Studio Report
Task: to use the least amount of timber blocks to build a tower as high as possible. The tower must accommodate a toy dog and have at least an open door.
Explore the efficiency of materials
Description and analysis of process In order to make a strong enough base to support the whole tower, we used masonry method in the most bottom four layers. The primary reason is that masonry construction allow loads to distribute equally throughout the structure. As depicted in the left sketch about the load path diagram of masonry structure base, we tried to keep two adjacent blocks occupying the same area on their nether block to make sure even compression force.
Firstly, think about the shape of the base, with the same length of radius of a space for accommodating toy dog, it is obvious that the round base uses less timber bricks than the square. Thus, we decided to make a circular base.
Secondly, as shown in the right picture, in order to achieve the goal of using the least blocks to build as high as possible, Type B is the most efficient. However, since the area of thrust surface is too small, Type B block will make the tower unstable. Thus, initially, we planned to use Type A at the bottom and Type C at the top to make sure enough area of thrust surface and try to make it relatively efficient.
The second reason is that masonry structure make structure very compressed. As shown in the red circle in the right photo, the blocks tightly keep together at the base. However, due to the circular base, there are some gaps between blocks externally. These gaps make the structure a bit loose.