FMP - week 6 (1)

I had decided my final idea to be the octagon design. I further developed the design by cutting parts of the pods on the left and right side, I cut it in a way that it would fit on to the edge of the middle pod. Over the weekend, I tried hand scoring a big polypropylene sheet, but it just started snapping again. Despite scoring very lightly, it snapped again, which made me come to a conclusion that it will only work on small pieces and not the bigger pieces. This made me decide to choose the octagon design as it is more developed and achievable to create, compare to the scoring method.  

Chosen idea

Floor plan

My pod house is meant for situating at any buildings with empty spaces. The location I chose is the Peabody Court flat at Roscoe Street, London. It is where I live, so I know the place well to know that there is a empty wall on one side of the building, and on the other side of the wall is a staircase. My pod house will be attached on the same floor level as the fifth floor (top floor), so to summaries the entrance to the pod house is by the staircase on the fifth floor.

 

What did no go well is that the wood I had was not suitable to be cut on the laser cutter. The wood was quite thick and on one side it has a covering, which is what made it so hard to cut. I had the laser cutter to go over the same design a few times, but it still did not cut through. I ended deciding that I will need to buy new wood. 

fail attempt to laser cut the wood after cutting over the same design over and over again

What I would do differently is that if I had more time on this project, I would carry on experimenting different materials and method to find a solution to create the origami tessellations. However, due to the time I have left, I got to move on from it and working towards a final outcome. Also, I will be creating two models, the first would be my pod house with the interior and the other would be my location (my flat), with my pod house attached to the model. This means that I would need to start right now making my model if not I might not be able to finish everything and meet the deadline date. 

What I will be doing next is to go to the 4D model shop to buy new wood. I will need to make sure the wood I buy can be laser cut. This is something that I will need to check with the staffs in the store.