By Kody, Bridget and Zahra

Kody White, November 2023

Abstract Play

Gabe M & Patrick T & Charlie P

Express

Collaboration

Material Exploration

Material exploration:

Many structures, installations, and buildings are built without consideration for nature and the impact on the environment. With this project, we hope to experiment with smart materials behaviors and their reaction to natural factors in the environment to create more sustainable installations. The project started with background research and data collecting and eventually lead to us choosing memory alloy as the material of focus. Memory alloy is an alloy that can be deformed when cold but return to its original pre de-formed form when it's heated to its activation temperature. Electricity and fire were the two main methods we used to activate and reshape the memory alloy.

will include more when we finish the first prototype.

Research

I have been working on a material science research paper before this studio, so I was really excited to physically experiment and play with some materials. I learned a lot of new information because of the amount of research we have done, including new smart materials and architecture envelopes. We encountered some challenges when ordering the materials, which lead us to only focus on memory alloy. During the experiments, we had some great collaboration and experience and help us learn more about the material and physics (the electricity aspect we were using). Overall, I really enjoyed the project and learned a lot of new information. If I have more time in the future, I hope to continue this project and spend more time on the design aspect of the project.

Habit of Mind

Habit of Mind

Core Skill

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Image 2

Core Skill

We started the project focused on building an electric gokart to continue on a previous OI of mine, that idea was shut down due to space so we shifted to an electric scooter/bike, that idea also got shut down due to lack of time( a problem i had been saying and suggesting solutitions for from the beggining most of which were ignored). So we shifted to a small scale model and getting the smaller electronics woring with a chain drive mechanism. We wanted a full scale working model origionally but we had to shift to a small scale version which we ended up not getting running together but we have some electronics working seperately and a nonworking frame model. In the end i liked the chain drive gear we got woriking with the motor i just with we could have done bigger scale.

I learned a decent ammount about the smaller scale electronics but that knolege doesnt really transfer to larger scale so i didnt learn the main things i wanted to learn about . I had been wanting to learn about working with, programing and assembling the larger components which are very different so i wasnt able to get the knolege or skills i wanted to from the studio. During the studio i was focused on some frame fabrication and getting the gear drive and motor setup working

Habit of Mind

Habit of Mind

Core Skill

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Image 2

Core Skill

In this studio we focused on sushi, we found sushi interesting for many reasons but some of the big ones were why/how it evolved to its current status as such a expensive fancy food while still having a prominent cheaper side to the food with grocery store sushi, quick takeout etc. We were also interested in the americanization of it (sushi pizza, sushi burritos, sushi nachos, all of that) it and through that how sushi is one of the few foods like it to keep one of its original names.



Collaborate

Envision

Digital Fabrication

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Giving & Receiving Feedback

NusVu is an innovative website designed to create a more functional communication line with students and coaches. This project is intended for students to share their individual work they are proud of, announce clubs or events, get advice from previous students, and to connect with coaches.

I wasn't very focused on personal growth this studio. I was more focused on just making things work without regard for much else, which I always am so that's not really an area I needed to grow in. I'm slightly worried that, due to my constant exhaustion this studio, I was not performing adequately in my communication or cooperation. Beyond that, though, I believe the web design itself to have progressed to my standards.

Envision

Collaborate

3D modeling

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Physical fabrication

Abstract Play is an intergenerational playground in which we found an empty unused space and making it into an area that can be used to get people more interested in the space. The place the we ended up choosing was a place called Lederman Park which is in Boston across from MGH. In this project we used shapes to make people climb around and enjoy being outside and encourage people to get outside and enjoy the feeling of being in nature. The goal of this project is to be a model of a park that could be implemented at Lederman Park and would be used to show people how it would look and or be made if implemented in other unused spaces. This can also get people more excited to be outside by giving them something to do when they are outside.

