Process

Halina Anderson and Julian Knight

After brainstorming ideas for several futuristic worlds, we decided to create a world where aliens terra form the planet and force the entire human population to live in a series of massive towers that can contain millions of inhabitants. Our first concept model was made of two cardboard outlines of a large building, slotted together to create a three-dimensional model. Our next model was made out of thin wood sticks and cut up pieces of foam core. We decided on this type of model because we wanted to convey the idea of things coming together and making it into a whole building. We both made one model, but they ended up looking kind of different. One model looked more scattered, with organic module shapes, while another was very organized, with cubelike geometric modules. For our third model, we radically changed our idea, and added a concept in which the "branches" of the building become magnetic and can attract nearby debris that are then modified and sculpted to serve as living modules. As a concept model, we cut holes in a cardboard tube and inserted thin metal rods which we then hot glued into place. Then, we placed magnets on the rods in the tube's interior, which would then attract any objects placed on the exterior rods, like small washers and bolts. Our fourth iteration was a prototype of our final model that consisted of three laser-cut plywood triangles, each in decreasing size, that would be run through piano wire to create a shape resembling a cellular of radio tower. Our final prototype was very similiar, with the addition of an acrylic box and magnetic paint.