BENV2426 Yichao Ricky Xue 2012: 2012-06

My design is to create a shape of twisted staircase that stands either by itself or inside of a tower. At the beginning stage, I chose fractal as my main theme and I have researched a lot of information on fractal systems in real life, also I started modelling in grasshopper at the same time. The key issues within my design are the spiral curve and how every single step twists. I went on websites, looking for tutorials of how to create a spiral curve and luckily , I made it happen. It took me a long time because of the mathematical functions running inside of it but overall, it looks unique. The second issue is the block step. Basically all my iterations came from the way they rotate. It’s been tricky so I asked my tutor for help. After several explorations, we figured out the way and it brings out the model that you are watching.

Below is my building proposal :

In assignment three, I’m planning to create a shady stairway , either by itself, or inside of skyscraper. According to this , I would like to choose the site at the corner of Castlereagh Street and King Street, and the expected view will be a significant shady stairway that goes from earth all the way up to sky in a certain designed shape which brings people great view of the city of Sydney.

Of course I will face some problems when exploring this project, at this beginning stage, the first problem is : how could this shape sits in the middle of city of Sydney by itself or are there any environmental settings needed to support it in a natural way?

The purpose of this study is to explore a design related way to combine a shady stairway model with buildings and streets in the middle of city of Sydney. It will be a concept of importing a stairway which could bring extraordinary views of the city of Sydney in a certain height off the ground.

Depends on my experimented studies, my research question could be : Does the height of the stairway affect sky view? Which shape could be the best to fit the natural environments?

Methods & Procedures

The main method to test element that I have mentioned in research questions is, of course, building iterations in grasshopper , besides this, importing model into 3ds Max to test the combined view is also an important step. It’s always important and efficient to test during explorations.

What I want to achieve in this assignment is a stairway that perfectly sits in the middle of city of Sydney and provides great views from both ground to sky and sky to ground, and most importantly, suits environmental settings significantly.

The computer-scientist Benoit Mandelbrot introduced the word "fractal", in the year 1975

to describe irregular, not smooth, curves. Fractal geometry in general has become more and more popular since Benoit Mandelbrot’s book “The Fractal Geometry of Nature ” was published for the first time in 1977 and the “Mandelbrot set” was defined in the year 1980. Since that time many of those computer-pictures and "monster curves", as Benoit Mandelbrot called curves with unusual characteristics such as the Koch curve, have been published - some of them will be introduced in chapter “3 Different Fractals”. They were mostly created with a mathematical background, but they can also be found in art because of their beautiful interesting appearance . In the eighties of the 20th century the “Mandelbrot set” could be found in many scientific journals last but not least because of its beauty - this kind of visualizing was, however, only made possible by the quick development of the computer. Subsequently today it is no problem for any of us to produce classical and natural looking fractals quickly and easily on the computer at home. Of course it is dangerous to think that we know enough about fractal geometry and the mathematical background so that we can start to use this "new" geometry in every field of our life. But, are we not now - with all the background of our society - in a position where we can deal with all the questions arising from the use of these new scientific theories and is this not more important than putting all the priority on finding the final result at the moment.