Des Moines Register
02/07/06
ISU class creative — by design
Architecture students build machines, learn about the
possibilities of materials
By LISA LIVERMORE
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia . — Iowa State University sophomore Monica Kim paced around the
ground floor of the atrium at the College of Design with her fist planted under her
chin as if deep in thought.
With each step, a variety of materials such as test tubes and metal strips atop the
helmet she wore lit up and expanded. A stream of bubbles flowed down her
back.
Kim was among the 65 students studying architecture who were asked to make
machines, attach them to their bodies, and figure out a way to make the
machines draw, splat or dribble onto another surface.
The class exercise, which students demonstrated for their instructors Monday
afternoon, comes with the territory of Architecture 202, a six-credit course at ISU.
The students' creations splattered paint, glitter and, at one point, ammonia on
white paper that had been placed on the floor and a wall of the building.
"We learned so much about materials," said Mike Goodsmith, an ISU
sophomore who helped design Kim's hat, which was intended to interpret the act
of thinking. "You really have to scrounge to make the thing we want from
scratch."
The class activity is part of a focus on asking students to be aware of the
technological possibilities of materials, said Jeff Balmer, a lecturer in the
department of architecture.
The activity also encouraged students to study how bodies move in relation to
architectural forms. That theme will be used in coming projects to study the flow
of human traffic through airports, which have become more restrictive since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said.
Students salvaged equipment from their parents' farms, old class projects and
basements to make their machines, Balmer said.
"One of the challenges for the project is to really have them think creatively about
the availability of materials around them," Balmer said. "That's what architects do
in their professional practice. They adapt material."
Some students watched their class projects work flawlessly. Others' projects
struggled a bit.
David Wagner, an ISU junior from Davenport, wore all white. He strapped a
black apparatus to the front of his body with a homemade bellows beneath each
armpit.
By lifting his arms and pressing them back down, he pushed air through the
devices, which powered a series of gears that rotated a balloon and a blade
toward each other.
Wagner's machine was designed to mimic breathing. The pop of the balloon was
proof that it worked, he said.
"Breathing is a simple thing that goes unnoticed," he said. "We wanted to
overemphasize it - really show it off."
It took longer to pop the balloon than planned, and it didn't happen without some
struggle on Wagner's part.
That's because he and his teammates did not practice with a balloon full of paint,
like the one they used Monday.
"The weight was too much with the paint," he said.
The assignment was also designed to help students learn how different materials
can connect and interact with each other, Balmer said.
"It's what separates a common, run-of-the-mill building from something that has
aspiration," he said.