More Coverage on Aura at Nuit Blanche

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Can you blame the visitors for their enthusiasm and excitement?

From the Best and Worst of Zone B Nuit Blanche:
"An interactive light tunnel? Sign me up! This was close to being a hit for me, but by the time I rolled through, the installation seemed to have taken a bit of a beating, which seemed to diminish the lighting effects."

Early Media Mentions + Teaser Pics

Digital Journal:

The Torontoist:

She Does The City:

Ryerson Today:

Social Media:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68034008@N02/8041003047/in/photostream/
http://www.mobypicture.com/user/biancafiloteo/view/13903718

Stay tuned for some more shots of the final product! Here's a teaser...

Aura Begins to Shine

Between assembling the illuminated panels and talking to Vince, the Aura team took a few moments to discuss their project with the media, including the university's Eyeopener newspaper.  Aside from looking quite engaged with their own work, the team was well represented by Tony as he described the project's mandate to "put architectural science and Ryerson on the map as as cutting-edge campus that knows [its] stuff."  Good job so far!

Let's see if James' dialogue with the Ryersonian folks will elaborate upon this more!

Initial Mock-Up Time Lapse

In order to ensure all the construction and connections will proceed smoothly during the assembly at the end of the week, the Aura Team has been steadily working away at a full scale mock-up of their Nuit Blanche Installation.  The team and its volunteers have been finalizing assemblies and logistics to ensure the project will be yet another great success for Ryerson University and the Department of Architectural Science. Though there is not too much visual activity in these clips, the team is sorting out the best way to efficiently deploy and assemble the structure on site.

Let There Be Light!

So the Aura team has been working feverishly over the last week to get things in order well ahead of our September 29th deadline. We have been fortunate enough to experience a huge outpouring of volunteers  interested in helping out with our Nuit Blanche 2012 submission from all facets of the Department of Architectural Science. This has really helped to accelerate our fabrication process over the last seven critical days.

This week we managed to complete all of our CNC milling, laser cutting and manual cutting. With the help of our volunteers, we also managed to complete all of our nearly 1700 plunger assemblies to be inserted in our triangular panels. Most recently, under the supervision of our team electrician, Andrew Santaguida, we wired and installed our lighting components - allowing us to then complete the final assembly of all 30 panels. Here are some shots of the exciting progress:

Aura headquarters on a typical weekday evening

Volunteers painting the back panels white to ensure optimal illumination 

A hand full of our 1700 plunger assemblies

Our professor and project supervisor Vincent Hui checking up on our progress

Volunteers from the Dept. of Architectural Science hard at work

It actually works!

Exploring hot and cold spots of light within the panel

Light diffusing through the syringe barrels at the back panel

Syringe barrels inserted into CNC milled recessed slots at our back sandwich panel

A peak at our wiring assembly: A single ballast hardwired to two 24" 20 Watt Fluorescent luminaries

Wired back panels on deck to be inserted into the panel boxes

And finally, a sneak peak at our panel assembly process:

1. Connect face bolt and coupling through pre-assembled panel box

2. Insert plastic conduit spacers around each bolt and coupling assembly

3. Ensure all wires, marettes and ballasts avoid obstruction of bolts, spacers and plungers

4. Insert back panel assembly into panel box

5. Insert eye bolts through back panel assembly to connect with hex couplings within conduit spacers

6. Tighten eye bolts through panel creating a rigid connection for suspension

7. Secondary test of lighting and wiring to ensure no connections were affected during assembly

8. Reunite the panel with its 29 companions

In the coming days, the team plans on mocking up some panels to our structural framing to test and further develop connection details for both the vertical and horizontally suspended conditions. We have a ton of work still to do, but we are all excited to finally see this thing materialize. Stay tuned for more exciting content!

The Beginnings of Panel Assembly

A lot of the day was spent getting the 30 panels started.  Each panel is constructed of a series of MDF, acrylic and plywood planes held together through the use of perimeter skirts and spacers for support. Syringes are mounted in a backer panel comprised of a plywood sheet routed to accommodate the syringes which are held in place by an MDF plane allowing plungers to move in and out of the barrels. The plungers are attached to a dowel which is in turn fastened to a circular MDF cap which acts as a pushing surface. The frontal plane of the panel is comprised of an acrylic sheet fastened to the back of a final MDF plane which lies behind the outer membrane. So far the Aura team built and assembled the perimeter skirt for each panel, as well as attached the spacers and the frontal plane of the panel.      

Gluing the Perimeter Skirts Together.  

Frontal Plane of Panel

16 More to Go!

Key to Efficient Production - The Assembly Line

Acrylic Layer of Frontal Plane

Adding the spacers

Horizontal Frames of Structure

Attaching Spacers to Vertical Frames

Horizontal and Vertical Frames For the Supporting Structure

Always Clean Up!

Coming Soon!

Aura Installation Coming Together

It's nice to see everything coming together after cutting so many individual pieces.  The structure is being framed and now that the individual components are finished, the panels are ready to be assembled.   The Aura team has been working hard over the past week to ensure that everything is ready and continually progressing.  A big thank you to all the volunteers that continue to help us in their spare time!

Acrylic Sheet Ready for CNC Router

CNC Router in Action

Dremeling MDF

Removal of Tape Used to Hold Acyrlic In Place When Being Routed

Our Electrician Preparing For a Day of Wiring

Assembly of Structure

Just Fits Through the Door!

Painting of Spacers to Reflect Light

30 Panels=Lots of Spacers

Ballasts

Ballast Wiring

Digital Startpoint

Here are a couple of screenshots of Rhino model that we did in order to get a sense of how the installation would look and take shape in its location at Ryerson University.  It allowed for us to determine how many panels we would need and the angle that we would connect each panel.  

View From Entrance

View From Exit

Plan View

Side Elevation