SnowKea - Transcending the Summit

Picture waking up one day to the glamorous view of a snowy mountain scenery with a community encircling you... You might believe it's unfeasible or even absurd, but with sustainable efforts and well-planned energy production/transfer strategies, it's certainly worth a try.

By tapping into nature's compelling nature in the mountainous regions, we can connect with an avalanche of creativity and discover a peaceful ambiance that transcends us. Our lifestyles will also drive us to form closer bonds with our community, find resourceful solutions when our needs are scarce, and engage in more strenuous physical activities, a crucial factor in personal happiness and satisfaction. In addition, we'll spend more time alone contemplating thoughts that remain latent and unconceived given most modern lifestyles.

Inspired by Mauna Kea, Snowkea simulates a village town to explore the possibilities and implementations of leading a life in the mountains. There, inhabitants can zone in their imagination to step into what is or isn't viable, sparking innovation in minds to discover new improvements. Prioritizing to capitalize on our ever-changing technologies to manage our lifestyles in unique settings and preserving the environment assuages dreaded restrictions we face on our planet.

At Snowkea, I experimented with some idiosyncratic ways to combat the region's surmountable uncertainties, which I will cover in 3 parts: prevention, necessity/comfort, and production.

Digital Model:

-Autodesk Inventor

-Blender

Each piece was assembled using smaller-sized Inventor part/assembly files, except the mountain:

-Mountain (Blender)

-Helicopter landing pad +towers

-Small Cabins made with cedarwood

-Sturdy, preventative fencing against avalanches

-Avalanche Detecting Radars

-Solar tracker paired solar panels

-Offshore oil rigs with buildings

-Offshore wind turbine farm

-Crescent land structure

-Artificial steel wall around the Coast/Sea

-Crescent Sea

-King Snowman design

-"SNOWKEA" text sign

-Snow-covered trees

Physical Model:

-3D Print digital model (inaccessible for many, not included in this project)

Moving into or vacationing at SnowKea requires meticulous organization for the ensuing dangers, an apparent one being avalanches. Substantial or insignificant, it's always safest to preclude the risk factors we're up against. Facing the avalanches, I added detection radars and sensors on the mountain to identify high-risk scenarios and to sound alarms when any signal is present. I also installed fencing and planted secured trees around SnowKea to block off any large boulders and dangers that might crash down, abate large masses of snow and ice that can destroy cabins or other infrastructure, and offer open-air freshness.

There will always be things we need to survive: food, shelter, and water, to list a few. 

At SnowKea, helicopters transport all sorts of goods to be sold and distributed to the inhabitants. Each helicopter pad supplements replenishing copters with adequate solar and thermal energy, allowing for convenient transportation. 

Comforts like having warmth inside cabins, entertainment, and traveling to other places are all essential for a fitting lifestyle and paramount to our well-being. Helicopters address these issues by acting as a reliable method facilitating the movement of people and supplies to and from places and can be especially vital in an evacuation. Given the sparse variability of the infrastructure framework in SnowKea, which focuses on highlighting and addressing these issues, residents will also need a refuge shelter should emergencies occur, and that's why I proposed a design with elevated helicopter towers assembled with firm material to incorporate a haven and retreat with excess resources gathered from past trips.

Touring or moving in should always be an enjoyable experience, so at SnowKea, I ensured insects weren't a problem after constructing every cabin from cedarwood and establishing them near each other for an amplified effect, but also not too close to respect privacy.

Technology provides us with the possibility to harness natural and renewable resources. In my design, I incorporated the coast and sea on the crescent before joining an artificial steel wall to insulate more heat energy from the sun to keep the seawater from freezing. In addition, I affixed oil rigs to extract and process more oil and natural gas from the seabed to fuel the helicopter transportation system, which expends immense resources, and power heating and electricity in homes. Furthermore, I built the offshore wind turbine farm so that their towers faced an open sea, which would receive the most amount of kinetic energy from faster wind speeds as the steel wall encloses the other perimeters. Lastly, while the odds of running out of helicopters are uncertain, I also added hospital buildings and other facilities in the oil rigs, provided they are in the sea and can quickly contact ships for transport. 

