Tread Lightly
September 11th - October 4th, 2019 | Product Design
Project type: Group - Nadine Lowden, Raegis Nepomuceno, Oli Shank
Completed for: Bachelor of Environmental Design, Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Department of Interior Design | 2nd year
Programs used: Rhino, Photoshop
"Space seized by imagination cannot remain indifferent space to the measuring and thought of the surveyor. It is to be experienced. And it is to be experienced, not in its positiveness, but with all the bias of imagination."
- Gaston Bachelard
What are the spatial and formal qualities (and potentialities) of our body? How do our bodies move in space? Can we reveal and/or augment its spatial reality in motion? How can we reveal different, possibly hidden, attributes of our body?
- from project brief
This project, completed for a second year design studio, asked students to reimagine, change, or augment the function of the human body.
Studying the bird's foot as precedent, myself and my two group members sought to determine how we could create a lighter step; to change our experience of moving through the natural world and thus encourage greater awareness and care as individuals with the capacity to influence positive environmental change.
Initial prototypes focused on emulating the shape and function of the bird foot.
The final design, with the lightness and weight distribution we were looking for, combines the curving forms of the forks in the found object model, and the flexibility and natural material of the three-toed wooden model.
This was then created from laser-cut wooden slats, laminated together and steam bent into shape.
Tread Lightly is a single curving piece, an elegant silhouette that compliments both the natural curves of the feet and the organic forms of the site.
A NOTE ON GROUP WORK
Myself and my two group members worked together through every stage of this project. Drawings are my own unless otherwise noted. All work attributed solely to other group members is credited in image captions.
