09 . 28 .

10

IMAGE BY http://ds13.uforg.net/page/2/
TRANSFORMATION

instructor | diaz
course | 590 + 591
IMAGE BY http://ds13.uforg.net/page/2/
TRANSFORMATIONS
This series of lectures will focus on the many types of transformations
that are used in constructing the proper geometry for specific archi-
tectural applications.

+ Planar Transformations
+ Tilines
-regular and semi regular tessellations to be explored and how
the transition into building components
+ Motion
+ Sweeping
+ Shapt Evolution
+ Skinning
Planar Transportations
Basic Transformations are congruence transformations (translation,
rotation, reflection) which preserve all lengths and angles occurring on
an object.

Slightly more general are similarity transformations, which still pre-

serve angles but multiply all distances by the same factor.

Shear transformations preserve the area of the transformed objects.

Scaling transformations provide even more freedom for shape modifi-

cation (but it’s still linear)
Topakapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey
M.C. Escher
Escher illustrates a perfect way various types of transformations are
created. We study his work to learn about tiling’s which can be used to
create sophisticated facades or surface tilings.

He used his knowledge of the properties of planar transformations to

generate nontrivial tessellations.
m.c. Escher
San Francisco Railway Station | Hexagon Wall
Located on the BART transit line.
Completed in 1973
 Spanish Pavilion by FOA
Foreign Office Architects
2005 World Exposition Aichi, Japn
Federation Square in Melbourne lab architects

Only three cladding materials; sandstone, zinc (perforated and solid) and glass
have been used within a modular basis established by the triangular pinwheel
grid.

This fractal incremental system uses a single triangles, whose proportion is main-
tained across the single tile shape, the panel composed of five tiles and the con-
struction module of the mega-panel composed of five panels.

The unique quality of the pinwheel grid lies in the possibility of surface figuration
and framing shapes to be independent from the grid's smallest component unit,
the triangle.

This grid allows the building facades to be treated in a continuous changing and
visually dynamic way, instead of being traditionally composed as a regularly re-
peating flat surface.
Federation Square
Melbourne
Lab Architecs
Tanslation, Rotation, + Reflection in plane
A transformation is a general term for four specific ways to manipulate the
shape of a point, a line, or shape. The original shape of the object is called the
pre-image and the final shape and position of the object is the image under the
transformation.

Types of transformations in math :

• Translation
• Reflection
• Rotation

Translation | a translation is defined by a translation vector t, which specifies

the direction and the magnitude of the translation.
 Polynominoes
A simple example that is not as trivial as the square and the
hexagon is the hair family of polyominoes. Chairs are not sym-
metric as the square and the regular hexagon are, and still they
manage to tile the plane in the same imple way, just by translat-
ing them in two different directions.
 Rotation
We define a rotation by a fixed point c, the center of rotation, and the
rotational angle p .
The order in which you perform transformations can affect the final result.
Consider, for example, translating and rotating an image. If you perform
the transformations in this order, you end up with a rotated model trans-
lated, for example, down the X-axis, as shown.
Tilings
We have now looked at how planar congruence’s transformations as
effective tools for positioning objects in the plane.

They are very useful in creating regular tessellations and tiling’s.

The art of designing tiling’s and patterns has a long history and is
therefore well developed
Tiling
Regular and
Semi-Regular Tessallations
A tessellation is a way of filling the entire plane with congruent shapes
without overlaps or gaps.

The term tiling is sometimes used to describe a special tessellation of

the plane ising planar polygons.

There are 14 types classes of convex pentagonal tilings known and

three classes of tilings with irregular hexagonal tiles.

There exist only three regular tessellations due to the fact that the
vertex angle of the tiles must be a divisor of 360 degrees, Therefore,
we only have regular tessellations with regular triangles, squares and
hexagons.
Triangular tessellation Quadrangular Tessellation Irregular Tilings
 Semi-Regular Tessellations
Tessellations that use two or more different regular polygons, we add the
rule that every vertex must have exactly the same configuration. This
means that every vertex there has to be the same number and the same
sequence of congruent regular polygons.
Examples in Architectural Tiling - Decoi-Hyposurface
a built project which demonstrates a system of flat panel tessellation
derived from complex surfaces to enable ease in constructability.
Each panel’s uniqueness is afforded by the efficiency of digital fabri-
cation while coded parametric relationships allow an emergent struc-
tural efficiency.

Recently the development of planar quadrilateral meshes has

become a strong interest in the architectural community due to their
potential ease for constructing complex surfaces. The project re-
sponds to this problem and proposes a method for flat panelization of
free form surfaces which provides large scale, efficient and economic
construction from flat sheet material.

It was proposed as a dynamically reconfigurable surface capable of real-time responsiveness t

 Skylar Tibbits Tesselion
Tesselion was constructed using:

-189 panels (7 rows of 27 panels)

-CNC routed 1/16" white aluminum
-1 week of assembly
More examples | Skylar Tibbits Tesselion
Tesselion was constructed using:

-189 panels (7 rows of 27 panels)

-CNC routed 1/16" white aluminum
-1 week of assembly
Examples in Architectural Tiling - Decoi-Hyposurface
It was proposed as a dynamically reconfigurable surface capable of real-time
responsiveness to events in the theatre, such that movement or sound can
create actual deformation of the architectural surface. Effectively Aegis is a dy-
namically reconfigurable screen where the calculating speed of the computer
is deployed to a matrix of actuators ( 896 pneumatic pistons ) that drive a 'deep'
elastic surface. The implicit suggestion is one of a physically responsive archi-
tecture where the building develops an electronic central nervous system, the
surfaces responding instinctively to any digital input (sound, movement, Inter-
net, etc).
Decoi - Hyposurface
Transformation_ generative paper strip
Assignment 4
+ assigned 09.27.10
+ due 10.14.10
Transformation_ generative paper strip