Week 4: Model Making - Different Countries' Houses

Model Making - Different Countries' Houses

 

 

 

 

For this week, we stayed in the same group as our group last week. We were asked to choose randomly the country in which our group would be working on to create a model-making house. Through the lucky draw, our group got to create a futuristic Japanese house. However, we were to stay silent and not to tell other groups about the name of the country that we had gotten. We were supposed to present our miniature house to the class and let them guess on the origin of the country of our house.

 

 

 



 

These were some of the materials that we used to build our miniature Japanese house. They were satay sticks, scotch tape, masking tape, twine rope and large garbage bag.

 

 

 



 

Firstly, we were brainstorming about the Japanese culture, trademarks and its house 's characteristics. Japan are known for its sushi, samurai, recycle bins, futon, tatami mats, culture of sitting on the floor and many more. Next, we broadened our scope to Japanese architecture. We found out that Japan often used Taoism and Zen Buddhism for many of its buildings' interior design. Besides that, Japan put a lot of attention to details when it came to its interior design. Japan also commonly used neutral palettes such as black, white, grey and off-white; and neutral materials like bamboo, rice straw mats and paper shoji screens for its architecture.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

Another key point that we discussed about was Japanese organic characteristics. Japan was associated with bonsai, sakura, lakes, pond and its eco-friendliness. After we collected all the information that we needed about Japan, we compiled them into a mind map. This was to help us organise our thinking process. Then, we tried to apply all the information into our miniature Japanese house. Not to forget that we had to make it look futuristic, we tried to modernise the characteristics of Japanese house that we had found; but at the same time, we tried our best to introduce Japanese culture to our house. This was so that when other groups looked at our model-making house, they would be able to tell straight away that our house was a Japanese house.

 

 

 

 

After we discussed on how we were going to build our house, we separated our jobs among the group members. Some of us were doing the body of the house. While some of us were making the roof of the house.

 

 

We used twine rope to join the satay sticks horizontally. We also used scotch tape to glue the stay sticks vertically together.

 

 

 

 

This was the structure of the body of the house. After this, we were going to combine the body and the roof together. Then we would decorate the house in such a way that it showed the Japanese characteristics and looked modern at the same time.

While doing our project, I was also observing other groups. They were so enthusiastic in what they were doing. This encouraged me even more to give my best for our group project.

 

 

 

I realized that each group had their own styles in creating their miniature houses. This group, for example, used cardboards instead of satay sticks for making their house.

 

As for this group, they did use satay sticks just like our group. However, I found out that our group and this group had different starting point and methods of building the structures of our houses.

Overall, this was a fun exercise.