Tech ChallengeSomething Creative: a team composed of Sabrina Bounthisavath and Kim Ngo

Our objective is to create a structure that is…

• Safe in a earthquake i.e. would not collapse or be damaged, even with 30 bolts attached

• Flexible

• Made up of few and uncostly materials

• Able to return to its original shape even after experiencing large-scale earthquake stimulations

• Lightweight

Why do we want our building to be flexible?

This is a video clip of Tohoku, Japan’s 3-11-11 earthquake (magnitude 9.0) Please watch from 0:50 to 1:00.

• Japan spends five times more money on reducing its earthquake damage risk than the United States¹

• Japan spends more money on earthquake prediction than any other developed country and all the rest combined²

• Essentially we want to mimic Japan’s flexible architecture because we believe that movement will absorb seismic energy and contribute to keeping buildings earthquake-safe ³

¹Greg Smits, associate professor of history at Penn State, quoted in Penn State News article “Researcher examines the history and impacts of earthquakes in Japan”

²Ross Stein, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's office in Menlo Park, California, quoted in Livescience newsletter

³“The taller a structure, the more flexible it is. The more flexible it is, the less energy is required to keep it from toppling or collapsing when the earth's shaking makes it sway,” writes an article on damage control engineering at exploratorium.edu.

We took inspiration from Japan because:

To make our structure flexible, we considered a variety of materials but ultimately settled on:• Plastic mesh

• The holes will allow the cord to be stitched through to create lattices that will securely connect the floors to the columns and to the columns to the platform

• 10.3 in. by 6.7 in.

• Metal Cord

• Sturdy

• We are able to tighten its stitches and make it as loose as we choose

Individual Cost

(Dollars)Total Cost (Dollars)*

1.00/feet of cord 6.00

0.60/sheet of mesh 16.80

*This includes the cost for building for the final structure and does not include any costs contributed to making prototypes or planning.

Materials

• Large sewing needle

• Drill

• Clampers

• Metal cord

• Foam board (for platform), 20 by 20 in

• Wood (for platform), 14 by 13 in.

• Plastic mesh sheets, 20 by 14 in.

• Ribbon

• Wood glue

• Hot glue

How We Created and Assembled

Continue attaching floors and columns together until 7 floors have been added

Attach first floor on top of the four columns attached to the platform

Attach first four columns onto platform

Measure and cut platform⁶

Create columns⁵

Create floors⁴⁴To create the floors, we cut each sheet of mesh in half, laid four of the halves on top of each other, and stitched their edges using the cord to minimize floor sagging.

⁵Columns were made by using one half of the mesh sheet. That half was rolled up and then stitch along its edges.

⁶The platform mentioned is a thin piece of wood.

This is one of our first prototypes for the columns.

Includes three rows of stiches

We did not use this style of columns because it used up too much cord, was too tall for our column sizes, difficult to manage when cut, and presumably unsturdy since its diameter was only 0.7 inches (we were aiming for 1 inch)

Our Final StructureCompleted over a course of 4 weeks

At the 3-week mark6 floors have been attached.

Columns are: 5.1 inches tall with 1 inch diameter EXCEPT for first four columns (the ones attached to wood) which are 6.7 in. tall.

At the four-week mark

Picture does not include foam board platform.

Including the foam board, the structure was weighed to be 7 pounds. HOWEVER, we weighed this by displacement and the scale was very difficult to read, so the final weight may be skewed.

FAQ

• Why are the mesh sizes of your columns different from your floors?

• Why do you have a wooden platform on top of a foam platform?

• What was the most difficult part of building?/What were your biggest problems?

• What were the solutions?

• How did you divide your time?

• What would you do differently if you had to build for Tech Challenge again?

• What is unique about your building?

• How much money did the total process take?

• Who helped you with tech challenge?

FAQ cont.

• Why are the mesh sizes of your columns different from your floors?

• Initially I wanted a larger mesh size to be able to push the cord through but shortly realized that smaller mesh sizes make the cord harder to get loose/more likely to stay taut and therefore benefits the structure by stabilizing it more.

• Why do you have a wooden platform on top of a foam platform?

• I assumed that the requirements were “20 by 20 in. or LESS” and only realized otherwise after I had threaded and knotted my building onto the wooden platform.

• What is unique about your building?

• Our structure is designed to sway, not break, in intense movement, and we combined ideas taken from embroidery/stitching and lattice styles to attach our floors to our columns.

Questions relating to the physical aspects of our structure

FAQ cont.

• What was the most difficult part of building?/What were your biggest problems?• Preventing building collapse or structural

damage was one. Other obstacles were knotting correctly (tautly or loosely enough) and making the columns. The columns were especially difficult because we knew that they were the framework of the building, so they had to be short and sturdy.

Questions regarding the process of building.

FAQ cont.

• What were the solutions?• To prevent building damage and collapse, I

strung the cord from the top layers directly to the wooden platform. As for the knotting, that was really learned through error and trial and guidance from better knotters (like my dad). I made multiple columns, but none proved the most reliable and the most simple than the ones included in our structure now. The key for the columns was, again, through error and trial—thinking of column styles, making it, and then seeing if it’ll work.

Questions regarding the process of building.

FAQ cont.

• How did you divide your time?• We took a day to plan, and collectively all

building took about 12 hours.

• How much money did the total process take?• Including money spent for the prototypes,

excess materials, and the final product, the total cost was $22.50.

• Who helped you with tech challenge?• Mr. Wu informed me of Japanese

architecture. Mrs. Quan supplied the foam board and wood glue. My dad taught me how to knot.

Questions regarding the process of building.

FAQ cont.

• What would you do differently if you had to build for Tech Challenge again?

• I would mark on the plastic floors where I would arrange the columns before building anything, since that would have made our column placement more precise and led to a straighter structure.

Questions regarding the aftermath of building.