Author Archives: Tom Hughes

Having finalised our layout after encountering complications, we were now in a better position as we only had to make a couple of extra single and double panels for the extra rooms. This involved; drawing, cutting and sticking, which didn’t take up too much time. We were then left with enough time to come up with a structure for the canvas roof idea.

Our initial idea consisted of using the container ends with a folding mechanism, which would give us the height we needed to run wiring over each corner of the compound and peg down into the surrounding grounds. After testing this idea, we found it was not possible to do this and we needed to re-evaluate.  The Reason being it was structurally unbalanced and the run off we needed for the water was not appropriate, meaning if there was a heavy down pour of rain it would collapse the roof within minutes.

Looking at how other buildings had placed a canvas roof on, we used inspiration from an Ian Ritchie roof design. This particular concept had one high raised mast with wiring running into the ground. We were particularly influenced by this, however, decided to alter it slightly by using two masts instead of one. This was due to the surface area we had to cover, it was vital that we created the perfect angle for the water run off of the canvas.

As we were so organised when planning for the building, we thought we knew exactly where the single and double panel walls were going. Therefore, we assumed it was just a process of making a production line for drawing, cutting and sticking the walls to bring our design to life.

However, later on in the day we did have to make amendments to our design. This was due to the issue which was raised that pathogens could be spreading easily because infected sections hadn’t been cut off from the non-infected areas.  To overcome this dilemma we re-designed the layout, moving all the non infected areas to the front of the building and sectioning them off with the infected areas reassigned to the rear. We also added more decontamination areas for where staff and public can shower, to clean off any pathogens they may have picked up whilst in the medical centre.

After this, it was then decided that our aim for day 4 was to achieve a structural design for the roof using a canvas idea, with inspiration taken from a tent design.

Discussing and researching ideas on the first day enabled us to get straight to work on the modelling and development of potential design proposals for our medical centre. In keeping with our desired simplistic nature to the design, we started modelling single panel walls which we felt was a beneficial concept.

However, we found that maintaining simplicity when connecting the walls was harder than anticipated. Problems crept up, such as the fact we needed an additional slot cut into the wall to connect walls coming into the compound. Obstacles like this left us head scratching for a while, in spite of these complications, through a trial and error method we managed to create grid which displayed where certain panels would be placed.

The best solution we found to overcoming the problem of connecting the walls was instead of having all single walls there would now be some double panel walls. this would allow us to connect the interior walls of our proposed design. 

Day one consisted of our design brief being revealed, which is to create an easily transportable medical treatment centre, this whole centre has to fit into a shipping container. After this we were split into groups and introduced to college pupils who we are working in partnership with.

Our main aim for the day was to discuss and develop ideas, in doing so we came up with the idea of a walling system which would easily fit together. Collectively, it was decided that simplicity was a vital element of our design.

Throughout the day, we researched and sketched ideas which would set us up well for day two of the project.