NATE BLOG

TIME/TUBE WORLD

2006-12-08T03:10:00.000-08:00

TIME/TUBE WORLD is a hybrid of a physical proposal and a theoretical study. The project consists of a physical proposal and a mapping of this proposal in a virtual world.

IMG. 1.1

As seen on MEGABLOG, studies of a trans-global highway and pipelines began to lead the project towards a speculative global transportation network.

IMG. 1.2

In the mapping phase of this studio, the idea of world travel was developed through a series of travel time mappings. A new world was drawn with location based on time distance rather than geographic distance from one of three "hubs"--NYC, Tokyo, and London. (The mappings may be seen here.)

Continuing with these three global cities as sites for a physical proposal, the project then moved towards a physical proposal that streamlined travel between NYC, Tokyo, and London: Tubes passing through the earth as opposed to following the curvature of the earth that would provide trans-national direct train travel.

IMG. 1.3.1

This idea brought up many questions as to (obviously) the feasibility of such an idea, but also as to the politics of joining nations by underground tunnels. Research of the Chunnel which joins the UK and France may be seen here. This brought further questions as to the politics of tunneling through the earth--who owns the underworld?

IMG. 1.3.2

As to the feasibility of tubes passing through the earth, a knowledge of the physics of traveling in these tubes was necessary. Robert Hooke studied the motion of a body passing through the earth in his theoretical Gravity Train, (diagram above) in which a body accelerated as it fell into a frictionless hole through the earth and then decelerated upon passing the center of the earth until in came to a stop on the other side of the earth.

IMG. 1.3.3

To reduce friction, magnetic levitation trains in a vacuum tube would be ideal. A trans-atlantic mag-lev train tube is currently being researched that would be submerged in the atlantic to allow supersonic train travel.

IMG. 2.1

Comparison of travel distance through tubes versus over land by plane.

IMG. 2.2

A cross section of Earth with the tubes in place.

Using the same methods in the 2D travel time maps above, a 3D map of the new world was produced that is a visualization of the effects of the tubes on travel efficiency. With NYC selected as a hub, the globe was modeled with the areas around London and Tokyo sunken in to create massive holes. The diagrams below are sections of this theoretical globe where you can see the shrunken space between the cities as a result of the reduced travel time.

IMG. 2.3

IMG 2.4

3D mapping/model.

Animation of new world.

IMG 2.5

Occupying the "new world" from inside the NYC-London "hole."

IMG 2.6

Inside the NYC-Tokyo "hole."

In previous research, the use of the excavated material from the tube drilling came into question. The image below shows the amount of material that would be extracted in the process of drilling these tubes.

IMG 3.1

IMG. 3.2

This is a speculative image of the Hudson River filled in with the displaced material. Manhattan Island is no longer an island. Similar studies could be done for the displaced earth in Tokyo and London (also located on islands.)

Desk Crit 12-04

2006-12-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

Screenshot from Vyew session.

More information on maglev technology.

Update 12-01

2006-12-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

Modeling a distorted globe in FormZ has proved more difficult than I imagined. Here are some work-in-progress images:

I am experimenting with using the S-Loft tool to create a shape the size of the "hole" I wish to create and then differencing this from the sphere. I would like the hole to be more organic and pull the land around it instead of just subtracting it. I would appreciate suggestions on methods and tools to do this.

Desk Crit 11-29

2006-11-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

To study the use of direct tunnels in a more localized area, I have chosen to focus on the effects of this approach in the European Union. Since I am concerned with rail transportation, below I have traced the existing railways of the EU as well as the top five longest tunnels.

In the next image I have drawn speculative tunnels connecting the capital cities of countries in the EU.

I hope to compare the existing rail travel in the EU with my proposal of direct-route tunnels using the same methods as I used witht the travel time maps.

Research 11-27

2006-11-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

Politics of joining nations with tunnels:

Chunnel--approximate 50-50 split in responsibility for construction and costs. Begun from both UK and French coasts and met in middle. Customs and border controls are implemented at opposite ends of tunnel. (You are considered on your destinations country's ground upon entering the train.) The trains are managed by an international joint operation between France, UK, and Belgium called Eurostar.

Why Tunnels?

