STUDIO ARC300: THIRD YEAR DESIGN
University of Kansas, School of Architecture and Urban Design
Nils Gore, Assistant Professor

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Branden Warden

Puzzle Box

The notion of designing and constructing a box seems simple enough, yet there is more to it than meets the eye. In order to come up with a design you must have an idea. To decide on the idea you must have certain premises that you believe a box should consist of. My idea began with the notion that a box must enclose space, while at the same time the space should be accessible by the user. I wanted my box to accomplish these goals, so it would be useful. I didn’t want to try and reinterpret what a box is, instead I wanted design the box in way that it was unlike any other box, yet still is functional. There are many ways of accomplishing both of these goals. First I looked at way of enclosing space, whether by making a single space or dividing the box into multiple spaces. My own personal opinion is that the best box is one that requires the least amount of cardboard to create, and can stay together with no glue; therefore being production oriented and also cost effective. These beliefs thus also became premises for my design. My first boxes used these conventions independently, but through my second design process I created boxes that embodied many of these ideas. The greatest difficultly came in creating boxes that held together with no glue.

To add character to the box and make something original, I began examining ways of turning the boxes into puzzles. I began to try to accomplish this by using movement with hinges, and by using patterns of arrangements of modular boxes. Though both of these were successful they lacked something in character and appearance. However, I took the idea of modular boxes and created a grid, from that grid I cut out three different pieces at random that would connect with each other because they shared similar sides and flanges. I repeated this step twice so that I had two identical pieces of each of the three original pieces. I found that this idea accomplish all of my original ideas. In order to strengthen the puzzle idea I designed the pieces so they would all fit together in a flat puzzle.

I had thus arrived at the idea for my box, however in order to create it I needed to arrive at the shapes of these pieces for the puzzle. I chose to make each piece different as a challenge for myself in hopes this would better articulate the box. I feel that in making each piece differently may have made the design too difficult. In the production of my box I laid out an eleven by sixteen grid, which I broke this into six different pieces. Each piece requires flanges that are located in or on the center of the outer edges of each piece (diagram1). Each flange is to be two modular units wide. In order for these flanges to work they must be accompanied with an inset on the center of each of the pieces that is also two units wide. These flanges and insets are the keys for the creation of the box. The average size of each of the pieces is around 25 units. A rule to follow when designing the pieces of the box is to make sure that on the outside there are never more than three units next to each other, which belong to the same piece. Designing the first three pieces is more or less arbitrary, but the fourth piece should be able to connect the other three, so the flanges and slots must be designed to match. The fifth piece is even harder to design because it must connect with the other three sides as well, and the sixth piece must connect with the four other pieces. In designing the last three pieces you have to be able to visualize in you mind how the pieces will fit together. You must be able to do this to limit the amount of possibilities, because you certainly don’t want to make each one and try it out. These issues are compounded when you try to make each of the pieces differently. So I recommend first trying to make the puzzle box out of six pieces, which has two pairs of three similar pieces. Once you have accomplished this, try the next step, but be forewarned there may only be one possible solution.

I learned that trying to design an object that functions completely without the use of glue or adhesive, adds an interesting factor to the design. This allows for more creative thinking which and creates a process, which is enriched by three-dimensional visualization that has to be done in my mind. I also gained a great appreciation for the people who design puzzles. By using simple materials such as cardboard, I was able to develop the notion of a box completely unlike I have seen before.

Egg Jumping Rope
The designing of a mechanical machine requires certain considerations that are not normally considered as factors in designing most static structures, but perhaps they should. The concerns that bind all design together is the articulation of the design itself, the production and construction, and how to reduce the risk involved while still allowing the final product to have character. A mechanical machine that uses motion must be crafted precisely in order for it to function properly. To do this the factor of certainty must be increased. There are two common ways of reducing the workmanship of risk. One way to do this is to create jigs so that each piece is made similar to each other, thus reducing the inconsistencies in hand crafted pieces. This is also an important concern in the production and construction of the final design. The second way of reducing the workmanship of risk is to remove the flaws of handmade production and replace them with machined parts. To create my machine like in many other designs it is necessary to integrate hand made parts as well as machine produced parts.

My design was to create a large heavy machine that used a great deal of mechanical devises and yet accomplishes the goal of making an egg jump rope. I decided on this idea because I liked idea of a massive machine, whose final outcome is merely to make a light egg jump rope. My idea was to take complexity of the mechanical design and converted it to simple movement. I liked the concept of opposing elements in my design. I wanted to articulate these ideas by using different materials, in the construction. I wanted the lightness of the egg to be contradicting the weight of the steel, brass, and brick of the other structures.

In the creation of my whirly-gig I needed to design a way to transfer rotational energy into longitudinal motion. This is most easily done by use of a cam. I also needed to come up with a way to convert rotational energy in a vertical direction into horizontal rotation. There are multiple of ways to transfer rotational energy in this way. I examined the use of creating several different types of hand made gears. Each was unsuccessful, because the motion was not perfectly continuous. In my design I began by creating gears made by hand, with no rules for their production. I found that this type of construction led to inconsistent and incongruent gears. To make the gears more precise I decided to make several jigs each were successful in reducing the workmanship of risk. I made several different types of gears some were flat and some were cylinders with spokes. However none were precise enough to eliminate the friction and binding that controls the design of wind-powered devises. So I decided to try and achieve the goal in another way. I created a friction plate and then made a wheel that through friction would roll on it and convert the rotation more smoothly. This was also a failure since the wheel would bind and require too much force to spin. After these setbacks I realized that the only way to accomplish this motion without inconsistency would be to remove any of the workmanship of risk in the gears themselves, so I bought gears that were machine made.

Of course this doesn’t solve all the problems. Even though the gears now are machined they’re connections need to be equally precise. To accomplish this I made the gears ride on shafts and allowed them to have some movement to prevent binding. I kept the gears running smoothly by having pressure exerted against them to prevent slipping. But my greatest problem came in the connection of various materials. A variety of ways exist in attaching materials to each other from soldiering, welding, and gluing, I had to employ all of these in my design. When putting these pieces together one needs to create jigs or tools to aid in the construction process. So for instance I created a soldiering table with alligator clamps to hold my materials to make it easier to eliminate poor craft, as well as reducing the risk of bodily harm.

The final out come of my work was producing a wind powered whirly-gig that enabled an egg to jump rope, through a series of gears and cams. Though any design can be conceived it is through the construction that experience is gained. Through the failures of my design I was able to learn the most about production of working parts. This combination of materials and designs allows the project to have a uniqueness of it own completely original. There is something valuable in being the designer as well as the craftsmen for it allows the designer to understand the project from beginning to end. It also makes the designer more aware of his choices as he designs further projects. This hands-on knowledge prevents designs that are impractical to build and strengthens the design. The reward gained by designing and building something yourself is incomparable, especially when you finally get it to work.