THE PORCUPINE
personal cocoon
personal cocoon
Project team: Georgia Voudouri & Dorota Kabala
After measuring the length of people's legs, heaps to shoulders, and the distance one can reach by stretching out right and left hand, or by leaning in front, we decided to create an object that would be a sort of space structure where the user from one fixed point would be able to reach all around.
The space somebody can move in is defined by our individual capabilities. Our size sets the initial outline but mostly our flexibility-our reach- can change the outcome very much. This primordial spatial unit, something like a cocoon one can move in up to his stretching capability, was what we wanted to create. An addition to this idea that came along on the course was the figure of the porcupine’s personal space-a space one can hide in and can protect him from the outside. This gave the form of our outer surface and at the same time the structural system. Of course it’s only one of the different surface treatments the main model could have.
The space somebody can move in is defined by our individual capabilities. Our size sets the initial outline but mostly our flexibility-our reach- can change the outcome very much. This primordial spatial unit, something like a cocoon one can move in up to his stretching capability, was what we wanted to create. An addition to this idea that came along on the course was the figure of the porcupine’s personal space-a space one can hide in and can protect him from the outside. This gave the form of our outer surface and at the same time the structural system. Of course it’s only one of the different surface treatments the main model could have.
The applications a customized space like that can have are varied. Starting from the quite abstract idea of an isolation space, or a reading cell, we can imagine further a comfortable recliner from which one can reach whatever exists around without moving at all; because everything will be situated within his reach.
Changing scale and industry, we can create all sorts of vehicle toys, that will be customized to young users, to give infinite hours of comfortable game! Lastly, it might be interesting to see the “reach” space hanging as a swing, and its overall surface following the persons stretching capacity.
Changing scale and industry, we can create all sorts of vehicle toys, that will be customized to young users, to give infinite hours of comfortable game! Lastly, it might be interesting to see the “reach” space hanging as a swing, and its overall surface following the persons stretching capacity.
Thinking of materiality and fabrication processes, we thought that an easy and cheap way to create the PORCUPINE would be by laser cutting cardboard pieces, and that is something everyone could do by himself, creating his personal isolation space.The modelling was done in TopSolid, from the very first idea until the last. What this program offers is that every different variation of the same model is directly linked to an associated file of laid out pieces, ready to be sent to the laser cutter. So in terms of fabrication and customization, things become very easy for adding the object in an open source library where everyone could give their own measurements and get the specific files for their personal cocoon.
