Hi there! My name is Shaun Bagnall and i am currently a undergraduate studying Architectural Technology at Nottingham Trent University. I have set up this blog so i can share my experiences of the course and what the university/student life is really like. Enjoy!

Sunday 8 December 2013

Term One

Sunday, December 08, 2013 Posted by Unknown No comments
So now we have broken up for the Christmas break, I want to share what this first term has been like, both ups and downs.

First of all I have met some great people in the course. Even though in the introduction week was full of those awkward “ice-breaker exercises” you really don’t get to know people until you are all working together, having all the same problems and getting through them together. Now at the end of term one I have now a group of very good friends who have each other’s backs.

In terms of work, it has all been very enjoyable and easy to manage (that’s if you've not been going out every night…). I feel that the work that we have done is all just a warm up, it is preparing us for the bigger projects which are just over the hill that is the Christmas break. Already we have been given the next project of work entitled “LifeBox”. This project, introduced to us all in the final week has us working in coordination with a First Year Architect of our choosing, taking their work on the “LifeBox” and developing the idea into a fully functional and detailed final design. I can see this project being very fun or very complicated; you’ll just have to wait until next term to find out how it goes.

My most enjoyable project of work this term would have to be the “Make or Break”. Everyone in their individual groups became very competitive in what they buildings, seeing who could build the strongest structure or the have the most aesthetic design. When it came down to the final testing day everybody was looking forward to seeing whose would break and whose would work; im thinking that from the way everybody was acting the majority wanted to see some intense breaking of structures.

This may sound corny but this term there hasn't been any downs. The work has all been pretty enjoyable and by the end of term you feel that you've been friends with some people for years having a lot of funny and embarrassing moments. All-in-all, I am looking forward to the break being back home on the Wirral (missing the sea!!) but I am also very excited for what next term will bring.





Saturday 7 December 2013

Make and Break Project

Saturday, December 07, 2013 Posted by Unknown No comments
Make and Break was the name of our final project for this term. The brief; to build a crane-like structure to support a 1kg bag of sugar, and the sugar must have a clearance of 500mm from the base and 400mm from the main structure. The structure itself could only be made from 3mm dowel, string and glue (to make things that little harder!).This project was done in groups (in which we choose the groups), therefore me and 4 other close friends went together knowing we work well together!

Below are the original concepts we created based upon research in modern day cranes.          
 
After a week of research and experiments with smaller scale models, we produced a final design idea which we then spent 2 weeks building! (Below shows a design drawing of the proposed structure and below two photographs of the finished product)



Once complete, the structure was put through its paces to see if what we built could fulfil the brief and support a 1kg bag of sugar. As we had already performed several pre-tests we knew already that the structure was able to support the single bag of sugar but no more (meaning that the structure was not overdesigned), meaning the brief was achieved!


As a whole, the project was very entertaining! The group in which I was working with was very supportive and energetic meaning the work never seemed to get on top of us (we finished we days to spare). As of all projects, there is always room for improvements which you would like to do, I would suggest that if I and the group had the chance to return to the project we would look into strengthening the structure so it could hold 2 or more bags of sugar.