constructing environment week 2 studio journal
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week 2 studio journal, jianpeng deng, 657598TRANSCRIPT
Constructing environment
Week 2 studio journal
Jianpeng deng
657598
This week studio class, each one of us was asked to talk about what we have
learnt from the textbook. Also, the quiz test is started this week onwards. I got to
admit that I did very badly in the question-‐asking section and the quiz. There it
came to the assignment discussion, with the advice by the tutor, I finally had an
orientation of doing the first assignment, which is to find a family of cube shape.
And for the second assignment, I chose the SPANMAN option. The word I got for
the studio glossary is “truss”.
The class group work for this week is just like the one for last week, is to build a
“ta”. However, this time the material that we used is different, they are 25-‐string
balsa sheets and glue. The objective is to build it as high as possible, but the most
crucial problem is the base design must be strong enough to hold the whole
structure stable; because unlike the brick structure, the strings are soft and glue
hardly sticks the joints firmly if there is too much forces applied on the particular
joints. Actually, by the end of the tutorial, I learnt that the design of the structure
is also important. Here are the pictures of our group’s work.
Picture 1 Picture 2
Picture 3
The interesting thing is our “ta” was really high enough that it was the highest
among the three “ta”. However, it could not stand straight but have to lean
against the wall. There we then found out the reason why this happened, it was
because the height lifted up the center of gravity of the “ta” too much, and also
the base was not strong enough, hence if there is a slightly slant angle, it will lean
away and fall. Another interesting thing I have learnt is that, when there is a
force push the “ta” downwards, it will bend the strings to break apart right in the
middle, I guess this is due to the Newton’s second law, forces apply conversely.
Shown as image 1.
Image 1
By “destroying” other groups’ “ta”, we also conclude that, it cannot be built stiff
when the strings is not cut properly. In addition, due to the natural of the
material, which is the balsa strings, the “ta” would rather bend a bit than
breaking instantly; it is said as the flexibility of material. Shown as image 2.
image 2