Constructing Journal wk2 Betty Xiang 09/08/2013 This week we brough many pieces of cut balsa wood to the tutorial class to make a building stable and looks high. In the process of constructing, The main problem that we met is our wood did not be cut in a good way and this makes it very easy to be broken. From this problem we can find that the quality of the material is very important to determine whether the building is stable or not, therefore, choose a good material is necessary during the constructing.
Going back to the structure of the building, we chose the triangle as the shape of the base which is the most stable frame when making a model. The other two groups in our tutorial class who also chose the triangle frame in that situation, because all of us were aiming to find the best way to make the wooden building can be stronger. From this, we can see that when we are going to decide to make a building, then the frame is the most basic thing that we need to consider and it is the foundation to build a architecture better.
During the checking time, we found that the most easily broken place for a building where is the joint of it, when tutor is going to destroy the building and push the force on it, the first place to be broken is always the joint point. Thus we can find that how to handle the joint point during constructing has to be focused, and we may also need to consider what kind of joint to be used like fixed joint, roller joint or pinned joint in the future constructing.
During the working task, I also noticed a problem what I have mentioned in the previous journal which is about compression from the top of the building towards the lower of it. From the left image, we can find that although the building is definitely very high, it still makes a problem that the building has to learn on the wall to stand. Firstly, this may caused by the base is not very stable and firm. Secondly, this may according to the structure of the top of the building and the body of the building is totally same, which make the body of the tower cannot bear all the force form roof’s compression. Therefore we can see that how to ensure the building is in an equilibrium situation is very significant from designing a good structure of the building. As the conclusion, from this week’s task ,we can see that how to ensure the good materials of a building, how to design a stable frame for a building, how to fix the joint point of a building and also how to deal with the compression of a building are all eventful during constructing.