color, a moment of excited expression, before opening back to the local context.  For the slowing train, the consistent meter of the fins, produces a moray through the space between parallel installations, creating a depth to the color field.  Each Aura unit contains a single color across the finned surface.  At the end of each, the surface curls back to produce a implicit volume which can house a vending machine.  A common component of the Japanese high speed culture, which often floats without context.  Aura acknowledges this component and gives it a place, much as for the occupant of the bench, it is a moment of rest, a chance to become a beautifully framed part of the passing texture.

A pre Fabricated Park

|pfp|, a pre fabricated rapid deployment urban mini park proposes a rethinking of the scale of the park to a single moment.  Designed with the intent to serve either as an integrated enhancer to an existing city park, or a standalone instigator for development, |pfp| attempts to create an isolated moment of escape in the urban environment.  Each unit contains a bench capable of supporting 3 people supported on a perforated aluminum frame which contains an internal colored light source, improving the environment/ safety of an area.  The perforated block uses the concept of a pixel screen to provide a space for information, art, or iconography to brand a particular area.  Adjacent to this block an area of green space, which sits above a field cast structural counterweight, is partitioned out to allow for whatever local application is appropriate.  The scale of the park is based upon the philanthropic paradigm of the donated park bench, and proposes a private subsidization that can respond rapidly to a particular neighborhoods desire.  Congruently application in larger parks reveals secondary intents to functionality, a field of units could produce a light scape at night, or a color scape in the day.  Park’s could brand themselves through color and pattern within the open system.  The relatively modest materiality of the |pfp| system anticipates derivation of alternate formal manifestations within the same family, tied together through material composition.

An Analogous Building System for an age of Digital Design

Para_Mech is a reflexive assembly mechanism, developed as a structural scaffold and skinning system for a multifaceted look at the transition of the architectural body.  By working through Rhino Script and Grasshopper, reality/ fabrication based constraints are pre-programmed into a tool set which allows for free form design based on a uniformly faceted linear rib system. Freeing the designer to work with form and design development as a primary concern, the Para_Mech system can be applied to an end form as an automated digital evaluation tool.  The designer, once satisfied with the digital representation, simply runs the final portion of the system, which within user specified constrains of member length, density and tolerance, produces a digital document set analogous to a materially uniform fabrication process.  .  This set produces an index of angles for rib construction, a drill pattern for the secondary skin and a total material area readout, generating all required information for immediate production. With rapid full scale fabrication as a primary desire, a series of easily machinable components, requiring no specialized CNC tools to produce are produced, forming the primary structural system,  Tooled onto these members are a  set of digital analogs, angular markers, drilled holes, etc.  which become primary guides for the direct translation of the digital model.  To produce an accurate shell, the user simply aligns the bend angles to the provided output indexes.  Once the members are assembled into the large rib bodies, a corresponding series of holes are drilled into a pre-measured set of ply strips, as designated within the systems output.  When fastened to the structural ribs, the result is a direct fabrication of the digital model.  Within the uniformity and geometric constraints of the assembly system the possibility, the development of secondary plug ins, enhancers and appliques become possible to enhance the functionality/ programmatic specificity of the desired end application.  By development of a direct relationship between a methodology of design and an economy of fabrication a rich diversity of end applications becomes possible, presenting a new material system into the architectural world.