DOWEL JOINT (SOLID PINE WOOD)

I had already done a solid wood house as a previous model in the project. I wanted to re develop this particular model and in a sense dissect it. So what i have done is used dowels to separate the house into two sections. This gives the model character and interest. the fact you can't see the joint makes it more aesthetically pleasing, its a sense of secrecy. something thats hidden but you can see inside the structure if you please.

GRASS & ICE

INSPIRATION FROM REINFORCED CONCRETE IN ARCHITECTURE

A famous architect ho worked with reinfocred concrete in his villa savoye was le corbusier.

The notion for this house model came from construction techniques.I am intrigues by how simple hings such as steel rods can re in force concrete in buildings and structural work of large scale. I had previously made a house from ice and wanted to apply strength to its structure in a way that is both physically and aesthetically beneficial. Grass was something that i thought would work whilst looking great at the same time.

Here is the finished result...

THE PROCESS
1) i used my gellflex mold as a way of creating the house shape/form. It worked before with clay and water so applying grass as a strength method should work too. The grass blades came from my back garden and were simply wedged into the mold with slight pressure and force.

2) As soon as i had enough grass in my mold i applied water to the content. When put in cold temperatures the molecular structure of the water will change drastically ultimately transforming the water from a liquid to a solid (ice). The time taken for this process can vary but i found that after 3 hrs in the freezer it was strong enough to hold as a solid house form        ")

WIREFRAME ELASTIC BAND

HOUSE ANALYSIS

The house looks great with the bands acting as additional strength to the structure. the afferent colours on the second layer give the house more interest and essentially a character about it.

PROBLEM HIGHLIGHTED

I had already done a wooden dowel wireframe model but unfortunately it snapped in one of the dowels. As a result i wanted to re complete the same model again using more glue and applying an additional two dowels to each side for strength. As a way of obtaining a model with multi materials i decided to apply elastic bands for both aesthetics and strength function. the initial notion was that the band would maintain and essentially hold the structure together with tightness (obviously this did not work successfully).
THE BANDS
YELLOW - thin, 6cm diameter flat
PINK/PURPLE - slightly thicker in both width and height diameter, stronger, elasticity 


Whats shocking to see is how the elastic bands have changed the form of the wooden dowel frame. I left the structure standing for the weekend and found out recently after that the joints on the wireframe model had broken due to the elastic pressure of the bands. 
BRITTLE JOINTS
I want to explain in depth why the joints ultamately failed the house model. 
Firstly its down to the process method of actually joining each individual wood dowel together. Because i used glue (hot glue gun) there wasn't enough strength in the joint. Although it looks like i have covered the joint completely in glue in-fact most of it has just set on the wood (doesn't have any effect on the strength of the joint). 

The bands are trying their hardest to return to their original shape which is understandably less than that on the house model. This results in a elastic energy which pulls/bends the frame of the wooden structure inwards to its core. Whats happened here is two of the joints have been unable to cope with this force and turned the house inwards to a more deconstructionist model. it looks more intriguing but unfortunately isn't what was required in terms of meeting the dimension criteria.

ICE

I had always wanted to create an ice mini hose model. I initially thought that it would come out transparent and not translucent. this meant that the final outcome wasn't as clean or sharp as intended. however in the first photo it seems to be floating?

'THE PROCESS WAS SIMPLE'
I used a gel flex mold and filled it with water. the whole process for it to set to a solid took around 3 hrs and the result was great. didn't take too much effort to remove from the mold.

THE ICE EFFECT
I wanted to shine a light through the structure in order to obtain a 'light effect'. However this was during the day so it was too light to capture the shot. I went into my room and darkened it but it didn't give off the same effect.  

CANDLE WAX

Originally i would have used this material as a cast in a mold. I already had the mold ready but unfortunately didn't have the wax at my house. 

Tools
kitchen knife
plastic ruler

THE PROCESS HAD ITS PROS AND CONS...
The only way it was possible to create the house form was to carve from my mums candle. The candle i used was lime scented and cylindrical shaped. I didn't think that the fact it was cylindrical shaped would affect the process, however i soon found that i was wrong. 

1) The first step was to mark onto the face of the candle the 'area of cut'. i did this by positioning my ruler against the candle and scoring the surface at 8cm (the chosen dimensions for the house models). From this it was simply a case of removing the excess wax (unneeded). 
2)With the length sorted out i just needed to repeat the process for the other sizes of the roof and front/back elevations. 

