Renders

I decided to try some renders instead of physical models as I wanted to look more at the materials and the context. Below are renders of temples 2 and 5. I had a bit of trouble with materials and spent too much time trying to get the bamboo right, which I couldn't really get to work at all, I couldn't get the UV maps to line up or get the right scales. I had also planned to work more some of the details as I had talked about previously but didn't get time in the end.

For the final presentation since I hadn't changed my design I have just kept the previous presentation slides and added in these renders.

Aftermath

After thinking about the model overnight I realised the reason it didn't work is because on my model I used hinged joints (wire ties) to join everything together but in reality my design uses rigid joints (wooden blocks and bolts) to join the components together.

I have to be careful to make sure the joints are as rigid as possible so I have tweaked my design a bit as shown below. I am making the wooden block bigger so it goes inside the tube and keeps everything in place.

Also, after making the model I realised that the paper tube in this particular design is 3300mm long. Other designs are a similar length. I know that the tubes are very good in compression and the metal bolts in tension, which is how I have designed this, but I'm not sure how it would go at this length. I will look at this a bit more tonight after work (I'm running late now...)

Presentation Week 13

The images of my presentation from week 13 that I forgot to post here.

I would have liked to at least made models of Temple 2 and Temple 5. I am going to think of why I am making a model first before I try again.

Modelling Failure

Now that I'm about 80% finished with my other subjects I've been trying to spend more time on this design. I've been trying to model one of the designs today but it hasn't really worked out.

Since my design uses paper tubes with bolts through them connecting at a block at the nodes, I decided to try using wire with something covering it to represent the tubes. The something similar for the bamboo on the roof. I went to reverse garbage yesterday expecting to find something hollow and tube like but didn't find anything I could use. Instead today I decided to try to just roll paper to the correct scaled size and use that over the wire. This looked OK. I tried a few ways of sticking the tube together. Tape worked better than glue.

The problem with the paper rolls were joining them together at the right angles. Then I thought of using one piece of wire instead of three. The only problem was rolling the paper over it, so I decided to just wrap tape around it after I got the wire right.

In the end I couldn't get the wire to join together rigidly at the joints, the model just doesn't sit right. It wants to pop up in the corners and when I get one part right another parts pops out. I was going to make the roof in the same way but with the curves in the roof it will be even worse than this.

I think it's back to the drawing board for the model. I don't know how I can make them now. I was going to use bamboo skewers originally but I know I won't be able to get the joints right. Maybe skewers and clay but then it will just fall down. I won't be able to get them done in time for tomorrow, but hopefully I can still some done this week. It's frustrating that it's not working and taking so long. I need the last couple of nights I have left to finalise the presentation and to get other subjects done.

Perhaps I need to think of why I'm making the model. At the moment I'm not really sure. It is already giving me a better sense of scale then the computer model, but I am not using the correct materials, so the model is not useful for testing materials. I don't see any difference between this and the computer model. If it is just about getting a sense of the scale and the form then my broken model has already given me that.

I have learnt a few things from making the model.

1. I need to think more carefully about how the components are joined and how that can make the design easier to manufacture.

2. Even in this broken model I can see that the real design should support itself pretty well. The paper tube though will just be like a covering over the structural metal beneath. The bamboo roof may be another matter though and I need to think more about how that will work.

3. Even though the base is a hexagonal shape I'm happy the model didn't end up just looking like a hexagon. I was very conscious of not making it look too hexagonal while I was designing. I never want to see another hexagon again.

4. Small gauge wire will poke a hole in your skin if you push it too hard.