Finalising design ideas and Overcoming problems

First day back after the holidays we began to finalise our design ideas. This was so we could move forwards from the design process and begin building.

Although we are keen to move forward to building, we also do not want to rush the design stage. Throughout this week we have been discussing a few different ideas that we could begin to experiment with. These began with:

·        A hexagonal dome structure (completely enclosed)

·        A double screen height spiral structure (completely enclosed)

·        A double screen height spiral structure (partially enclosed)

·        A single and double screen height spiral structure (partially enclosed)

·        A single screen height spiral structure (partially enclosed)

As you can see from the list above, we had a range of different ideas. We were keen to discuss some of these with our tutors as well as be able to gain more information from them about what the rooftop project committee are looking for, for their space.

Having discussed these with our tutors we discovered some potential problems. As I had already raised in one of my previous posts, I as well as the rest of my group have little knowledge of building a structure and making it structurally supportive. Earlier in the week we had visited the metal workshop to ask for some advice on how we would go about attaching the screens together. They were very helpful and offered to help construct our structure when we came round to it. However, our tutors were still had their concerns.

The main problem was regarding the safety of the public and the tenants of the building. In my practice, health and safety rarely restricts what I can do, which is something new I am learning this unit. The issue we have with safety is creating a double screen height structure as it could potentially collapse and injure someone if it's not secured well. From the advise we were given we decided to rule out the possibility of the hexagonal dome structure; with the risk of collapse, a dome structure seemed a very complicated idea with the time we had left and for students who had never constructed anything of this scale before. However, the possibility of choosing one of our ideas using a double height structure also appeared less favourable. We were told that if we could prove the double height worked with physical evidence in the next couple of days then we could go ahead, otherwise we would need to rethink our idea.

Proving the double height was structurally sound enough that it would be approved by the health and safety team was seeming more difficult that we first thought, and was becoming almost impossible with the time we had left. India, Katie and I were aware that we could not focus all our time on the structure; we needed to be more realistic about the amount of work we still had to do. We agreed to be more simple with the structure and keep it to all single screen height. This would give us time to focus of the other elements of our project. We drew out some design sketches that show what we are trying to create and the size we would want it to be.

At this point in the unit we are over half way through. Although I am confident our idea is well thought out and well research, I am finding that some members of the group seem to be less enthusiastic and are becoming more uncooperative the further we have gone through the project. I have noticed this more the past week, and have found it is making it difficult to push our ideas to where they need to be at this stage of the unit.