Logarithmic Spiral?!

Yesterday evening I've spoken to John Videler, a professor in maritime zoology (RUG). He pointed out that there are some interesting basis principles which are still not clarified by scientific research. One of them is:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LogarithmicSpiral.html

I'm considering this as an option for further research. The principle could be parametrisized in G.C and try to find out why this form seems to be a general principle in nature. Is there a link to radiolaria? And does it have the same qualities applied in the field of architecture?

Proposal of type 2: Lampromitra (nassellaria)

Second proposal of a specific type to be further examined in my research

The last two days I'm trying to get in touch with an expert in this field (radiolaria). I've found some people doing research about topics like sponges, foraminifera or other protista. I will might visit Naturalis in Leiden next week, to see some real tests of protista and speak to an expert in sponges. I will revise my hypothesis in the weekend. From tomorrow 14:00 untill friday I will be in the faculty participating the 23-hours-workshop Built in Emotion.

Proposal of type 1: Pteroscenium (nassellaria)

First proposal of a specific type to be further examined in my research

IN GENERAL about radiolarians

Physiology of radiolarian

diagram of the relation between the soft parts within a radiolarian

I assume that there is a direct relationship between the soft- and the hard parts (skeleton) of the radiolarian. But I can not prove this yet. needs more research.

Orders, generations & family's of radiolarians
Within the extremely large number of existing radiolarian species, there are (at least) two major extant groups to be clearly distinguished.



Type I'm interested in
I have decided to base my research on either Spumellaria or Nassellaria. Those orders are the best known by geologists and in my opinion they have the most spatial qualities aswell. The Spumellaria could be used as a basis for an architectural roof construction while the Nassellaria could be translated into a complete pavilion. I will specify myself more on this in a later post.


first 3 sketches are spumellaria & last 3 are nasselaria

Some other basic principles:
Radiolarians exist for 600 million years. There lifespan lies between a few days and 2 weeks. Radiolaria evolve rapidly, that's why they are really usefull biostratigraphic (study of the spatial and temporal distribution of fossil organisms) tools. Because they exist out of soft and hard parts, the fossils are never complete, this applied difficulties in research.

Structural principles of skeleton:
- skeletal elements do not meet at the center even if they are radial symmetrical. - their are materialized out of minerals
- (i will get to the different types of radiolarians and zoom in for more info)

Growing principles of skeleton:
- Skeletal elements are covered with a layer of cytoplasm which is rapidly withdrawn if the organism is disturbed. It is suggested new material is formed within this sheath (cytokalyamma) and that it acts somehow like a dynamic mould.
- Almost nothing is known as to the hard parts of radiolaria, except that the vacuolated layer (see first diagram of this post) is able to secrete silica or other mineral substance.
- The evoluation of the skeleton of both Spumellaria and Nassillaria is described in the picture below.


evoluation process of Spumellaria (src: C. Moore, Treatise on Invertebrate Peleontology)


evoluation process of nassellaria (src: C. Moore, Treatise on Invertebrate Peleontology)

Starting the Research on radiolaria

Thank you a lot for all this input! Ofcourse I'm very enthousiastic about making use of Peters expertise and try to build a complete system. We can get more into details next thursday. For me it's important to know the details of the possibilities and the requirements in order to use it. Do I need to contact Andrew and Elisa aswell, concerning this topic?

I talked to Karel Vollers today, he seems to be excited about my topic of research. I gathered more books and more sources and tried to contact a radiolarianexpert (via VU Amsterdam, Naturalis Leiden, Leiden University). which turned out to be not that successfull yet. Tonight I want to focus on my gathered documents & books (on the bottom of this blog you can find a "book list" where I try to list all of them), and hope to extract some clear information about the skeletons and growing process. I will make a selection of 3 types of them very soon (hope tonight) and find out how their skeletons work.

I was wondering about the way how to abstract their skeletons. For now I have two options in mind. I can either try to draw them in GC in points and lines (as junctions and beams) or look at them as a tesselated surface or volume where I can manipulate the way of perforating the material.

I'm planning to process your very usefull comments on my hypothesis, after I've made some initial progress on the skeletons tonight.

Speak to you soon, mv

Final Research Proposal

Hypothesis:
Extracting the constructional basis (rules) out of radiolarian skeletons will benefit the architectural quality of a load bearing construction in architecture.

Research question:
How can I manipulate a micro structure of a radiolarian skeleton, in order to benefit a load bearing structure in architectural context?

• Which type of radiolarian will I take as a subject within this research?
  
• What are the constructional rules, this type of skeleton is based upon? And how will I apply those rules to architecture in the translation process.
  
• For that, I have to ask: Which (main) rule of micro-construction will I use as a basic manipulation (parametrisation) tool in G.C.? I.e. density-, lenght-, position- or number of elements.
  
• Did the translation process benefit the mechanical performance of the structure within architectural context? (Diana)

Methodology (plan):

• Research on the mechanical features of skeletons of radiolarians. Consulting drawings, literature & professors in maritime biology.
• Choose one type of radiolarian.
• Model the radiolaria as it is in G.C. to get hold of the programm. & Try to find the most essential rule, which underlies in the mechanical quality of the micro skeletons of radiolarians
• Test the radiolarian under is natural boundary conditions in Diana. Try to understand the logic of the construction. And try to find out the most essential RULE again.
  
• Test the same radiolarian structure again, but then in an architectural context. What are the weak spots??
• Model a tool in G.C . in order to translate the radiolarian structure into an architectural bearing structure (being aware of the basic principle(s) of the radiolarian skeletons!! use the RULE detected before)
• Test results in Diana (make different G.C-Diana-loops if possible)
  
• Evaluate results and link to hypothesis.
  

Research on radiolarians & GC sketching

Today I've decided on how to start my project. This concerns 1| deeper research on radiolarians and 2| practice modelling in Generative Components.

1| Research on radiolarians

I will be focussing on the growing process of radiolarians and the specific constructional aspects of their skeletons in order to decide on the input of my research.

• Inventory of different radiolarians. Which type has the most potential to be transformed into a building structure?
  
• Analysis of this specific structure. What is the exact shape? (modelling in G.C.)
  
• How did this skeleton grow? (link to production process of the architectural construction)
  
• What different functions do the features of the skeleton fulfil? (are these functions also to be applied on a building structure? what modifications have to be made?)

2| Studying G.C.
I will be trying to model a simple radiolarion structure in G.C. in order to get used to the software and get aware of the possibilities. Later on I will make a link to the structural capacities of the results with the help of Diana.


some other examples of radiolarians (art forms in nature (1898): E. Haeckel)