Quad Panelization

I'm just beginning to realize the flexibility of developable surfaces and panelization. There's a certain beauty in taking things which seem banal or regular and finding ways of de-regularizing them and making them energetic. This is more evident in my experiments with folding in my studio project, but for now I have photos of this form developed for my projective geometries class with Scott Cohen and Cameron Wu:


Panelized(Cone + Helicoid + Torus) = ...

Between Top and Bottom

I went to a Japan GSD Mecha Kucha talk yesterday. One of the speakers wrapped up his talk with a picture of a bonsai tree embodying the idea of design which is able to harmonize design which is both top down and bottom up. He explained it as being 50% top down and 50% given, creating a form which can be appreciated as both the work of an artist and a natural form.

This image struck me as a new way of approaching design. In general I have only heard of design being one or the other (top or down). In school, the design is clearly top down. For the most part there are no real clients for projects and designs are created solely for the enjoyment of their student and faculty creators. How much is that attitude carried out into reality upon graduation?