Dome Energy

It's almost time for us to leave the CAC.C and head home for a much needed break.  When I think back on the semester I know that every problem we had to overcome was worth it.  I wish our dome could have been on the corner of Marion Square where everyone could walk on it [...]

Bamboo Bridge

The first bamboo truss that will make up one side of our bridge is under construction in the CACC Shop. This is one of the most important pieces of our dome because it will be supporting the majority of the weight of anyone who crosses the bridge. Because it is so important we are spending [...]

Digital Dome

Over the last couple weeks we have found that 3D modeling our design is going to help us a lot when it comes time to build.  We started with simple dome studies and decided that we liked the dome that has all its pieces radiating from six points (second from right in the picture below). [...]

Moving Forward

Yesterday was our final design review with the client. The bamboo dome on top of the fountain was generally liked by the reviewers. It shouldn't be too difficult to construct considering all of the sections on the main dome are exactly the same curve just cut where the doors occur, as long as we can [...]

10 Heads Are Better Than 1

It's hard to believe this is the sixth week of school. We have been through research and two cycles of designs so far.  Tomorrow is the beginning of our final stages of design and there are still a thousand possibilities. The three designs from yesterday's review had different strengths and weaknesses so it will be [...]

Possibilities

After a few weeks of researching and brainstorming all the possibilities we are finally starting to design something. The hard part is figuring out what to design. Up until this point every project that I've worked on has had a given purpose and a program to follow, but this project is completely open. It could [...]

Research Process

Almost every design project begins with research. For the past few days our class has been researching anything that might give us some direction. Students have been researching ZanFanga's work and the work of his contemporaries. Other students are looking into insect and animal architecture, indigenous architecture, water architecture, and energy sources. William Katavalos does [...]