Sine City
In this project Sine City, groups of 4 were given a parcel of land in which may or may not already have structures/retails on it. But our task was to redesign San Marcos while keeping in mind the multiple and unique forms in restriction zones on each piece of land. We had to keep in mind the multiple restrictions that played a part in constructing on our land. The purpose of this project was to use the math we have used this semester and apply it to creating a real downtown in San Marcos in which trigonometry, golden ratio and laws of sine became very useful. My group created 5 buildings in our land. They consisted of three Apartment Complexes with a total of three stories high on each one, then the other two were complexes as well but they had retail/commercial as the first story.
The first thing we did in this project was research our piece of land and find any restrictions on our land then we went out to the land and took measurements of the perimeter and figured out angles, sun path, square feet and what was already in use of the land. We used math to take measurements of the land but then also used the golden ratio to find certain lengths of the plot, as well as using trigonometry when needing to find a particular side or angle in a triangle such as the adjacent, hypotenuse or opposite. We created our final product by doing multiple drafts of what we wanted it to look like, so once we created the final draft we had to know the floor ratio (how many square feet we had in our building compared to how many we had overall and making sure we didn't go over that amount) and the sun path diagram (which was tracking the sun path and adjusting our roof/ building to allowing only certain amounts of light into the building).
My role being Surveying consisted of me taking detailed notes of our land like what was already on the land, where trees, bushes, streets, and what animals were invasive. But even though that was my main role I still needed to participate and be present in the other ones as well. Urban planning was a similar role to mine, this was designing the land based on what the environment consisted of. From there going into Architecture used our designs to put them onto illustration which was a role that held responsibilities of creating a solid final version of our building. The engineering I believe was used in constructing our actual building.
Artist Statement: B.R.A.D. Industries
The Sine City project is our last math project of 11th grade. It is a project that allowed us to step in the shoes of a surveyor, architect, engineer and developer. We based this project around the San Marcos creek project, a project that San Marcos has been trying to do for many years now, but is finally starting the planning. The main focus of the San Marcos creek project is to create a “downtown” for San Marcos by removing many structures and using empty spaces.
Our project all started with all of us being put in groups of 3 or 4 people and we were given a specific lot to work with. We took a trip down to that lot, since it was down the street, and saw how big it was, measured angles, looked for slopes, saw what was on that lot, and saw how it would need to be fixed in order for us to build a structure on it. Since San Marcos has a specific plan, we had to read that for our specific lot and from that we learned we were not allowed to build any drive-through service facilities such as restaurant take-out windows etc, no off-street parking space should be visible from a public right-of-way/public park, and that the sidewalk had to have a width of 10 feet. Once we were fully informed about what our lot was and what we were able to do with it, we had to decide what we wanted to build on it. We thought about it this for a while, but in the end we decided that an apartment complex would fit our lot best.
We started doing sketches, getting critique on them, and finalizing them by putting them to scale. We used many math concepts such as the golden ratio and trigonometry for the sun path analysis. We used the golden ratio to our advantage because a golden rectangle means that any shape that can be wholly divided into up into a square and a rectangle that, when connected, make a ratio of 1:1.61, so with the golden ratio we were able to see the balance and height and we were also able to see varying shapes. With the sun path analysis, we were able to see where we should locate our windows and how high we should make them, because the sun path analysis helps calculate where and what the time the sun will hit the building. Although this project was very long and had many challenges, it was really interesting to be able to design buildings that could potentially be made into real structures.
Well I had already learned trigonometry before this project, but this project put my math to the test. I had to use trig in a different form but still similar. Using the Law of Sines became handy when needing to find a side in a triangle, it made. I know the golden ratio is useful, but unfortunately I wasn't the one who had to solve for it so I am still trying to understand whats its used for. The sun path diagram was very useful I learned how to predict and know where the sun would be at each time which was important while building our apartments and knowing which side the sun will be facing as well as how far out the roof needs to reach in order to block out the sun.
My biggest take away was actually using all different types of math in a project that was so realistic and didn't only interest our school(students & teachers) it actually mattered to the public, which was a motivation. Looking at habits of of a mathematician during this project using Conjecture and Test was something my group did quite often, for an example floor ratio. We would test to see if that would fit within our total square feet and if it didn't we would go back and test again. A few challenges we faced was having trouble towards the end with putting all of our laser cut pieces together, it may sound silly because its just gluing. But making them look professional was time consuming especially with the fact that we had cut our 5 buildings with roofs and sides that were all cut out separately whereas most groups only had 1-2 buildings. Also a challenge we faced was myself being absent and missing a week in the final process in which I wasn't able to get back and help my group as much as I could have. I enjoyed how everyone was passionate about this project and excited for the final outcome.
