BusStop_Edwards

The motivating element behind this bus stop design is the idea of increasing covered space as the approach of the bus draws near. Not only does this allow for a larger number of users to be protected from precipitation, but also the movement of the overhead planes signifies the arrival of the bus. The planes occupy the interior of the bus stop when the bus if furthest from returning to this location. As the bus slowly draws nearer, the planes rotate outward and around until they are in a direct opposition to their original position inside of the bus stop.   Users will learn over time how far off the bus is based on the location of the planes in relation to their respective arcs. I have shown the overhead planes in a drastically different tone than the remainder of the bus stop intentionally, as I would like to think that the planes would read differently and be somewhat noticeable from a distance. The script uses boundary representation components that are manipulated based on the location of the bus relative to the location of the stop. 

Bus Stop

Firefly offers the ability to create interactive programs and quickly mock-up, prototype ideas for interactive objects and devices in grasshopper.  It achieves this mostly by sending data back and forth over the serial port really quickly. This enables real-time feedback between hardware devices such as Arduino microcontroller and the rhino and grasshopper modeling environment. This solution for the urban bus stop, I designed a parametric wall. When the bus approaches, the wall gives a visible formal change and different variation. Also, the bus shelter can be self-sustaining to take the maximum amount of sunlight possible and blend into the surroundings.

 

 

BeardenPark_Edwards

Context-free has proven itself to be a fairly versatile program for creating variations of simple scripts. For the park, I wanted a grammar that would have large, open spaces in opposition to small, narrow spaces. Using the DOUBLE variable and moving the replicated form far enough away for the two to interact made for some interesting variations. I chose this iteration (CJS) because it was close to my original idea of opposition. The large spaces are radiating out from two centers, yet the offest nature of the doubled forms create a new center that is bridged by some of the shapes.

startshape DOUBLE

rule DOUBLE {

A {}

A {x 3y -3 a -.5 z -1}
}

rule A {
SHAPES {s 3 x 2 y 3 sat 0 b -1 a -.5}

A {s 1 x 1y -.5 r 90  hue -4 b -.05}
}

rule A {
SHAPES {s 5 .2}

A {s .75 1 x -.25 y .5 r 180 sat -.25 b -.05 a -.03}
}

rule SHAPES {
SQUARE {hue 111 sat 1 b 1
}
SQUARE {s  -1  hue 111  b -1
}
SQUARE {b .75 hue 111 a -.2
 }
}    

Accordion Bus Stop

This bus stop is designed to react specifically to the amount of time left for the bus to arrive.  The aspect of the bus stop that changes is the area that it covers.  As the bus gets closer to the stop, the shelter accordions out to allow for more people to congregate under its shelter.  This occurs in the screen on the wall of the bus stop as well as the angled roof structure sheltering the bus patrons. 

The grasshopper script that I built to run this splits the shelter into three different components: The middle portion of the screen, the top and bottom layers of the screen, and the roof structure of the stop.  The screen layers work the same way in that a line is drawn from the anchor point of the bus stop and extends out from 5’ to a maximum of 30’.  This line is divided into 10 sections, and then those points are then made into lines along the base curve.  From there, the midpoints of each line are extracted and offset from the base line based off of an inverse formula to make the points move further away from the line as the line became shorter to allow for the accordion affect.  The midpoints were then joined by lines and assigned rectangular profiles. 

From here, the points on the base curve became the structural columns for the screen and roof to attach to.  This is where the separation of the top and bottom layers of the screen comes into play.  The lines for the columns were drawn between these two layers, and then piped to act as circular columns in the system.  The roof structure is then laid on top of these columns by applying a rectangular profile to a sloped line.  Then the midpoint of these rectangular members is evaluated on the front and back of the members, made into a curve, and then lofted together in the same way that the layered elements of the screen were.  This creates an accordion roof structure that is flexible enough to allow for the expansion and contraction of the station.

Arduino

The integration of the Arduino into my project was conceptually pretty easy. It expands on the system I envisioned last week in which the segmented roof of the bus stop would open up to encourage people to stand closer to the road as the bus approached. Thus, the rotation of the Arduino would just facilitate the rotation of the roof panels.

I think it is more interesting, however, to propose an alternate set of configurations that do not simply provide rotation to a building element. Rather, if these elements need to move in a straight line, how do we use the rotational movement of the Arduino to facilitate that? How would  we take the rotational movement and amplify it, if we do not want a one to one correlation between the movement of the element and the Arduino? My first instinct is to use a series of gears to make this movement possible. By making a geared track on a wall, we can use a gear mounted on the Arduino to move it in a straight line. Or if we wanted to amplify the movement of the Arduino we would use a small gear on the motor, and a large gear on the element that we are trying to move. While the torque would certainly burn out the tiny motor that we have, I think that these are much more interesting questions than simply integrating the motor into my preexisting design.

Urban Bus Stop_ Arduino_ Dylan Davis

Firefly for Grasshopper is used to bridge the gap between Grasshopper and the Arduino micro-contoller.  This allows for the collection of real-time data from internet feeds or remote sensors.  These sensors, that are creating a measurable output, can affect the surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators.

For my Bus stop design, I utilized the structure of the previous iteration and reformed the moving partition walls to be ceiling panels.  These panels can determine the location of occupants inside the bounds of the bus stop and position themselves overhead.

The bus stop will playfully engage with occupants as the panels follow people as they move through the space.  When the bus arrives and occupants begin to form a line, so will the panels.

Davis_Urban Bus Stop

In order to signify occupants that the bus is approaching, this bus stop has four partition walls that are transformed by vectors and colors, all calculated by the remaining time before the Bus' arrival.  By utilizing the excel spreadsheet, these values were extracted and manipulate the partition walls.

The walls act as moving seating over-top a garden space to make the wait between buses more enjoyable for occupants.  The bus stop will engage with public and signify the remaining amount of time to even distant late occupants. 

 When the bus does arrive, the partition walls will align with the street.  This will direct circulation and provide shading until occupants aboard the bus, making their experience at the bus stop more enjoyable.