Outdoor Furniture Design

STEM Outdoor Furniture Project

This was our digital model from the front view. The tan represents whitewood, the light brown represents pressure treated wood, and the dark brown represents redwood heart S4S wood.

Overview of Project:

The goal of this project was to learn how to plan and design infrastructure following the engineering design cycle. Our first step was to brainstorm ideas for a piece of outdoor furniture that would be supposedly built on the San Marin High School campus. We had to keep factors like cost, durability, and effort to build in mind during the brainstorming process. My group first settled on the idea of two benches, and a table attached to a shade cover by hinges so that they would swing. We quickly adapted this to place the benches and table on a platform due to the fact that swings would be both unstable and complicated. Our next step was to further plan out this idea in a physical model, a digital model, and a detailed blueprint. Our detailed blueprint included several angles of our idea, and broke down the entire idea into the main features. It also highlighted the multiple supports we included in our design to make it more stable. Our next step was to decide the types of wood our different parts would be made of, and figure out the total cost of our design from that. Our final step was to create a cut list of the wood we needed as a visual.

To the left is our list of wood needed to build our outdoor furniture project, and to the right is our original blueprint with the supports and different angles of the design.

Concepts Included In this Project:

Environmental Factors: Our project took into account the angles of the sun in relation to the San Marin campus. We made the decision to incorporate a tilted roof in our design to block the users of our design from the sun.

Human Use Patterns: We thought carefully about how we could make our design able to withstand the constant use of humans over time. This was part of the reason we opted not to make our benches swing, because we determined it would be too unstable for students to use the swings constantly, and we weren't sure how much they would wear down overtime.

Blueprinting: My group relied heavily on our blueprinting skills to create a thorough design. We redid our blueprint several times to make sure it included a materials list, accurate measurements, labels, thorough visuals from multiple angles, and any extra notes included.

3D Modeling: We used 3D modeling to give an even better visual of what our outdoor furniture would look like. We spent time creating both a physical model and a digital model. Our digital model was color coded to clearly state the different types of wood in our design. We carefully picked the different types of wood based on their cost, position in our design, and resistance to weather. Our physical model focused on appealing to people, because we theorized that it would be the feature that captured their attention their most.

Budgeting & Cut Lists: Because our design was so large, our budget was an area of focus that we tried to find ways to lower. We carefully researched different types of wood, focusing on their cost. We made the last minute decision to take a chunk of out the platform that was incorporated in our design. We knew that had to be made of pressure-treated wood, which was very expensive. Therefore, we tried to use as little as possible. Another step to our design process was creating a cut list. This served as a visual representation of how much wood we would need for our project. Again, because our project was unusually large, our cut list was a lot bigger than normal.

Reflection:

Overall, this project went very well. Most of my group members contributed their part and were very valuable to have on the team. I liked my group's design and how we worked together.

Two things I think I did well in this project were collaboration and critical thinking. I was able to complete a lot of my project and collaborate well with my group mates. We communicated ideas well, and we were able to split the work pretty evenly without conflict. We were all comfortable voicing concerns or alternate opinions that we had to each other. I was good at going with the general vision of the group, and trying to make it fit the instructions we had been given. I was also good at critical thinking. This project was not only about making a good design for an outdoor furniture idea, but it was also about efficiently budgeting and figuring out how easy it would be to implement in real life. These instructions required me to think critically about each aspect of my design, and every possible scenario that could come from them if it were to be implemented. I knew cost was a large issue of the design our group came up with, so I found types of wood that would be cheap but also ensure the stability and durability of the design. This was also why we opted to not make the platform of pressure treated wood an entire rectangle, because we realized many of it wouldn't often be used.

Two things I could improve on in this project were following through with challenges that our project brought and sharing the original ideas I had in the beginning. Although our entire project was a challenge because it was had so many features, my goal for this project was getting a good grade, and so there were some possible ideas I had that I turned down because they were seemingly be too complicated. We had a limited time frame that I kept too much in mind, although I was good at managing my time. If I had an idea that I thought would be challenging to successfully complete in the time frame, I wouldn't give it any more thought. This likely kept me from improving our design with many good ideas. I also needed to work on sharing my ideas with the group. In the beginning, I had several good ideas that fit the prompt, but when I saw that most of my group was already set on another idea, I decided to go along with the group. This definitely had its benefits, but the ideas I originally had were much smaller and simpler then the idea we went with. I think I could have found a way to combine my ideas with the group's. For example, I had the idea of creating a bench that had a trash can on the side. This would discourage littering because it would be a foot away as opposed to across campus. We could have made the benches in our design have this feature, but I just went along with the group's original idea instead.

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