Yurt has been hard at work weaving together egg crates and playing with the various forms. Thus far we have produces 5+ units of 2 x 1 meter sheets of sliced egg crates. On Monday, Rebecca journeyed back to the place where egg crates are born, in Netanya, to buy another 6 packages. So far we have already cut up 4 of them.
We think that there have been two major breakthroughs this week in terms of our building technology. The first breakthrough came with the realization (a number of people arrived at this conclusion simultaneously) that if we cut single units and wove them into our sheets, we would make the sheets lighter, save material, create fenestration and allow ourselves the possibility of playing with an endless number of patterns that could liven up the monotony of our single design. We have made a few sheets with some experimental patterns, and will continue to do so.
The second breakthrough, which came this morning, has to do with the edge of the sheet. Our sheets are four cut egg crates wide: ~~~~ At three points there are overlaps, but at each edge there is not. This means that the edges are not nearly as tightly packed as the insides. We realized that if we run a wire through the outside edges and tighten them, the edges will cup and create a curvature that will strengthen the would structure.
We think that if we widen our sheets and continue to decrease the number of egg crates, we can achieve a situation in which the top cups in and makes a dome. We aren't yet sure that this is the form we want our final structure to take, but we are very excited about this discovery.
The second breakthrough, which came this morning, has to do with the edge of the sheet. Our sheets are four cut egg crates wide: ~~~~ At three points there are overlaps, but at each edge there is not. This means that the edges are not nearly as tightly packed as the insides. We realized that if we run a wire through the outside edges and tighten them, the edges will cup and create a curvature that will strengthen the would structure.
We think that if we widen our sheets and continue to decrease the number of egg crates, we can achieve a situation in which the top cups in and makes a dome. We aren't yet sure that this is the form we want our final structure to take, but we are very excited about this discovery.
