3D design - Cardboard challenge

Brief: Using a sheet of paper, create a structure that is able to hold a water bottle from the floor using only an arms width of tape to hold it together.

           

I began by cutting out long strip of the white paper with a suitable width, but not too wide that they would become flimsy when stood upright and pressure placed on top. The width was on average the same as the metal ruler I was using and it was essential that this measurement was the same for the entire length as this would effect the surface of the spiral, making it uneven.

I chose spirals as the basis for my supportive structure because of the effectiveness of cylinders which everyone else was using. Spirals are another way to create cylinders but are conveniently prettier when formed in the correct manner.  

I was more confident that I would succeed with my endeavour when I started because individually, each spiral held so well on its own. I think that perhaps the biggest mistake I made was varying the sizes of the spirals because it meant the larger ones were weaker and tended to wobble under the pressure of objects when stacked on one another. 

I didn't use all the paper when making the structure as this method used relatively small amounts of paper as the strips distributed the weight of the objects well. The difficult task was placing the circles on top of eachother in a formation that wouldn't buckle under any pressure by arranging the stronger areas where the strips were connected in a certain way. In fact, I found many way in which these smaller structures could be arranged to create a larger one that was able to hold the full water bottle. I ended up arranging the circles in sets of three and placing them on top of eachother to create a structure that could be rearranged and moved, turned upside down and shifted whilst maintaining a certain aesthetic quality. 

I am very proud of this creation. It's pretty and it does it's job in more ways than one, meaning it fit the brief and beyond. It was fiddly to make and took a lot of patience to create an arrangement that would work with such a heavy object, but once not was worked out it held itself well. I could see this working as an architectural feature and illustrated this by placing the little white people around the bottom under the light and photographing it. 

Initial images using mobile phone

Structure photographed using lighting and little white people

These two image show the structure with the full water bottle placed on top of it. As you can see it is ale to work both ways in functioning as a platform, whilst looking unique too. I was surprised when it was turned upside down and was convinced that it wouldn't work, but when it did I was able to see how looking at something from a different angle gives surprising and pleasing results.