High Tech II: Surface Modeling the Laminates

The plan called for the first two layers to be laminated airplane plywood, first s

High Tech I: Solid Works and CNC Routers

If I can draw it, I can find a way to build it, but I am not so good with computers. Chad Carpenter, however, is a genius with computers.

Chris has a background in structural engineering and computer modeling and was just finishing his Masters in Architecture degree at California College of the Arts when I met him. Lucky for me, he found this project intriguing and was willing to help out. When he started sending his computer renderings, I felt like I had just been whisked into the future. Chris programed in my dimensions and was able to generate individual cross sections and curves to delineate a ribbed mold of the inside of the form. The first drawings were done in Solid Works and are blue prints and instructions to tell a CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) router what cuts to make.These drawings were then sent to the CNC router at Iceberg in Petaluma, California, where the mold parts were cut on an enormous machine. Once I assembled the parts, I had a mold for bending the spiral laminates in place, and the mold could be unscrewed and disassembled from the inside once the form had cured.

Let the Designing Begin!

The first step was to refine the shape and the dimensions. It became fatter on the bottom with a smaller top to give it that grounded feeling and to reflect the taper of a tree trunk. The next crucial choice was the material. For something to seem grounded and solid, a darker color is best. The rest of the room is very light and spacious and needs some anchor points to pin it down. To enhance the tropical "contemporary island" flavor, I selected Black Palm wood, a rich dark wood with contrasting light streaks throughout the grain. Odds are, you won't find Black Palm at your local lumber store. It takes some hunting down, but is worth it. The end grain of the wood is especially beautiful, a collage of tiny dark and light dots. I planned for vertical grain up the sides of the piece to play up the height of the taper, and a butcher block top so that the vertical grain could continue up through the edge of the top and then show off the end grain.
Once the materials and dimensions were decided, the structural design began. The form of the base is a tapered cylinder with an asymmetric bend, a complex geometry to fabricate. After much consideration of possible techniques and methods, I decided to use modern computer aided technologies to construct the base form in a way similar to the traditional hull construction of a wooden boat by laminating wood over a mold. The difference is that the laminates would spiral around the tapered, bent cylinder rather than lay out onto the more open bowl form of a ship's hull. My best resource of techniques and methods that I could modify to my purposes was the book "The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction: Wood and West System Materials" by Meade Gougeon. These drawings begin to illustrate the mold design and are where the hand drawing ends and the computer rendering begins.

Concept Drawings

The first brief notes in my sketches say "bamboo? palm? sand? drum? primitive? tree swaying." Several quick sketches followed soon after.

Teri liked drawing 3, the most dynamic form. The concept was a swaying palm tree, a simple, elegant, organic form. Of course, one can draw anything.

The Idea

Teri Hoops had some ideas about some tables for her living room. They needed to capture a contemporary island feel. They also needed to be grounded and solid, heavy-bottomed to help hold down a big, light, breezy room. I should mention that Teri is a Feng Shui consultant and knows what it takes to balance a room. This is the view from the living room.