Description: We completed a project called Sine City in the eleventh grade and the project was on applying trigonometry to architecture in terms of the San Marcos Creek Development Project. The Creekside Project is a project focused on building the future of San Marcos and including a downtown San Marcos. The goal of the project was for individual groups to create plots of land that included mathematical concepts such as the golden ratio, floor ratios, and some new trigonometric functions. My group created three separate buildings that consisted of residential buildings and stores.
Process: As a group we collaborated and created site plans, plan views, and elevated views of our envisioned building. We also created actual models out of wood using a laser cutter and software. We also used Adobe Illustrator to create our blueprints and we made sure they were to scale. (1:2) We used math mostly during our site analysis where we actually went to our plot of land and we had to use the law of cosines in order to measure the height of a tree. During the urban planning, we had to learn about our areas mostly and take into account what is already on our plot of land. Surveying was important because we had to make sure that we actually saw what could possibly be detrimental to our building. Architecture was very important because we had to learn about sun path diagrams, where to angle our buildings, and how to scale our buildings down correctly. A lot of people have never used Illustrator either.
Process: As a group we collaborated and created site plans, plan views, and elevated views of our envisioned building. We also created actual models out of wood using a laser cutter and software. We also used Adobe Illustrator to create our blueprints and we made sure they were to scale. (1:2) We used math mostly during our site analysis where we actually went to our plot of land and we had to use the law of cosines in order to measure the height of a tree. During the urban planning, we had to learn about our areas mostly and take into account what is already on our plot of land. Surveying was important because we had to make sure that we actually saw what could possibly be detrimental to our building. Architecture was very important because we had to learn about sun path diagrams, where to angle our buildings, and how to scale our buildings down correctly. A lot of people have never used Illustrator either.
Math Learning: In terms of Trigonometry, I mainly learned about the law of sines and cosines. During the site analysis, there was a pine tree in our lot and we wanted to measure the height of it so we used the law of cosines since we knew all the angles but didn't know any of the sides. I learned completely new concepts about the golden ratio because I had no clue that it was actually a thing. I feel like it's one of those things that fits but doesn't seem intentional. Especially when I saw a picture of it over the Google logo. I learned that a sunpath chart diagram is important when it comes to architecture because it determines where the windows are placed. I learned that a Cartesian plane has points defined by (x,y) and polar coordinates are defined by trigonometry. Symmetry was important because we had to make sure the buildings were symmetrical in our case.
Reflection: My biggest takeaway was probably how difficult the process of creating a building takes. It takes many steps and many jobs to create one building. I grew when it came to using resources strategically because I had to make sure I chose something that I was good at and use computer apps that I was good at using. A challenge I had was the scaling because I screwed up twice and it took a while to re-scale the building. That was solved by Zach, who took over and re-scaled it. I really enjoy being able to have this freedom of creating a building as long as you fit the constraints.
Exhibition: I was apparently an engineer which I totally forgot during the course of the project but I definitely grew when it came to illustrator. I have used it before but I never really made something from complete scratch. Exhibition wasn't very challenging but what was challenging was to get people to come over to the corner. A celebration I have is that it is finally over and we actually completed the project.
Reflection: My biggest takeaway was probably how difficult the process of creating a building takes. It takes many steps and many jobs to create one building. I grew when it came to using resources strategically because I had to make sure I chose something that I was good at and use computer apps that I was good at using. A challenge I had was the scaling because I screwed up twice and it took a while to re-scale the building. That was solved by Zach, who took over and re-scaled it. I really enjoy being able to have this freedom of creating a building as long as you fit the constraints.
Exhibition: I was apparently an engineer which I totally forgot during the course of the project but I definitely grew when it came to illustrator. I have used it before but I never really made something from complete scratch. Exhibition wasn't very challenging but what was challenging was to get people to come over to the corner. A celebration I have is that it is finally over and we actually completed the project.