MANUEL JIMENEZ GARCIA MANUEL WWW.MADMDESIGN.COM JIMENEZ GARCIA
WORKSAMPLE 2018
SOFT-MODELLING
ACTIVE BENDING
Soft Lattice Shell
40
Offset
Subdivide Faces 38
Offset
50
0.9
Distance
Offset
Extrude Faces Shrink selection
Move // lock - unlock Particle
9.8 SELCETION MODES Z
Gravity Value
X-Y
SOFTMODELLING 1.0 - OPEN SOURCE JAVA APPLICATION PERSONAL RESEARCH
Despite the increasing tendency to utilise these softwares in architecture design, there has not been much attempts at rethinking the more generic use of the digital tools that are utilised today. Physical simulations appear as a second step within the design workflow; a testing method for a previously completed design. Simulations are also used as a form finding method, where the designer hardly intervenes as one does in other modelling softwares. SoftModelling is an open source Java application which aims to fill this gap, it aims to create a seamless integration between poly modelling and physical simulations. The software allows designers to not only transform an object into a flexible structure, but also to manipulate its topology while actively responding to physical forces. There is a constant feedback between the physical behaviour of every particle-spring of the three-dimensional mesh, as well as the variable scale and depth of every point, which leads to an output that is both physically and geometrically precise. It establishes an understanding that particle-spring systems can not only be used as a global framework, but also as a step-by step transformative process for architectural design.
SOFTMODELLING 2.0 - OPEN SOURCE JAVA APPLICATION PERSONAL RESEARCH
SoftModelling 2.0 incorporates a new feature which would allow the creation of linear structures that work in conjunction with the general topology. Although this feature is not yet fully completed, the software does offer a conversion from faces to linear elements. This aims to create new workflows in which designers can not only control a tensile structure with external anchor points and frames, but also create the frame itself. This is based on a combination of multiple bended linear elements which connect to create a structure in perfect equilibrium. Next Stages of the research will tackle the refinement of the linear elements, introducing physical testing for their bending moments and their structural performance. These will be achieved through defining a less obvious connection between the linear elements and the faces of the object. The aim is to establish a new computational relationship between the driving geometry and the strength of the structure that stabilises it.
THE WOVEN MEMORY - INSTALLATION FOR SPACE MEDIA FESTIVAL (TAIPEI, 2016)
SPONSORED BY DEZACT, MODERN BODY FESTIVAL AND UCL THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Christina Dahdaleh, Wei Chieh Shih, Alvaro Lopez, Vicente Soler, Seiichi Suzuki Erazo Industrial robots are used to bend linear bamboo elements, and assemble these bent elements into a stable structure. This process is established through a workflow dictated by Softmodelling. The robotic bending is controlled through the Grasshopper plugin “Robots”, developed by Vicente Soler (https://github.com/visose/Robots/wiki). The modules are assembled in Taipei with the collaboration of students and participants of Space Media Festival 2016. The modular structure is constructed from 3m elements curated into the final piece. Each module is built from 30 flexible linear elements, which bundle together to create a light framework to house the ink impregnated fabrics. Its modular nature lends itself for easy assembly, disassembly and transportation.
THE WOVEN MEMORY - INSTALLATION FOR BODY MEDIA FESTIVAL (THE HAGUE, 2016)
SPONSORED BY DEZACT, MODERN BODY FESTIVAL AND UCL THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Christina Dahdaleh, Wei Chieh Shih, Alvaro Lopez, Vicente Soler, Seiichi Suzuki Erazo Industrial robots are used to bend linear bamboo elements, which will be later assembled together into modular structures. Each module is built from 30 different curves created from identical linear elements, which bundle together to create a light framework. Its modular nature lends itself for easy assembly, disassembly and transportation. The structure was disassembled and rearranged for Modern Body Festival at The Hague in December 2016. This process involved the relocation of the singular elements into identical groups, which would connect to other instances to create larger clusters.
