Reflection - FMP

OMG this is my last day of making and i am having big big big problems with the final part of my model (the solar dome) i just can not cut all the pentagons to the exact shape and size. even if one of them is slightly off, then the whole dome will not work. after many attempts of cutting out of MDF, i thought that i might be able to use foamboard however, this too was a huge disaster.

with only hours to go befor the workshop closes for the holidays, i decided that it was time for plan B. which was to vacume form clay doam and cover it with the solar pannel pattern that i have already created and printed off.

unfortunately i ran out of time so i am going to have to cover the dome at home during the holidays with is ok.

UPDATE:
the solar dome looks fine and here it is:

Feed back

from presentation:

Reflection - FMP

well todays presentation went very well. a got a very good reaction to my short animations and got some possitive coments from fellow class mates. however, the best thing about today has got to be that we had the afternoon free to continue working on our models. :)
so i finaly got every thing painted white just the way i wanted and then Jo sugested that i could use some resin in my river section to give it a bit of a shine so it actually looks time water. so i did a test piece and decided to go with the idea. so i painted the river area a light blue and then poured and painted on the resin and left it to set. unfortunately i am going to have to wait untill the morning to see if it has worked the way i wanted it to. fingers crossed it should look fantastic.

Reflection - FMP

i realy need to get a move on as this is the lat day of making because all next week we are giving our presentations so i am going to have very little time to get work done. i am already making use of extra sesions and coming in to college on my days off.
well any ways, after a bit of adgusting with some extra sanding, the building finaly fits in its place. so i glued all the piece in place and once they were dry, i screwed my building down into its place and filled up the hole. after waiting for the filler to dry, i sanded it down and preped the whole model for painting. in the mean time, i cut out a load of semi circles to stick to the garden wall to represent a tyre wall.

 i then sprayed my whole model white which lead to a disaster!
because i had sanded all my pieces, when i sprayed the model, it came out all fury. so what i am going to have to do is come in AGAIN on my day off and sand it all down and paint it by hand and then sand that down and then spray the model again!

Disaster!!!

Reflection - FMP

what a bussy day! well my first job of the day was to cut the remaining layers that were missing. i then cut out the river part into them and then sanded the new layers. and then in the afternoon, i managed to cut my big block of MDF into the shape of my house. and made sure that it fits into the cut out area that i had made for it to sit into.
what i then did was cut down some flexi-ply so it wraps all the way round my house and then cut all my windows and doors into this strip of flexble wood.
i had two main problems when it came to making my house. the first one was that i couldnt get the flexi-ply to stay stuck to the house around the tight corners. my solution to this was to use small nails to keep the wood inplace untill the glue dried and then remove the nails. the second problem wasthat the strip of flexy ply snaped as i bent it around the tight corner especially as it was so thin. my only solution to this was to just cary on and attach the stip in two seperate pieces.

Reflection - FMP

i managed to cut out the sections for my house to fit into. and i then glued together many layes of MDF to get a large block. once all the glue is dry and the block is solid, i will start to cut out my house design. however i havnt yet finished with my layers because i discovered that i am still short by about 10 layers so i am going to have to cut and shape them the next time i am in the workshop.

the vast majority of todays time went on sanding my pieces. i decided that i should sand the edges of each piece to make it look slightly better and so that my final model is a higher standard and quality to my test model. unfortunately for me, the only way of getting the job done was to sand each and every piece (30 something) by hand. and man are my arm aching :(

but on the plus side, the model does look a lot better with the edges sanded. :)

Reflection - FMP

my jod for today was to work out and then cut out the river section form every piece i have so far. and because each piece is different it is very easy to get mixed up with which piece goes where. to over come this problem, i decided to number every piece as i cut it out so i know exacly which piece goes where.
i did make a few mistakes with the first few pieces by cutting the river out in the wrong place or to the wrong sive or shpe. but i soon got the hang of it and managed to master my technique.

i also needed to cut out the spaces for where my house is going to slot into my design but i couldent do this because i havnt made my house yet. so my solution was to make a quick simple model out of styrofoam and use that as a guide until i actually get round to making the actual MDF house.

Reflection - FMP

wohoo!!! the making stage of my project has well and truly started. i started of with a have a huge pile of MDF strips all ready to be cut into shape.

i then cut all the strips into the same curved shape.

and this is what i have managed to achieve today.

Bank Holliday

yay its a bank holliday AGAIN! :) :) :)

this is a good time to just reflect on my work so far and to just catch up with some sketch book work.

Reflection - FMP

I'm making a slow but steady start to making my final. so far iv got one piece of wood with some scribbles on it :)
not exactly the most proactive day, but a day of planing. i really need to crack on with making!

Bank Holliday

yay its a bank holliday and i am going to spend the day resting
:) :) :)

this is a good time to just reflect on my work so far and to just catch up with some sketch book work.

Reflection - FMP

i felt as though i could now move on and practice my modeling skills using the actual material that i would use for my final which is wood. and here it is....

each piece of this model is seperate and no two are the same. as you can see from the images below...

however, after seeing this wonderful piece, my tutor (Kate) said that it didnt look like an architectural piece. and looked more like a fine art sculpture. and her advice was to add something to the building its self so it looks more like an every day building.

so i did. i started designing new roof structures with balconies and what not and then i came up with this....

this new roof consists of an all glass room at the top which opens up to the roof with a safety rail going all the way round.

