7M842

Free Form Design

Natural Contours

Daniël Tulp
0510902
26 november 2008
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1
Assignment 1........................................................................................................................................................................... 2
The location .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Alternatives .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Three bodies ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Geometrical composition ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
The worm .......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Choosing an alternative.......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Choosing an alternative.......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Assignment 2........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Assignment 3........................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Exterior .............................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Interior .............................................................................................................................................................................. 12
Assignment 4......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Parameters ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Reactor water ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Free Form Design Natural Contours

Introduction
This report holds the results of four assignments as part of the course Free Form Design with the code 7M842, as lectured at the
Technical University of Eindhoven, master of Architecture, Building and Planning.

The report accompanies an animation and the source files of the assignments.

First a sight is selected and the program is determined. Then several shapes start resulting from manipulating basic geometrical shapes
in 3D studio max. A choice is made for one shape which is then developed in detail in Rhino, a Nurbs modeling program. A constructional
analysis in Marc Mentat is the basis for the final design which is brought to live in 3D studio max resulting in an animation.

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Assignment 1
In this assignment is the objective to create a museum in Eindhoven. The museum will be about the history of Eindhoven. With an
permanent exposition hall for the history of Eindhoven where, amongst others, the influences of Philips, architects, historic events such
as the second world war will be exhibited.

In the temporary exposition hall, a variety of exhibitions can be shown about various subjects like carnival, design and technology,
depending on the time of the year, national or local events or other factors.

Aside from that, supporting facilities will be made like a library annex auditorium, a restaurant, offices, workshop, archive and restrooms.
See the table below for the measurements of these functions.

Space Area (m2) Volume (m3) Diameter (m)

(height= 3,0m)
Permanent Exposition 400 1200 13
Temporary Exposition 200 600 11
Office, Workshop, 130 390 9
Archive
Entrance, Restroom, 60 180 7
Cloakroom
Restaurant, Kitchen, 220 660 11
Store, Buffet
Library, Auditorium 150 450 10
Total 1170 2480

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The location
The building will be located at a now
desolated site in Eindhoven near the Philips
soccer stadium. The site now holds a
ruined set of buildings that need to be
demolished. Afterwards more then 4000 m2
(approximately 43m by 94 meters) will be
available for the museum which allows for
a bigger building and in addition to the
above stated functionalities a parking lot
and a green, park like setting.

The site is connected with the rest of the

city with the Willemstraat which leads
straight to the city centre and to the main
roundabout around Eindhoven.

Museum Wilhelminaplein Van Abbe museum

Kempenland

Temporary Art Centre

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Alternatives
In order to improve the design, three alternative concepts were created.

Three bodies
The first is a composition of 3 bodies in a hierarchical setting where the
small domelike shape houses the entrance, restroom and cloakroom. The
first hall will house the temporary exposition area and an area where the
library, office, workshop and archive will be situated, away from visitor
routes. The last and largest volume will house the permanent exposition,
auditorium and restaurant. The latter will be located in the extension that
runs over the first exposition hall.

This composition was created by positioning two halve cylinders, almost

equal in size, and one halve sphere in hierarchical order next to each
other.

The cylinders are modified using FFD 3x3x3 modifier to get the squeezed
effect. After that the forms are tapered out sideways using mesh editing.
A mesh editor in combination with soft selection created the tongue like
shape that lies on top of the blue cylinder. After this a noise editor created
subtle ripples in the surface of the form as if the creation of the tongue
portion stretched the structure to it’s limits.

The green halve sphere was made only with a FFD 3x3x3 modifier.

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Geometrical composition
Enspired by the Bauhaus geometrical compositions this alternative is
comprised of several geometrical shapes that connect in one point of
gravity. The different functions are located so that the visitor enters
through the small green box and is confronted with the gravity point
where the store, cloakroom and restaurant are located. The quarter
phere houses the temporary exposition area, the long box with
sloped roof to the north houses the permanent exposition area and
the blue bended box houses the offices, workshop, archive, library
and auditorium.

This composition was created using several basic geometrical shapes,

clearly visible in the images on the right. The long purple tapered
volume is nothing more then a box with a taper modifier. Te curved
green volume is a quarter cylinder and the curved purple volume a
quarter sphere with a FFD 3x3x3 modifier applied on them. The blue
and green boxes are shaped using mesh modifiers.

