FINISHED!!!!!

My work is all finished and handed in. I have valued this project as both a learning experience about modelmaking and how to research a project. I am looking to starting the next project after christmas.

Skills which I need to work on for the future include the use of dichloromethane with clear acrylic!!!!

In the final few days of the assembly we glued the pressure caps to their stalks, the original 2mm hole within the 3 mm rod didnt work due to tolerance issues with the 2mm rod. To overcome this we cut the stalk in half hrough the hole for a good bond between the tensile rod and the stalks.

The etching of the backboard was a success, we used two paper mock ups to test if we had everything in the right position and that we had omitted the correct lines from the drawing so there was cvontinuity with the model.

Alan did a couple of test sprays to decide which colour we needed to backspray the backboard. We chose a dark greay rather than a black. He achieved a good result with the spraying.

During the spraying process on the final day we think the spray room was too cold which was leading to the paint cracking on our concrete sections. Unfortunately the only solution was to strip back the concrete pillars and repaint them, In hindsight the painting should have been done much earlier on in the process to allow for any unforseen mistakes with the spraying process.

Another problem we had were dichloromethane burns on the acrylic glazing. This occurred when we glued the 1mm diameter acrylic rod to the edge of the glazing to mimic the mastic seal used on the actual structure.This was purely down to the timescale towards the deadline, however we should have built a jig to hold the acrylic and not fingers.

As the cnc components didnt work out right, I opted to cut them on the laser cutter instead. The thicker material would ensure they were visible without too much inspection and the form, shape and the role they played on the building was clear. As they were in two halves I had to assemble them also.



In hindsight all the parts for the tensile system should have been made in white acrylic. This would have meant that they would have required no painting and would have not left paint marks on the glazing of which there are a few small ones.

Once the model was up on its backboard my own personal opinion was that it lacked a context, I asked my team mates about lkaser etching the rest of the building onto the backboard to set off the rest of the model.



This was taken onboard so I emailed Catherine Smith of Wilkinson Eyre to ask her for the drawing. She sent it through, unfortunately none of the tensile system on the drawing was shown at the thickness we had built it. We had to increase the size of the tensile components to allow for continuiity with our model.



Above you can see the drawing of the etching for the backboard. Using this mock up allowed us to make minute adjustments depending on where our model was hittting the backboard.

For the glueing of the tensile plates to the beams we opted to use Superglue as it will bond platic to chemiwood instantly. Tom completed this exercise. We decided that for the tensile rods we would use 2mm plexiglas rod, over this slides another rod which the glazing compression plates are fixed to which we chose 3mm plexi glass rod for. We decided that to achieve the detail then we would have to drill 2mm holes into the 3mm rod. After Toms many failed attempts with a rotary tool, I opted to try myself using a pin vice. I used the jig that Tom had made to mark on the rod where the hole was needed. I then drilled through with a 0.5mm drill bit, followed by a 1.5mm drill bit and then finishing off with a 2mm drill bit. I was finding that drilling by hand was allowing me the control and precision to get the holes exactly central (with 0.5mm each side), the plexiglas wasnt melting like it did with the heat generated by the rotary tool. Although many of the rods were snapping with the last few turns of the pin vice. I was producing 1 unbroken rod to 4 breakages. I decided to swap the drill bit that Tom had picked. This proved to be the problem, the drill bit was blunt, I was hardly getting any breakages now.

After discussions between myself and Tom we opted to make the glazing panes from Acrylic. This offered the rigidity that we required instead of other less favourable materials. Although we did opt to use 2mm thick acrylic, if we were to make the glazing closer to the scale size then it would habe to have been much thinner. In light of this we decided that 2mm thich would be fine and not overdominate the rest of the model. I cut them using the circular saw. As the edges where the glazing meets would touch, paul suggested put some 1mm diameter acrylic rod in the joints to hide any dviations, This worked really well but was very difficult to attach to the model with just my fingers. This was proven by the dichloromethane liquid whe it doesnt touch the house.

For the glazing pressure caps we have decided to use the CNC machine due to their complexity based on their size. Tom has drawn the Rhino drawing and left me to manufacture them on the CNC machine as he has decided that a film students project is more important than our own! VERY FRUSTRATING!!! I have decided to manufacture the caps from ABS Plastic as the machining qualities are very good. After 2 days writing the programs for the cnc machine, we have opted not to take it further forward due to their size and the amount of finishing required. Instead I chose to laser cut them from 1mm thick acrlic and stick the square and cross together.

Due to the intricate nature of the plates and tensile structure we opted to laser cut the parts from 1mm thick acrylic, this would ensure that we got exact copies of each component and would be easier than cutting them by hand at this size. At a scale of 1:20 this scaled up perfectly to the 20mm thick plate drawn on the architects drawings. As the data was taken from our CAD drawing I used this as the data for the illustrator file for the laser cutting. I had to place a piece of acrylic under the sheet material as a sacrificial piece so that we didnt lose all the tiny pieces I had cut out. Fur the assembly I used the 1:1 drawing I had produced of the model to ensure that I was glueing the parts together at the correct angles for the correct locations on the building.