Exhibition was great! The audience was interested in our process and design and were impressed on how much research we did for this project. I was the surveyor so I explained different aspects of the land that was already there and I had to explain a few of the different restrictions we had then I went into floor ratio but not to much then my partner cut in and explained. Something challenging was trying to explain golden ratio. A celebration was our interactive, we did a 3D model that the audience could look around and get a specific vision of our idea.
The first thing we did in this project was research our piece of land and find any restrictions on our land then we went out to the land and took measurements of the perimeter and figured out angles, sun path, square feet and what was already in use of the land. We used math to take measurements of the land but then also used the golden ratio to find certain lengths of the plot, as well as using trigonometry when needing to find a particular side or angle in a triangle such as the adjacent, hypotenuse or opposite. We created our final product by doing multiple drafts of what we wanted it to look like, so once we created the final draft we had to know the floor ratio (how many square feet we had in our building compared to how many we had overall and making sure we didn't go over that amount) and the sun path diagram (which was tracking the sun path and adjusting our roof/ building to allowing only certain amounts of light into the building).
My role being Surveying consisted of me taking detailed notes of our land like what was already on the land, where trees, bushes, streets, and what animals were invasive. But even though that was my main role I still needed to participate and be present in the other ones as well. Urban planning was a similar role to mine, this was designing the land based on what the environment consisted of. From there going into Architecture used our designs to put them onto illustration which was a role that held responsibilities of creating a solid final version of our building. The engineering I believe was used in constructing our actual building.
Artist Statement: B.R.A.D. Industries
The Sine City project is our last math project of 11th grade. It is a project that allowed us to step in the shoes of a surveyor, architect, engineer and developer. We based this project around the San Marcos creek project, a project that San Marcos has been trying to do for many years now, but is finally starting the planning. The main focus of the San Marcos creek project is to create a “downtown” for San Marcos by removing many structures and using empty spaces.
Our project all started with all of us being put in groups of 3 or 4 people and we were given a specific lot to work with. We took a trip down to that lot, since it was down the street, and saw how big it was, measured angles, looked for slopes, saw what was on that lot, and saw how it would need to be fixed in order for us to build a structure on it. Since San Marcos has a specific plan, we had to read that for our specific lot and from that we learned we were not allowed to build any drive-through service facilities such as restaurant take-out windows etc, no off-street parking space should be visible from a public right-of-way/public park, and that the sidewalk had to have a width of 10 feet. Once we were fully informed about what our lot was and what we were able to do with it, we had to decide what we wanted to build on it. We thought about it this for a while, but in the end we decided that an apartment complex would fit our lot best.
We started doing sketches, getting critique on them, and finalizing them by putting them to scale. We used many math concepts such as the golden ratio and trigonometry for the sun path analysis. We used the golden ratio to our advantage because a golden rectangle means that any shape that can be wholly divided into up into a square and a rectangle that, when connected, make a ratio of 1:1.61, so with the golden ratio we were able to see the balance and height and we were also able to see varying shapes. With the sun path analysis, we were able to see where we should locate our windows and how high we should make them, because the sun path analysis helps calculate where and what the time the sun will hit the building. Although this project was very long and had many challenges, it was really interesting to be able to design buildings that could potentially be made into real structures.
Well I had already learned trigonometry before this project, but this project put my math to the test. I had to use trig in a different form but still similar. Using the Law of Sines became handy when needing to find a side in a triangle, it made. I know the golden ratio is useful, but unfortunately I wasn't the one who had to solve for it so I am still trying to understand whats its used for. The sun path diagram was very useful I learned how to predict and know where the sun would be at each time which was important while building our apartments and knowing which side the sun will be facing as well as how far out the roof needs to reach in order to block out the sun.
My biggest take away was actually using all different types of math in a project that was so realistic and didn't only interest our school(students & teachers) it actually mattered to the public, which was a motivation. Looking at habits of of a mathematician during this project using Conjecture and Test was something my group did quite often, for an example floor ratio. We would test to see if that would fit within our total square feet and if it didn't we would go back and test again. A few challenges we faced was having trouble towards the end with putting all of our laser cut pieces together, it may sound silly because its just gluing. But making them look professional was time consuming especially with the fact that we had cut our 5 buildings with roofs and sides that were all cut out separately whereas most groups only had 1-2 buildings. Also a challenge we faced was myself being absent and missing a week in the final process in which I wasn't able to get back and help my group as much as I could have. I enjoyed how everyone was passionate about this project and excited for the final outcome.
Exhibition was great! The audience was interested in our process and design and were impressed on how much research we did for this project. I was the surveyor so I explained different aspects of the land that was already there and I had to explain a few of the different restrictions we had then I went into floor ratio but not to much then my partner cut in and explained. Something challenging was trying to explain golden ratio. A celebration was our interactive, we did a 3D model that the audience could look around and get a specific vision of our idea.