Less impact on land than bridges--ends of bridges require much more land
Less impact on environment than bridges--allows for reclaiming of land, controls/lessens pollution
Safer in some cases--Seikan Tunnel in Japan was built after over a thousand people died after a typhoon sunk ferries crossing the Tsugaru Strait
Direct travel

Gravity Train:

Robert Hooke, when studying gravity, hypothesized with Isaac Newton about an unobstructed object passing through the earth that would accelerate at a high velocity and then begin to decelerate once it passed the center of the earth. The deceleration would cancel out its acceleration so that it would come to a gentle stop on the other side of the earth. It would take exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds to travel from one side of the earth to the other from practically any location. The shorter the distance, the lower the velocity, and thus the more feasible this method of travel would be for humans. On BBC, a writer hypothesizes that the same principle would apply to distances as short as 1/6 of the earth's circumference--4,150 miles.

Check these out for more detailed descriptions: YouTube, Wikipedia, Damn Interesting.

Presentation 11-20-06

2006-11-20T03:14:00.000-08:00

I am moving towards a global transportation network visualized in four dimensions. Right now I am focused on direct tunnels connecting the three global cities NYC, London, and Tokyo, that would provide passenger and freight access via high speed rail.

I chose my site based on interpretations from the mapimations. I noticed that in the London map, (which I believe is the most accurate of the three), East Asia and the US feel the greatest "pull" towards London. You can see this in the highlighted areas of the map above. I believe this pulling is due to the frequency of travel to these locations and the number of direct flights available. I discussed this in more depth in earlier blogs.

The following three maps show the transformation of the map in the fourth dimension with the global tunnel network implemented. The shift is very subtle, but it is an interesting exercise. These maps were generated in the same manner that the travel time maps were in the mapimation phase. The gray underlaid map is the geographic map. The colored map is the world mapped according to time.

Program:

Railway for freight transport,
Maglev passenger train railway (max speed 361 mph),
pipelines for fluid and aggregate transport,
airducts and ventillation shafts that penetrate the surface above the tunnel,
maintenance shafts

Advanced modeling tools:

I am using morphing to create animations of maps that show how the proposal affects travel time. I would like to try morphing a globe I have modeled, but I am still trying to find the best way to do this. So far, the move mesh tool hasn't been too helpful.

Here is a Quicktime VR of a wire frame globe with the tunnels in place:
http://people.clemson.edu/~nathana/earthwirefmz.mov

Here is an animation of the above, slightly altered.

Using a perfected 3d globe, I would like to eventually use the same morphing techniques used in the mapimation to show how the tunnel effects travel time.

For the final review, I think it would be nice to have at least one or two critics in person while Ron and any other critics are connected with Skype and video, like we do when we have group conferences. I think speaking in person with the reviewers would result in better communication, clearer understanding, and more interactive questions. We could project our computer screens with a projector to present to those online and those in the room simultaneously.

Research 11-17-06

2006-11-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

Some research:

Mag-lev trains: 310 mph

Deepest hole: 40,000 ft, 7.6 miles
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/725.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

Earth's Crust: 20 miles, (less under ocean)

Straight Line Through the Earth from NYC to Tokyo: 6,971 miles
....London to Tokyo: 5,945 miles
....NYC to London: 3,502 miles

Longest Railroad Tunnel: Seikan Tunnel, Japan. 33.5 mile railroad tunnel
Longest Tunnel: Channel Tunnel. 31 mi, 24 mi under sea. 7 years to construct.

World's Deepest Tunnel: Eiksand, Norway. 287 meters deep. 7,796 meters long
Proposed: 24,200 m (15 miles)--Rogfast, Norway. Deepest Point: 383 m below sea level

World's Deepest Mine: East Rand Mine. 3.5 km below surface

Global Subway Charette

2006-11-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have decided to continue with the idea of a subterranean global subway. I would like to integrate the idea of place not dependent upon location (see Archigram's walking city and the Helicopter Archipelego). Thus, I propose a tunnel network where there is a meeting point at the halfway point between the cities that are a part of the network. This meeting point or rendevous location would be a place where business and diplomatic meetings could take place on a moving train that would open up to the other country's train to allow access and interaction between the trains while moving. Two tunnels with high-speed freight trains would divert from the main tunnel to overpass this intersection. The rest of the main tunnel would house pipelines, airducts, and maintenance shafts. Air shafts would be installed at intervals along the path of the tunnel to provide ventillation.

I am researching the technology currently available to create a network of this size, and I will try to apply this to the design as much as possible, but I suppose some of it must be left up to the imagination.

Global Network Archipelago: Thoughts on Proposal

2006-11-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

Abstract:

The new world I propose is a world where a super-fast Global Subway Network joins mega cities to create one unified Global Metropolis. The parameters of this proposal are Global Cities--initially London, NYC, and Tokyo, with opportunity for expansion to include other mega cities. (Wikipedia's definition of a global city will be used--a city that has a "direct and tangible" impact on global affairs or significant cultural, political, and economic influence.)

