After wrapping up our earlier 1:6 physical scale models, this week was all about stepping up to the real deal. We officially crossed the finish line on design development, culminating in a highly successful 1:1 prototyping iteration that proved our structural concept could stand firm at full scale.
We also received a massive boost to start the week with the arrival of our generously donated wood from Upper Canada Forest Products and Accoya. The team spent the first part of the week unloading, organizing, and moving the entire delivery into the workspace.
(Photos Taken By Andy Nguyen and Allie Male)
Students Work Together to Unload Materials
With our materials prepped and the precise node and edge details completely locked in, the team enthusiastically shifted gears from theoretical testing into full-on production mode. The workshop floor has been bustling as we started utilizing the CNC machine to its full potential, creating our nodes and members every second we could get.
CNC Cutting the Nodes
Workshop Technician Filip Tsiler
Testing the Fit of the Node
It has been incredibly thrilling to watch the newly arrived raw materials be cut, routed, and trimmed into the actual, full-sized pieces of our installation. Seeing these individual components finally take physical shape is a massive milestone that makes the upcoming assembly feel more real than ever.
Though the winter of the New Year puts the planting of the spring far from our minds, this April the [R]ed[U]x Lab will once again return to the Gladstone Hotel to exhibit Terrena at the 2016 Grow Op event. Always experimenting with new media and unconventional ideas, Terrena proposes an installation that hovers in the middle of a room whereby users can see the often hidden (but nonetheless intricate) network of roots from below. If it were easy, it would not be worth doing.
In the words of the team:
"The project will be installed as a part of the 2016 Gladstone Hotel GrowOp exhibition that celebrates landscape, gardens, art, and placemaking. Terrena’s surface is a manmade landscape made of modular plants that takes precedent from the topography of the historical Toronto Ravines. Our installation, Terrena, creates a unique experience for visitors through procession, as the installation will be placed above, underneath and at eyelevel to the visitor as they process. In addition, the installation reveals the underside of the plants, exposing the root systems to the visitors. Visitors can physically and visually experience the underlying system that allows nature to prevail over and through manmade landscapes. The installation celebrates the rootal systems that are usually unseen. The project will give insight to visitors about the complexity of the root system as well as the persistence and prevalence of nature over our manmade landscapes. The overgrowth and overarching of the plants over the infrastructure will exemplify the idea that nature cannot be controlled despite our efforts. The venue is the alcove/lobby space of the 2nd floor at the Gladstone Hotel. The installation will consist of modular pieces put together to create a whole. The installation will be selfsupporting with light supporting elements to appear as if it is floating."
Society has become defined by webs of communication. Never before has a message been as widely distributed as has recently been allowed by modern technology. With this distribution comes distortion. A message becomes more abstracted the more people pass it along; an inevitable case of broken telephone. Stratatone replicates this concept. A pattern (the message) should be simple to repeat, yet as the commotion of those around it increases it becomes distorted; moving, growing, shrinking.
The project consists of two stepper motors per drawing surface. A base code runs the pattern which in a perfectly silent space would remain constant. As people traverse the surrounding area, noise peaks amplify the form and create a unique image over the course of time.
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