THE MATERIAL
What i thought the candle would be made from turned out to be completely different. You see, i assumed the whole candle was made from pure 100% green wax. So i went into carving with the idea that it would be simple and easy to do. You can just see from the pictures below that the candle is in fact a mixture of hard and soft wax, i assume for the purposes of burning.

When carving from the candle, i found that 'chunks' were removed instead of small bits of wax. this meant that it was noticeably more difficult to carve my house model. This problem is apparent in the aesthetics of my house as you can see...
       
        1) the roof is slanted
        2) the base isn't flat
If i was to make a wax house next time i would make use of my gellflex mold to obtain a more accurate result (closest to the given dimensions).

WHAT IS MODEL MAKING

Model making is using materials to produce miniature replicas or copies of something. In architecture for instance models are made as a way of understanding scale and structure. It is vital that the relative proportions of the desired object is kept the same.

Many architects have used this technique of visualizing buildings in their work. Architects such as Le corbusier, Frank Ghery and Frank lloyd wright are my most influencal.

LE CORBUSIER. VILLA SAVOYE MODEL 1928
This photo shows le corbusier alongside his villa savoye model. It was unclear online as to the material he used but im presuming its either card or thin wood such as plywood. The model of the house is to scale and enables the architect to analyse and evaluate the building before any real construction takes place.

 FRANK GHERY

 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

list of possible architectural model materials.
card stock
balsa wood
basswood
taskboard
foam
foamboard
plywood
paper
chipboard 
cardboard
aluminium wire
steel sheets
PVC

Ways of creating.
3D printer
band saw
hot wire
laser cutter
scalpal with steel rule
scissors
folding
bending
tearing/wripping

List of joining processes.
Super glue
Hot glue gun
welding
sellotape
double back tape
tak

WIREFRAME

Whats interesting about the wire-frame model is that the material is continuous, it's all follows one line. This in itself makes the model unique and effective in it's concept. 

The construction approach
-this originally started out as a single piece of wire. The joints are made possibly by simply using my hands. As a way of obtaining near enough precise dimensions i rested the wire against a ruler and marked a pencil stroke where i needed to bend. 

The model itself doesn't look too great in terms of its precision. Due to the materials properties it becomes extremely difficult to obtain a straight edge. When holding the wire I actually realised that I was affecting the edge without wanting to. Also the bends themselves are not 'sharp'. By this I mean that te corners are bent rather than perpendicular. They aren't sudden turns that you would see on some of my other models such as the paper and foam houses. As a result to this it is a lot harder to measure the dimensions of the model as you won't know where an edge actually ends.

FOAM

This material is unusual when you really start to think about the way in which it moves (is able to bend and shape in relation to other materials). 

Aesthetics

Initially i wanted to create the house using four different colors of foam. However i felt that this would distort or draw away the attention form the models dimensions an form. As a result i was able to obtain a perfect house model that looked pleasing to the eye. If you were to place this particular model against a white background the result would be much more appealing than say the picture below (beech wood table).

The construction approach

-Using one sheet (16cmx20cm) i marked the four desired shapes. Pencil doesn't show clearly on black foam so i used red pen and a ruler for straight edges. From this i then cut out the shapes using scissors.

What was vital in the marking and cutting out however was understanding that in order to sustain precision, i have to remove 5mm or so from n edge. This was because when joining the pieces at their edges more width was added.

-i tried different techniques for connecting together the pieces however found the best method was sellotape. Obviously this doesn't look to great on the outside but workd great in holding the structure firmly together.

TINFOIL

The tin foil house soon became the most challenging of all my models simply down to its delicate structure and capability to tear easily. This property of the material narrowed down the amount of construction ways possible, for instance using complex joints would not work. I soon realized the only realistic way of doing this would be to create the net and join using flaps...

The construction approach.
The only way that i felt the model could be made strongest and most stable was by using the net method. I tested joining processes with prit stick and soon found that it wasn't enough to hold it together. My reply to this was transparent sellotape. The aesthetics to me were most important with this particular material. It shiny reflective surface and indented structure looks beautiful when light is portrayed upon it.

evaluation of material.

Tinfoil isn't the strongest of materials, intact its completely on the other end of the scales. The name tells me what the material is formed of... its simply a thin foil sheet of tin (extremely thin in fact) 0.0052cm thick. This feature of the material means that it it is extremely malleable - means the foil can easily be shaped.

