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1. Principles and practices

This week I worked on:

  • Defining and Researching My Idea
  • Creating A Simple Sketch
  • Finalizing My Project Idea
  • Reading the Fab Charter

Defining and Researching My Idea

This week I spent the majority doing research on architecture and scale model buildings. Additionally, I was refining my knowledge and understanding of building an IoT (Internet Of Things) project. I found some projects and DIY that encoraged me to continue to pursue this path.

DIY Encourgements:

  1. Smart Home Solver
  2. DIY Scale Model House Build
  3. How To Make a Concrete Mini House
  4. How To Make a Luxury House

I must admit, the above links are quite ambitious however, they did provide an interesting perspective. The perspective was that this project might be too ambitious and I might need to start small. Very small.

So, I continued on my journey to find smaller DIY scale model buildings. I found some small projects created by ArcKit.

ArcKit is a freeform architectural modelling system that allows you to physically explore designs and bring your ideas to life with speed and precision, according to their website. They had interesting projects that can help get my feet wet in architecture. Some to call out were:

  1. A360 Architectural Scale Model Building Kit
  2. Go Plus 2.0 Kids Architect Scale Model House Building kit

They are basic but, I thought they would do for now. So, I explored ArcKit products and realized I can go cheaper. I can use the good old Poptital Sticks.

The goal for me was to keep it simple.

Since the name of the game was Keeping It Stupid Simple (KISS). I decided to create a ver rough draft of my idea.

Creating A Simple Sketch

WARNING: THE DRAWING BELOW ARE SIMPLE

Smart Building Draft Smart Floor #2 Draft

The photos above illustrates a simple rough draft of my goal. I want to be able to create a Smart Building with at least one Smart Floor.

However, there is a problem that came to mind as I was planning and drafting the idea. The problem is how will students be able to see the features that the Smart Building have.

After some days of thinking about it, I realized that I can possibly create a Smart Building without any exterior walls. In that way, it’ll show everything that is occuring within the building. It’ll be tough to plan for but, it surely is doable.

Now, I was told that I must resize my photos and videos when upload them. Makes sense as photos and videos can take a lot of space. So, instead of installing an application, I decided to depend on the web to resize my photos.

For Photo Resizing, I use ResizeFile. This application is okay for now.

Finalizing My Project Idea

I want to create a Scaled-Model Smart Building. This Scaled-Model Smart Building will be called Automate and it is an adaptation of Hyejin Ahn’s Final Project - Smart Miniature House. Automate will be created to teach my high school students about Smart Building and Automation. This will allow my students to have a better understanding of Smart Building, Automation, Programming,the Internet Of Things, and Management.

Reading the Fab Charter

The Fab Charter provides information about: * What is the fab lab? * What’s in a fab lab? * What does the fab lab network provide? * Who can use a fab lab? * What are your responsibilities? * Who owns fab lab inventions? * How can businesses use a fab lab?


Last update: May 8, 2021