Protective shelter

In the second half of the day we were making a structure from paper to cover our spaghetti buildings. Our tutor explained that we needed to protect the spaghetti structures from a force. We were only given one A1 page of cartridge paper and two A3 pieces of paper to do this with. We could use this paper in any way we thought would prevent the structures from being destroyed by this 'force.'  I decided to lay my piece on its side as it would make it more stronger than its normal state (which is more fragile.) At first I wasn't sure what would be most effective to prevent any harm of my structure - I tried scrunching the paper to serve as a pillow for any force or weight. However it was soon apparent that there wasn't enough paper to fit inside. I then decided to create pillows to sit on the top and bottom by folding sections of paper - this gave the piece more bounce. I decided to then wrap the rest of my paper around it, in the hope that if any impact was placed on the structure the paper and paper pillows inside would absorb this and prevent any damage to the work inside. And for extra protection I folder paper and used the folds in the paper to point up to also add extra bounce.  After I had made the protective structure I was still worried that my piece would not last under any force. Once talking about this with a tutor and other peers I felt maybe adding a column inside would help - in buildings pillars are used to support the floor above and so I adopted this idea. I used the remaining pieces of paper to roll tight cylinders which I dotted around inside of my protective layer. I felt more  confident after that this may protect my spaghetti piece more. Overall I am very pleased with the look of the protective structure because it has a very architectural look - the different shapes that I have used in particular give the work its own character. I like how I have left a small area uncovered so that we can look inside at the interior like a window. I found standing the pillars up right difficult - this was mainly down to the fact I added them last, they wouldn't stand where I wanted it too. How ever I was able to move them about to find the tightest section inside of the structure that would hold them up.  

 

 

 

Above are a couple of photographs that I took of my structure with a lamp inside - which illuminated the entire structure and showed the interior of my piece.  I really like these photographs because of this light. In the first photograph (top) the layers of paper have been revealed with the lamp and the different shadows that have been casts give the piece extra dimension. I could see this piece being a arena or building very easily because of its unique dome like shape. I have placed the small figure to this wok also to show the scale of the work (if this was a model.)