Week one-introduction to construction This week's tutorial activity is tobuild a tower as high as possible using the least amount of material. The tower must be able to accommodate an object provided, so at least one opening is requied After constrution is complete start the deconstruction process, the stability of the structure should be tested even many elements are removed.
Step 1. Shape of the tower In order to accomodate an object, at least one opening is required. So there should be a hole in the middle of the tower. Compared to many shape such as triangle, square and polygon, we choose the shape of the tower as a circular. There are two reasons help us make the decision. Firstly, circular doesn't have angles and it is more integrity. Each elements contact more closely. It contribute to the stability of the structure. Secondly, according to mathematics, when the perimeter is same, circular could have more area. That's means circular saves materials.
Step 2. Building style As the picture shows above, our group chooses A,B and C three differnt orders to build the tower from the bottom to the top.
We choose order A to build the bottom of our tower. The stability of the bottom is the most important. In order A, different levels wooden blocks have large touched space and could spread the force to the bottom level, the reaction forces from opposite direaction ensure the stability of the tower. To sum up , the order A is the most stable order in the tower. About order B, it is similar to order A. We just change every one block in A to two blocks. At that moment, we just want to change the style of building to make the tower look good. But actually, the stability of B is not better than A. As shown in picture, two overlapping block slide easily which may cause the tower collapse. About the order C, the touched space between two blocks is ver small, so it is the most unstable one. However,because the stablity of the top part is not as important as the bottom and we want to save blocks to make it tall, so the order C is a good choice.
Step 3. Deconstruction process In deconstruction process, even a big long opening is made on the tower, the tower still shows the good stability. It benefits from the order which one block put on the gap of other two blocks. As a result, the blocks near the opening will not fall down because the forces from other two blocks. So i think our tower is successful.
Week one- Glossary. Compression: It is a structural force happen when an external load pushes on a structural member, causing a compacting of the particles of the material. Forces: Defined by fine of action, sense and magnitude(size). Point load: a force applied to the structure at a specific point Scale: To represent larger elements in smaller format, smaller elements in a large format and for practical reasons. Masonry: subset of mass construction. Point load: a force applied to the structure at a specific point