TRANS-COMPUTATIONAL PAVILION 4.0 (MADRID, 2016) COMMISSIONED BY OFFICIAL COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTS OF MADRID DURING AAVSMADRID
Design Team: Manuel JimĂŠnez G., Seiichi Suzuki , Christina Dahdaleh, Miguel Angel Jimenez G., Ignacio Viguera, Vicente Soler The last stages on the evolution of Softmodelling focus on the incorporation of a new fabrication module, towards digitally controlling the assemblage of flexible discrete elements, allowing higher degrees of complexity. This has been first tested in the Trans-Computational. The structure was first designed with Soft-Modelling, and then simulated and implemented with Elastic Space, an application developed by Seiichi Suzuki Erazo at ITKE. Two ABB robots work collaboratively, bending 900 liner meters of aluminum bars with high degree of precision. The resulted structure combines the robotically fabricated aluminum linear elements, with an active bending structure made out of glass fiver bars. This could potentially become a dual structure in which both compression and tension forces are supported with discrete linear elements, controlling the local stiffness of both systems locally, through the different arrangements and levels of connectivity.
OFFSHORE BEZIER - INSTALLATION FOR SHIH CHIEN UNIVERSITY (TAIPEI, 2015) COMMISSIONED BY DEZACT DURING EXTRA FABRICA 2015
Design Team: Manuel JimĂŠnez GarcĂa, Christina Dahdaleh The installation at Dezact 2015 aims to explore the material behaviour of linear elements in a large scale. In this occasion a vernacular material was explored and vastly available in the area: bamboo.Even if the strength of the material itself is higher than the PVC pipes used in previous installations, the geometrical logic for their arrangement remains the same. Despite early attempts to digitally manufacture the nodes between the elements, aiming to achieve a higher control over the structure from the digital round, the use of SoftModelling was finally limited to an approximation in the structural arrangement rather than as a fabrication tool. The software however, proved that this arrangement can be linked to stress analysis and therefore the distribution and connectivity of discrete linear elements can be controlled real-time while in a modelling stage.
PANDA - PIPE ASSEMBLY, NETWORKED DISCRETE ARCHITECTURE (MADRID, 2017) COMMISSIONED BY OFFICIAL COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTS OF MADRID DURING AAVSMADRID
Design Team: Manuel JimĂŠnez G., Miguel Garcia Jimenez, Christina Dahdaleh, The last stages on the evolution of Softmodelling focus on the incorporation of a new fabrication module, towards digitally controlling the assemblage of flexible discrete elements, allowing higher degrees of complexity. This has been first tested in the Trans-Computational. The structure was first designed with Soft-Modelling, and then simulated and implemented with Elastic Space, an application developed by Seiichi Suzuki Erazo at ITKE. Two ABB robots work collaboratively, bending 900 liner meters of aluminum bars with high degree of precision. The resulted structure combines the robotically fabricated aluminum linear elements, with an active bending structure made out of glass fiver bars. This could potentially become a dual structure in which both compression and tension forces are supported with discrete linear elements, controlling the local stiffness of both systems locally, through the different arrangements and levels of connectivity.
TRANS-COMPUTATIONAL PAVILION 3.0 (MADRID, 2015) COMMISSIONED BY ROCA MADRID GALLERY DURING AAVSMADRID
Design Team: Manuel JimĂŠnez GarcĂa, Christina Dahdaleh, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Antonio Guijarro This prototype explores the structural integrity of discrete flexible elements connected in their maximum degree of curvature. In this case, the outer membranes were substituted for lightweight latex structures, this is to isolate the structural properties of thee PVC pipes, so that the stability of the structure could be tested without any outer elements keeping the subjects in tension. Interactive lighting become a third material integrated in the structure, as local colours and intensities fluctuate not only due to changes in the light source but also in relation to its distance to every one of the translucent layers that conform the object, as well as reacting to users interaction. This modifies the readability of the structure not only as a whole but at every local level of its topology, keeping it reactionary to different conditions in its surroundings.
FLEXIBLE TECTONICS. INSTALLATION AT LONDON CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK 2015 COMMISSIONED BY ACTIU LONDON SHOWROOM
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Roberto García Vélez, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Marta García Vélez This project emerges as a testing scenario for some of the new features of Softmodelling 2.0, it is part of a series of installations where bendability and connectivity of flexible pipes have been explored, acquiring a higher importance in the structure rather than the membrane itself. The installation was developed for London Clerkenwell Design Week 2015. In that example, most of the structural integrity is attributed to the geometrical arrangement of the PVC pipes. The three hanging structures were tested supporting the weight of an average adult. Therefore, proving their strength after the arrangement was completed.