TRANSLUCENT ACRYLIC

By translucent I mean that you can slightly see through the material. The definition online is 

"(of a substance) allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semi-transparent"

This material used for this particular model is a type of plastic. What's great about this is that it can bend with ease ( malleable) and maintain its shape afterwards. Usually with some plastics you change the shape and it bounces back to its orginal structure, these materials are considered 'smart'. The plastic use for this house is originally from a standard A4 folder (used to protect paper documents so I knew it was reasonably strong).

The construction approach.

-I drew onto the plastic using a pencil and a ruler. The shape was simply a representation of a shell (21.4cmx8cm). I did not want to show the front and back faces, by not showing them I allowed the viewer to imagine it visually.

-I marked the lines of bend (the places where I would shape the material around to form the house). 

-I allowed an extra 3cm on the end of the shape to act as a flap in which the ends could be connected. For the joint I used a glue gun. 

Aesthetics

I love the folds on this house model, due to the properties of the material the plastic noticeable changes colour (white and less transparent). I can't help but feel this is due to the material weakening  or stretching when being folded.

PINE WOOD

This block started as a 10 x 12 wooden piece. At this stage i hadn't  created a solid house model so to me this particular piece was unique. The original block of wood was also uneven (wasn't not a perfect cube/cuboid shape). This consequently produced difficulties in obtaining my miniature house model to scale with all the correct dimensions. If the original block of wood had of been a perfect cube I could have used the edges to produce perpendicular lines that gave me my 90 degree angle.

The construction approach.

Using the band saw to cut the wood was vital. Its by far the most simple and quickest way of removing the excess material. Gloves and goggles had to be worn during the process in order to prevent any injury or damage to my eyes and hands. 

-Firstly i cut two sides of the wood block perpendicular to each other. From this the house construction was made easier to carry out. I then marked onto the surface of the wood the pencil lines for cut (the points at which i could remove unwanted wood leaving the house structure)

-From here onward it was simply a case of marking the correct dimensions and cutting along the edge using the band saw. In order to make sure i was on the line perfectly i cut just outside the mark. This enabled me to then proceed onto the belt sander to remove the rest with a smooth flat surface finish.

Evaluation of material

WOOD DOWEL

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of this particular model are different to other house models that I have made. It's consent is the reason, usually I would have solid plains of material covering the surface but in this design it shows only the wireframe. So I am only showcasing te edges of the house model and in a sense allowing the viewer to visualise or imagine what the rest would look like...it's almost like there is material covering the structure but it's not patently noticeable. 

The construction approach.

-the original dowels came in equal lengths of 20cm each. I realised before I started making the model that due to the properties of the material you can't possibly bend it to a 90'. It simply just doesn't work, the wood snaps after slight adjustment in structure.

-knowing this I realised the simplest way and possibly the only way of doing this would be to cut the correct sizes and connect using glue or some sort of liquid adhesive. So that's what I did. 

The structure is considerably strong and can withstand slight pressure from above. At the start of the construction of the model the glue did not allow for change. In other words I had to make sure that I was as accurate as possible when connecting separate pieces together. 

PERSPEX

By far one of the most pleasing of houses was the Perspex model. It proved to be the most aesthetically pleasing and strongest of the street collection. 

The construction approach.

Initially I started with a raw (30cm by 65cm) 4mm plane of Perspex sheet. The plan at the start was to bend the edges of the house using no heating methods but on my first attempt the material proved to be too brittle. Heating and bending plastics wasn't something I have experimented with before but I knew it was possible with plastic...

-on CAD photoshop a friend and I constructed a shaded region of the model on which to cut. One of the many formats the laser cutter accepts are JPEG files. So I rendered out the PSD file into a JPEG ready to send to the laser cutter. Using another software linked up to the machine I made it so the shaded region was and outline only (so that the cutter knew what lines to follow).

-then I allowed the laser cutter to do wha it does best. The process of cutting into the material took around 2 minutes so wasn't too time consuming. 

-once completed the shape simply popped out of the Perspex sheet leaving a template. This sheet could now be recycled or reused by another student if needed.

-now I knew from my first attempt and bending the Perspex that it wouldn't work without the aid of heat. Thankfully we have a machine in the 3D workshop that bends plastics. The angle at what it does so is up to you...

