DBUG> DataCAD: CNC Sunflower Grille

[James Horecka <jhorecka@verizon.net>]

Yo, amigos.

For those with an interest, here's how my Sunflower Grille art piece for Villa Girasole came out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18794861@N00/

The grille is 5'-5" wide. CNC-machined from one large piece 1/2" thick billet aluminum, then powder-coated semi-gloss black. Designed, modeled and tweaked to the Nth degree in DataCAD, of course. Then e-mailed to a workshop near Ontario International Airport. The guys there then used CNC water jet machinery to zap this puppy out. The center is 1/8" polished brass, also milled on a CNC machine, then clear-coated.

Bitchin'. Sure, we could have cobbled this together old-school, of several hundred little bits of iron, with much welding and grinding. With great patience, a master craftsman might well have even held good tolerances. CNC machining, tho, produced the finished work in short order, exactly as I had envisioned, to close tolerances, correct the FIRST time.

Also in the set you'll see how some other elements are coming along. Including the crossed bars of the little round windows inspired by those in "Vasari's Corridor" as it crosses Il Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Compare the finished results in real iron with the o2c views of the digital 3D model posted some time back. Pretty close, I'd say. In that case, I provided the iron workshop with full-sized patterns plotted from special details done in DataCAD, as well as a series of captures of o2c views of the digital 3D model. Again, the combination of regular details, full-size plotted patterns and 3D captures assured obtaining correct results the first time through.
 
James Horecka, AIA
Architect
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