Assignment 4 Scott + Bobby

Our original CNC joint was a screen bi fold type door that would rotate upon a central axial join to allow for different spacial and light conditions within the hikers' sleeping quarters. The joints allow for a set of different ways to privatize and bring in light to the specific hiker unit. Since the CNC time we used, we have drastically changed the design. Through many iterations and talks with our instructor the piece has now become a storage device, light source, and convertible surface for the sleeping quarters. The new design is a triangular envelope where connections are made through half laps, and slotted pieces of wood. It also contains a pivot joint the allows for specific pieces of the furniture to rotate downward and become a surface the hikers can use to place their personal items when they sleep. There are two pieces within each hiker module. One is used as a light source directed over the bed and the other is used as a storage device. All in all our design has changed drastically and since our CNC project which has helped iterate through our design process and conclude upon a useful and interesting piece.

Assignment 4: Chandler Archbell & Brian Bollens

For our furniture piece, we designed a bunk system that was suspended from the northeast side of our bath house.  Due to this exposure, our bunkers woke up to a wonderful view of saco lake and Crawford Notch.  However, in the case that they did not want the sun to wake them up, or they just hated seeing nature from their own bed, we designed a shutter to close off the window.  In our connection detail, we focused on how the door meets the rest of the bed enclosure.  First of all, we designed to door to be flush with the wall when it was opened and closed, making the whole enclosure appear seamless to its inhabitant.  We also cut out a curve in the ceiling of the bunk that accentuated the door's movement.

We only mocked up the top corner of the bunk systems.  We used reclaimed particle board desktops because plywood is so overrated.  This is the door in its closed position.

Good morning Brian!

The door seamlessly meets the wall, while its movement is articulated by a simple curve.

After we made our first mock up, we realized that the door did not remain flush with the inner walls once it was moved to its closed position.  Because our seamless idea was only true half the time, we needed to further develop our joint.

I see the seam!

This was our new design.  It involved cutting a slight arch out of the side walls.  Our door got a 45º cut so that there was only one, seamless point of contact.

We did our research.  The ideal hinge was a Rockwell SOSS invisible hinge.  It becomes embedded into the wood, and it is perfectly flush with the wall when closed.

Assignment 4 | Mark and Kirk

In our initial considerations for our furniture we focused on how it could act as a dynamic piece that connected spaces together. At first we thought the furniture might wind its way throughout all the programmatic elements in our baths and become a kind of vine off of which useful programmatic elements grow.

In the end we boiled down this connection and unity into having one function - we ended up choosing sleeping - that the furniture could unify, and went off from there. At first we focused on how the units would relate to each other in terms of privacy and screening. This led to an exploration of openings based on views, privacy, and air flow.

For our final prototype we mocked up a corner joint connection where the various planes of the sleeping unit come together.

In the fabrication of our module we tried to think of what the CNC router can and can't do. This is why in our connector pieces there is a kind of tabbing - it's the only way to get a ninety-degree fit while accounting for the rounded cut. We had two kinds of connector pieces: a ninety-degree joint, and a 45-degree joint.

We CNCed out of MDF because, frankly, it was cheaper than buying plywood. If we were to actually build our building and hence all of the bed units along with it, we would use a nice, light birch plywood. The one problem we ran into was that the connector pieces were not completely friction fit, so that in order to show the piece as "assembled" we had to put pieces of double-sided tape on each side of the connector. This speaks to the fact that if we were to fully build our unit it would have to have a very high level of craft to friction fit, and that it might be much more robust if the connection joints were also attached to the panels using hardware.

Looking Out Week 8: Yasmeen Almuhanna

Yes, it's another swanky bathtub on the blog..

So this bathtub comes from Thomas Linssen and Studio Thol. Linssen claims that the chair incorporated into the bathtub is ergonomic and shaped to follow the lines of the human body. You can soak in style in one of these with about two months advance notice for a mere  $16,200.

