Pinal A. Desai

As a part of the first year Master course, we were to design and build to full size, a working prototype of a module for facade, inkeeping with this year's theme of sun-shading.

We normally see the traditional sunshades that are of a definite pattern. What if , this pattern changed every time we used it? That is the basic inspiration of our proposal. Inspired by the concept of sand picture, we made a rotating window , filled with sand such that it provides sun-shading while also generating a different pattern each time it rotates.

So, the experiments began with testing the liquids with different viscosities, sand textures and sizes. Finally we concluded that vodka mixed with mineral water was the ideal liquid choice mixed with Scheveningen beach sand mixed with IKEA decorative sand to attain different sand colours. A variety of CAD-CAM programmes was used for its generation. The basic layout for sizes and proportion was designed in grasshopper , a plug in for rhino, and the precise gear design was achieved by website specializing in wood-gear design. For precision purpose, they were laser cut and assembled precisely in place. Due to budget and time constraints, sandwich panels of plexi-glass were used on which the gear-windows were mounted for smooth functioning of the gears.