Professional Practice: Boards

This is an electronic version of my boards for Professional Practice.

 This is the section drawing that I copied over to create this section drawing.

 Above are all my rendered boards showing my experimentation by using Photoshop and sourced images to create the boards. 

Here is the original image that I took my line drawing from.

Above are the perspective images taken from my original image. I used found objects, created effects in them and added them in using the scanner. I then used Photoshop and used layers and transparency to create the effects.

Materiality and Fabrication: Exhibition

This post is a selection of research into the exhibition side of my design. I wanted to take the ideas from typical museum/exhibition spaces and develop it into my own work. I thought about adding sounds and images to stick to this idea and it will also be a good way to tell people about the history of my site.

Sounds:
I was thinking for sounds, surround sound could be a good option to help the noises echo throughout the ginnel. It could work well with the sensors as well as you can connect it up for certain sounds to play when certain sensors are passed over.
It works with several speakers which are placed in different areas to get the desired effect. Also to be considered is the left and right audio. This is used to split the sound perfectly in half to get the perfect mix of sound. Like with ear phones, you need a right and left one which balance out the sounds on both sides.

The Third speaker is the one that emits the dialogue and also the sounds that are in the centre, it makes it as though you are hearing everything from one place.
Lastly there are background speakers. These speakers give you the impression that you are in the centre of the action when your watching a film or TV. 

Lighting:

I thought that if the lighting was to be lit from below it gives it a better effect for people looking, it can also be balanced out by adding these types of lights to the ceiling as well so it gives a kind of a spotlight on the images and text etc. and the lighting in the centre will be given off the images from the videos.

Back lighting behind the text boxes could also work to highlight the text to make it easier for people to read and these types of lighting can also change during different moods. Lighting can be used to create different effects and I think for the exhibition different effects and moods will be apparent so lighting can help to create this. Lighting can be easily added behind boards, into flooring and into the panels themselves so it will work well in my designs.

Projectors:
The best type of projector to be used to add videos and images onto the different panels would be a ceiling projector. These are good for my site as they will not take up much space and are easy to assemble, especially on the extended roof.

An LCD projector would be even better because it works similarly to other projectors as it projects light through a filter to create an image. It gives crisper and clearer images unlike the general slide type projectors. It works well like this because it uses the 3 colour pixels; red, green and blue.
These 3 different coloured lights must be shown through their retrospective screens, which are then brought together in a prism to form the image. It is done by using mirrors, which put the different colours together to make the images.

As well as images, video's can be added onto projectors, using the same technique as if you were to project images. Having multiple videos on at the same time can be confusing so I would like some projectors to show images that relate to the videos so the viewer can understand the exhibition more.

Materiality and Fabrication: Technical

This post will show my in depth research into the technology and also the detail of processes. On the Future Life Blog you can see the information about the touch screen technology that was one of my initial ideas for what was going to be included in my panels. 

The panels themselves would be on a kind of runner to help them move from side to side. This will have the same effect as sliding wardrobe doors where when pulled the doors will open sideways instead of outwards. 

These runners can be added to the floor instead so that they run along the cobbles, but it may be easier to attach it to the roof of the ginnel, as well as the extended roof section that I included in my designs.

The panels will run on the runners, attached to the panels so that they move with ease. Making the panels light weight will help to make it easier for the panels to move. There is also the safety factor. If the panels were to move I need to consider how it will detect people and when it will move and what will alert people to this event. 

A timer could be used to activate the movement of the panels, so that to make it into the event that I would like, they could be set on a timer, like some other motion sensors (usually done by the effect of lighting) and then the use of sound, to be discussed shortly, will also alert people of the panels movement. 

Passive Infra-red sensors.

These sensors, also known as PIR sensors, are usually seen at shopping centres and supermarkets. A laser beam and a light sensor helps the sensors detect when a person is near, going off the drop in light. It can sometimes emit a tone to alert the person of the entrance, this could be good for my design as I could use the use of sound to alert people of the panels moving. 