During the Abstract Play studio I feel as though I have grown in many different ways but some of the biggest ones were me getting better and both 3d modeling and physical fabrication while also learning how to collaborate better. On the side of 3d modeling I feel that during Abstract Play I did very well at learning how to 3d model better even though I already knew how to do the basics . I have also practiced a lot of physical fabrication by making many different prototypes of my project before I got to my final idea with all of the 3d-printed items assembled. My main focus when prototyping was making sure that the prototypes were scaled correctly, and I also spent a lot of time on choosing how big everything should be in relation to everything else in the model.

Sketching

Expression

Collaboration

Abstract Play is a architecture project that focuses on connecting the community together. This project was created for an overgrown section of Lederman Park which is across from MGH and next to the Museum of Science. The idea was specifically built around the community and abstraction which gave many structures for this project. Nonetheless, the final project was a layout of the site and a close-up of one of the playground areas. The structures in the play area were based off of basic shapes so that the users could choose how to play on them without set rules. This brings a feeling of creativity and independence while also connecting the community.

In this studio, I focused on research and sketching. These included writing out multiple zoning diagrams for my site while also having sketches of each structure with measurements. For the zoning diagrams, we needed to research how people used the space and how it looked. While doing this project, I also had growth in my collaboration and expression. This increased both the amount of work we delegated to each member and how well we provided the feeling of creativity and community into our project. In the future these skills may come to use when I want to connect with the users or work with people I have never had a project with.

.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Research

Engage & Persist

Collaborate

Physical Fabrication

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Material Exploration



This project was incredibly beneficial, and I feel I strengthened my technical and conceptual skills considerably. This project contained many points of growth and firsts for us students and NuVu as a whole. My experience was notably beneficial in terms of growth through working on client interaction, project scope, and time management. I also greatly valued the experience of integration into the

Kroka community and loved the time I spent on campus. Further, the hands-off coaching technique our coach employed greatly improved my learning experience with client interaction like no other system. The ability to learn by failure and persevere through hard problems was an incredibly effective learning method that greatly reinforced my project management skills.

The Kroka Collaboration was a project focusing on the designing of multiple installations for the organization Kroka Explorations, a wilderness survival school over 100 miles away from NuVu. I pursued the creation and design of three solutions to problems ranging from boat lifting systems to drying firewood with solar kilns. Later on, our team made a series of excursions ranging up to multiple days to install our prototypes on the Kroka campus. Through the three weeks that we spent collaborating with Kroka, we installed a 7:1 pulley system that vastly increased the efficiency of their boat lifting system, a rocket stove capable of boiling waters on multiple burners, and schematics for a 24-cord bandwidth solar kiln.

Collaborate

Physical Fabrication

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

This was a client-based project that worked with Kroka Expeditions in Marlow, New Hamshire. Kroka is a non-profit wilderness school that incorporates Waldorf education with its unique outdoor, wilderness nature. This project aimed to help Kroka by helping them with a series of technical and mechanical challenges that would enhance their campus. This involved designing a pulley system to lift 400-pound boats in their boat house, constructing a three-stove rocket stove in their shop village, and a solar kiln to improve their wood drying.

I don't completely know how to feel after this open innovation. The project ended up working and the final presentation went great, but I feel like a lot of time was spent not knowing exactly what to do. I don't completely know what it is, but I can't seem to fix the eventual slump I get in all of my projects. For this project, it was somewhere in between the first and second week. Even though I was doing work during that time, it didn't feel like the most productive work I could've been doing. A big part of that I think, has to do with the group dynamic. A four-person group made it so that the first part of the studio was very volatile and our ideas were constantly changing. And I find that my most successful projects are either solo, or when I'm the team lead, and when I have less control over where the project is going, I find I'm not as clear on what we should be doing, especially the first week. I kind of felt that way in this project. That's enough talking about the bad though. There was a lot of good that happened in this project. For one, working with Kroka was awesome. We built something that a client would use. How often does that happen at high school? We also worked on many technical skills, and I got a lot better at Fusion 360 while working on this project. Another huge element was collaboration. Working with Kroka, NuVu staff, and the four of us, the project was a constant state of communication. As I mentioned earlier, actually implementing something was huge. Giving Kroka a fire stove that they could use and a successful pulley system was huge and was what really made this project successful.

Empathize

Material Exploration