TRANS-COMPUTATIONAL PAVILION 2.0 (MADRID, 2014) COMMISSIONED BY ROCA MADRID GALLERY DURING AAVSMADRID
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Roberto García Vélez, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Antonio Guijarro The textile pavilion developed for the 2014 Visiting School was conceived from the idea of utilising low cost materials with a high degree of flexibility, interweaving elements together for creating localised stiffness in areas of the structure having a higher level of stress. Trans-Computational Pavilion 2.0 aims to introduce a broader concept of what a particle (or minimal element) could be, understanding each flexible element within it as representing the particles in a continuous material. PVC pipes bundle into new structural objects and textile pieces get stitched together to generate continuous surfaces. Thus the multiple membranes generate compression rings for PVC pipes to stay connected, at the same time this linear structure is pushing each of these membranes to maintain their tension, creating a symbiotic relationship which results in a stiff architectural element in which every particle plays an essential role in the global equilibrium, producing an irreducible ecology of different materials.
TRANS-COMPUTATIONAL PAVILION 1.0 (MADRID, 2013)
COMMISSIONED BY MADRID OFFICIAL COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTS DURING AAVSMADRID
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Roberto García Vélez, Maria Olmos Zúnica, Antonio Guijarro, Juan Rodriguez Martín, Jose Luis E. Penelas Project Description: The construction of the trans-computational pavilion took place during the AAVSMadrid 2013. The prototype aims to examine methods where computational techniques coupled with the use of flexible materials make possible the creation of affordable inhabitable spaces, making use of rapid deployment to facilitate spacial re-adaptation in response to social necessities in an incredible short time-frame. In a larger term it will establish the basic principles for a rapid reoccupation system, offering not only basic and temporal spaces but also permanent and fully equipped structures.
DISCRETE INFLATABLE PAVILION POSSIBLY AT CENTRE POMPIDOU MALAGA - INFLATABLE ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION
Manuel JimĂŠnez G., with Nagami Design and Design Computation Lab The last stages on the evolution of Softmodelling focus on the incorporation of a new fabrication module, towards digitally controlling the assemblage of flexible discrete elements, allowing higher degrees of complexity. This has been first tested in the Trans-Computational. The structure was first designed with Soft-Modelling, and then simulated and implemented with Elastic Space, an application developed by Seiichi Suzuki Erazo at ITKE. Two ABB robots work collaboratively, bending 900 liner meters of aluminum bars with high degree of precision. The resulted structure combines the robotically fabricated aluminum linear elements, with an active bending structure made out of glass fiver bars. This could potentially become a dual structure in which both compression and tension forces are supported with discrete linear elements, controlling the local stiffness of both systems locally, through the different arrangements and levels of connectivity.
CLOUD.XS (2019) COMPETITION ENTRY TALLINN ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE
CloudXS is a flexible discrete system for the creation of lightweight rapidly deployable structures that could achieve large spans while allowing reconfigurability for future use. The project promotes a universal system that could be assembled without the use of large sets of heavy machinery. The module is meant to be a product that any non-expert user can easily put together. Each element is optimised to be delivered in a single full format (2400x1220) sheet of 8mm plywood, and engineered to be assembled in 20 minutes by any user without previous training, just following the instruction leaflet. The piece could be locally laser-cut or delivered flat-packed. Each element weights less than 12kg, so it could be easily manipulated by a single person. These features lead to a production chain reduced to the very minimum, empowering users to create a primitive shelter with just their bare hands.
DISCRETE DESIGN METHODS
ROBOTIC MANUFACTURING
DISCRETE SPATIAL PRINTING SOFTWARE
WITH VICENTE SOLER AND GILLES RETSIN (DESIGN COMPUTATION LAB)
Designed by: Manuel Jimenez Garcia and Gilles Retsin Fabrication Support: Nagami.Design and Vicente Soler Team: Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Gilles Retsin, Vicente Soler “Normally when you design an object to 3D print, you would first model a mesh-representation of the object in one software, and then slice it into layers or triangular toolpaths in another software. These type of geometries are the easiest to control, and that’s why we see them now so often. We turned the process upside down : the software allows to design a series of toolpath patterns, and then define the way how they combine together into an object, that consists of one continuous line which can then be extruded by the robot” This approach allows to make objects that are much more functional and intricate than in normal 3D-Prints. For example, the parts of the chair that need to be very strong are printed with very dense patterns, the parts where you sit have patterns that are more flexible and soft.
