Constructing Environments Week 1 Task: Build a building high enough to touch the roof by only using small wood blocks The Process: At first we started with a basic square shape it provided a better and more solid base and since there was no wind in the room there was no reason for a circular shaped building. The first few levels we placed each block with no gap in between them and with two layers. However as we started to go up we saw that the we were using too many block and that the construction was taking too much time to build and so we started to leave small spaces between them therefore requiring less blocks to build it and speeding up the process. We stayed with that process for a while however again the amount of blocks was scarce and we were taking too much time to build it and so we stopped doing the double layer and started building with just one layer and continuing on leaving small spaces between each block, which was also good as it applied less pressure on the structure as there were less blocks being use meaning there the structure was lighter. From then on the construction started to go much quicker and the height of our building started to catch up with the other groups. However without really meaning to our building started to become circular and the higher we went the more circular it got. Half way through the construction of the building we ran out of block and so our tutor “Daniel� told us that we had to start taking block from our structure so we could keep going. And so since our base was so thick and full of block we took blocks from there and surprisingly there were many blocks which were pretty much doing nothing there and were extremely easy to remove and so I we were able to continue with the construction. As I continued to remove the block from the bottom I realized that the blocks which were harder to remove were the ones in the middle corners and so I thought why not make four pillars on
the base and that what I did. By time I finished making the pillars the other groups building started to collapse meaning there was no need for us to remove anymore blocks from our building as we could just use theirs now. So we kept on building it higher and higher and the building got skinnier and skinnier and to the point where we were placing only one block at a time which by then I was too nervous and the structure was too unstable for me to continue building. However one of my group mates had really steady hands and was able to continue until the point where the single block section of the building was too unstable and collapsed and although the building was still intact and maybe we could have reached the roof we ran out of time and had to destroy our structure and pack up. The reason we were able to build such a high structure without using any sort of glue or tape to make the structure more stable was because of compression. By putting more and more blocks on top of each other we are also increasing the amount of force exerted in each block and also increasing the amount of friction being produced enabling us to build higher and without the building collapsing and also enabling us to remove blocks from the bottom of the building. I was very happy with our group’s performance as we were able to build the tallest building in the class and from what I’ve heard from the other classes maybe the tallest this year.