Questions to be addressed (adapted from project statement):

1. How is my research an argument for my proposition?
I infer from my mappings that in "time space," larger, more influential cities, such as London, NYC, and Tokyo are significantly closer to each other than other smaller, and less-influential cities. This seems to be related to the number of direct flights to the cities and the frequency or volume of flights to the cities. I also speculate that this nearness in time space is a visualization of the cities relatedness in terms of politics, commerce, and culture.

2. How does it define site, program, strategy, and speculation for design?
I speculate that in the future, these global cities will become closer and closer in time space as the close relationships between the cities allow them to develop technology that will allow faster travel. Thus, my proposal is a prediction of a future world where economic and political centralization (maybe a World State) allows for the organization of mega-scale projects connecting cities across the globe.

3. What are the social, cultural, economic, political or other realities of this new world?
I envision a Global Metropolis where subways provide direct connection to cities across the world. For example, a person in NYC would take the subway to Time Square and from there switch over to the Global Subway (which is integrated into the existing infrastructure) towards Tokyo and arrive within, say, 45 minutes--enough to give the feel of leaving the country (at least in our present perspective of travel time). This would mean that business would be streamlined and cultural interchange could occur-- most likely resulting in a highly efficient economy, but a greatly homogenized culture. (My vision is of dystopia.)

4. What is the program-form and how is its generation a reaction to your research and how is it generated?

The program consists of a massive tunnel network that connects London, NYC, and Tokyo. The tunnel is drilled directly through the Earth's crust (and possibly its mantle and core), in a straight line to decrease travel-time. The tunnel consists of a hard shell that protects two train shafts. Pipelines fill out the rest of the shell as well as a maintenance shaft. This tunnel would possibly break up into smaller tunnels as needed to be integrated into the city's metro systems. A project of this scale could only occur under the organization of a centralized government or union (of the concerned nations) that would be able to maximize and implement the resources needed for completion.

Next Steps:

Research:

tunnels,
earth's interior structure,
high-speed trains

Strengthen weak areas:

jump from time map to Global Subway proposal (what do global cities have to do with travel time? why the shift from air travel mapping to a subway?),
research of factors that affect travel-time (jet streams, air embargoes, others?)

Critique: are there other, better proposals or speculations that could be revealed from the mapping?

Mapimation- Travel Time

2006-11-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

Globalization has changed the shape of our world. I have mapped travel-time with the intention of providing a visualization of this change--a new lens to view our world in a non-geographic sense.

My hypothesis is that travel time reveals global connectivity. That is, in a world based on time, cities that are the most economically, politically, and culturally related will be seen as spatially near one another.

The following maps show travel time from London, Tokyo, and New York. Cities are sampled from each continent proportional to the continent's land area. The cities are plotted in time space, represented by the concentric circles, where each circle represents one hour of flight time. A geographic map is underlaid for reference.

Here are a couple of animations that I produced earlier in the process. They show morphing from a geographic map to a map based on travel time.

2D Animation

3D Animation

A-1
A-2
A-3

B-1
3D representation of the London time map.

B-2
Visualization of London time map with x, y, and z time coordinates.

The following series of collages shows residual from a population density map that has been cut away by the associated morphed map from above. This reveals the areas where the land has been stretched or pulled away in the redrawing based on time coordinates.

C-1

C-2

C-3

The map below shows all three time maps overlaid. I extracted the common areas between the three maps and integrated them into a political map collage.

D-1

D-2

The extracted areas + political map.

It seems that London, New York and Tokyo are increasingly becoming individually indistinct as economic, political, and cultural centers. The new world I envision from this information would visualize this centralization so that the most related cities of the globe politically, economically, and culturally become one global city and all other areas are located according to their connections to this global city. In our age where time is everything and technology is increasingly being built to solve the problem of time, technology would be the catalyst to bridge this gap between the world as it is and the Time World.

I would appreciate your questions, interpretations, thoughts, and critiques.

Speculation- Time World

2006-11-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Drawing a conclusion from my mapping of travel-time has been challenging, but I think I am getting somehere. A couple of inferences I drew from the London-centric mapping were that nearness in "time space" was more a reflection of the frequency of travel between locations and flights with the fewest stops. I believe the duration of flights between locations is a function of the cities' global connectivity, or its economic, cultural, and political relatedness. Thus, in this new world based on time, the cities that are most related in the above areas are closest. For example, Saskia Sassen, in The Global City, discusses the emergence of London, New York, and Tokyo as centers of the global economy. This somewhat invisible centralization is also discussed in Wired, where Mark Leonard comments on the political centralization of Europe as "Euro Space."

