Studio 2 This studio, we practiced the idea of frame construction (Ching 2008). Unlike last studio, which introduced mass construction by building a tower with balsa wood, one of the most highlighted advantages of frame construction is the material-‐efDiciency. In other words, frame construction consumes much less materials than mass production to achieve the same height. Furthermore, this construction approach makes the products lighter than mass construction. Process of frame activity: 1. In order to increase the stability of the tower, we try to make a well-‐glued footing course by using “surface connector” (Ching 2008: 2.30). Meanwhile, we use triangle base as it offers stronger structure.
Pic 1, making the triangle base
2. Since the joints at footing course support a lot of pressure, we try to glue the surface as much as possible so that the joint could be able to reach its highest stableness. Here we apply the Dix joint because it “restrain rotation and translation in any direction, and provide both force and moment resistance.”(Ching 2008: 2.30) Pic 2.2, fix joint (Ching 2008: 2.30) Pic 2.1, Joint at footing course
3. The tower is built in three parts, every part contains a triangle footing course. Once again, the joint is an important component which forms and maintains the whole structure of the tower, so we apply the surface connector (Ching 2008) to every joint by gluing them together.
Pic 3.1, Combining part 1 and part 2 of the tower
Pic, 3.2 surface connector: joint
4. To further stabilize the tower, we try to reduce the spanning of trusses by adding bracing beam between two vertical loads.
Pic 4.1 joint & bracing
Pic 4.2, bracing
5. The resulting product:
6. When we deconstruct the tower, we Dind that the side that with bracing is tighter than other sides. Meanwhile, these Dix joints guarantee the structure of the tower. The tower bends when adding pressure on the top.
In conclusion, frame construction is a good approach when the structure requires light in weight and uses less materials. To avoid its disadvantage, lack of Dixedness, bracings and Dix joints need to be applied a lot. Pic 6.1, deconstructing...
Pic 6.2, flection at fix joint