UNDERGRADUATE
Jumana Elamin—Michael C. Miller Travel Award
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Jumana Elamin—Michael C. Miller Travel Award
About the Award
Submit a 500 word essay to demonstrate why they would like to travel and what they might achieve from this funding.
Model Making
Model-making is one of the activities that I actively seek because of how much I can learn from it. Making models requires patience, precision, and adaptability. Things often went wrong, and I had to adapt and revise my strategy. Despite that, I enjoy model making and hope to continue modeling in my architectural career.
Academics
In my third year at TMU, I had the opportunity to make models academically and in extracurriculars. The models I made in my studio project were with my project partner, Stefan Giro, where we built things based on an existing project design. Our project was a highschool with a concrete design and initially did not have an exposed structure. Building the model at 1:50 gave us more insight into how things come together in construction. That motivated us to adjust the final design to have exposed structural elements.
TimberFever 2022
In the extracurriculars, we were working with limited materials and trying to design within the constraints of our materials. I participated in TimberFever in 2022, and my team won 2nd place. We had a weekend to design and build a pavilion, and we could not build after dark. Additionally, we had limited materials, and there were no replacement materials after running out. The design brief was to create an urban farming project for a specific vegetable that encourages community interaction. Our project, Psithurism, was primarily focused on creating an open, accessible space with as much seating as possible. There were bumps along the way. We had miscalculations, design adjustments, and had to get to work quickly. So, it was a great exercise in decision-making, time management, and budgeting.
Just Do It
My most interesting model was a part of the Just Do It workshop organized by Will Galloway and Hiroto Kobayashi. We were a group of 6 students, and we were tasked to make a bench out of CNC aluminum without nailing or gluing material. In this case, we were working with the materiality of the aluminum rather than the strength of a binding element. Our goal was to make the aluminum shine as the primary material. So, we decided to treat the aluminum sheet like a sheet of paper and fold it. The folding provides the sheet with enough structural integrity to allow the material to carry a person's weight. We had to use the CNC machine to score the material to fold along the lines. We made multiple prototypes before making our final piece. To create an optimum design, we tested folding angles, widths between folds and different cutting nibs. Unsurprisingly, the bench was very comfortable to sit on.
We realized in one of our prototypes that the aluminium flattens out when sat on. So, we designed a wood base to prevent the bench from bending. The base was designed to be slightly tighter than the bench to utilize the friction between the materials. That way, once the bench is slotted in, it doesn’t move.
I am of the belief that model-making is more beneficial than virtual 3D modeling. Both have their pros and cons, but there are some things you can’t visualize without a physical model. Model making takes a lot of time, but it has resulted in beautiful pieces that taught me so much more about whatever I was designing. I’ve enjoyed making models, and I hope to make many more in the future, professionally and as a fun little hobby.
Submit a 500 word essay to demonstrate why they would like to travel and what they might achieve from this funding.
Model Making
Model-making is one of the activities that I actively seek because of how much I can learn from it. Making models requires patience, precision, and adaptability. Things often went wrong, and I had to adapt and revise my strategy. Despite that, I enjoy model making and hope to continue modeling in my architectural career.
Academics
In my third year at TMU, I had the opportunity to make models academically and in extracurriculars. The models I made in my studio project were with my project partner, Stefan Giro, where we built things based on an existing project design. Our project was a highschool with a concrete design and initially did not have an exposed structure. Building the model at 1:50 gave us more insight into how things come together in construction. That motivated us to adjust the final design to have exposed structural elements.
TimberFever 2022
In the extracurriculars, we were working with limited materials and trying to design within the constraints of our materials. I participated in TimberFever in 2022, and my team won 2nd place. We had a weekend to design and build a pavilion, and we could not build after dark. Additionally, we had limited materials, and there were no replacement materials after running out. The design brief was to create an urban farming project for a specific vegetable that encourages community interaction. Our project, Psithurism, was primarily focused on creating an open, accessible space with as much seating as possible. There were bumps along the way. We had miscalculations, design adjustments, and had to get to work quickly. So, it was a great exercise in decision-making, time management, and budgeting.
Just Do It
My most interesting model was a part of the Just Do It workshop organized by Will Galloway and Hiroto Kobayashi. We were a group of 6 students, and we were tasked to make a bench out of CNC aluminum without nailing or gluing material. In this case, we were working with the materiality of the aluminum rather than the strength of a binding element. Our goal was to make the aluminum shine as the primary material. So, we decided to treat the aluminum sheet like a sheet of paper and fold it. The folding provides the sheet with enough structural integrity to allow the material to carry a person's weight. We had to use the CNC machine to score the material to fold along the lines. We made multiple prototypes before making our final piece. To create an optimum design, we tested folding angles, widths between folds and different cutting nibs. Unsurprisingly, the bench was very comfortable to sit on.
We realized in one of our prototypes that the aluminium flattens out when sat on. So, we designed a wood base to prevent the bench from bending. The base was designed to be slightly tighter than the bench to utilize the friction between the materials. That way, once the bench is slotted in, it doesn’t move.
I am of the belief that model-making is more beneficial than virtual 3D modeling. Both have their pros and cons, but there are some things you can’t visualize without a physical model. Model making takes a lot of time, but it has resulted in beautiful pieces that taught me so much more about whatever I was designing. I’ve enjoyed making models, and I hope to make many more in the future, professionally and as a fun little hobby.