   

 Super cool detail below with how the wood frames the bathtub...

               

Assignment 4: Shannon Earnest & Daniel Gomez-Latorre

For our furniture piece, we began by looking at how the inhabitants of the bath house would need to interact with a furniture element as well as how the furniture element would transform the space in which it was placed. Studies into both of these areas led us to design a sort of multipurpose screen. The screen was used in multiple spaces and in various iterations and scales and even incorporated some elements necessary to the bath house such as storage, a bench, or a food preparation area. We also designed a brace for the joints in the screen (not pictured) so that the entire thing could possibly be made to be easily collapsible/refigured.

The screen as it is used as a layering device in locker room portion of the bath house.

Assignment | Candace Ju & Carter Nelson

For our furniture component to the bath house project, we decided to create an insert that would serve as a privacy screen/capsule for the sleeping alcoves in the lodge space. We wanted to use the warmth of the wood to bring some comfort to the otherwise cold hard CMU block construction. Our initial prototype looked like this, and we used it to explore different shading and sun conditions in the sleeping space.

For our final review we wanted to show both the form that we had developed and also the sliding screen mechanism that would enhance the hikers ability to control the level of privacy within the lodge. We made a 1/4" = 1'-0" model of the form for the model, and as well as a full scale (in thickness) model of the joint. The quarter scale model used birch plywood, as we saw the actual piece being made of finished plywood. The full scale mock up of the joint was created in order to show the connection detail and the dynamic nature of  the insert.

Finally, here is a video of the joint doing its thang, sliding back and forth and such on a nifty rather aluminum channel.

My apologies for the delay in the post- Thanks for your time!

Assignment4: Aileena & Nahyung

Our furniture is a bench that is placed mainly in the pool area and throughout the entire bath house. The bench is made of modulars that consist of three parts. A top plank for sitting, a bottom piece, and vertical elements that serve as the connection between the two.

Yellow&Black-a modular. Green-another modular that interlocks/feed into the other two

The vertical pieces have tabs on each end that feed into slits on the top and the bottom planks.
The idea was to build a bench that is interlocking and is adjustable to any angle that we want them to be assembled in. The interlocking quality in a modular and also as a whole resonates with our wall placement and circulation idea in the bath house.

Diagram of primary wall structure in bath house

We had two tries on CNC routing our joint detail. Both times, our biggest issue was friction fitting the tabs into the slits. We tried to account for the fillet that the router bit creates when it's cutting inside he line, but did not think of the extra 0.005 inches that needed to be offset. So, on the second run, we tried surface milling the slits so that it fit the curve of the tab exactly. But, forgetting about the offset again, we had to go to wood shop and sand every slit and cut down every tab. As a result though, we got a perfect friction fit on our joint.

Assignment 4: Nico Gomez and Matthew Lin

          From our perspective, our entire scheme for the bathhouse is to provide for the necessities of what a bathhouse is composed of.  We divided it into three categories: sleeping/living, meeting, and bathing.  To address the sleeping/living aspect of the project, our furniture piece is a sleeping surface that doubles as a storage compartment.  Addressing all of the hiker's basic needs for sleeping/living with one furniture piece saves space and an regular sized room can accommodate more residents.

           The individual pieces were cut by the CNC router, using profiling to create the different shapes and pocketing to create the hinge holes.  After the pieces were cut, 0.5" diameter dowels were used in the different holes to connect the pieces, creating a swinging hinge.  The other panels create the overall box shape, using screws and other hardware.  The front panel is a bit lower than the side panels to allow easier access to opening to box to reach the stored materials inside.

A point of trouble that arose from constructing this furniture piece was in the CNC router part of the project. We profiled each piece before pocketing the holes, and because some of the pieces moved during the profiling process, the pocketed holes were sometimes misaligned, and some manual adjustments in woodshop were necessary.  Overall, the piece turned out nicely, and at the point in time, it needs a bit more trimming and sanding to clean it up.