1. Orthographic drawings

Isometric View 

        

      Front Elevation                    Side Elevation                           Plan View 

2. 3D model

3. Process

     

4. Final object

5. Final object + sculpture

6. Reflection

I’ve designed a chair that follows the body curve and that has a space to put one’s stuff in. I decided to use chipboard for the medium instead of wood because from the last polygon project, I’ve realized hard wood is almost burnt during the laser cutting, while soft wood is easy to laser cut, but easily breaks. Many of my classmates glued multiple chipboard, while I engraved line on the chair because I wanted to explore different approach.

At first, I could not imagine what my final object would look like. I could not find the connection between the sculpture and the chair. However, I learned about how to draw a perfectly proportioned figure by studying vitruvian man, doing figure drawings, and by creating the sculpture. For the chair, I enjoyed designing different chair designs and coming up with my own unique chair. It was interesting because every one has different looks, but every one’s face mostly follows the rule of proportion. I did not had difficulties doing the laser cutting as I did for the last project, but it was challenging to use Sketchup and draw orthographic drawings in a proper scale. However, I strive to do it by myself first and then ask help for Jose when I could not handle it. Unlike last project, I attempted to progress class by class, revise drawings, explore different approaches to prepare for the final.

Throughout the project, I learned how every objects are precisely scaled and is perfectly proportional to human’s body. This aspect has a connection to the projects and exercises that we’ve done throughout the semester. We started by learning basic elements and polygons that perfectly fits another and we applied that through re-arranging the polygons. I did not recognize the connection of the chair, sculpture, and rest of the projects, but I realized the final project was applying all the skills that we’ve learned into the real world and real object. Space and Materiality was a challenging course for me because I have struggle to scale objects accurately, but it was a thought-provoking and inspiring course, which I learned a lot and could apply these skills for designs that I am going to do in the future.

DRAWINGS OF THE NESTED SOLIDS:

DRAWINGS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL SOLID: 

  

Octahedron – Air

Hexahedron – Earth

Tetrahedron – Fire

Star tetrahedron (Merkaba) – the energetic body of the human being, the blending of Heaven and Earth, and Male and Female.

PROCESS:

PERSONAL REFLECTION: 

My first plan for this assignment was to create a dodecahedron at the most outside and a sandglass of two tetrahedrons, which contains small octahedron and cube. The meaning for my original plan was to represent the creation of world. The dodecahedron represents the universe and the two tetrahedrons represent Big Bang. Because of Big Bang (the explosion; fire), the world was created and therefore there is hexahedron (Earth) and octahedron (air) inside the fire. However, after talking with Jose, he recommended me to create a star tetrahedron with the small octahedrons and hexahedrons inside. Jose’s suggestion was a new direction, expect for using the octahedron and hexahedron being inside the tetrahedron, therefore the meaning totally changed, but I thought it would be interesting to experiment with different shapes.

It was my first time to work with such materials and to make such polygons and it was truly demanding for me. It was exiting to experiment with cardboard, wire, bristol, and straws when I was making the prototype. However, I think I was afraid of making a mistake when I am working with the final materials. From the beginning of class, we’ve learned how to draw polygons, but I never imagined our first assignment would be to come up with our own unique nested solid.

The process that I experienced was interesting yet demanding because I’ve underwent numerous trials and errors. I made the template for the tetrahedron and went to the laser cutting center, but the woods are almost burned out. Therefore I had to search for other material and decided to use soft wood, which was easily fragile. The bending machine in the making center did not worked well so I had purchase another sheet metal, cut individual triangles of octahedron, and connect them with wire. My most difficulty was to make the hexahedron fit perfectly inside the tetrahedron. The cube fit exactly when I created my prototype, but it did not worked well for my final nested solids. I wonder if I should have used thicker pipe or thicker wire for the hexahedron. Moreover, I used wire for all my connections and it was difficult to make a neat connection especially when I had to connect the tetrahedrons to make a star tetrahedron. Lastly, my wood was broken while I was carrying my nested polygon to class because someone bumped into me. I feel upset about this because I had to used super glue to connect the broken woods.

Throughout the project, I learned a lot about my surroundings because I never knew that our nature is this perfectly created. Furthermore, I learned how to be more careful and precise when producing something because I realized even 0.01 inch error makes the whole polygon a mess. I envisioned my nested solid to fit each other perfectly, which did not, but I am satisfied with my solid expect for the cubes. This project required enormous effort and time and even though I struggled a lot throughout the process, it was a thought-provoking and worthwhile project.