Unbalanced Balance (Esther&Max)

Esther: This is the very first phase when we were trying to find out the pattern that we want to create. We came up with lots of ideas, including hexagons, stars, and triangles. We ended up deciding to use triangles as our main elements, and use them to create a “pyramid”.

Max: Like Esther said, we examined many patterns and as we were putting them down on paper, none of them were what we wanted. Eventually, after a series of examinations, we decided to go with a triangle.

Esther: But we need to have triangles of the same size, which we misinterpreted at first. Therefore, in the paper demo phase, we used triangles of the same size to brainstorm the kind of final version we want to achieve.

Max: we thought simply drawing on paper couldn’t give us a clear view, also we needed to test and see if the triangle pattern is going to work out as well as we were expecting. So, we cut the paper into triangle pieces and tried to play around with them.

Esther: Then we moved on to building the model in Rhino and laser cutting. We want to make use of slots to connect them together and test the possibilities.

Max: Our main module is a single triangle piece, which is known as a highly stable figure. However, we decided to explore the “unstableness” of the triangle.

Max: You can look at our product as a “creature” that is made up of two parts, two unbalanced parts. The magic of these two parts are that neither of these two are balanced, but when they combined, the final product turn balanced and stabled.

Esther: This final version was actually created through experimenting. We tried multiple ways to combine the triangles together to make them look more unique. Therefore, we began with forming an "unstable" shape. It actually fell a few times, but it eventually stands still, which is super magical for it looks so unbalanced.