I think this idea of centralization as a result of globalization can be carried into my concept of travel-time. Initially, noticing that the most extreme distortions of the time map seem to occur between London, Tokyo, and New York, I thought of a global corridor that would streamline these connections. Going back to my MegaBlog post on pipelines, I am now thinking of integrating the idea of a national network of tubes into my speculation. This new world would be an invisible world where global cities are clustered together to form one Global Mega City. Cities and rural land that not politically, economically, or culturally "unified", would be isolated from this island city. In real space, this conglomeration is achieved through a subterranean global subway, or network of extremely high-speed tubes that would allow instant access to megacities across the globe.

So, in this world, it would be not unlike any cities' subway system where you descend into the subway and exit from underground-- but with a stretch of your imagination, for all you know you could have just entered a time portal and exited out into a completely different city. This new world would be much like that, where futuristic high speed-tubes are able to expand the cities limits.

The world is propose is a dystopia. I hope to critique the homogenization of culture due to globalization. This would be a futuristic projection of what this would look like.

Here are some maps I am thinking about using for Friday's collages.

Map of Exports and Im ports from US

Mapimation Development

2006-10-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have begun to develop the z-axis by plotting each city according to its time-distance in the z plane. Thus, each city has x, y, and z coordinates all related to travel-time. The isochrones in this plane are linear, where 1 "z isochrone" is equal to 2 "x-y isochrones" (the concentric circles).

After plotting the cities in this plane, I constructed a nurbz surface to bring cohesiveness to the scattered nodes. Click and drag in the window below to view this surface.

This image shows the surface with the extruded lines from the previous model.

I have begun mapping with Tokyo and NYC as hubs. As seen in the screenshot below, I am trying out a more abstract method of redrawing the map. I started it out of expediency, but it is interesting because it defines a new land area and boundaries for each continent, whereas with London as the hub, the continents mostly remained in tact as far as coast lines and land area. Also, the overlapping of the continents here presents a problem using the old method. With the method used on the London map, each city stretched the land area surrounding it along the line connecting the city to the hub. With Tokyo, becuase it is not centered in the map, this method causes the continents to overlap. To insure clarity, I may need to use a different method....

Red- Asia
Yellow- N. America
Green- Europe
Cyan- Africa
Blue- S. America
White- Australia

Still searching for a way this can contribute to an architectural proposition.

Extra Image

2006-10-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Lines extruded as surfaces.

Mapimation- Travel-Time

2006-10-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mapimation Update

2006-10-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Preview image with s-lofting.

Mapimation Update-- 3D

2006-10-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Instead of introducing a new data set to create a third dimension to my mapimation, I have decided to develop the same morphing in the third dimension by extruding the geographic map up to the skewed travel-time map. I will also animate the lines emanating from the hub (in this case London), to show the transformation in a linear manner. In this way, both modes of the map can be seen at once on different planes.

The development of this plan up to this point is shown below.

Screenshots:

Keyframes:

Keyframe 0: Geographic (or actual) configuration with green continents beginning to emerge.

Keyframe 1: Continents begin to morph into the travel-time plane as they are extruded from the geographic map.

Keyframe 2: New shapes of landforms begin to take shape-- a new surface is defined.

Keyframe 3: End. Full extrusion and fully-morphed travel-time surface.

There is still much to be done. As I'm sure is obvious from the keyframes above, a good deal of clarity was lost in the extrusion. I hope to find a clearer way to render and animate this. The distinction between the two planes (true location and time location) needs to be emphasized in some way. Also, animating the emanating lines is yet to be done, as well as continuing the entire process with hubs at Tokyo and NYC. (I have chosen London, Tokyo, and NYC, because they are considered to be "global cities," also they are far enough apart (geographically) so that significant comparisons may be made.)

Animation:

Presentation Methods

2006-10-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

Vyew's strength seems to be in its sketch features, and Breeze's strength seems to be in its desktop sharing feature. I think Breeze is worth another shot, because I think we only tried a couple of the options for presenting. Skype definitely seems to be the best for voice communication. I've found using Vyew in conjunction with Skype to be excellent for desk crits.

Although, so far fellow students and the manual have helped, it would be nice to somehow have real-time help with FormZ from Ron when needed.

