Model-It! Week 1 Class Exercise

Building from a base


The first given task for our first module was to construct a house with a set floor plan (scale 1:1). The elevations were left to our own creativity, with the exception that the model must be made out of balsa.

First task: Playing with idea proportions

I chose to explore the relationship between a perfect 'base width / height' by designing one elevation with the square part the same length as the base, and the other [shorter] end to have the full height of the elevation to fit the width of the base. The result wasn't as expected, with a distorted roof unachievable with balsa wood, that forced me to shorten one end in order to accommodate.


The results around the class from this short exercise displayed the variety of buildings achievable with the same initial base:

Same base, unlimited possibilities

A similar task was given for the second task for this days task, with the changes of boxboard in place of balsa, and the requirement that the building must contain at least three windows.
The challenge of this task was to consider the internal structure of your model- what will be seen, how internal supports will be hidden, whether or not there will be anything of interest to see through the window.
To tackle this, I created a series of screens or rooms- some that would be seen and the hidden ones containing any wall supports. 

One way of controlling what can be seen through a window

Of note is the way my UHU glue reacted with cardboard as oppose to balsa wood: extra care was needed on cardboard as it discoloured. To address this I applied glue to the inner edge of a wall, so that if it spilled over, it would do so internally and not spoil the external neatness.

The final task was to then join our two houses together (which hurt to break one of them, but taught us not to be too attached to our work).
In retrospect, I am disappointed in the lack of creativity when joining my models. What I took from this task however was an appreciation of the fragility of balsa (from seeing other models break when cut) and an understanding that the weight of the material is important, because my top house ended up unbalancing my new joint model.

The final product of our week 1 Model-It! class task