TINA - Tensile Integrity Nodal Assembly

Our "architectural folly" is in production mode!  The installation will be on display for GSAPP's End of Year Show starting May 18th.  

__Technical Elective Class: "Fast Pace Slow Space"
__Instructors: Mark Bearak + Brigette Borders

__The Team:
Nicole Allen, Collin Anderson, John Barrett, Phillip Crupi, Chelsea Hyduk, Bo Liu, Kimberly Nguyen, Michelle Park, Anthony Sunga, Sydney Talcott

Our Website: http://www.TINAgsapp.com

Here is a preview of our progress:

Prototype - achieving the tensegrity arch

It stands on it's own!

Module:

Woodshop:

An early mockup, using rubber cords (we decided to use steel cables after this study) :

Aggregation possibility:

Studio desk crits are times when some of the most exciting, mind-blowing conversations take place.  Our professor sits with each of us individually to discuss our project, probes our thesis with difficult questions, and helps us push forward to make more potent design arguments  (this... View full entry

In the final semester before graduating, GSAPPers go on their famous "Kinne trip."  Each design studio travels to a different country to research and gain new insight for their project proposals. My studio (with critic Mark Wasiuta and Craig Buckley) traveled to Brazil.  We have been... View full entry

My third (and final) year at GSAPP just began, and I am trying to savor every moment.  I love grad school so much I don't want it to end! This semester, the design studio I am taking is focused on death, or the "uncertain certainty of our mortality."  We are studying grief, cemeteries... View full entry

Obama is delivering the commencement speech for Barnard College Class of 2012. Right. NOW. Being here is AWESOME.   Live Webcast: http://barnard.edu/commencement/webcast View full entry

Days that lead up to Final Review can be very intense.  I took this documentary footage in the CBIP Lab last week.     (*Note: While filming, I was waving my arm around and making silly faces to see what would happen.) Then, I used the footage combined with other clips to make a... View full entry

A Weekend in CBIP Lab, 2 days before Final Review

Mission: Distract Humanoids

One of our tasks in the Columbia Building Intelligence Project (CBIP) Studio was to master CATIA, an advanced engineering/CAD/management/scripting application that has been used to manufacture jet planes.   The software is INCREDIBLE, and its possibilities for architectural... View full entry

My weekend homework for Cinematic Communications (an elective class):  Film an inanimate object and give it human-like attributes using montage. (1-2 minutes) View full entry

"Standoff"

This is the prototype I worked on for "Beyond Prototype" (a visual studies elective taught by Jason Ivaliotis) with Bo Liu, Lalima Chemjong, and Michael Gonzales.  Our project, called "Aperture Cells," is a self-supporting component-based partition system constructed out of (3) 1/2&rdquo... View full entry

I spent the weekend in FabLab (aka woodshop) to make a prototype for a metal lamp (inspired by a flower bud) with my group members (Phillip Crupi, Alexandra Milo, and Jessica Kuo).  It began with the conversion of our Rhino/Grasshopper files into a software called Mastercam: This is the... View full entry

This is what Saturday night at 11:30pm looks like in 2nd-Yr Studio.  As you can see, 4 out of 4 students are not smiling.  While my classmates were working hard on architecture, I was trying to decide what to do for "Parametric Realizations" class.   From the syllabus by Mark... View full entry

Chalkboard turns into ping pong table at Avery Hall (Michelle vs. Damon):   CBIP Lab, where I will be spending most of my time this semester:    For Parametric Realizations class, we were assigned to make a box, and spend no more than 1 hr working on it.  This is Paola's... View full entry