Mapimation Pin-Up

2006-10-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Here is what I have done so far and how I got there:

I began by choosing a system for mapping based on isochrones, concentric circles representing periods of time (in my case 1 isochrone=1 hour). The methods are similar to those by Oskarlin and Carden.

I cut up a printed map into continents and arranged them according to different isochronic values to determine the clearest representation. I decided on the distance from London to NYC to be the basis for all other measurements.

After this, I chose cities from six continents proportional to their land area.

Cities Sampled:

Asia: 33.1%, 22 cities (14 plotted so far)

Moscow
St. Petersburg
Jakutsk
Beijing
Hong Kong
Tokyo
Seoul
Riyadh
New Delhi
Bangkok
Singapore
Brunei
Shanghai
Novosibirsk

Africa: 22.3 %, 15 cities

Cairo
Cape Town
N'Djamena
Niamey
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Luanda
Morovia
Dakar
Rabat
Tunis
Lusaka
Antananarivo

North America: 18%, 12 cities

NYC
Denver
Los Angeles
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Anchorage
Miami
Mexico City
Nuuk, Greenland
San Jose, Costa Rico
Reykjavik

South America: 13.3 %, 9 cities

Brasilia
San Paolo
Quito
Lima
La Paz
Caracas
Beunos Aires
Santiago

Europe: 7.4%, 5 cities

Paris
Oslo
Madrid
Athens
Kiev

Australia and Oceania: 5.9 %, 4 cities

Perth
Darwin
Brisbane
Wellington

After plotting these cities, I used Opodo, Orbitz, Air Greenland, and Air Russia to determine the flight duration to the cities from London, which will be, at least initially, the hub for this map.

Next, I redrew the map by pulling and stretching the existing boundaries according to the new position based on travel time. I then imported this information into FormZ to animate the morphing of the map from the geographic configuration to the the travel-time configuration.

Beginning: Geographic

End: Non-geographic

How the animation actually turned out was somewhat accidental and not entirely accurate, but interesting enough to post.

More images:

The circles in this close-up represent cities: orange = geographic location, blue = travel-time location.

Besides revising the model to improve its accuracy, I intend to model the topography of the countries to add a third dimension of transformation. How to actually tackle this is yet to be determined. I also hope to try the same mapping using other cities as hubs, particularly New York and Tokyo. This will hopefully allow for some interesting comparisons.

I noticed that the time proximity of locations is most often based on the frequency of travel, and this in most cases is a function of the city's population and developent. For instance, it takes about the same time to fly from London to Tokyo as it does to New Delhi even though the cities are a few thousand miles apart. This mapimation is an interesting visualization of the conceptual shrinking of the globe due to globalization. With a society increasingly focused on time, and technology continually closing the gap between location and time, this concept is becoming more and more relevant.

Simple Animation Test

2006-10-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

Morphing Australia

More later....

FormZ and Illustrator Maps

2006-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

FormZ Map

Illustrator Map

First Desk Crit in the SUMO

2006-10-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

The desk critique on Monday went well in the SUMO. The noise reduction seems to be working well and my only complaint would be that it was a little warm while inside. Vyew worked well for quick sketches during the desk crit. A more sophisticated sketching program or stylus would improve the clarity, but so far it has been fine.

I received direction on how to map travel-time globally. Hopefully now I can move from tracing data towards a mapping that gives the concept of mapping based on time a more visually concrete presentation. I think that I will choose key locations, such as major cities, to serve as the hubs for the mapping. I am still researching methods and data sources as well as considering using flash or other similar programs to create an interactive mapping. A mega-blog post on this topic is forthcoming.

Global Travel-Time

2006-10-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

Mapping travel-time between locations is a rather undeveloped mapping technique that is used most commonly to provide commute information for city dwellers, but seems to have greater potential in a non-geographic re-mapping of the globe.

The London Tube mapping, by Tom Carden is an example of a travel-time map focused on re-mapping the city's subway system. The technique used in this mapping requires the user to select different nodes from the geographic map. Once the node is selected the tube lines morph according to the time it takes for an individual to travel to any of the other nodes from the selected point.

Another London Tube mapping project by Chris Lightfoot and Tom Steinberg includes several mappings, one of which compares the travel-time for car versus rail transportation. Their study also sights many potential uses for this new method of mapping:

tool for deciding where to live/work
tool for deciding where to travel on vacation with time parameters
travel times could determine housing prices
service for commuters

This type of mapping at a global-scale has been attempted by Jonathan Harris of Flaming Toast Productions, in conjuntion with Princeton University's International Networks Archive, whose goal is to provide resources for re-mapping the globe. Harris' mapping shows different cities around the world as nodes that as they are selected will rearrange to show the travel-time to every other location based on different transportation modes, both primitive and modern.