Reflection - FMP

this is my idea for a 'solar dome' it is a free standing structure that will capture sun light from every possible angle. each piece is a seperate solar panel that are all linked up togerther and then the energy is fed back to the house. and not only will it produce energy, it will also act as a sculptural piece down by the river.

looking back at my design today, i thought that it wasnt as good as i wanted and knew that i could do alot better. so i set out to improve my design. and what i did was to rotate the actual building on the hill so that it was coming out from the hill rather than going inside it. here is a quick foam model of my new idea....

i then also tried this new design using the steped technique and it turned out fabulous. :) i love it. this is a much better and much improved design and i am now going to stick to it and develop it a bit more. my models are also getting better and i am starting to get the hang of how to make them.



Reflection - FMP

While in New York, i came across this wonderful architectural model that uses the contures of the hill that the building is on. here it is...

and i wanted to use this technique. so i did a very small test piece using foam board of my design...

they are not great but you can get an idea of how this might work. overall i thing i can do alot better.

another interesting thing that took place today was that a fellow class mate sugested that i could also use another energy source in my design so that you can get as much energy as possible. and i thought that this was a very valid point. after a bit of research, i found that water levels were at their lowest during the summer. so i might need another source of energy during the summer months. and what better to use than 'solar power' there is alot of sun during the summer so i can get alot of electricity

:)

Reflection - FMP

i have been having problems trying to get electricity from rivers because of fluctuating water levels and lack of force. but i have now come up with a master plan and a solution to all my problems. the plan is to create a man made waterfall. not a huge waterfall but a drop large enough to give the water that extra bit of power. this new idea is also not effected (in performance) by fluctuating water levels.
however, this means that my house will need to be on a hill. so i am going to have to change my design abit.

and this is what i came up with....

the house its self is built into the hill. cutting into the hill to create a man made cave.

Reflection - FMP

i did it!!!! i created electricity!!!! :)
i connected my motor to some small light emitting diodes (led's) and as i turned the cogs, the lights came on. and the faster i turned the cogs, the brighter the light was. what a great success it was. unfortunately with all the excitement, i forgot to film a video. and i cant film one now because the 'contraption' broke in my bag on my way home :(
but what i proved was that my idea is doable. all you need is a force strong enough to turn the turbine.
:)

Reflection - FMP

today i learnt the magic of 'cogs'....

what i found was that if you connect a big cog to a small cog and then to a big cog and then to a small cog again.... a small amount of energy can be transformed into a HUGE amount of energy. (enough to turn a generator and produce a substantial amount of electricity)

btw please ignor whate kate (lecturer) is going on about in the background LOL

:)

Reflection - FMP

well today i finished my statement of intent. and started doing my primary research.
here is my statement of intent:

The title for my project is ‘Sustainable Architecture’. In this project I will be working towards producing a sustainable home that uses recycled materials and renewable energy sources. By the end of the project my final outcome will be a large model of my final design showing the workings of each specialist part. This work relates to the work I did during the pathway stage because I will use the materials and building techniques that I found then, and incorporate them with the new technologies and energy sources that I am now going to explore. This is extending my knowledge and understanding of sustainability because I am looking at different ways of making things sustainable. I am now also much more aware of the environmental impact that modern architecture has on the earth. This project will also improve and test my creative ability because I need to find a way of using as many sustainable techniques but have a design that looks as though it has been made using modern and conventional building methods.

My main influences for the pathway stage were ‘Earth Ships’ and ‘Bio-Structures’ because of their radical ways of building using different materials. My main influences for this project will be scientific discoveries and break through in energy so I can use them in my design. I will also be looking at existing buildings that use similar methods and techniques. This information will come from many different sources such as the web (www.architecture.com and www.sustainableabc.com), books/magazines including: Energy manual: sustainable architecture by Manfred Hegger, Matthias Fuchs, Thomas Stark, Martin Zeumer – Birkhäuser. I will also be going and visiting buildings that have already incorporated sustainable ideas such as 30 St Mary’s axe (the gherkin)

Throughout this project, I am going to be using a variety of different materials. But the main ones will be wood, acrylic, rubber and possibly water. And with all these different materials come different techniques and skills such as mould making and polishing. I will also be using CAD to generate 3 dimensional digital models which can then be manipulated. The overall time scale for this project is eight weeks which I will break down into three stages. One for research, one for design development and the last stage for making and evaluating my model. The first two stages will be two weeks each and the final stage will be for four weeks as I believe it is the most important part of the project.

My method of reviewing and analysing my own work takes form as an online blog with three entries a week. I will also be taking part in ‘group critiques’ where other class mated discuss and evaluate each other’s work as the projects develop. The feedback from these group discussions will also be posted on my blog. To evaluate the success of my project and final outcome, I would like to conduct a survey asking viewers how sustainable they believe my final design is. 

Reflection - FMP

right well today was the first day of the Final Major Project and i used the day drafting and wrighting up my statement of intent. however its still a bit on the weak side and will need some more work doing to it. but overall a boring day because its all theory. but also an interesting day hearing all the ideas of fellow piers.