Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Getting Underneath the Skin Part II

Phase 2: Schematic Design
Week 11: March 17, 2012-March 20, 2012

The more I continue to analyze and translate the barrel cactus into architecture, the more I question how I am doing in terms of approaching my topic of biomimicry accurately.  I had an interesting past week.  I went to BRIT, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas and spoke with a very helpful Barney L. Lipscomb.  Barney helped me to understand that there are 6 species of barrel cactus and that I am studying the Ferrocactus genus/Echinocactus genus (what is commonly known in the America's as the barrel cactus).  Barney also helped give me some names of highly regarded biologists and researches that I am currently attempting to communicate with about the project.

On a design note, this past week I dove back into the insides of the cactus.  I am a visual person and because of that I decided to dissect the closest thing I could find to a barrel cactus, and that was a prickly pear cactus.  Dissecting the prickly pear was very helpful to understand what the cortex tissue really is and how it works.  I was amazed by the thickness of this water storage tissue and how moist it is inside.  This led me to designing the cooling pads another way.  I still think they need to be an absorbent natural material like cotton, but I think their design should relate to the cortex tissue and its cells.  Take a look at my new ideas and inspirations...










This Thursday I have an appointment with a professional knitter/crocheter and am going to try to improve my crochet skills in order to achieve the look I want.


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