Another attempt of remapping of the globe based on time is the Personal World Map, a project of Roxana Torre at Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, which is an interactive online map that allows you to select a starting city from the map and then watch the map reconfigure itself according to the travel time from that point. Then you are able to type in an amount of time and money to see the distance and locations one would be able to travel to with the given resources.

I forsee this type of mapping becoming increasingly relevent and widely used as a visualization of globalization. My mapping seeks to further explore this potential.

Mapping

2006-09-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

I hope to map transportation networks of some sort. I am especially interested in studying the travel time between locations as a basis for reconfiguring the continents. (Much like the cutting and folding examples from the Agency of Mapping reading.)

On a global scale this analysis has the potential reveal the non-spatial proximity of locations around the globe.

Precedents:

Japan Travel-Time Mapping

Non-Geographic Mapping

London Travel-Time Map

Tracing (focus on highways):

Total length of roadway ranking by country:

1 United States 6,407,637 kilometers

2 European Union 4,634,810

3 India 3,851,440

4 China 1,809,829

5 Brazil 1,724,929

6 Japan 1,183,000

7 Canada 1,042,300

8 France 891,290

9 Russia 871,000

10 Australia 810,641

11 Spain 666,292

12 Italy 479,688

13 Sweden 424,981

14 Poland 423,997

15 United Kingdom 387,674

16 Indonesia 368,360

17 South Africa 362,099

18 Mexico 349,038

19 Turkey 347,553

20 Kazakhstan 258,029

21 Pakistan 255,856

22 Bangladesh 239,226

23 Germany 231,581

24 Argentina 229,144

25 Vietnam 222,179

World 32,345,165

Map Underlays

2006-09-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

high res satellite image

illustrator file

Another option is to paste together screen shots from Google Maps in the satellite, map, or hybrid modes to create a high resolution map that would be more customizable.

Hyper Building- The Vertical City

2006-09-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

The Hyper Building is a conceptual design project by Paolo Soleri, an Italian-American architect who worked for a time with Frank Lloyd Wright. The Hyper Building is an "arcology," which according to Wikipedia is:

....a hyperdense city designed to maximize human interaction; maximize access to shared, cost-effective infrastructural services like water and sewage; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land; reduce waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment.

The Hyper Building seeks to reduce human impact on the earth by equipping a single structure with all elements necessary for life. The inhabitants live, work, and play in the structure while the countryside around them is preserved for enjoyment, conservation, and farming--reducing the land use by 90 percent compared to a megalopolis or suburban sprawl.

As seen above in one of Soleri's diagrams on Arcosanti, the hyper building's footprint is significantly smaller than the foot print of downtown Los Angeles. The hyper building's density is 101,000 people for every 1 square kilometer, compared to the density of downtown LA of 100,000 people for every 33 square kilometers.

Energy Diagram

Not only does the arcology combat sprawl, it reduces waste and pollution. The building is powered by solar generators and windmills.

The tower's foundation extends 195 meters below grade and the tower rises to a height of 1000 meters. (That's 3281 feet, or over two times the height of the Sears Tower.)

(orginal illustration)

Soleri addresses an increasingly pressing issue of resource conservation; however at the proposed scale (1 kilometer tall!), the Hyper Building seems a little overly ambitious at this time. Besides the doubtful feasibility of construction, the Hyper Building is a fascinating study of the blend of architecture and ecology--creating an inhabitable and self-sustaining environment. In the future, perhaps buildings similar to the Hyper Building will be integrated into existing cities, rather than being isolated as the architect has proposed. That way, the structures would replace older buildings as condensed living environments.

Hyper Buildings "Invading" Phoenix

Graphics Proposal Part 1

2006-09-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Graphics Proposal Part 2

Sumo with Polycarbonate Siding

2006-09-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Pipelines

2006-09-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Pipelines are used throughout the world to transport gasses and fluids over land and sometimes under the sea. They are used to most commonly transport oil, but pipelines carry water, slurry (aggregate mixed with liquid), and even beer.

Druzhba, in Russia, is the world's longest pipeline, spanning 2,500 miles. Built under Soviet reign, the name Druzhba means "friendship," as it was intended to bring oil to poor parts of the Soviet Union and Western Europe. The pipeline carries 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day (that's 50,400,000 to 58,800,000 gallons.)