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The worm
This is a very free formed shape which houses all the functions in one
body. The form swirls around a central courtyard where the entrance
can be found from where the volume will decrease in size in either
direction.
The wormlike shape looks like it comes crawling from the earth and is
beginning it’s decent ones more.

This shape originates from one cylinder that has had an FFD 4x4x4, a
couple of mesh, a melt and a bent modifiers applied to it using soft
selections to apply them to certain areas of the cylinder as is shown
in the images below.

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Choosing an alternative
As the location is very organic, alternative two, the geometrical composition, has to be cut from the options. It is to big a contrast with
park like setting that has been chosen as the setting in which the museum will operate.

With regard to functionality, both the worn and the three bodies are sufficient. The worn however excels in extravagance which will
provide a more iconic image resulting in more PR and higher visitor numbers. This is the reason why the worn has been selected as the
alternative that has to be developed further.

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Assignment 2
The shape has been converted into NURBS and thus is was easier to place the
openings in the hull. The result of these operations is shown in the following 4
rendered images.

The windows along the back and the front of the shape are placed at positions
where daylight was needed. These are the offices (ground and first floor, left of
entrance), central hall (just right of entrance covering the first to third floor) and
restaurant (on the third floor in the back).

The opening above the central hall also marks the pivoting position that this hall
has in the overall shape and allows for an understanding of the scale of the
building from the inside.

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Assignment 3
Analyzing the shape in Marc Mentat resulted in the Von Mises stress
images shown on this page. There are several areas visible that show an
relatively higher stress level and thus require attention when creating
the construction of the building.

The program identifies four areas:

1. Top op arced body 4
2. Accumulating forces to foundation
3. Pivoting point, accumulating forces
4. Vertical carrying forces
1
Area 1 and 3 can be combined in the construction.
Area 2 will result in heavier foundations.
Area 4 will require constructional measures roughly equal to areas 1 and 2
3.

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The rendered image below shows the construction that in combination with the hull and the floors will provide the needed constructional
support for this building. The construction is build up also to appeal to the visitors of the building as being ordered, which results in the
addition of a few arcs that aren’t really necessary as is shown in the Von Mises diagrams on the previous page.

Store

Entrance

Library,
Archive and
Auditorium

Temporary Restaurant
Exposition
Permanent
Exposition
Offices,
Archive and
Workshop

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This results in the following building including materials but without interior such as vertical transportation, railings, section walls and
furniture. The shell is made of veneer wood with ruff bark as the outer lining. All other materials speak for itself.

Exterior

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Interior

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Assignment 4
Creating the animation that was required for assignment 4 was difficult. I first tried to create an animation where the form of the building
was reconstructed out its original sliced cylinder. This proofed to be labour intensive as the FFD modifiers, which I used quite often, are
not possible to simulate. Those transformations had to be entered manually as editable meshes, which proofed to be too hard to do in the
end (the result was unsatisfying).

That is why I have chosen to use more then one technique in the animation. I have used parameter control and the reactor technique.
The latter proofed to be too hard to calculate for my computer in the model, so I did this in a separate file, that is why this is attached as
a fragment of the animation at the end of it.

The animation tries to give the observer a 3 dimensional visualisation of the exterior and the interior of the building focussing on the
shape of the building, its rounded appearance and the quality of the spaces it creates. In short, it shows the natural contours which the
concept of the worm invokes.

Parameters
The following parameters change in time inside the animation:
• The position of sun, as it represents the sun rising and falling.
• The colour of the sun, to add to the effect of a rising and falling sun.
• The lights inside the building go off when the sun is high enough, and are turn on again as it starts it’s decent.
• The duck in the pond is moving according to a path constraint on a curve (this should have had the reactor water animation
technique), the percentage of completion was altered manually.
• The camera moves according to a path constraint on a curve, the percentage of completion was altered manually.
• The doors slide open and close at a certain point in time.

Reactor water
The creation of a realistic ripple effect in the water wasn’t straight forward.

I created a reactor water object, which is actually a spacewarp, and linked this to a plane with a water material assigned to it. I had to
tweak the properties of the reactor water (wave speed and length, density, etc.) the link to the plane (scale strength) and the duck
(mass and friction) before I got to a satisfying result.

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