Bamboo: Material Study
Arc 452 Final Project
Advanced Final Studio
Program Requirements
For the student to fully investigate and develop a material based on properties or qualities discovered. Student must then synthesize his or her findings into a cohesive design problem.
Development
The process of studying a material is a daunting task. In order for any discovery to be made or learned, one must ignore application and program. Instead, one must make broad strokes to better understand the material; quite often with much failure. Research in this method can only be accomplished through a sense of “discipline and play” or “reason and passion”. Passion and play are usually easily acquired; the challenge for research is to apply a discipline or reason to your action. Over the last year I have focused on studying bamboo, and have developed a set of rules that can be applied to a building system. The method was not apparent in the beginning. I began working in a very erratic fashion; yet, this paved a route to a clearer method of research allowing me to define certain parameters based on material properties. The properties of bamboo, described in the composition column, naturally coincided with modes of bundling, splitting, weaving, and tensegrity. I found that by mapping out these modes in conjunction with parameters such as scale and connection details, new methods could be derived.
Solution
Parametric design is commonly used in computer programming technologies to model complex surfaces and volumes based on a set of programmatic data. However, if examining the structure and theory of a parametric model a reduction of tools can be made. Because the material I chose to work with lends itself to such a low level of technology, I eliminated technology when designing with bamboo. Instead, by understanding what inputs and parameters are acceptable to the material, an honest output can be derived.
My studies have lead me to a naturally flexible and dynamic system, that rely on the properties of the material.