It involved placing the material over the how wire and allowing the heat to change the molecular structure of the Perspex. The material becomes weaker and from this easily bends. In order to check that my bend was correct I used a tri-square as my guide (90• angle) 

LASER CUTTING PROCESS BREAKDOWN

KITCHEN CLOTH

                               

The material used for this miniature house is kitchen cloth. Due to the manufacture company the colour is blue/white and has cross patterns over the surface. I actually really love this as it gives the house a character, almost it's own name if you like. The pattern also came in handy when I was constructing the model. The lines act as guide lines and I was able to check against the cross sections to see whether I was obtains a straight line or not. This came in handy as it ultimately had an effect on the accuracy and precision of the house. 

the construction approach. 

originally from a pack of ten the cloth came folded up into 4 sections. It was noticeable and obvious that the more layers the stronger the surface of the cloth was. I took this simple information and dissolved it into my mini house model so that it would stand stable and replicate the given dimensions on the brief. 

-firstly I stuck together the two pieces of cloth to give strength to the structure. Then I was able to work much more effectively  

-fold the length of the cloth into 5 sections (3 of which being 5cm in length and the other 2 being 3.2cm)

-then I split the whole cloth into one strip still with the 5 folds present. the strips width was now 8cm (that of the houses width)

-the only way I could connect the strip either end was to form a flap at one end. I sprayed the flap with 3M SPRAY MOUNT and applied pressure to the joint. This consequently looked clean and had a crisp finish that I'm proud of.

CARD MOUNTBOARD

The aesthetics.

The material is formed up of layers of paper. This feature of the card means that unfortunately when bent it starts to tear or break away from each other. This doesn't look great but supports a 'rugged untidy' look. Almost like brutalism in architecture.

The construction approach.
-The material started as an A4 sheet. Because card is easy to mark with a pencil i decided to use this method and construct the outline of the net. 
-I then used scissors and cut out the form marking clearly where to make the bends.
-It was then simply a case of bending and connecting together with hot glue.

Faults with this model.
As you can see this house is not perfect in its dimensions. I miscalculated the roof length and as a result i have this gap at the peak of the house. Not only this but the house model actually has the glue visible on the outside. I didn't want this but realised that on the last joint there was only one way to connect the pieces together; from the outside. 

GRID PAPER

Made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through. Originally developed for architects and design engineers to create drawings which could be copied precisely using the diazo copy process it found many other uses; the description evolved to include transparent paper. The original use for drawing and tracing was largely superseded by technologies which do not require diazo copying or manual copying (by tracing) of drawings. Taking this material out of its comfort zone and using it for another purpose was interesting. 

PAPER

This next model is possibly the most simple to make. Made from paper and prit stick the house is fragile but strong enough to maintain its stance. The properties of this material meant that bending the correct angle was possible. 

the construction approach.

I knew that I could obtain a seriously accurate model using this material. I've worked with paper and knew that I could draw and fold into it. I wanted to construct the house a little differently than any of the others and so I followed the 'net' route. This involved the following stages...

-drawing the net onto the piece of paper accurately to scale ready for cut out.

-then using a steel rule and knife I was able to cut perfectly against the pencil line on my net. I also remembered to cut just on the inside of the line so that no pencil marks could be seen in the finished model (aesthetic appeal)

-with the flaps out I used a standard glue stick and connected the faces together. The finish on the edges came out really well. The idea was so that the joints could not be seen leaving the viewer near clueless on how it was made... I feel this was achieved. 

PVC PLASTIC

I had some left over PVC plastic from a recent project and wanted to recycle the material (make it useful for something else). I knew that the material would be ideal for the mini house as it is strong in terms of its properties. Also i really like the aesthetic appeal this material gives off when polished ad cleaned up.

the construction approach.
In terms of making the mini house I first experimented by bending the PVC. The initial idea was that i would form the house using just two different cut outs, one for the roof and sides...the other being the base and front/back of the model. The greatest angle of bend i wanted to achieve was 90°, the smallest being 38.7°. What became obvious early on was that due to brittleness of the molecular structure, after some pressure the material actually snapped. This is the only method that 

dimensions for model

before i start the project i wanted to know exactly what im working with. consequently i decided to make a computer model on sketchup. Whats great about this is that it acts as a self reminder so i can easily come back and check my actual model against the CAD replica. Not only this but i wanted to find out the length of the roof and the angle at which it comes of the vertical plane.

38.7