Ayele’s
FAB ACADEMY 2012,FAB LAB ADDIS
AYELE BEDADA, Student at Fablab AddisAbaba, Architect And Urban Planer, Assitant Lecturer at EiABC ayelebedada@gmail.com
I like Fab Academy because it gave me a chance to dream of fabricating my own house and other ideas
On our first day at the academy other participants and I were presenting our previous works amongst each other under the supervision of the local tutors. I gained additional awareness about digital fabrication as there were various presentations made on different topics. Since then, I have been discovering more and more about digital fabrication.
The following are some of the pictures of works I presented during the occasion:
On the next day we were engaged in making cut out models and press-fit kits using materials provided to us by the academy. I experimented on two different roof structures while working on the modeling exercise. I thought of fabricating these structures using Fab-Lab in order to decide how to design them. The following are the models I made during the occasion:
On the third day an interview was held for each of the participants. And on the fourth day, January 18, 2012 a video conference was held between participants of the fab academy all over the globe. The fallowing days were full of different experiences and discussions in the lab.
Semester Project
I choose to fabricate a small residential house unit for my semester project. As the six months research time includes various areas of technology,in addition to the construction fabrication of the house, I also planned to add sound controls and fold-able walls to the house unit.
I intend to fabricate the house unit in order to deliver prototypes for different components of a house structure.
. roof structure
.wall
.furniture and fixtures
.sound control systems
The fallowing pictures show the different parameters of the house unit in two dimensional drawings: (all the pictures are at schematic level)
The house is designed in such a way that it can be fabricated almost totally at the fab lab,except the columns on the ground floor and the simple stripe foundation. The rest of the building can be fabricated at the fab lab.
The fallowing pictures show the different views of the house unit in three dimensional drawings:(all the pictures are at schematic level)
In the world of architecture, sound pollution has been a very difficult challenge to control. In the past times and currently this problem is controlled through passive method. But this method is only good enough to control small decibel noises and is costly. The passive way of controlling noise or sound include:
-double glazing
-addition of insulation materials inside an already double layered wall
-addition of texture to surfaces
-plantation around buildings
These solutions do not control the sound pollution completely and at areas where there is high decibel of sound occurs these measures do not work at all. Using such construction techniques costs high. In Ethiopia almost all buildings are made without sound control measures. Offices on high ways and near a noisy establishment suffer a great deal from the sound pollution. And these days there are mass housing projects in the country that are being implemented. Since these buildings have thin walls between neighboring households, sound travels through the walls discomforting the residents.
Since the passive way is expensive and is successful only for lesser decibels, there should be a way to control the problem actively.
while searching for active solutions to sound pollution, I find the fallowing links:
One-Way Sound Walls Proven Possible
On the former link we can see how Noise-canceling Headphones work. In order to listen to music using headphone without getting disturbed by sounds other than the music, one needs to find a way to block the sound coming from the surrounding.
As we can see on the link, a sound can be generated by the speaker ordered by an electronic devise of the headphone to cancel out any other sound than the music. There for I wanted to apply this approach to make architectural spaces sound proof.
And on the other link using acoustic diode,the page suggests scientists at the National Research Council in Florence have found a way to build a one way sound transmitting wall. This technology is still not on the market >.
And the idea does not cover the sound pollution that spoils architectural spaces through openings where you would not erect a wall.
During the course of the research for the coming six months, I plan to prove that sound controlling in an architectural space can be achieved through sound canceling by generating a sound that opposes an incoming unwanted sound to our spaces.
I am also planing to design an electric sensor system that will fold and unfold all the fold-able walls by recognizing people approaching them. And I hope that I will find the time to come to it after Finishing the earlier plans.
References material to read on free energy devices and design:
Practical Guide to Free-Energy Devices
