Our project is called the ramp shade. It is designed to extend and cover the area on the side of the bridge that is between Perkins and Academic Commons. Our idea started when my partner and I realized that there really isn’t anywhere on campus to just hang or do homework outside. We decided on this because Foster use to be where students could sit outside to hang or do homework but we now do not use that building anymore. This would help with getting students outside and out of the classrooms all of the time to get fresh air.

This project started at the beginning of the semester. We first started with a cardboard replica of what we thought would be such a great model. The way we planned on the shade to work and come out didn’t work at all. We couldn’t get the mechanism of the shade to go up and down. Then we made another replica out of cardboard, this time we got help with what our shade could be. We decided to go with origami, so then we started to research origami and what type of technique we could use for a shade. This took quite a while to find what type of folding origami would work best. We finally got help and found a fold that would work. So, we started to learn how to fold the origami. Once we got that we tried connecting it to our model. We still didn’t know how we were going to make this retract in and out. We thought maybe running a string through it would work. Then we realized that the origami wouldn’t just stay up on its own. We started to work on a framing for the origami and how it would connect. We started to work in Rhino and see how we could made a frame and how we would connect each frame. Once we were in Rhino and got the frame finalized we laser cut it. We started with cardboard and work with that. We ended up laser cutting fabric to fit in each frame and the shade. Then we worked on the folding mechanism and how it would fold up and retract. We used tape on the cardboard to show that. Then we moved on to laser cutting the frame out of wood. We then did the same thing with the fabric. Hinges were then added to the frames to connect them and see how it would fold.

When we started to realize what was failing we would usually call for help and see what our next move could be. The origami is one that took a long time to research and figure out what to do. To finally realized that we didn’t need to just be folding paper that the origami needed to replica a frame was hard to get to. Once we got there is made it a lot easier to work with and see where to go from there.