Monday, April 27, 2009

New Work in Easter Holiday


Hydrologic simulation of the lagoon water

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Pneumatic supported structure Primary structure actuated and supported by pneumatics, while stabilized by the larger enclosure pressure giving it subtle movement and challenge for large scales.



Straw cutting and weaving



vertically flexible structure

Monday, February 23, 2009

Lagoon Bathymetric Intrusions


WAVERING ON THE SHOAL
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud/ That floats on high o'er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd/ A host, of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees/ Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
---- “Daffodils” William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
What? The prelude:
The inspiration of my design originated from the conception of the above quoted poem of William Wordsworth. What I have been trying to do is to capture “the ambiguity of the ratio between imagination and fact in producing the ideal concept of ‘Nature’”(THAIS E. MORGAN Rereading Nature: Wordsworth between Swinburne and Arnold, P435) , in a similar way to what the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s theory of Heterotopias is about: that spaces as juxtaposition of different elements are to achieve a new kind of relationship and understanding.

What is the project like?
The way I will treat the site is to tenderly and sensitively touch the landscape, a lagoon a few dozen yards from the Thames River. The whole project floats on the lagoon, constantly wavering respectively and reactively to time and weather. The small-scale devices are dispersed in the landscape functionally and formally, obscurely residing in the complicated and ever-changing environment while creating an interactive landscape of a co-existence of reality, poetry and memory, thus enhancing the ecological and aesthetical properties of the said environment.

The necessity of this project in this particular site?
Lagoons are a delicate and somewhat atrocious ecosystem full of salts and alkalis, facing the hidden ecological crisis of salination, sedimentation and erosion. The aim of the project is to flurish this stagnant site, improve micro-ecological environment and simultaneously change forms to cater to changes in the surroundings to create an exciting atmosphere, therefore upgrading the quality of the site.

The methodology of the project
The principal methodology of the project is transformation of natural power architecturally. In order to adopt the most ecological and least harmful method to influence and fit the whole project in this landscape, I will try to utilise the kinetic energy of wavering reeds and swimming birds to be transferred underwater or transformed into electric energy or heat energy. Supported by aforementioned energy supply, we can design devices to influence and alter turbulence and sedimentation positively. The device will also be able to control regional site temperatures to affect the distribution of water plants and microorganisms. Therefore in the long term, a new landscape is in the making. Another key point is how to capture the limited and unevenly distributed natural power in the whole site. I am adopting the time-based research methodology, using videos to record the areas where the birds activties are the most frequent and their boarding spots. These areas are places where energy is most obtainable and sufficient.

In all, this design is both low speed landscape in terms of changing landscape beneath the water and high speed landscape in terms of making instant and sensitive responds to changes in the environments, wavering on the shoal.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Monday, February 2, 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

study on SEDIMENTS INTRUSION and TURBULENCE MODELS

WAVERING ON THE SHOAL

The scheme is based on lagoons, trying to extract the kinetic energy in the base itself and architecturally transform this engery to solve environmental problems of the base, e.g. sedimentation and salination.

To begin with, we should find the key factors affecting sedimentation from study of wave turbulence and sediment induction.

The core to solution of this issue is that by studying distribution of waterbirds activities and the degree of the reeds which waivers in the breeze. We obtain kinetic energy from the motions and transform it via light-weight conduction device, influencing and altering turbulence and sedimentation in a good manner.

Apart from thinking up solutions to the aforementioned issue, I will also dig deep into poetry of William Wordsworth, e.g. "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" to create an interactive atmosphere of a co-existence of reality, poetry and momery, enhancing the ecological and aesthetical properties of the said environment.






The Emerging Uplift Principle

May 2008 issue of the Journal of Evolution and Technology, published a fascinating article titled: "All Together Now: Developmental and ethical considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals".

In the article, the author George Dvorsky argues the unconventional case that the future application of biological and other augmentation methods to animals for the purpose of endowing them with the necessary physical and mental capabilities that will allow them eventually to participate as equal agents in a futuristic multi-species society, is not only ethically conceivable but perhaps even an ethical necessity.
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In as much as it is technologically possible, it is morally desirable to apply uplift as a form of directed evolution, to all life forms.
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The Uplift Principle: When a sapient species reaches a stage where it can perpetually uplift itself, this species will eventually chose (following its evolving ethical imperatives) to expand by exploring and uplifting all life forms conceivable to it.
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In conclusion, the idea of uplift described in Dvorsky's article extrapolates an already existing trend of expanding the sphere of humanity's ethical consideration towards non human animals. This idea is further extrapolated here to expose its possible profound meaning and consequences in regards to the future evolution of human minding and the singularity. The synergetic expansion of human knowledge, consciousness, ethics and empathy can be shown to eventually bring about the a perpetual uplifting of all life towards sapience.