fabacademy

challenge 1

idea generation

Our research and areas of interest are about "slowing down" our way of life, promoting a resilient lifestyle and bring more awareness to our daily life. In that context, we already started experimenting with different low techs related to food (production or preparation). For this first challenge, we decided to continue in that direction and create a solar oven. Not just an object dedicated to camping or emergency situations, we would like to see it in our kitchens as an appliance for everyday life. So we would like to make a nice design-line for all of our products and start with the solar oven. Day 1 we spend time for the kick-off of the challenge, brainstorming, inspiration by analysing the various existing techniques for solar ovens, simulation of the sun beams and their reflection. Day 2 we start with analysing the light, while using a program to create a virtual sun and add mirrors and borders, which should simulate the reflectors and shapes. After figuring out where the most of the light gets on one point we start sketching possible concepts and created a final idea. Light

purpose

We are promoting a resilient future (mentally and emotionally cope with problems, protecting self from the potential negative effects of stressors and prevent long term crises), while showing how to live with few resources and still enjoy it. Also, while including the concept of the “Slow movement”, which should help to rebuild a connection with oneself, one's fellow men and with the environment and fight against the increasing amount of people getting mental issues. We have more and more technological devices (like flushed toilets, bread baking machines etc.) which should helps us to have more time with things we like, but instead of we get even more stressed and busy and rushing towards the next task, which includes also our recreation. We also lost the connection to the natural world and rhythms around us, like the death. Slowing down your life includes moving back to basics, understanding specific processes and stepping out of the comfort zone. All individuals could benefit from it. Those who could be disadvantaged are brands or companies promoting the contrary: cheap and fast food, fashion, leisure, travels…

fabrication: vinyl cutter

It was the first time we used the method cutting parts with the vinyl cutter, so we wanted to implement it into our design. We tried first cutting an emergency blanket, but this material is very fragile and thin. So we could cut it with an extra sticky board, but after removing it broke very fast. So we wanted to find another material which we could laser cut, so one sight has to be not reflective, but the we figured out that we cannot laser the foam. So we tried to cut the foam with the vinyl cutter and it worked pretty good! Also when cutting letters it worked very exact. We had three different kind of settings to think about and try which one was the best. We used for force: 25, for speed: 5 and for blade: 8.

fabrication: laser cutter

We separated the 3D modelling parts to have more time for the rest. In total we created 4 different parametric designs: The outer box, the inner box, two big rules and 8 small one. We used different kind of techniques like press fit and kerf bending. Audrey created the outer box and two rulers and me the inner part with the wings, the 8 rulers and also I designed the reflective sheets for the vinylcutter. So the day 3 we start laser cutting the parts and assembly everything. For laser cutting we figured out for the material MDF (3mm) we need the settings, power : 60, speed: 0.5 and frequency: 1000.

We are happy with the end-result, but could think about many improvements regarding the design and the material. In the future we would like to improve the design to find the perfect angle to maximize temperature. Also experiment cooking with the oven & measure the temperature inside & outside of the oven at the same time. Also the outer box was not perfect constructed so its falling apart very fast, which has to be improved. More info´s

FABACADEMY