Xiao Jin ARCH655: ARCH 655 Parametric Design: Beijing Phoenix International Media Center

1. Introduction

1.1 Phoenix International Media Center is located in the southwest corner of Chaoyang Park in Beijing, China. It is an exemplary case of Möbius strip.

Rendered Image of Phoenix International Media Center
image is credited to Arch Daily

2. Modeling

2.1 I create a circle and set up the trace for the elliptical section surfaces. I used the Perp Frames to generate 40 equally spaced, perpendicular frames along the circle.

Step 1

2.2 I use the Pi, Range, Rotate tools to arrange the ellipses along the curve gradually, rotating them with different angles.

Step 2

2.3 Use List Item to copy what I have done to refine the interface. Then Merge the 40 ellipses. At last, use Loft to bake the mass.

Step 3

2.4 I successfully got the building mass.

Step 4

2.5 Use Divide Curve on every ellipse, and we will get equally arranged points on them. Then we need to use Shift List and Flip Matrix to offset those points for outer skin.

Step 5

2.6 Do the same thing for the inner skin. Just redefine the expression of Shift List in order to change the directions.

Step 6

2.7 Use Interpolate on outer skin as well as inner skin to create curves for them, and use Pipe to get the thickness. We can use Number Slider to adjust the thickness.