Category Archives: Humber

This blog entry will be a summary of the week. We faced many challenging moments but equally many positive. As a team we worked well, all contributing something to the group. Resulting in what I believe to be, the creation of a unique and workable design.
Unfortunately though, it must be commented on that our time management let us down, which was evident in our final model.

Nevertheless, this was our first group presentation and what we did produce was carefully thought out.
Another challenge we faced, was the process in reaching our final design concept. Originally we were very focused on the artistic aspect and created designs that ended up not feasible. Our focus was on ‘form over function’ and this was something we had to address. In the end though, I believe not getting it right the first time was actually beneficial to us, as it meant our final idea was both interesting and practical. Having been well informed and had all elements involved, explored and researched thoroughly. The image below illustrates our developmental process as a group.

I learnt a lot from the week, starting with the importance of delegation within a group when undertaking something similar to this. It also made me more aware of how recognising others strengths and weaknesses can lead to a better outcome as the delegation of tasks is more effective. Moreover, listening to others present was highly insightful. It highlighted good and bad presentation techniques, which will definitely stay with me and hopefully help me in future presentations, to produce the best speech in order to really sell the design.
Finally, I learnt more about my own skills and feel that my illustrations and presentation of ideas is a particularly strong point of mine. However, my delivery in speaking about our design could be improved upon, in order to make future presentations sound more confident and professional.
Overall, the week for me was a definite success and I am pleased about the task that was set.

When presenting on the Friday, I spoke about structural materials. This involved those both real and for the model. The 3 most essential elements to consider were the deck, piers and our roofing structure. All of which, involved some in depth research and below I am going to outline our choices, beginning with the deck.

DECK
• Real: Our material choice here was concrete for its longevity and low maintenance, attributing to its economical benefits. Further to this, the option for it to be precast is ideal for quick construction of the bridge, an essential factor in this instance, due to the busy nature of Lewes Road.
•Model: Foam modelling board illustrated the deck for us. It was the best option because of its ease to cut and shape. Moreover, its rigidity provided a solid base to work the rest of our model around.

PIERS
•Real: Galvanised steel would provide our structure with the appropriate support. As a material it has many measurable benefits including longevity and resistance to corrosion/ moisture. The erection of galvanised steel components is also very efficient.
Model: Wooden dowel was used to demonstrate the placement of supports in our model. The reason we chose to work with wood, was because we needed different lengths and knew that wooden dowel would be quick to cut, shape and could be glued easily with a glue gun. It would also be able to take the load of the foam modelling board and other model materials with ease.

ROOFING
•Real: This was probably the toughest decision to make and consequently more time was spent researching materials and similar existing structures. Our end decision was primarily informed by looking back at two of our earlier precedent studies; The Webb in Melbourne and the Peace Bridge in Calgary. By considering them and using our own knowledge and ideas we decided upon toughened glass, supported by a steel framework with a protective sheeting/ layer over the glass areas; for vandalism and health and safety purposes. Toughened glass would allow us to achieve the modern and open space we had envisioned, whilst also being a feasible choice due to its properties including being a thermal resistant glass.
•Model: Plastic sheeting was the obvious choice to make this design work in model form. It’s flexibility made it perfect to create the curvature and it could be held to the deck easily with the use of a glue gun. More wooden dowel was used to represent the steel framework. Unfortunately due to time management, our model did not reflect our design and its potential. However, our ideas were all well informed and illustrated in the form of drawings.

The final day.

It has arrived, the day of the presentation for the poster and model.

It was very stressful as I saw that there were some problems with the modelling. The poster was fine and done but the model needs some work.

I went down to help the other group make the model. What we needed was the columns and the Base to be completed. I was rushing around to get things done by 11:00 which was the presentation time.

We finished the model but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to complete the Base of the model. It was very stressful to keep some people motivated but at least we were mostly finished with the model.

The time for the presentation was closing in and we need to organise ourselves to fit the time frame we have to present our project.

As the group leader I went ahead and started the presentation introducing myself but because of stage fright I seem to have forgot to mention the others. For the same reason I seem to babble longer than I should have. I explained the basis of our idea and how we came to it as well as the thoughts we have on the design. After the presentation we were told about our mistakes or trip ups.

One was the use of the roundabout idea, though I mentioned briefly I didn’t want to over extend my time so I can let others speak on their part.