Optical Sensor.

The automatic sliding doors use optical or motion sensors to activate the opening and closing function. They are typically the same as infra-red sensors that observe motion and are usually situated above the door. The mechanism for this wired to an electrified main drive train. This controls a clutch attached to a type of cog wheel and also attached to the door panels. The auxiliary drive and the doors are connected by internal belts which are usually made of rubber, which carries our the opening and closing of the doors. 

Tracks and Rollers.

The doors can be hung or installed in different ways depending on the type of door. Particularly in frame-less doors the doors are hung from above on head tracks and they do not make contact with the floor. These types of doors could also be mounted on one side with rollers and tracks make a connection with the floor plane, usually used with a single sliding door to balance it out. Finally, doors can be mounted in a metal frame with connections tracks and rollers both on overhead and floor planes. 

Another safety feature is a pressure sensor. Even though the sound/alarm will alert people in the movement of the panels, pressure sensors would be a good feature to include as if a person does get in the way the panel will stop until that person moves out of the way, then it can carry on moving as it should. 

The pressure sensor in the panels uses electricity in most cases to cause a type of serge in the technology to stop the panels from moving. There is also a kind of strain on the technology that lets it detect the presence of pressure, particularly from people.

These pressure sensors can also be included in the use of sound in my design. These sensors could trigger the sounds used in the exhibition, such as when people enter a specific section, they step on these sensors and make the sounds linking to the images around them. There are also lighting sensors that can be used in the space, so when people enter the different spaces in the exhibition, it will light up, this also saves energy. 

Materiality and Fabrication: Materials

Here I will discuss my research into materials, construction and processes that I have used in my Future Life project. 

One main thing I had to think about was the extension of the Ginnel's roof and my initial thinking was to make it out of a material that would withstand against the weather and also something easy to make and create. For some inspiration I looked into types of metals that would be suitable or sheet metal as my first idea was and also how to create the kind of archway to keep it going throughout the Ginnel.

Just to add the roof itself instead of a kind of archway I thought about sheet metal and like the image to the left, corrugated sheet metal could be a preferred material as it can easily be bent without using machinery. The gaps in-between the material will help with rain water as it will even it out and also make it easy to run off so it doesn't weigh the roof down.





Another idea would be to make it into a shelter design, but as there are already walls in the Ginnel itself it wouldn't be appropriate to make the space smaller still, but just by adding the roof will give that effect of enclosed spaces. A bus shelter was the first idea that came to mine as it is classed as a shelter and would work well within the existing site.

Looking through the internet I found a discussion website where people ask the general public questions about problems etc. and in this case it was a similar question to mine, creating an extended roof onto an existing site and what materials would be suitable to do this.

A few materials were mentioned and one of them was like the metal sheets but this time made out of non-asbestos fibre cement sheets which are not very expensive about £25 per sheet and they will last longer than plastic. They would be supported by timber with fixings and caps.

Another possibility to create this archway would be again to consider metal, this time steel in the style of re-bars (reinforcing bar) This type of material is quite thick and can only be bent by machines which would cost more money if it were to be made and also it has to be embedded into the ground to keep its shape and as I don't want to effect the existing site this wouldn't be appropriate.


Metals:

Steel is stronger than iron because of the elements in it. When hit, iron will crack where as steel wouldn't. Stainless steel is more expensive but won't rest unlike normal steel. Also an alloy metal which would be even stronger

Wood Textures/Grains

My first initial idea into creating the maze panels was to use wood. This was because wood was light and easy to cut if needed and also there are many finishes that you can add to wood that create a different effect. Like as an example use paint or finishes to create the look of brick on the wood panels.

Wood is also cheap and easy to buy and make so this would also be a plus for my design if it were to be made. There are also different types of Hard and Softwoods that can be used so there is excessive types of material that can be sourced.

