Thursday, March 24, 2022

Structure Collab Week 2

 Been a busy week! We met as a group last Friday and showed our ideas and designs, and decided to do a desk and bench in the nest. A multi functional piece of furniture that we could share with the student body. We broke up into three groups to divide and conquer. I am apart of the desk group and was tasked with creating a design to present to the group on Wednesday night. In thinking of construction, and what a CNC machine can do, as well as replicating the design of the facade of the nest I came up with the below. 

My thoughts were around creating a structure that wasn't too heavy, and would still allow for light to flow through the space as the nest is not a very large space. With tabs this would be self aligning and really easy to put together post machining. 


A unique design that is unlike anythings else in the school, this art deco inspired piece is light, functional and unobtrusive. 



The group concluded to go with Daniela's geometric interactive design, with a very creative bench that is a hybrid of Nadia's bench and Erica's bench design. The pattern from Daniela's shelves will also be incorporated into the bench as well to tie the two pieces together. I am a little concerned about the amount of work we have to do to get done in the time given, but have confidence in the group that we will pull it off. 

Until next week... 

J. Broz signing off. 

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Structure Collab Week 1

 Week 1 well underway. 

Our group met briefly on Friday and came up with a plan to share some ideas and research by Monday at 5pm, so we could then discuss all the ideas on Wednesday during our meet up. 

Lots of great ideas came down the pipeline! Erica brought to the table some really neat designs that are a fun mix between geometric and organic lines. Lesley suggested some great lighting designs with wooden chandeliers. Liro with a multi functional bench. Yuxin found some really cool designs for furniture that are really innovative. Chloe shared some really cool CNC designs that are both 3D and 2D. I am inspired by the designs that Nadia shared, and pieces that permeate space, like room dividers. Daniela shared some amazing designs as well, and had a ton of colour - which I love. 

My thoughts for this project were to do something for the student body that could be used in the school. I was considering The Nest, or the Cafeteria as a location and I thought of Napping Pods or Working Spaces that could be semi-private for those deep study needs. 



Napping Pods:
There is nothing I would love more than a place to have a quick snooze between class, or while I wait on my project before I can move forward with it. Studies show that having napping pods increases productivity of employees and students. 
https://www.corporatewellnessmagazine.com/article/employers-waking-benefits-sleep-pods

University of Miami have added nap pods in their university to help combat stress and mental health issues that affect students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrTssn03DMk

Working Spaces:
Despite the addition of new furniture around the school I find that semi private study spaces are hard to come by, or a space where you just need a little down time to collect your thoughts after a crit. Here are some ideas I shared with the team. 



On Wednesday after sharing our ideas we determined that we would like to move forward with a piece that could benefit students. We feel that because the materials are being provided for us, we would like to give that back to the student body is an indoor, a working space, and multi-functional. 

We accomplished a lot in a week and meet tomorrow (Friday) to pitch our designs to each other and see what we love and what we get excited about. Our biggest challenge is narrowing down the options, and required the extra step to show each other a design. 

I am pitching a privacy screen to work with a seating space. A moveable 4' x 4' wall that could create a little sanctuary students can retreat behind. I am so obsessed with creating patterns similar to the one from my Lample, and I would love to see it in full scale (it is all I can think about). I think putting it on a support with wheels could make this a safe, and fun addition to any space in the university. I envision this being colourful like Daniela's design suggestions. Here is my quick and dirty render, I realized after creating this that I would need to round out all of the edges as the CNC can not do corners the way they are drawn in this render. I used only Rhino for this example, however I was thinking about how Grasshopper was much better to work with and designing the definition in my mind while creating this. 

I had a lot of fun playing with this design and started to explore options of different thicknesses of the curves and how that changes the movement in them. I look forward to sharing this idea with the team even if we don't move forward with it, it was fun playing with this design again. I hope we finalize ideas tomorrow and get to work, because there is no shortage of things to do. 


Cheers. 


Thursday, March 3, 2022

Lample - Major Progress

 It is coming along and I am in absolute love with this object! I still have a way to go as I continue through multiple iterations of this piece, I think this is the 5th or 6th? Anyway, I realized as I put this together that the pieces don't fit together as well as they would if it were made of metal. I think I need a beveled edge that the pieces fit into. I would like to also see this in an opaque material, although I think there is something really cool to the clear acrylic. I am also interested in frosting the acrylic too. Unfortunately I didn't have money to buy a light for this iteration of my Lample, but on my final it will have a light for sure! I love that I have gotten this far with this unconventional piece and I hope to bring it across the finish line with a full scale model. 

I think that this would look good in any kind of material and I look forward to exploring a few options before I do my final full scale model. 





Here's hoping I get to bring this piece to full scale, and add it to my studio as my new lamp and table. 


Structure Collab Final Week

And we've made it. Half dead, and really sleepless. I am glad to see that this project has come together, although I am not sure we are ...