In this project, we were challenged to create a structure out of blue tack and pasta that could withstand the force of an earthquake. We had a $60 budget, 1 piece of pasta was $1, and one gram of Blu Tack was also $1. In relation to the real world, this would be about building an earthquake-safe structure, in an earthquake-prone area that doesn’t have a lot of money or resources. Instead of using a lot of expensive materials, the goal was to effectively engineer the materials we had to make a safe structure.
The process of making this structure included, a design sprint, prototype one, testing prototype one, and then using that failed model to improve the second one. Before building the second one we did extensive research on common earthquake-proof structures around the world. Once we were all happy with the plans, we got to the building. The first layer went great, but after we started to add height, things went downhill. With the design we chose, we didn’t factor in just how fragile our materials were, so it didn’t exactly work out and we had to change it last minute. One thing I would change about this is choosing a simpler design that would be more achievable with our given resources.
