Kristoff,
I was looking through some of plans on your website, and especially the curved walls made me think if you are aware of hempcrete. It's quite an amazing building material that handles curves beautifully. This video provides a good introduction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVlYDWr31fQ&feature=player_embedded
Thanks again, Fred
Thanks Kristoff! I really appreciate your support. Indeed similar to tinker toys, but without the fixed angular constraints.
I think your money is safe, as I don't believe I'll make the goal, but doing Kickstarter is a fun process, and I hope the project gets some more people thinking about new approaches to building toys.
Cheers,
Fred
Hi All,
Some of you may remember my posting here about Quirky selecting my building toy idea for development.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=39607
Quirky eventually decided to go in another direction for a building toy.
Since what I really want is to have a building toy available that allows for the easy creation of highly-curved organic shapes I started a Kickstarter campaign to develop the toy as an open-source project.
If you are interested in this sort of thing please take a look.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/804215203/developing-a-21st-century-open-source-building-toy
Thanks,
Fred
PS For you SketchUcation old timers, I blogged about my latest design work here. http://fredbartels.posterous.com
Wo3Dan,
Thanks for sharing your concerns about compression and tension stresses at the joints. I have them too. It's why I'm proceeding slowly and with small projects first. I think steel hubs and joist hangers will go a long way toward addressing this issue. I'd love to know the math to calculate the stresses.
This small dome http://dws.editme.com/files/JulyAugust2009/IMG_5882.jpg & http://dws.editme.com/files/JulyAugust2009/roof%20beams.jpg is going strong even with poorly designed posts and PVC hubs with joists attached via end grain screws. It has had some major snow accumulation and has not shown any deformation.
Have you seen some of the bigger grid shell structures? http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20061011/back-on-the-grid
I suspect the stresses in them are similar to those in my framing system.
Cheers,
Fred
Thanks for the replies.
Roger. I'm going to contact the company next week. I'll let you know what I discover.
mitcord: Thanks for the perspective. If I used the membrane it would be as the waterproofing layer for a green roof.
tim: Love the idea of a beautifully crafted metal panel roof, but, as you note, that's for a different economic class than mine.
Krisidious: Been working on the curved roof concept for a long time. See this 2008 thread here on SketchUCation. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=8723&start=0 After 30 years working in schools I'm taking a gap year and working on a number of projects, including moving forward with the curved roof ideas. I'm taking classes up at Yestermorrow, a funky design/build school in Vermont http://www.yestermorrow.org/ with that goal in mind.
I've made a lot of progress, but it is a long process. I built the prototype in the images below in the last few months. The metal joist hangers are aluminum and the hubs are PVC. This is just a model. In a full-scale structure I'd use steel. (If any of you have expertise in using light-weight steel in home construction I'd love to have a conversation!) Any thoughts much appreciated.
Fred
Discovered Neptune Coatings WetSuit roofing membrane system today: http://neptunecoatingscorp.com/. Thinking it might be a waterproofing solution for the complexly curved roofs I'm developing. http://dws.editme.com/
Wondering if any of you folks have experience with it?
Thanks,
Fred
@unknownuser said:
How the hexagonal yellow part and the hexagonal blue part are joined between them?
With a nut and bolt, probably made of plastic. The SketchUp model doesn't show this as it was made at an early conceptual stage. One advantage of this approach is that the hubs can be stacked which allows for the easy creation of irregular space frame structures like this. http://dws.editme.com/files/JulyAugust2009/space%20frame%202.jpg
One question that keeps coming up is how to skin the framework. Since the toy is designed to create TINs, all the triangles in the frame will likely be different. I haven't come up with a good solution.
Fred
To Boofredlay: Thanks!
As I've noted in the previous posts, I have a building toy idea http://www.quirky.com/ideations/82529 that is making its way through the potential product process at Quirky. http://www.quirky.com/
If you are interested in building toys, design as a social process, or you're just curious, please consider checking out the design and possibly providing some input.
http://www.quirky.com/projects/1397
Thanks for considering.
