Smartgeometry is a week long, two part event which consists of a workshop and a conference, bringing together practitioners, specialists and students to explore the ever-expanding possibilities of digital fabrication and parametricism. Teams or ‘clusters’ were formed from the 100 participants, each with a different agenda. I was enrolled with the cluster which was exploring Parametric Acoustic Surfaces. See Photos for more details of the other Clusters.

During the four day workshop the ‘Acoustic’ cluster , lead by Brady Peters and Martin Tamke of CITA, designed and produced a 1:1 installation which explored the performance of acoustic panelling.  The participants were able to design their own panels using Generative Components or other digital means. These were constructed using the CNC machine and laser cutter available at IaaC, and collated on a single form. Orange acoustic foam was used to absorb sound and Di-bond and plywood were used to reflect and scatter sound.

The overall form of the ‘Sound Installation’ had been designed to incorporate a façade which focused sound due to its parabolic curvature, a façade which scattered sound, and an enclosed space which isolated the user from the outside environment, performing acoustically as an absorbent or dull space.

The following attachments detail the design process SoundBox01 SoundBox02

Brady Peters also put together a book of this project which can be previewed here

via Core Form-ula:

Students from Stevens Institute of Technology are showcasing GC work at Center for Architecture in New York offering a glimpse of what can be expected at Smart Geometry 2009 in San Francisco.

For a more in depth look at their projets, go to Stevens Class Wiki.

Shape to Fabrication have made available videos from their previous events:

• Tristan Simmonds
  ARUP Advanced Geometry Unit
  Spacestation sculpture by Antony Gormley

In this presentation Tristan outlines how custom routines were written for Rhino to help in the construction and fabrication of the ‘Spacestation’sculpture by Antony Gormley.

• Florian Gauss
  ARUP Advanced Geometry Unit
  Generative Surface Smoothing and FE Model Automation

Starting with a simple Rhino model ARUP created an extended geometric model followed by custom smoothing routines based on sub-division modelling resampled into nurbs patches.

• Shrikant Sharma
  Buro Happold SMART Group
  Geometry, Form and Optimisation

Shrikant explains Rhino’s key role in several successful
projects by Buro Happold’s SMART team.

The next session in the Shape to Fabrication series will take place on the 15th of April 2009 in the Lecture Theatre at London Metropolitan University.

Chaoscope is a free windows based 3D strange attractors rendering software.

Have a look here for more on solids of strange attractors made with chaoscope data.

“When you bend a thin strip of plywood you get an elastic and beautiful curve. What geometry does this curve follow? Is the curve different for different materials? Can the curve be calculated if you know the length of the material and the anchor points? Is it possible to calculate more complex situations with several forces in different directions? Can you make similar calculations in 3d? Can this geometry be useful in design/production?”

Mårten Nettelbladt, an architect from Stockholm attempts to answer in this blog.

via DigitAG&

This book provides an in-depth study of the creative and manufacturing processes behind 50 contemporary domestic design objects. Chosen from all around the world, they span furniture, lighting, tableware, textiles and products. Featuring the work of both long-established and emerging designers, each product is selected for its significant use of new technology, unorthodox or complex production process, use of innovative materials (or traditional materials adapted in new and unexpected ways) and, in some cases, for the creative concept behind it.Beginning with a general introduction, each project is then presented through explanatory text as well as inspirational image, sketch, detail shots of production processes and the completed product. A glossary of production methods is also included. “Process” offers an interesting and useful insight into how products are designed for students and professional designers alike.

Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture @ Amazon UK

Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture @ Amazon US

below: via Robert Blinn @ Core77

Glossy product design books usually relegate details like ideation sketches, prototypes, parting lines, and injection molds to a supporting role, but Jennifer Hudson’s Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture puts them front and center. Highlighting projects from both up-and-coming designers and design luminaries, Process showcases the hours of effort that disappear behind the scenes and are rarely seen by the consumer. Fifty products are each given about a page of explanatory text and are supported by three or four pages of photographs of early prototyping work. Everything from sculptural vases to functional electronics is shown from its birth as an idea to its eventual manufacture. Process reveals all of the details of industrial design that graphic designers (or book editors) might find a bit dull and it shines because of it.

Products like Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Steelwood chair appeal on an aesthetic level, but seeing the extremely complex molds that press the lightweight metal seat into a functional shape makes the final product all the more impressive. Others, like Maarten Baas’s Sculpt Furniture or Ron Arad’s Bodyguards chairs are strikingly original, but the process photographs showing welders and workers assembling them by hand betray that “industrial” follows a distant second to “design.” A third category, like Joris Laarman’s Bone Chair may not be everyone’s aesthetic cup of tea, but by illustrating the science and mechanics required for their design Process allows the reader to see a simplicity and beauty that may not be obvious from the finished product alone.

A stunning series of images of the GT and Hypnos concept cars at the Citroën Design Center by Laurent Nivalle

more here.