VOXELCHAIR V1.0 - 3D AIR PRINTED PRINTED PLA CHAIR PERMANENT COLLECTION - CENTRE POMPIDOU (PARIS, 2017)
Designed by: Manuel Jimenez Garcia and Gilles Retsin Fabrication Support: Nagami.Design and Vicente Soler Team: Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Gilles Retsin, Vicente Soler Voxel Chair is a first prototype designed using a new design software specifically developed for robotic 3D-Printing. Rather than using pre-defined forms and then “slicing” these it into toolpaths or triangular patterns, this software allows to design and control thousands of line-fragments. The Voxel Chair was developed for the exhibition “Imprimer Le Monde” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and recently became part of the museum’s permanent collection. After doing a structural analysis, 2.36 km of toolpath is assembled into one continuous line. The chair was printed with a pellet-extruder, an extruder which uses raw plastic particles rather than filament. The plastic is PLA, a non toxic, biodegradable plastic from renewable resources such as corn-starch. The chair uses a transparent PLA, mixed with cyan-colored particles, which results in a color gradient.
OGONORI CHAISE-LONGUE - 3D AIR PRINTED PRINTED PLA CHAIR PERMANENT COLLECTION - CENTRE POMPIDOU (PARIS, 2017)
Designed by: Manuel Jimenez Garcia and Gilles Retsin Fabrication Support: Nagami.Design and Vicente Soler Team: Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera Ochoa, Gilles Retsin, Vicente Soler, Ivo Tedbury Voxel Chair is a first prototype designed using a new design software specifically developed for robotic 3D-Printing. Rather than using pre-defined forms and then “slicing” these it into toolpaths or triangular patterns, this software allows to design and control thousands of line-fragments. The Voxel Chair was developed for the exhibition “Imprimer Le Monde” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and recently became part of the museum’s permanent collection. After doing a structural analysis, 2.36 km of toolpath is assembled into one continuous line. The chair was printed with a pellet-extruder, an extruder which uses raw plastic particles rather than filament. The plastic is PLA, a non toxic, biodegradable plastic from renewable resources such as corn-starch. The chair uses a transparent PLA.
WIREMASS - 3D PRINTED PLA CHAIR
3DXL EXHIBITION - CANADA’S DESIGN MUSEUM (TORONTO, 2015)
Design Team: Gilles retsin, Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Vicente Soler With The Bartlett School of Architecture AD-RC4 students:, Hyunchul Kwon, Amreen Kaleel and Xiaolin Li For the project WireMass, a custom tool was developed to create various designs, turning an idustrial ABB robot into a large-scale 3D printer. All computing is targeted at specifying a path for the robotic arm to follow, which means that the robot is directly programmed with instructions for where to deposit the material in space. The extruded polymer follows a continuous path and hardens in the air.
SEAM PAVILION - 3D PRINTED INFLATABLE STRUCTURE RESEARCH PROJECT FUNDED BY THE BARTLETT APF
Design Team: Mollie Claypool, Manuel Jiménez García, Vicente Soler, Christina Dahdaleh, The Bartlett U19 This proposal is for a full-scale, deployable architectural pavilion that functions as a temporary pop-up shop/event space. The pavilion aims to further develop a technique using casting of flexible materials and 3D printing/additive manufacturing utilising robotics to create a seamless, flexible inflatable lattice structure. This technique addresses the problem of the seam in working with pneumatic structures as the seam is almost always the point of failure of an inflatable structure. It has been developed within the Bartlett’s MArch Unit 19 in the last year and is the first of its kind. It has, however, only been developed until now at a small scale of 1:50. This aims to develop it further at different scales of design resolution, from structural considerations to the use of digital fabrication, including robotics and 3D printing/additive manufacturing. This project is an initiative by Mollie Claypool, Manuel Jimenez Garcia and Vicente Soler together with the Bartlett’s MArch Unit 19 and It will be launched in September 2015 at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
THE BARTLETT BPRO AD-RC4 TEACHING - STUDIO TUTOR
With an exponential increase in the possibilities of computation and computer-controlled fabrication, the idea of an architecture of extreme detail and resolution becomes feasible. The research agenda of RC4 has focused on large scale additive manufacturing for architecture. The research makes use of industrial robots, which are turned into large scale manufacturing machines by attaching custom designed end-effectors for additive manufacturing. Research Cluster 4 investigates an approach to architectural design that is fundamentally “digital�. Shifting away from an understanding of fabrication as a continuous process, students research fabrication methods and material organisations that are physically digital. This is a fundamental shift in digital design thinking: from mass-customization and continuous differentiation; to discrete, serially repeated systems which can still maintain a high degree of heterogeneity. This approach not only brings the feasibility of manufacturing digitally intelligent structures a step closer to reality.
