STEM outdoor space
Goal
To make an outdoor space that was comfortable and pleasant in all weather conditions. Now as we thought about what our school was lacking we came to realize that our students have no recreational activities to partake in at lunch, so we set out to find what our client needs would be for an outdoor recreational area. This involved a study throughout my class where I noted down whatever recreational ideas my clients requested, and then went back to choose which ones were the most popular and which ones were the most reasonable. Out of all our votes we found a swing to be the most popular and we also chose a couple other games such as corn hole, table tennis, and chess we then found that. extra seating would be necessary so we designed a shaded structure that will host very durable weatherproof benches underneath.
Sunlight
For every outdoor project having shade is very essential especially in the summer months when temperatures near 37 degrees celsius. Therefore we had a look at our location and determined whether this would be an important factor in our shaded structure. After some research we found that Novato was just shy of 30 degrees North of the equator this means the sun will never be vertically over the structure. 30 degrees off after consulting with my team however, the idea of changing the design for not much change and due to looking at the shade on the other structures nearby we decided it was best to not change the original design of having the structure mounted at 90 degrees to the floor.
Human Use
Due to the fact that we're building this outdoor space on a school property we knew this would have to be a very safe and easy to navigate area to reduce the risk of injury. We also knew that the space we were going to design was gonna be used as a pathway in between the maker space and the new Stem building so that meant it was gonna have to allow people to walk straight through without risking damage to the landscape or to the people. We eventually decided on using wood chips as our ground foundation due to very cheap costs and it's easy family friendly use to all students.
Material choice
For this project material choice was very essential especially because it would have to last at least 5-10 years and would most likely be abused on campus and that doesn't include the high and low temperatures we'd experience throughout the summer and winter months. With lots of pressure to use the right materials and to find the cheapest ones we set to work doing a lab to experiment which material would withstand the most to saturation for different periods of time. We tested Pine Redwood and Black Walnut and after doing multiple trials of dunking the same sized wood into water for different times, we found that our Pine wood was the least resistant. However what we didn't account for was that the pinewood was the only pressure treated wood, and that's was why it withstood water better than redwood unlike the rest of the class's data which proved us that regular pinewood didn't withstand as well compared to redwood.
Blue printing
Having an idea of what to build in one thing but having an accurate detailed drawing of each piece of wood and each measurement is another which is why for everything we planned to build on our outdoor space we blue printed so that even if it was store bought the person build it would know exactly what its supposed to look like, and will decrease labor times due to efficiency. If you want to see the blueprints scroll down.
Our budgeting and materials are all in the google sheets at the top and will show you precisely how much money is needed and how much of every single piece is required to transform these designs into a reality.
Reflection
Two things I learned about myself in this project is I'm not very good at drawing and I like knowing what I'm doing. And that's why I didn't enjoy this project very much like I do the others which is also a good thing cause I get to learn more about myself and what I excel and and what I don't throughout these projects. For example this projects wasn't very strict there wasn't any specific goal to meet for this project and I wasn't aware of any constraints that could hold me back. This led me to feel very lost in the idea of what I can and can't do, and for this project the line that's supposed to hold me back from overdoing it was nowhere to be seen. Throughout this project I kept going back and forth debating whether I wanted to design a 10 story play ground or design a table and call it done. I learned that I need constraints and I need a goal so I can keep myself motivated and understand where I need to end up, so I know if I've completed my goal. I'd say I've improved upon my understanding of myself, and what I need to complete a project. Besides all the doubt and confusion I felt I excelled in problem solving and communicating my ideas. For example throughout this project there was quite a few problems, (as there always is). But in this one, we found ourselves choosing a piece for our outdoor project then later debating whether it was gonna be necessary or not and we also had to try and make it reasonable. That's where I feel I did well managing what we're doing, and problem solving, whether our ambitions are too large or not.
Two things I need to improve upon are keeping myself motivated, even when I hit a brick wall and feel like giving up. I need to jump back up and ask questions and find more solutions. Secondly I need to be a more productive worker. Throughout this project I was looking for the overall goal and how to solve it, when I should've been trying to solve the basic problems and get through one little struggle at a time. For example, in the project we were worried about what we wanted our space to end up as when we should've just started from the ground up (literally) and designed our base, then after design what we want on top.