The model is beginning to take shape now with some of the key components coming together. The rocks in my opinion were taking far too long to produce, at this point they still weren't finished. The rock sculpting process which Alan is working on his own, has lasted the entire length of the project. His decision to make them from Blue foam may have proved costly for time as the foam requires protecting against fillers and paints. He has yet to contribute to any of the architectural elements.

Once the roof structure was built Tom used superglue to attach the roof structure to the beams, this ensured we got a strong bond between the two as it was a very fragile structure. I had produced the windows that are located in the roof from the cad data, if these were used as a guide for where to stick the plates to the beams then I wouldn’t have had to amend their sizes which I now had to do as they had been stuck together randomly, I had originally extracted the template for the windows from the CAD data. I clad the rest of the windows with the flashings required from white styrene, the zed flashing was made from one of the bought styrene channels cut in half, this proved to be a much more effective solution than making our own.

Roof Structure

We opted to make the roof structure from 'off the shelf' styrene channel http://www.plastruct.com/Pages/OnlineProductDetail.lasso which I sourced from http://www.terrainwarehouse.co.uk. I used the full size drawings to make sure that the ends of the channels were cut to the right angle and length to look like the angled structure.The lengths of channel were glued together using dichloromethane, the internal angles were a full channel cut in half.

Further to the concrete foundations not being made from thick enough plastic, we opted to design and cut a lattice structure from 2mm thick acrylic on the laser cutter, this will ensure that the profiles will be accurately cut. We will then clad it in 2mm thick styrene to ensure that any deviations in the alignment of the profiles will not be picked up as it was on the previous model.







The concrete profiles which were cut out from 2mm acrylic on the laser cutter. Assembly was crisp for one the structure which I assembled, for the other which Tom assembled the laser settings were slightly different so the profiles required a piece of 0.5mm styrene to pack them.

Concrete foundations.

Both myself and Tom have spent an unacceptable amount of time on the cast concrete foundations and still not finishing them to a satisfactory standard. Firstly we looked into making them from machined MDF. This idea was superseeded because we thought that they would take too long to make that way.



We then opted to extract the data from the 3D Cad model I have constructed and print cutting templates which could then be used to cut out styrene profiles.



We opted to make them from 1mm styrene which is too thin! It doesn't hold its rigidity very well at all and will not remain straight.



This then has an impact on the skin that we are using to clad over the profiles which in itself is too thin at 0.5mm. This creates a faceted appearance instead of a smooth curve.



After discussion between ourselves we are going to look at the possibility of laser cutting the profiles using the same CAD data from 2mm thick acrylic sheet, this will remove the tolerances that inevitably appear when cutting profiles with a scalpel. The material we are going to use to skin the profiles will be 2mm thick also, this will allow any deviations in the profiles to be overcome as the material should hold the curve required by itself.

Starting the model- beams!

The 3D model allowed us to extract template data for the beams which could then be used to cut them out. It was decided that chemiwood would give us the best finish. Although the architects drawing shows the beams with sharp corners, each of the beams would in fact be rounded off to a radius so we decided to show this to remain true to the look of the building once constructed.

Scale Change!!

When making the backboard it gave us a true feeling as to how big the model was going to be at 1:10, too big. On further discussion we have opted to make the model at a scale of 1:20.

Drawing Issues

Whilst I can convert the data contained within a PDF to work within a CAD package the information contained within a PDF is not as reliable as CAD data in a DWG. Converting the data is taking the line image and converting it into useable data, however dimensions can vary greatly from what they are actually supposed to be. As such the group was working from the same drawings, but the information contained within them could vary between each group member. We decided to produce one set of CAD drawings that we could all work from. I modelled the building in 3D to ensure that the information I was reading would enable us to build the model correctly and that everything would work together and fit. Producing a 3D model allowed a 'dry run' at ironing out any problems with the drawing information and also ensured that all team members were working to one set of data and drawings.

Through research into other models exploring architectural structures I have found the following two models produced by Inver Models to explore the structural components of the designs, again the models are finished in white.

Structural Model

This model is of the structure for the Mystic Marine Life Aquarium and Sea Research Foundation, Connecticut, USA. Whilst the model is very detailed once again it is one colour to focus on the structural detail rather than the building aesthetic!

Research Visit to London!

Yesterday I visited the 20th Century Architecture Rooms at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was particularly interested in the structural models exhibited, which feature the same level of detail that we are looking to achieve. I was quite interested to see that those I saw were finished in white and grey. This is something that could feature in our model, I will suggest this to the rest of the group. We can make decisions about the spray finishes once we have made the model!

Models produces by Grace Development Models for BAA Stansted:






Model produced for the Eden Project designed by Nicholas Grimshaw Architects

Scale change!

After a tutorial today we have opted not to do the whole building but do a section of the building at a larger scale of 1:10. This will allow us to accurately model all the structure at a larger scale and will produce a better model than we would have had at 1:50.

The Davies Alpine House- Kew Gardens

We have decided to build a model of the Davies Alpine House at Kew Gardens designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. The building is used to house Kew's collection of Alpine Plants and bulbs.
We decided to build a 1:50 scale model of the building. Within a brainstorming session as a group we have looked at possible ways to build the model and potential materials we could use, this allowed everyone to offer their experience of ways we could go about the model. See the attached images for our brainstorming.