3DD: Building a Bridge

Day 2

The day began with a talk and presentation regarding the 3DD pathway and the many degree courses it could cover. Jewellery design and shoe design are two that really caught my attention and that I'd enjoy.

After the presentation it was on to making the bridges, by paper that is. Mini paper bridges that were to inspire us for later and so we could see the basic requirements of a bridge.

 

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After a small amount of time to cut and fold paper, we were assigned groups and given instructions on our objective of the day. A large bridge, from one end of the room to the other, using 10 sheets of cardboard, bamboo sticks, some elastic bands and a roll of tape. It had to be high enough, off the ground, for a table- acting as a boat, to pass under with ease and sturdy enough for a toy car to be driven across.

And yet again there was a catch, only two points were allowed to touch the ground and the bridge had to start and end on the table.

 

Spit-balling ideas and discussing how the bridge should be constructed took long enough to begin with so we decided to just give ourselves a rough plan and see how much the materials cooperate with us. To our delight, as soon as we began we could see the bridge getting somewhere. Our idea on the "only two points touching the ground" rule seemed to have been jumbled up and we had to sort that out. The way we had to change our method of constriction helped greatly with the strength and durability of the bridge, as well as making it appealing to the eye.

 

The way we used the materials was; the bamboo built the skeleton and the cardboard was the covering. We did, however, let our construction technique show at the bottom- as existing bridges have.

 



 

 

 

 I was really proud of how it looked; simplistic yet technical, it made it look strong and well constructed and planned.

 

The car was easily driven across the bridge, without falling off, as we'd added barriers along both the edges. It didn't weigh the bridge down at all. It was also much higher than the table that rolled under. Success on both rules.

 

As an additional test, Geoff placed a large, heavy block on the middle, most weak part of every groups' bridge. Though we did have confidence in the structure and strength of the structure, we did have our doubt because the block was nothing to laugh at. The bridge was able to hold it up easily without leaving a single scratch.