3D Design day 3:

In the morning we were given the task of designing the spaghetti sculptures that would eventually hold 3 plastic balls. the sketchbook designs were meant to be bold, brave and experimental which i think i achieved by designing structures using certain shapes throughout i.e hexagons, cubes, triangles and rectangles. we were then asked to draw random scribbles all over the page and make that into a structure that could hold 3 balls, this was a lot of fun and got my brain working. the rest of the morning we spent actually making the structures, we were given 30 pieces of spaghetti and used glue guns to make them. I remember learning that triangles were the strongest shape so decided to make a triangular based pyramid, holding one ball in the middle, one on the top and one at the side. the pictures below show the finished result photographed with a pink filter. i really disliked this activity, the spaghetti kept breaking and the glue guns were really difficult to use, my hands kept shaking when trying to hold components still. however, having said this, i was pleased with my finished product!

3D design week day 2

today our main task was to research bridges and then eventually, in groups, build a bridge for a remote controlled car to drive across. the research consisted of some fieldwork, taking pictures of bridges around ravensbourne, and looking through books in the library and content on websites. we were asked to briefly explore 3 types of structures: spanning, tension and stilted.

Spanning:

http://cenews.com/article/7719/west-virginia-geology-demands-complex-bridge-foundations

Span is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g. a beam or a bridge. A span can be closed by a solid beam or by a rope. The first kind is used for bridges, the second one for power lines, overhead telecommunication lines, some type of antennas or for aerial tramways. 


Stilted:



http://www.s4c.cymru/04wal/location-images/large/IMG_0879.jpg


Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a structure or building to stand at a distance above the ground. In flood plains, and on beaches or unstable ground, buildings are often constructed on stilts to protect them from damage by water, waves or shifting soil or sand.


Tensile: 

A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no         compression or bending. The term tensileshould not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile structuresare the most common type of thin-shell structures.

Building The Bridge:

we were put into groups of around 9/10 and given 12 sheets of cardboard, a bunch of elastic bands, 2 rolls of packing tape and around 30 sticks of bamboo. as a group we firstly decided that we were going to attempt to make a jump in the middle of the bridge but we had to make it in such a way that it the car could make it over going both ways. this proved to be a challenge because we had originally planned to make one side of the bridge lower than the other to make the jump easier. we started off by doubling up lengths of bamboo to make it more secure, we were only allowed 2 points of the structure hitting the floor so we decided to have many sticks of bamboo coming up from the one spot on the ground. this would be the main support for the structure. the images below show the creative process involved in the building of it. in the end it was successful and the car managed to drive both ways. i really enjoyed this activity, seeing my idea come into realisation was satisfying, and even more satisfying was seeing the car make the jump. however working in such a large group was frustrating as we all had different ideas about how we wanted to build certain aspects or how we wanted it to look, but it all worked out in the end. 

3D design week
our first task was to create a structure that could hold a full water bottle 20cm off the table, as far as resources went we were only allowed 1 sheet of A2 paper and an arms length of masking tape. my initial thought was to make a cube for the bottle to sit on however i quickly realised that this would not be strong enough to hold it up, i then started thinking about a structure that could be stronger than just one sheet of paper by itself, i thought about folding the paper but decided to try rolling small strips of the paper into cylinders, i made 5x20cm long cylinders and taped them all together to create one big cylinder. the next problem i came across was balancing the water bottle on top, by this point i had run out of paper as well, so i just had to go with the task of balancing the water. the picture below shows the result of the task.

our next task was to create a platform to stand on made out of masking tape, packing tape and five sheets of cardboard, i started thinking of designs based around the tube style design i used earlier on in the day. because we were limited on time i just started rolling 20cm high tubes, i made six and they felt very strong, after this arduous task i had to start thinking about how i was going to stand on it. i decided to make a 6 legged table with 3 legs on each long side to effectively distribute the weight. although the legs were incredibly strong, i struggled attaching them to the base of the table top. this became a problem when i tried standing on it, as one of the legs slipped all the others followed and my table was destroyed. the picture below shows the finished product, on its back to show how i attached the legs to the base. i really enjoyed this activity because it was very hands on, however it was very frustrating to see it collapse towards the end of the day.

Fashion + Textiles week: Paper Clothes design:

the picture above shows my original design for my item of paper clothing, its a coat with an oversized collar and sleeves that are detached, i also created some rings that had long thin strips of paper hanging from it. Although it was really challenging, i did really enjoy this activity, seeing my ideas come to realisation was a rewarding feeling, it was also great to see everyone else's methods and ideas that i could adapt into my own work. The image below shows Kadien wearing the jacket i made, although it wasn't very will fitted, i am still immensely pleased with the overall outcome.