NAGAMI DESIGN
ROBOTIC MANUFACTURE DESIGN BRAND (AVILA, SPAIN)
Nagami Design makes use of new technologies, especially large-scale 3dprinting and robotic manufacturing, for the development of furniture and other large scale products. The brand has participated in events and exhibitions such as “Printing the world” at the Centre Pompidou, with the project VoxelChair v1.0, which recently became part of the museum’s permanent collection. For the official launch of the brand, we created a set of 4 new limited edition chairs and stools in collaboration with renowned designers, architects and artists, who can challenge 3d printing, and propose new ideas about the implications of this technology in product design. Selected designers include: Zaha Hadid Architects, Ross Lovegrove, Daniel Widrig, Gilles Retsin, Isaie Bloch and Manuel Jimenez The launch took place in Milan, during Design Week 2018. Since then Nagami has collaborated with renowned brands and institutions such as Audi, BMW, V&A London or Pompidou Paris.
DISCRETE DESIGN METHODS
PRODUCT ARCHITECTURES
NECTARY (2018) COMMISIONED BY VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
Exhibited at V&A London Digital Design Weekend 2018 Design and fabrication team: Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Ignacio Viguera, Miki Jimenez Garcia, David Rubin de Celix, Luis De la Parra, Vicente Soler Nectary is a modular system able to create an infinite number of morphological variations. Based on four different robotically 3dprinted elements, it can be assembled into a plethora of spaces by following structurally driven combinatorial algorithms. From furniture to Architecture, Nectary emerges as a three-dimensional pattern where porosity and color dynamically change to offer a unique spatial experience.
PIXELSPACE
PIXELSPACE - ALUMINIUM DISCRETE ASSEMBLY PAVILION
COMMISSIONED BY 360 MALL WITH AAVS KUWAIT (KUWAIT, 2017)
Project by: Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Jeroen van Ameijde, Manja van de Worp, Christina Dahdaleh, Sulaiman AlOthman and Nada AlQallaf The ‘PixelSpace Pavilion’ is constructed out of a custom-designed, multi-performative component system.Using pattern combinations of different types and sizes of elements, the walls of the pavilion incorporate variations in structural performance, shading and privacy filtering. A computational process was used to generate the component stacking patterns, matching the qualities of the pattern to the requirements for the different areas of the enclosure. This pro- cess incorporates specific site relationships such as blocking certain light angles or framing certain views towards the viewpoints in the direct surroundings. The project demonstrates an approach to- wards high-resolution construction materials, that create optimised functional and exciting environments. The use of a customized software application for these types of processes allows the role of the architect to focus on the overall qualities of space while being able to control com- plex material organizations indirectly and economically.
ACADEMIC WORK
DIGITAL PLASTER (LONDON, 2009) AADRL STUDENT THESIS
Design Team: Manuel Jiménez García, Roberto García Vélez, Stella Dourtme, Clausia Ernst / Tutor: Theodore Spyropoulos Digital_Plaster establishes a prototypical system of analogue and digital integration, thus creating a ‘circular causality’ of constant reciprocal feedback that informs pattern as the objective of our design process. It uses patterning methodology to negotiate the relationship between structure, fabrication and spatial configuration. Based on the study of form finding through cast plaster in flexible formwork, it dynamically evaluates structural performance and material distribution, providing the system with the necessary information to compute material and spatial optimisation. The phase-changing properties of the material is taken as a time-based spatial generator, hybridising softness and hardness into a unique generative architectural system.
UNCERTAIN NERVOUS SYSTEM (MADRID, 2007) UNIVERSIDAD EUROPEA MADRID STUDENT THESIS
Located in the center of a complex highway infrasture this empty land or “residual� plot can be utilizad to incorporate a modern, efficient and highty usable space, while enviromentally blending into the landscape. The Plot is hardly tested by its surrounding limits. The central area of the complex with its various connections to the outlying boiling points; such as parks, commercial zones, towns and the small airport of Cuatro Vientos. Its condition implies the total lack of references in its core, therefore, it will be necessary to interpret the boundary conditions, processing a degradation to the central points of the territory. Thus, the flux produced in its limits causes an energy that creates a possible deformation of the ground in response to these forces. Accordingly, we can find new items in the territory where the response has been more intense. These items will join together in lines that have different qualities depending on the tension between them. In this way it will form new points in the major junctions, forming a continuous system that transforms according to different situations. The focus of the coming together is located in the central part of the territory, since this is the area of the system that receives the most number of influential lines.