Week 2
With all the research done last week, I started to draw up some concept ideas. each had some influence from at least one area of research.
This idea is a collapsible staircase. I have thought of it during my research, but with further research on resin, I thought that, if I were to incorporate resin, people could add personalisation to the product. by having half of the original thickness on the stair board took away, you can put in anything customer would like to add to personalise their staircase. As sown in drawing, you can even make a mountain range by only cut away part of the material.
With this idea, I looked into the natural shapes of shell, how they have this beautiful curve. so I experimented on some of the curvy shapes for a sun chair. The chair will be laminated or it will be built on a flexible skeleton. Lamination is to ensure the material can bend ever so slightly, this way the user can have that bouncy feeling when sitting on the product. And the flexible skeleton is so that the user can adjust the position of the chair, and therefore to find the perfect position whenever needed. The material I have chosen to be bamboo, they are a fast growing and versatile material that is perfect for lamination and work with, the material is also cheap.
I looked into ideas for a swing. I took some inspiration from park swings, there is those basket where people can sit in them and swing. the surface area on those kinds of swing allows the user to lay back and enjoy which is one of the huge benefits to help people relax. The second kind is seating swing in a cocoon shape. This way the swing gives the user the ability to sit back and enjoy nature. These kinds of swing will also be lined with mat form moss, therefore, to achieve max comfort while using natural material. The last idea is simple. it’s to reuse fishing net and turn them into hammocks.
I was inspired by the innovation of having tents that are hanging from a tree. Most tents are to be pinned to the ground. and most ideas I have seen that is hanging from a tree, they all very cool, but if the weather was bad them their stability is questionable. So I thought, what about a tent that is wrapped around a tree? this way the tree itself is will become the support.
I was inspired by fish and radio. Here I am designing a radio that you can listen to the sound of nature anywhere around the globe. All ideas include the old fashioned channel slide bar. I also thought of using the outline of fish to show elements of nature. There are the back dorsal fins and just simple outline of a fish.
Models
Below are some simple models that I have made to test out my ideas
This was to show the collapsible staircase at it’s collapsed state
This shows when the staircase is extended, how people would walk on it
This shows the tent wrapped around a tree
This is a hammock that is made from Fishnet
Suns bench that is made to bend to the human body
Another bench shape inspired by shells
This is a model where the idea is that the material itself will be flexible and springy, this will provide comfort to the user.
This is a model I made using found objects. it’s representing a radio where the cutouts are the CD and the cassette player and the two knobs I took off of a car radio
This is one variation of the seating swing model
This is a model to show the disc swings, how it ould look with rope
This is another disc-shaped swing with a different mounting method
This is a swing where moss will grow on its skeleton and become a comfortable swing chair