Point B and modeLab have joined forces to host a Parametric Design to Fabrication Workshop to be held at the Point B studio April 3-4, 2010!

This workshop will provide participants the experience of taking a design from conception through parametric definition through to digital fabrication in an intensive and hands-on environment.

Over the course of two days, the workshop will involve iterative prototyping and associative design strategies capable of incorporating and embracing an array of material and fabrication constraints. Participants will explore and construct highly articulated material assemblies through computer-aided manufacturing, mold making, and casting. Attendance will be capped at 12 to provide each participant maximum dedicated time with instructors.

For more information, and to register for this workshop, please visit the modeLab website at:

http://modelab.nu/?p=2400

Some pics from our various endeavors in mold-making for different projects, mainly installations and mainly done by Brandon and Jon.

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Following are images of milled surfaces we have been working on over the past year. Many of these surfaces are generated by custom scripts that one of our alumni, Skylar Tibbits, wrote while he was working here, and that we have continued to develop.

To create surfaces like these the digital information generated often looks nothing like the physical output. The creation of these surfaces requires a process of thinking and doing that is based upon contextual constraints that are determined by filtering design intent through the available means and methods of physical production. In the cases presented here, we were studying the ability to emphasize the topographies possible while operating within less than 1″ thick materials. We feel that this way of working - employing digital design and fabrication technology as guide along a journey, rather than the destination, that is often lacking in design today - at least based on what we see going on in design schools and professional practice.

Note: All of these images are fabricated, physical objects. None of them are computer generated images.

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Tom’s octo-door was installed this week. Concept through design through prototyping through final install took less than a month. The door is made of a custom steel frame and buck with multiple layers of plexi that were milled on the ShopBot. The design was adapted from a raster image that Tom converted into a combination of etched lines and drilled points of varying the depth to create the final image.

Each door is 9.5 ft x 3 ft.

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Point B has been involved with a research team at Temple University led by Asst Professors Sneha Patel and Rashida Ng to provide consulting and design development services for a project entitled “The Integration of Paraffin-based Phase Change Material within ReD [a Responsive Daylighting Panel].”

The project is supported by a Green Building Alliance Product Innovation Grant awarded in July 2008. Project Partners: Dr. Amy Fleischer [Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University], Rashida Ng [Assistant Professor, Architecture at Temple University], and Dr. Jon Zuo [President and Chief Technical Officer, Advanced Cooling Technologies].

We helped Sneha and her team by using a touch-probe module for our Shop-Bot to scan an egg-shaped physical model which acted as the geometric primitive which was arrayed across a daylighting panel. We then used input from the research team to build digital surface models from which we generated tool paths for the fabrication of molds in which the PCM (phase-change material) was formed.

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Point b recently assisted Click Architecture with the fabrication of their winning entry, “Movie Mobile”, in the Design Philadelphia [spot] competition. The collaborative process consisted of digital model refinement, surface curvature analysis, and the fabrication of the final installation using our CNC mill.

On Walnut Street

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Point b recently had two objects on display at the Philly [heart] Design Exhibition, located at The Rotunda on The University of Pennsylvania’s campus. The event was curated by Jamie and Issac Salm of MIO, and Alexandra Schmidt-Ullrich. The show featured product, graphic, and interactive design in an immersive environment. We would like to thank Jamie, Issac, and Alexandra for their efforts in putting together a great exhibit for the city of Philadelphia!

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Related to a number of CNC cut path studies we have been conducting, this is a 3/4 mock-up for a door that will be installed in the coming weeks. The topography of the door panel and the cut path pattern was generated using RhinoScript, while the handle evolved over a series of ergonomic studies of the hand and the surface of the door. In the end, the handle blends seamlessly into the topography, unifying the door as a fully integrated and functional panel.

3/4 of the Final Door Panel Milled from Blue Foam
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We have been running a series of tests using RhinoScript to generate cut paths for a series of cabinet doors we’re designing. Here is the latest installment.

CNC Milled MDF
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CNC milled incision and/or surface cut path patterns, a continuation of the previous incisions but generated through an attractor logic….

Pattern 1
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pergola:v2 is a study that uses networking logic to create a field of bending bundle structures. Each unit relies on the material properties of their neighbors to keep a stabilized condition.

Milled Plyboo
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