Week 5 - 3D

GROUP EXERCISE
In our class this week Maha & Sunita presented their 3D designs to the class which was then open to discussion to challenge their design concept assumptions.


Sunita's Design Concept is to build a traditional Timorese house - in miniature form possibly out of polystyrene. It includes the following features:

• Has doors & windows
• 4 walls
• Flat on top with ornament - usually 4-6 sticks or a bunch or straw sticking out the top
• Its on stilts - sometimes tall & wide or short & stumpy
• 4 sided pyramid roof

Traditional Timorese House

Class discussion - Warwick suggested that if she uses polystyrene for the main structure to use a sharp scalp to cut the polystyrene because if you saw it with a serrated edge it will make an impressive mess. 

Mahas design concept is a lamp and the 2D aspect is the design on the lamp and the 3D is the actual lamp with the design on it. Features include:

• Will be versatile to be in the living room or a bedroom
• Has interchangeable sides which will slide out
• Has 4 sides
• Has a metal frame

I thought this type of design would work quite well with the interchangeable sides

Class discussion - What will it be made out of? Will it be printed? What angle will the side panels be on (vertically straight or on an angle?)

If Maha wanted to have the panels on an angle they could slide out from underneath rather than trying to pull them out on an awkward angle from the top.

She also thought about the designed panels being made out of plastic and if she used lightweight plastic they could bend and pop into place like when placing a photo into an album with photo corners. But then the heat of the light bulb might be too much for the plastic panels. 

PRACTICAL – Design challenge / reflect & refine

30 mins – Choose your most recent 3D design concept from all your current works

•  In your blog make a list of 2 assumptions about your design

•  Challenge both of these assumptions (200 words minimum)

•  Suggest 2 refinements to solve these challenges (200 words minimum)

•  Illustrate your thoughts with sketches / diagrams

My most recent 3D design concept is along the lines of 3 dimensional wall paper. I had the idea that I could create wall paper that almost jumped out at you like artwork would. I've been doing a few sketches and I have been working on a few different designs of silhouetted trees. I haven't done alot of research as to how I will actually construct the design but I was thinking of making a mould and then using plaster so I have 1 flat side which can be adhered to the wall.

1st Assumption
The first assumption is that the design will be in 1 piece.

2nd Assumption
That it will be a mould and then using plaster

Challenging 1st Assumption
I was actually pretty set on this design being 1 single piece but when i was drifting off to sleep the other day (which seems to be when my brain decides to go outside the square) I thought I want it to be a piece of artwork as well and what better way to show off a piece of artwork than in a frame. I had the idea that i could actually break my tree design up into pieces and frame the smaller pieces of the tree but when hung on the wall the whole picture of the tree comes into view..... No idea where that came from but I started to think more about it and if it could be of any practical use as well. I've seem these tree sculptures that are used as jewellery hangers so maybe that could be an option as well.


First sketch of tree design and half asleep sketch of idea of framed pieces of tree design



Jewellery Tree

 Challenging 2nd Assumption
My second assumption is that I will be making my 3D tree using a mould of my design.
There are quite a few different materials i could use for my design. I could use wood..

This is a wall mounted wood sculpture made of oak.

The artists name is Ruben Guajardo http://www.artisticwoodworking.com/ and he makes some beautiful abstract wood sculptures and carvings.

Or i could use wire..

Wire Tree Wall Sculpture  - Omer Huremovic

There are many materials I could use for my design but i think the biggest issue will be using a material that I not only have access to and can use but also use a material that i am able to able to split up into separate frames. I could still use the plaster mould but i would have to make several different moulds to make the whole tree and I'm not sure if i have the skills or time to do that.

2 Refinements
After challenging my assumptions my 2 biggest challenges to over come are...
1. Which materials to use &....
2. Splitting the tree up into separate and differently sized frames

I think the best way to refine my assumptions is to do a few prototypes to see which ones will work best.....

I've had a very fun week playing around with a few different materials for my prototype to see what i can use for my design and they were all quite time consuming because of how intricate my design is.... which in turn probably should have been one of my assumptions. Anyway, below is my rough draft of my design. So you can see how it would be a little difficult to make a mould out of that.

1st rough draft of my design

I made several stencils of my design and made cut outs using plastic corflute (which i ended up making my prototype out of). This was very difficult to use to create nice soft curves and will be even more difficult to cut into pieces of the tree. So I've decided that i will refine my design by using Balsa wood. It is used in alot of model plan designs and is apparently very easy to cut. I also think this will be easier to separate into different sections as it will have a cleaner cut line.