Jun '06 - Jan '08
So, our final project in first-year construction was a kite. Or, as the assignment sheet said, "Moving from heavy mass to lightness is a longstanding arc across architectural desire inspiring numerous technological developments and processes in theoretical and applied forms of knowledge construction".
My group (Jacky, Phil, Matt, and me) decided that we wanted to work with transformation, specifically transfromation through combustion. (FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!) - whatever happened to Beavis?
Over the past few weeks, we designed a kite, in two parts, which would rise as a fire-powered lantern, then break apart after a time-delayed fuse ignited, transforming into a circo-flex type kite. Yeasterday, when we found out that Kurt Vonnegut died, we decided to dedicate our craft to him.
At first, things looked good, the kite filled with hot air, form the fire-ball at its center. It rose a few feet into the air- we were elated, our calculations had predicted that we were over-weight and that it shouldn't have even gotten off the ground.
CATASTROPHE!
a nasty north-western gust of wind knocks Kurt horizontal
acting without really thinking, i started running (i think it was Phil's idea). through the innocent bystanders, and into the field, and back, and back around.
it never really got too far off the ground, but we've deemed it a success- a nice way to end the semester
4 Comments
whoa. danger! danger! flaming vonnegut flies through a flat grassy field!
was that flame just a ball of flammable stuff or was it controlled in some way?
it was just a ball of flammable stuff, we kept having to reduce complexity to save weight
great to see that the quality of educatoin at TCAUP is always improving....
This is the most hilarious picture I've seen come out of an architecture school in a long while. I love the running with kite pic. Can't stop laughing...
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