3D Design

Our first project was to create a structure that could hold a litre bottle full of water. We could only use one A1 sheet, of paper, and our arms length of masking tape. I decided to create a six pillared temple design. The centre columns were slightly shorter than the others, this made the top and bottom a wave shape. The idea was to fit the bottle in the groove of the wave. However it did not work as I had planned, instead the bottle was only supported when laying between all six pillars with the heavy end further left!

 

 

The second task was to create a chair out of six large bits of cardboard, and limitless masking tape, that could support our weight. I decided to create a flower shaped design for the body of the stool. This proved very effective for structural support, and I enhanced the strength by folding the 'petals' in on each other to create a heart shape. However I struggled to get a decent seat for the stool and opted for a simple round shape, to create a final flower look. Although not very comfortable it could support my weight, and even the weight of 2 people!

Our next project was to create small bridge designs from A4 sheets of paper and masking tape. The designs had to be creative and original. I had one bridge made from a series of cones I had created, another I made by twisting a slither of paper which resulted in a croissant shaped bridge. The third bridge was made to look like the petals of a flower, and the last was made by interweaving strips of paper.

 



Bridge designs:

 

As groups of 6 we had to create a large bridge spanning 5 metres from one table to another. It had to be higher than 1.3 metres and be able to hold the weight of a remoted controlled car with a width of 23 cm. We could only have a maximum of 2 pillars supporting the bridge by touching the ground. We had a limited number of cardboard sheets to use.

 

 

We opted for an asymmetric shaped bridge, with a peak closer to one end.

 

 

To make the peak of the bridge less sharp we decided to create a suspension function. We had to sew many elastic bands along the sides so that the car did not fall off the bridge. We also had structural supports both above the bridge and below, and only used one point connecting with the ground.

 



 

The final project was to create a structure out of spaghetti that could hold three light balls. The aim was to make the structure creative and original, and as high was possible.

I created miniature structures from crossed spaghetti to hold the balls, and then worked on creating a large structure. I used a lot of glue for support, decoration and grip for holding the balls. The final product is delicate, pretty and meets the criteria.

 



Sketch of complete spaghetti structure.