Though heavily criticized for their environmental impact, pipelines due provide an efficient means of transportation. And, in fact, if the goods currently being carried by pipelines were transferred to truck transport, the highways would be extremely congested, which would undoubtedly cause more road expansion and cause possibly an even greater environmental impact through pollution than pipelines currently do. With the growing emphasis on reducing oil use and environmental impact in general, pipelines could become more widely used, especially as the technology required for maintenance and monitoring develops.

Though pipelines are rather uncommon forms of transportation, in the mega scale, the potential of pipelines as more than just means of transporting goods becomes evident. In a larger scale pipelines could replace highways as elevated tubular networks, as illustrated by Walter Chalk below. His drawing inspired a similar concept in relation to the US. Cities could become dense networks of tunnels, bridges, and pipelines-- a tubular city.

Tubular Nation.

Habitat, Montreal 1967

2006-09-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Habitat is a mega structure built of 158 randomly stacked, modular concrete box houses. The method and type of this structure were seen to be the way of the future.

Moshe Safdie designed this mega structure for the Montreal Expo of 1967. In an early phase of design, the structure consisted of a structural skeleton into which the boxes would be inserted. Later in the design process, this was modified so that the boxes were stacked in a stepped, ziggurat-like profile.

The result was an eleven-storey disorderly array of boxes resembling Italian hill towns.

365 modular units make up 15 different apartment sizes varying from 600-1800 sq. ft. to total 158 apartments in all. (Initially, Safdie planned on 900 apartments.) Each apartment has a roof garden and playgrounds and "pedestrian streets" interspersed between the complex formation. Core structural elements house elevators and secure the units through tension rods and cables.

Safdie's intention was for this to become the prototype for new methods of housing construction; however the cost and time associated with building this structure showed it not be an improvement from traditional methods. Though certainly, the innovations of Habitat are necessary for further studies in prefabricated construction methods, they are still in need of greater development to be feasible.

I think a success of this building is how it is a high density development without the monotony and banality of many similar developments. The roof gardens and the ever-changing vistas and perspectives create a dynamic and harmonious assemblage. Habitat is said to be simple and disciplined in its parts but complex and chaotic in its whole. Thus, Habitat, becomes an interesting social study as much as it is a study of method.

In the mega scale, modular buildings could be integrated into and even become cities--one giant structure built of stacked blocks. The adaptabiliy in terms of customization and size of these modules would allow for several activities to coexist wihin the same network. Transportation would occur within and on the megastructure that holds all the modules in place.

Door Addition

2006-09-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Photos of the door addition to the full-scale mock-up.

Secondary position.

Hinge detail.

Thoughts

2006-09-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Communicating with Ron online has been going well. Today we had an impromptu crit around Vinnie's laptop to talk about our models, and it seemed to work well with us demonstrating our models and moving the camera around so that Ron could see. Although Ron can't always see the entire group at once, in this instance it definitely helped to be able to move around and show things to the camera rather than gathering around a table as usual.

Communication within the group is at times almost more
difficult than communicating with Ron. A few times there has been a
lack of efficiency because of this. But, we have improved. Having group
talks separate from our talks with Ron help to establish criteria for
design and assign duties, etc.

We are very close to a final design, and because of our recent findings, we should be able to produce the SUMO within budget.

Full Scale Mock-Up

2006-09-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

We constructed a full-scale mockup of the pod to test the structural capabilities, portability, and ergonomics. With a jigsaw we cut six ribs out of laminated 1" thick cardboard squares. The ribs are joined with 1/2" wooden dowels. We placed a couple of sheets of cardboard on the seat area so we could sit in it.

Video shows rolling.

Masonite/foam test.

Digital Communication Pod

2006-09-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Melissa and I have developed a proposal for the MINI MEGA that sets acoustics as a priority in design. The pod is to provide an adaptable soundproof station for web conferencing.

The design involves a spherical pod suspended by elastic material within a wood frame. The suspension allows for the pod to be isolated from its environment so that sound vibrations are less likely to pass into and out of the pod. The pod is divided into four sections two of which are fixed and two of which are mobile so that the user can enter and exit the pod as well as providing adaptability to the noise level in the room and the number of users who wish to participate in the video conferencing.

A video of the transformation can be seen here.

The pod is constructed of wood ribbing with an outer fiberglass shell. Spray-in open-cell foam insulation is filled in between the ribs and a vinyl barrier is installed over this. The entire interior is lined with soft, sound absorbing foam.

