7th -9th October

Project 1: Individual project task.

We were given the brief to create a concept model inspired by turmite mounds to be orientated on a north south axis with the bigger concrete covered end facing south. The idea was to have the south facing side largely covered with concrete to control the buildings temperature using an internal atrium that ran up inside the building largely inspired by the controlled heat in termite mounds (shown below).

After being given a pretty bizzar brief from a 3rd year achetect i set about coming up with a way of representing the concept model. Initially the 3 of us who had the same task talked about it and all came up with different ideas about it. Me and Edward wanted to make similar acrylic based models in layers to show floors but I wasnt sure about using styrene for floor plates , thinking that I would have trouble when it came to 'carving' the shope out of the bulk of material. Rob went for shaping the buildings from chemi wood and not including any acrylic to represent the windows but simply paining the finish to represtent where they were intended to be.

In the end me and Ed ended up doing pretty much the same design due to the amount of time it was taking us individually to complete one of the 3 towers needed.
On suggesting that we joined forces however our tutor Will said we had to do it seperatly. This proved to be very time consuming and quite wasteful as neither of us managed to get the 3 towers completed (only managing 2 each). However I went on the finish mine with a rather rushed baseboard (i should have just left it blank!)

Here's my finished (not how id like it!) model in the wooden baseboard made by Will Strange:

The basic design was to sandwhich acrylic and styrene together with dychlo and then carve out the shape of the 'mounds' using bothe machine and hand sanding. I then planned to either clad the 'concrete' sections with styrene.

The making process had many setbacks (the workshop being closed for most of the time didnt help!). By the deadline time the finish on the outside of the building hasnt even been started so it was presented 'as was' with just scrylic and styrene throughout.

This however turned out to have quite a nice effect when seen in the surrounding city scape baseboard and with light behind (the dychlo making interesting patterns with the light through the building). The prject certainly threw me back into the swing of things and jogged my memory to remember some of the skills I have learnt from the first year.