Fred
Quirky is currently doing some market research about this proposed building toy.
They are looking for some input about how possibly to market the toy. Any input from the SketchUp community -using the link below- would be very much appreciated!
http://www.quirky.com/projects/1085
Thanks,
Fred
Hey Roger,
Thanks for your comment.
Sorry about the slow response. For the past three weeks I was up at http://www.yestermorrow.org/ doing a three week intensive design/build course and was totally focused on the work for the course.
Regarding improving the toy idea, the cool thing about Quirky is that you can make suggestions to improve a product idea and if they are used then you can earn a percentage of the profits if the product ever makes it to market, so if you want to share your ideas have at it... http://www.quirky.com/products/168-product-0168
Warm regards,
Fred
@roger said:
Fred, I really missed your contributions. What about doing a second type of connector that would allow you to connect at acute angles? It might be an interesting addition to the kit. Also why does it have to be a toy? As soon as I saw it I was thinking little shade structures to keep my plants from frying in the desert heat.
TIG and Dave,
Thanks for your comments! The New York Times ran an article today about Quirky and its 24 year old founder.
Re TIG's question about the rods, yes they would be adjustable in length.
Fred
Thanks Dean. I've missed everyone here. Looking forward to checking in more often to see all the great work folks are doing now that I have a little more free time. Fred
Hi All,
It's been a while. Hope everyone is doing well.
For many years I was quite active here on SketchUcation and learned tons and received lots of great feedback from many of you.
Just thought I'd share something that happened recently related to one of those ideas that was batted around here.
For years I've been playing around with a building toy idea, using SketchUp to model designs. At one point I actually had a prototype made of a key part by sending in a CAD file to a rapid prototyping service.
A few weeks ago I ran across Quirky (http://www.quirky.com) and decided to take the few minutes (and $10) needed to submit my building toy idea. I checked the site for a week or so and as nothing seemed to be happening kind of forgot about it.
Last Friday I received an email saying my idea had been selected for development. Here is a post on Quirky's blog about the selection
process.
http://aquirkyblog.com/2011/08/eval-recap-168169-congrats-fred-and-seun/
I have no idea how far this will go but it is definitely cool that services like Quirky are developing that can help new design ideas get some exposure.
A really big thanks for all that help years ago!
Sincerely,
Fred
Dale,
Thanks so much for Artisan! A brilliant update to SDS and a wonderful addition to SketchUp. You've provided us with an amazing new set of tools. Now if Google SketchUp would only get moving and modernize the drawing engine...
You've single handedly reenergized my interest in SketchUp!
With much gratitude for your amazing work.
Fred
PS Thanks also for the upgrade pricing for those who purchased SDS.
Had the opportunity to develop my curved roof ideas during an online course on Green Roofs offered by the Boston Architectural College.
Additional images here: http://dws.editme.com
Still working on a hub connector and a number of other components of this building approach but making slow and steady progress. Another five years, who knows?
Any leads, comments, feedback much appreciated.
Thanks, Fred
Taff,
Nice clean simple design. Now we just need to get it manufactured in volume. If you get a patent then Simpson will consider.
http://www.strongtie.com/ideas/index.htm?source=topnav
Fred
xrok1, Some interesting ideas! There are obviously multiple ways to solve this problem. What I'm aiming for is hub hardware that is simple, easy to work with, and strong. Your ideas are definitely heading in that direction. Fred
xrok, the major problem with your approach is that the triangles forming the roof surface actually intersect over the center of the pipe, and to make this happen the beams need to attach to the pipe circumference at different heights from the top of the pipe. The attached images should help to make this clearer. Fred
@kwistenbiebel said:
Is that a PVC cilinder in the middle?
Wouldn't that be a weak spot in the construction?
Looks like PVC but we are thinking steel.
Taff, I do believe connectors like that would work. Very clever. Simple, flexible, and probably relatively easy to produce after working up a few jigs. I would guess you can get strap steel stock at Home Depot if one wanted to make a prototype?