Weekly Response #4 - JingJing Wu

Initially, like many others, the idea of having to construct a stool entirely out of cardboard that could support up to 175lb was extremely intimidating. What made it even more difficult was the fact that we were given limited material and were also not allowed to use any added fasteners.  However, through gathering ideas in class and online and having gone through the class session on “introduction to cardboard making”, it gave me a better understanding of the requirements and the expectations of the project. I understood that I had to “free” myself of the my psychological restrains that this project was near to impossible and come up with ideas and just work and experiment on them in order to get the project to materialize.

I decided to go ahead and construct a stool that is simple and yet would be able to support a lot of weight. Hence, I chose a design that facilitates multiple zigzags as the interiors of the stools to be able to support heavy weights without requiring additional support from external fasteners. As flat pieces of cardboards are extremely hard to be cut precisely and accurately, after a few experimentations, I decided to go forth with existing cardboard boxes such as delivery and grocery boxes. These cardboard boxes would provide me with existing folds and crises. To maximize strength, I used smaller pieces of cardboard and created as many zigzags as possible instead of just contrasting a few within the space bounded by the exterior cardboard. The process, nonetheless, took surprisingly much longer than I expected as it required a lot of careful intertwining and making sure that the cuts would be able to fit each other well in order to maximize the effects of the zigzags.

As we learned in lecture, from Roth, physical structure is defined as “the literal ‘bones’ of the building doing the work of keeping the building standing” while perceptual structure is defined as “the sensation produced by the structure in the observer”. I felt like I was able to achieve the former but not the latter.  Hence, in terms of improvements, if I had the chance to work on the project again, I would pay more attention to the visual representations and the aesthetic appeal of the stool rather than just focusing on its functionality.