The sustainability efforts SnowKea enforces help mitigate carbon emissions and climate change risks.

I first worked with Blender to design a mountain, which I imported into an Inventor assembly file to join with my snowy biome landscape. After that, everything I made was on Inventor, and I started by making a snow-covered tree by creating a rectangular prism trunk and then offsetting different planes repeatedly and sketching circles on each plane until I reached the cone shape at the top of the tree. Later, I made my avalanche sensors with different shapes and rounded corners with the fillet command. I then made my fencing by designing one side and then constraining four sides together. In addition, I made my 3D text of "SNOWKEA" by sketching lines and using the chamfer command to design each letter. After, I extruded the sketch and changed the 3D textures. Finally, I made my snowman design using the loft command to make the body on different planes. I also stacked each feature by offsetting many planes and used project geometry and half-slice functions to edit from distinct views.

I first created a 3D blue crescent shape to represent water and added a coast with a sandy and rocky shore by drawing the shape, extruding it, and coloring it. After, I created a steel-blue wall and joined it with the ocean. Then, I modeled an offshore wind turbine by first sketching a circle, extruding it, and drawing a smaller circle, extruding that higher. Next, I created the generator and controller with the rotor and drew on a perpendicular plane to the original and on the rotor to model the shafts and blades. 

First, I created short and long cedarwood logs and assembled them to form planks. Next, I joined the planks together forming a rectangular prism. I finished by adding a door and roof and joining them to the wooden structure.

First, I created an octagon shape and extruded it. Next, I sketched and extruded the smaller inner octagon shape and then made a rectangle sketch on the upper level of the tower and extruded it to make the 3D prism. After, I made the landing pad by creating two small circles on the octagon and extruding it. Lastly, I drew lines to form the letter H, which I then extruded.

To create the solar panels, I first sketched with equally spaced rectangles, chamfering and extruding each. Then, I added the materials needed to decorate the solar panels and moved on to the solar tracker, which helps move solar panels in the sunshine's direction. To make the diagonal cut on the controller, I extruded (cut) the sides of the tracker with a triangle. Lastly, I joined the newly cut surface with the back of the solar panels.

Modeling the offshore oil rig, I planned and constructed a template base structure followed by fencing around the deck for safety measures. Then, I created towers, cranes, drills, buildings, pipes, and chimneys on the deck by drawing sketches and extruding them to add details by drawing new sketches on the extrusions. For the pipe deck crane and riser handling cranes, I offset a plane to sketch before using the sweep command to select the circle profiles I drew on the offset plane and the lines connecting the two planes from the 3D sketch. 

To assemble everything, we first need to create a standard.iam assembly file and import every file we made with the "place" command under the "assemble" category between the menu bar and toolbar. Then, to move around the screen, we use the cube on the top right-hand side, and to move the imported parts, we can right-click any model and click on the free move and rotate commands or click on the object and move using your mouse. To join parts with each other, we can use the joint and constrain commands and then right-click the objects to "ground" them, which fixates them to become stationary.

On another note, getting stuck deciding which function to use, understanding what a command does, and making errors when following through with this project will happen. However, learning from these hindrances was the most helpful way to put new skills into practice for me.

Reflecting on these past few days, I've never been more intrigued about applying engineering, architecture, and other practical ways to solve problems like those we face in our environments. This project considerably expanded what I saw as possible, informing me of the need for innovation, prevention, and proper management and application to maintain a place that we can call our home. From what I've learned about the minor details we tend to forget when working with daunting tasks, and in considering every step, I wish to dive deeper into the world of sustainability and harness renewable resources such as solar panels, which my community does not implement yet. By continuing to embark on new undertakings and being mindful of overlooked problems in our societies, we can look further to find better connections to our work on projects and every subtle distinction.

I hope SnowKea gave you a refreshing perspective on overcoming extreme conditions from our ascend and inspires you to envision and fabricate your realities!