FMP Week 5

For Week 5 of my Final Major Project I focused on making several models to then finally making a decision on the one I think works the best. I began by experimenting with unusual house designs that would stand out. I made some boxes to act as apartments and played around with them on how I wanted them to appear. At first, I wasn't sure where this would lead with a design but after experimenting it helped me out immensely. I also played around with using spiral type staircases in a house and played around with shapes in general. Once I made a few models and photographed them I then put them upside down, changed the angle of it and played around with it some more to see how it would appear from a different perspective. I found that once I had made several separate designs I wanted to then combine these all together somehow and make something spectacular that I would have never imagined making. I was using the trial and error experimentation technique, which sometimes didn't work or help me form an idea in any way but also helped enormously to help me invent an idea to draw up. After a long day of adding the models together and a lot of thinking I chose my design I wanted to further develop on. From this, the following day I began to use illustrator to draw up my design. At first, it was quite complicated to draw up everything to the right scale to fit as a whole but once practicing it more I was able to use it better. I decided I wanted to make my model to a 1:50 scale. After drawing up measurements and calculating the size for my laser cut I began with the design. Furthermore, I made huge adjustments to the design to then laser cut. I was then going to decide how I felt on the design from there onwards. I really enjoyed using illustrator and laser cutting my design, as I was able to develop it enormously into something I was quite happy with. In addition to this I drew out some floor plans of where everything was placed in the house and which rooms were which. Drawing the floor plans actually really helped in regards to designing it on illustrator and gives myself a wider view of how I want it to appear. After putting my model together I was really pleased with the design I had made but realised that it actually covered up the interior side of it which I spent most my time designing. This is something I need to develop on further and a problem that needs fixing as I was covering up all the work I had spent time doing. Later on during the week I began to research into Ergonomics and Anthropometrics as I found that designing a small model to scale or in general was something really important and needed attention to detail. I found that researching into these topics was something really knowledgeable and really interesting to me as it gave me a clearer mind into scale and made me think more professionally. Finally to end the week I did some research into materials such as glass and marble which I would potentially use inside my house design. I was able to gain a little more knowledge into glass especially and which types you would use in a holiday house environment. Overall, I believe I was back up to standard this week following my action plan accordingly and felt I was making significant progress with my final model and am ready to continue further into week 6 to finalise my model.

Figure 1: Apartment boxes (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 2: Test model using staircase, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 3: Adding test models together, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 4: Final test model, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 5: Laser cut design from back, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 6: Laser cut model, conservatory design close up, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 7: Laser cut model, (Authors own, 2014)