awa
In partnership with Maho Kobayashi
Awa explores what it means and feels like to have a world that is created out of soft architectures. This exploration was done through a means of designing and fabricating silicon inflatables to create an environment that gives deep pressure stimulation. Deep pressure stimulation, or deep pressure therapy, is a firm but gentle squeezing, like a weight or a hug, that is used to relax the nervous system.
Investigations
This project began with testing different mold types ranging from flat to volumetric. This allowed us to evaluate how these inflatables would work and control the volume of air pumped into the system. This led to prototyping a series of silicon inflatables to test form, corners, chambers within the silicon, and the ability for the siicon to bend or change form once inflated.
Prototypes
We scaled these prototypes up and designed a wall consisting of two silicon layers. The green bubbles were intended to deflate and inflate in a slow pulse like manner while the blue curves were intended to inflate and deflate like swell waves in the ocean. We fabricated a portion of this wall using a CNC router to create a 24”x24” mold and casted silicon within it.
Design
Post review, we re-evaluated how much pressure and to what effect a flat wall could have on someone experiencing deep pressure stimulation. We realized a wall would only put pressure on one’s backside and starting considering how we can add pressure to all or most sides of the user. We came up with this idea of creating a hugging architectural piece. One that when only the front side was inflated the structure was flat like a wall, but when the back side was inflated the ribbing would allow the panels to hug someone creating pressure on all sides. This also allowed for the structure to be more size inclusive and it coul dbe used in multiple psoitions. Due to the weight of the silicon we finalized a more stationary design.Fabrication
The final design was fabricated using a CNC router to create a mold consisting of eight bubbles generated from Grasshopper scripts. Using previous mentioned demolding techniques we learned from early prototyping we were still unable to get the mold apart. This resulted in us having to remove the flat back piece of the routed mold, drill nails into the back of each bubble, and use the clay of a hammer to pry the bubble out of the dried silicon. In a separate mold we poured a flat piece where we placed a metal valve stem. After both pieces were dry we glued them together using silicon. Within each panel of the silicon were 12 holes where we placed a TPU 3D printed spiderweb like piece around while pouring to prevent the silicon from ripping once hung. After the silicon was demolded we placed a TPU 3D printed grommet to reinforce the spiderweb piece. The other half of the final fbarication processes consisted of using a KUKA KR120 to rod bend 14 quarter inch steel rods that were placed in a custom jig and welded together. The silicon panels were attached to the rods using zip ties. Each pabel is individually inflated, but we hope to continue this research with a pneumatic system where the user can control the overall pressure of the bubbles.
Culmination
The final construction of Awa is a soft architecture that
consists of a size inclusive soft chamber. The ‘walls’ of the chamber swell and
contract based off the user’s size allowing up to a three-foot diameter chamber.
It consists of three levels to accommodate varying user heights and positions.The soft architecture performs using a series of valves that allow airflow throughout each of the panels. These valves are controlled by the user to allow the soft architecture as to become as large or small as they feel best.