The interior houses all the electronic components, a seat, and a platform for the user's laptop to be inserted. Speakers are built-in to the walls of the two fixed quadrants as well as the movable quadrants; thus, the station becomes accessible to more than one person while open and completely isolated and soundproof while closed.

The two movable quadrants are operated by a cable and pulley system accessible from the interior. These two quadrants are detachable for portability.

Thoughts

2006-09-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

Communicating as a group with Ron listening in went very well, even though the video wasn't working most of the time. The disconnections that occur during our communication are annoying, but they do not cause miscommunication-- I feel that the studio and Ron are on the same page.

Acoustics

2006-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

A collaborative acoustics team post can be seen here: MEGA MELISSA

Desk Crit

2006-09-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

The impromptu video conference was an improvement over discussion through only chat. Our group discussions coupled with individual discussions worked well to answer questions and get immediate feedback on work.

My real challenge at this moment is developing speed and efficiency in my digital work-- to communicate in this medium both clearly and quickly.

The Trans-Global Highway

2006-09-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

The idea of a global highway network has been around since the 18th century perhaps even longer, but it has become increasingly plausible because of the rapid expansion of highways in the world, especially in the US and China.

Frank Didik has envisioned a "Trans-Global Highway" that would connect existing highways of major continents by bridges and tunnels.

The global highway would connect Africa, Asia, and Europe to North and South America via existing and proposed bridges. The major bridges would be at the Bering Straight, linking North America and Asia, and other bridges and tunnels would be built to join Europe and Africa and many of the water-bound nations of Asia.

Didik claims that a global highway would streamline trade of raw goods between the continents, thereby increasing global security through trade dependence and ultimately promote global peace.

The above comparison shows that linking North America and Asia across the Bering Strait would be nearly twice as long as the Chunnel which links France and Britain. Technologically, the link is feasible. But economically and politically, the link is not. Peace between countries to be joined would be a prerequisite to the project getting underway.

Didik's proposal does not account for links to Greenland, Australia, and Antarctica. Though linking Antarctica to the rest of the world is unfeasible, the omission of Australia and Greenland in his plan weakens the notion of a truly trans-global network. Perhaps a future revision would include these nations:

Though Didik's proposition is rather undeveloped, it is an interesting study into the increasing importance of highways among the growing nations of the world. The idea of a trans-global highway solely for automobiles is somewhat in opposition to the recent emphasis on reducing vehicular fuel consumption. Perhaps a global railway would be more agreeable to environmentally-conscious nations.

FormZ Animation Exercises

2006-08-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ball bouncing on spring:
http://people.clemson.edu/~nathana/spring2.avi

Coin rolling down funnel:
http://people.clemson.edu/~nathana/funnel.avi

Marble running through ramps:
http://people.clemson.edu/~nathana/marble2.avi

Chat Crit

2006-08-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

The group crit of our one-hour charette was a rather confusing way to communicate. The questions were hard to field all at once and it wasn't always clear who was answering who. Though the discussion was lively, perhaps next time a crit with sound and video would be better (or maybe even just receiving comments on our blogs.)

2006-08-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Charette 08.30.06

First Video Conference

2006-08-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

Other than one brief lost connection, my first personal video conference with Ron went smoothly. It is much more personal and effective to see the face of the person you are communicating with. I am curious to see how the same technology will be used in the context of a jury. I think that because of the barrier between professor/juror and student, much more emphasis will be placed on communicating through drawings, diagrams, and models rather than verbal explanation, which should be a good way to improve the clarity in my work.

During the conference, I was encouraged to use images, rather than text and single pictures, to speculate and propose ideas for the precedents I have chosen. As suggested, I will experiment with collages and simple drawings using Photoshop and Google Earth to attempt this.

Mega Expectations

2006-08-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

I hope to develop a greater knowledge of techniques in digital design and fabrication and learn how to communicate architecture digitally. My experience is limited in digital communication so I hope to fill this gap. I am interested in how the MEGA concept of this course relates to globalization and cultural transformation. Especially in how cultural and individual identity and uniqueness are maintained in our environment of growing emphasis of big over small and whole over part. I am also interested in studying modular building and prefabricated building techniques, something that seems to be increasingly present in the building industry, and how it can be utilized to create practical structures while avoiding monotony and banality. It should be interesting to work simultaneously in several scales through digital modeling and design. I expect the course to be an engaging study of the relations of parts to the whole, both conceptually and physically. I also expect it to be a challenge due to its experimental nature.