Week 1 Knowledge Map of E-Learning:
Construction overview: (How did the design idea get translated into built form?) (Structural principle of the way the buildings are supported.) (Efficiency of structural system) (Basic science and standard architecture techniques.) Construction Materials: Strength-----strong or weak (E.g. concrete, bricks, etc.) Stiffness------stiff, flexible, stretch or floppy Shape-----mono-dimensional, bi-dimensional or tridimensional Material behaviors----isotropic or anisotropic Economy---availability, cost of production Sustainability----efficiency or whether they are reusable Load path: Life load: movable stuff like people Dead load: The unmovable stuff like furniture. Possible scenario: People gathering right in the middle of some particular area and results in greatest pressure on the structure of the buildings.
Force: Forces are defined by direction, sense and magnitude Compression force and tension force
Melbourne’s Bluestone: Melbourne----basalt Sydney---sandstone Perth---clay for bricks, limestone
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Tutorial session Be familiar with classmates in the classroom by understanding culture differences, asking and answering questions helps to develop the relationship and teamwork between classmates.
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Basic knowledge of forces and scales
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Force is a vector with direction and magnitude. Introduction of Newton’s Third Law that the force exerted on the object is the same force the object exerted on you.
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Compression force and tension force • Compression force indicates the force of scrolling and compressing, the direction of the force is opposite to the way you compress the object. • Tension force indicates the force of pulling or action of taking something apart, the direction of the force is also opposite to the way you pull the object.
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Scales can be used to represent larger elements in smaller format or represent smaller elements in a larger format.
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Represent smaller format: For example, the analysis of the structure of rivet requires larger scale of drawing in order to make it clear what exactly the components are. Represent larger format: In design ichnography of buildings, engineers would like to minimize the ratio between blueprint and real buildings, because it makes them easier to find out the exact structures and weakness associated with the buildings. Key terms or glossary: Load path: (the path where the reaction force goes) Point load: (regard load as one point) Masonry: (structure built by using bricks and stones) Compression: (opposite to tension) Beam Reaction force
Lecture content: •
Brief introduction of the materials students need during the studio sessions, including the following: Tapeline Rulers with scale Pencils with different thickness Markers with different thickness Triangular ruler Double sided adhesive tapes Makers with different colors
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Brief introduction of semester assignment and outdoor equipment during sessions on sites Logbook On-site reports Final Exam
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Simple load-bearing practical
Aim: To construct an appropriate paper structure that is can afford the pressure of the brick (approximately 2.5kg) without collapsing. (Papers can be folded and fixed by the sticky tape.) Materials required: • A piece of paper • Several parts of sticky tapes Possible structures and explanations:
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One of the possibilities is the cylinder with multilateral surface area. That is because the more sides on the surface, the larger probability that the structure is able to support the weight of bricks. If the surface area of the cylinder is pentagon or hexagon or any other multilateral shape, it can be observed that the more sides on the surface area indicates the larger stability of those structures, as more vertical columns can be made to separate the weight of bricks, so that the brick can be steadily sit on the top of the structure and physical equilibrium can be achieved.
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However, if the surface area becomes a square, the force can then be separated more evenly. We can regard square as multilateral shape with infinite sides,
therefore the shape of square might be the best option. We can also consider the scenario that we cut the paper into two pieces or more, and then roll the paper into two or more cylinders. Theoretically, when the brick is placed on those structures, it might seem to be more stable than single cylinder. However, it all depends on the diameters and side length, according to the definition of Pressure: Pressure is the ratio of force to the area over which that force is distributed. Pressure is force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure The diagram (1) on the left shows two standing columns supporting the brick, the contact area is a nice and flat square, so it is expected to have a stronger stability if the structure has a shorter height.
The diagram (2) on the right gives us one other possibility; we can lay down those two columns to reduce the height. However, the weakness is that the brick may not steadily sit on the curve, because the weight of the load can lead to the transformation of structure due to strong downward force. Conclusion and improvement: After this simple practical, I can conclude that the main factors affecting the stability of the structure: •
Different shapes Different shapes will result in different separated forces acting on the structure, therefore it is the most important factor as we mentioned before
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Different height Height of the structure is also affecting the stability of the paper structure when other possible factors remain
unchanged. The higher the structure is, the unstable it appears to us, so reducing the height can be considered as a good way to improve the stability. •
Different thickness of the wall The third factor is the thickness. Obviously, it can be explained by the term Pressure again, because it helps increase the contact area and reduce the pressure on the structure, so making a thicker surrounding wall after folding many more times can be seen as a good idea as well.
Studio Session During the studio session, we are intended to design and build up a stable structure by using large amount of timber bricks. There are several requirements for this task: Sufficient and certain base area of the building. Contain a doorway and roof of the building The doorway should allow a dinosaur model to pass through At the end of the construction, take off a few more timber bricks to make another doorway with certain size. Step 1: setting up the base The first procedure is not hard work, what we need to do is to place those timber bricks into a circle with certain diameter, so that we can have sufficient base area. When placing more bricks on the second, third or more layers, our team members come up with two different options: Leaving gaps between adjacent two timber bricks
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Leaving no gap between bricks
After discussion, we agree that it is necessary to leave some gaps, because this method enables each brick related to each other, which makes the building more stable. However, if we do not leave gap between each brick, it means only bricks on the same vertical line relates to each other, it may cause some specific columns to collapse, while other columns stand still, so we put on our bricks on after another like the picture below: Step 2: adding more layers and constructing a doorway As we tried to add more layers, our team members choose to place the upper brick a bit inside (roughly one third of the brick length), so that we can predict approximately ten or fifteen layers after, the circle will intersect at one point at the very top of the structure.
In the process, we can see the structure of the building is gradually becoming a conical shape, but constructing an open doorway was not that easy. We must make sure the bricks above the doorway were heavy enough to support the bricks in the middle of the structure. The general structure can be illustrated as follows:
Step 3: Finishing the construction and evaluate the weight capacity Even though we did many corrections about the structure, those bricks still seem to be messy, and it causes distortion when we observe the surface area. At the end of the construction, we are trying to increase the height by adding more timber bricks.
Our building can afford the weight of one water bottle, and more impressively, a box of timber bricks which has nearly the same weight as the structure.
Efficiency of Materials: Basically, those timber bricks have great ability of stretching and compressing, so when we put on them one after another, there is no need to consider about whether they will break apart or be twisted. However, what
is important for this structure is the gravity distribution, especially in the process where we intended to reduce the diameter and set up a roof. We can assume the materials in the bricks are nice and even, so generally this type of material worked fairly well in this construction. Comparison with other structures: The structure we designed and constructed is the most common shape among all the group members, because it is easy to put on bricks on different levels and the circle-based design saves large amount of bricks compared with others.
One other structure can be regarded as a column structure, because they kept the same diameter all the way to the top. This structure looks fairly stable because their gravity always stays in the middle, while what we designed might result in slight movement of gravity center. However, our advantage is the efficiency; we were able to build much higher than column structure, so we took the advantage with the consideration of timing. As shown in above pictures, it was clear that both structures are strong and physically stable to support approximately the same weight as them.
Reference list: 1. Newton’s third Law of Motion,  http://www.askiitians.com/iit-jee-physics/mechanics/newtons-third-lawof-motion.aspx 2. How tor read Engineering Drawings, Sarah Eliza, Aashi doger, Starynight7, Genius_knight and 3 others,
http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Engineering-Drawings