The second was the modelling, I did explain the lack of Time but I should’ve planned it more strictly as the team leader.

And lastly was the reflection on the project. Though the project was enjoyable I probably should’ve discussed with the other members about the reflection of the project so that the other groups can have a neutral plane to express what they think about this project.

I enjoyed the project, though I probably won’t have chosen myself as the leader. I seem to have done a fair part, sending assignments to my members for the next day, doing some offline work and research and monitoring the progress of my team and responding accordingly while keeping in mind the information that I gathered and their situations.

On the fourth day it was starting to get very busy.

The early morning we started on focusing on the model making. One of our members wasn’t able to make it to the session so we were down on man power to create the model.

What I did for the day was do some parts of the modelling such as crafting the parts of the bridge so we can easily assemble it the next day. I was also helping on making the poster so I’m basically split into doing two things at once.

I mostly contributed by doing the hand sketches and illustrations for the poster. The poster was left to the trusted hands on one of my group members and they did mostly the writing and presentation. 

After the day I went home to do some extra work on the model so it’s ready for tomorrow for assembly. The model floor is made out of foam board, the supports is made out of wooden dowels stuck together by hot glue from the glue gun, the metal railings is made out of staples pinned to the foam and the walls is made out of thin plastic.

I assembled most of the parts in the evening and all that was needed left was the supports and the Base of the model to be ready.

Not much difficulty happened but alot of work needs to be done so I need to handle some stuff that are needed at home for the next day.

Well, we’ve made it to the third day of the the week.

So now the designs are somewhat refined and we have our measurements and details for the whole project.

We have a basic idea of what our model to look like so we wanted to get started. I divided the team, three will work on the model one will get the poster ready and I was doing an in depth look into building regulations to make sure the design we chose doesn’t cause any issues. 

There were alot of information to sift through and not alot of specifics that I seem to unexpectedly need such as the requirements for a length between a wall and a cyclist. 

Some other information that I found useful was the helpful is having a friend and getting his opinion on the matter.

He answered that the important thing for a cyclist is the movement and deviation. This means that the path we need to design needs to be so that cyclist can maintain their flow of movement and do sharp turns to lessen accidents.

We also need to allow for deviation movement with a comfortable space of 400mm. Having this space means that cyclist can move freely without risk or fear of bumping onto another.

I borrowed some extra books from our library about building regulations on ramps and structures.

It was written that for every 10m of ramp a landing must be provided. So we changed our design slightly to suit this requirement.

The next, if the width of the path is more than 3.5 m, which it is, a railing must be added at the center of the pathway acting as some sort of barrier. This will lessen crashes and accidents and helps as a support for people who needs it.

Doing alot of in depth research was difficult since we chose a very quirky design. But we still managed to comply with building regulations in the end.

This is the post for my second day as group leader of Humber.

So far the design we’ve agreed on was very vague and needed some refining. We made some adjustments where we bounce ideas back and forth. And at the end of the we have created four design ideas in total.

The design we created was based around a roundabout idea, this would allow a natural flow of traffic and some sort of control. I will go in depth in a later post.

Around noon we separated the task on completing the project between the five of us.

For my contribution I went and secluded myself in the library to borrow some books. The books I borrowed are the construction of steel and concrete bridges for the contructability. A bridge design book for the aesthetic and look. A book showing previous bridges for precedent studies. And one about principles on bridges such as parts and components of a bridge.

Having an array of books I shared this with my group members so that they don’t feel left out on the information I found.

Later on I was adviced to look more into the requirements and regulations of our design and, shockingly, found it falling short to the standards.

So for my next step I will be looking into the regulations and standards.

The first day of the design week, I was introduced to my fellow group members that I will be working with for the whole week. We were also introduced to our project, which was to create a bridge for people and cyclist to use crossing the Lewes Road to or from mithras.

After being acquainted with one another we took a short sit visit to mithras house to get a feel of the size of the site so we can make our project.

 I took photos of the site being more focused on the aesthetic and technicalities of the site, seeing how things move and flow throughout the place.

After the site visit we gathered around and have a brief discussion about design ideas and how we want to move forward. I took notes and observed some of my groups ideas. I basically questioned the ideas and design to make sure that we don’t create a design that isn’t constructable or acceptable.

After having a vague idea of what to do, I took my free time to do some research on bridges and some design ideas so I can share that with the other members.