Hardwood's:                                              Softwood's:

- Oak              -  Mahogany                       - Pine             - Fir

           - Maple           - Teak                                - Ash              - Redwood

      - Cherry          - Walnut                             - Beech           - Cedar

Hardwood's are more dense, which means that they are harder to cut. Hardwood's are usually defined as being deciduous trees, which loose their leaves in winter. 

Softwood's are less dense and opposite to Hardwood's are very easy to cut as the grains in the wood are softer to manipulate. These types of woods are taken from evergreen trees, which as the name serves are ever green even through winter.

MDF: 

Depending on the size and weight of both Hardwood's and Softwood's can make the price vary. As these types of wood are from actual trees, there is also the possibility of using MDF, which is medium-density fibreboard. This means that it is man made, and processed using both hardwood's and softwood residuals into wood fibres which is then combined with wax and resin, this keeps the wood together and it also makes it a lot stronger than natural woods.

Types of Finishes:

As the panels will be open to the elements I want to have a protective finish to help the sustainability. Varnishes are commonly used as they can have either Matt or high gloss finishes on it, also as well as they can be oil based ans water based substances. Less common are stains as they create a different colour on the woods, and even less favoured are oils and waxes as they are thicker and less easy to use.  

The wooden panels would be light and easy to create and looking at the image to the left, I have done a quick diagram of two panels side by side. Wood as a material can also be easily manipulated and there is also the possibility that an overlay or something of that kind come cover up the wooden effect and have a brick effect over the top. This will keep the panels lightweight with also the style/design of the bricks in the Ginnel.

Development.

A main idea I wanted to keep throughout is that I wanted my design in keeping with the existing site so As the Ginnel itself is made out of handmade bricks so I thought it would work well in my design to use general bricks or handmade bricks.

Handmade brick sizes are usually 215 x 102.5 x 50. Natural clay materials are used to mix together to make the bricks. They are cheap to make, easy to get and also are able to withstand the weather and other elements. There are different stages to combine the materials together to form the brick. You start off by creating the shapes , coating it and also drying the materials to make it a lot stronger and durable, finally you fire the bricks to combine them fully and make them stronger still. 

A flaw in using handmade bricks is that they take longer to make as the processes are a very different now and also nowadays more materials are used. Like modern bricks, they also stick together using cement  which makes it more safe and structural.

Here this image at the side shows the panel section actually inside the Ginnel itself. As I still have the idea of keeping in with the original site and its materials this is a diagram of actual bricks being used in the panels. The panels themselves will move as its development progresses in my designs and to make it look as genuine as possible, bricks seem like the more suitable material, also a masked idea that the material used actually is brick could also work, as it still gives the effect of it always being there.

Professional Practice: Models

These images show the progression through the sketch model part of Professional Practice. These are a step by step of how I created these pieces.

As the first model wasn't to a high standard and I wasn't happy with the end result, I decided to create a second model, taking into account more of the cutting side to create an abstract model.

NAFA Work

This is the work that I have produced with the NAFA students from Singapore.

This is my SPADE Awards video for NAFA. This work was taken from my Temperance Project. 

The above 5 images are taken from the trip to Grizedale Forest  These images are inspiration for the design. We used the style from the water and our words were cut and fold. 

The above 3 images are of our first model. We used the rock to represent the land, the leaf to represent the trees and also the wire and the foil to represent the falling water.

Below is the final piece that was created to reflect the flow of the water.

The above  images are a work in progress of our final design. These paper folded pieces represent the holly leaf. Going back to the initial words that we were given at the start of the trip, cut and fold, we took this literally and cut and folded the paper to show the leaf, we got a 3rd word, to open and this idea was fitting as you can open up these pieces of paper to resemble the change in the environment. 

This is the presentation for the NAFA students explaining my Future Life Project.

This is the video for my sketch-up walk through that gives you a clearer idea of the space within the alleyway.