Beginning the first design term by looking at a micro scale was a very uncommon task. Usually, designers start from the bottom up, meaning that we work through the larger issues before considering the details. However, I found this exercise really intriguing. As a designer I think that it is important to continually look at a design issue from different perspectives. The zooming in and out of scales allows you to analyze design ideas, such as process drawings and models, and see the relationships between the context and building. I learned to get outside of my comfort zone and try looking at a problem in a different angle. In this context, we began with an organism and tried to explore what we could learn and apply at different scales that might work at a system, building, and city scale. Whether or not I will use the ideas posted below specifically in my final designs is irrelevant because I will continue the process to explore many possibilities. The only way to truly know if your designs are successful is to have alternatives to compare them to. I was inspired by this process and learned a good amount during our review about how to take things further and explore different organisms and concepts with more than one function.
In the next steps, I think that physical model building will be able to play an even larger role. I modeled an idea and then ran with it using computer modeling to explore many options, but I think that some fundamental things can be learned from the physical modeling process that are much harder to identify on the computer. Therefore, I am going to balance the 3 medias by working through hand drawings, physical models, and computer models. There can be a great value to switching between the medias and working simultaneously and that is how I wish to work in the next design steps; looking at site design.
After our in-class pin-up I think that it was clear that the most successful BIo-Structure efforts were able to identify an organism based on a known function that was needed in their project. Then if they were able to break down how that organism performed those desired functions, it led to a useful investigation process that could be applied to any scale. Being able to filter through information and look at the fundamentals of how an organism operates revealed opportunities to replicate or imitate this process in a structural component.
I think that from my designs I will continue to explore shading devices that are responsive to sun position, but a key element I neglected was user control. I will consider human control as a greater device than mechanical systems in operating the shading device for my building designs. This is a much more sustainable system. Also, feedback from the review helped me realize that a shading device or whatever system I design needs to have multiple functions. If it is shading, then maybe it can insulate as well.
Filed under: Current Works in Progress, Thesis 
