Methodical Madness has a Plan

Our group formulated a grand scheme for our final project.

The Grand Scheme: Utilizing permanent partial-use outdoor seating in both passive (photovoltaic) and active (piezoelectric) ways to collect energy. The project breaks into three steps, which will be designed one at a time.

The Basic Bleacher

A modular, permanent seating system, designed with solar and piezoelectric capabilities.

Solar would be year-round.

Surface material selection for collecting and retaining heat.

Photovoltaic collection for electrical energy production.

Solar collection would go directly to the facility grid.

Piezoelectric materials would pick up both sound and motion.

Power various activated interactions.

May contain things such as heating elements, malleable surface, powered by piezoelectrics.

Aisle in front of bleacher would also be piezoelectric.

The Activated Interactions

Analog: Heating elements, malleable surface, lighting changes, etc.

Digital: Data collection, digital feedback (scoreboard stats), etc.

The Grand Concept

A full visualization of a revolutionary multi-use outdoor open-air stadium.

Designed around the concept of being powered by itself.

Would likely be a re-design of Michigan Stadium, since we do go to Michigan.

From here, we will be communicating with the Michigan Athletic Department as well as athletic departments at a few other schools to gain energy usage and spectator information.

Methodical Madness is Fueled by Happiness

We were assigned our final project groups on Friday. My final team is myself and:

• Westley Burger, Architecture
• Pete Hall, Art and Design
• Brieana MacDonald, Architecture
• Taylor McKenzie-Veal, Art and Design
• Neil Poulin, Engineering

I have never worked with Brieana, but I have worked with everyone else in the group. Pete in Week 2; Neil in Week 3; Westley and Taylor in Week 4. All have contributed well to the projects, and I'm sure that Brieana is an equally strong contributor.

During the class period on Friday, our objective was to formulate initial ideas. Nothing concrete, but we came up with a list.

First, the core to the project is that it must be a Heliotropic Smart Surface. We started with traits that we would like it to have. The first two recommendations were Interactivity and Personality - something that is memorable, with a human interaction. I proposed a Smart Surface designed to harness the heat in Asphalt. We kind of moved away from that idea, saying that we should create something that is possibly modified or developed by Observation. Neil stated that he wanted to work with Novel Materials, something edgy and new that hasn't really been worked with before. I then stated that we want to talk about how Recyclability is important, and the idea that things should be designed for recycling, not designed for manufacturing. We discussed that whatever we design should be Modular, both in Scale and Function. The Local Scale is important, and we need to focus on a local site in order for it to be a meaningful project, something that we can actually work with, IF we are going to be site based. We touched on the idea of using Human Energy alongside Solar Energy, and then talked about the incident in Sweden where they are using Rabbit Energy, though not in quite so humane of a way. The concept should be Noble, and we discussed the possibility of it being Mobile. Bunnies and Sunshine, the new world, Fueled by Happiness. Somehow, we made a segue from there to discussing local locations, and came up with the idea of developing The Big House as a Smart Surface.

The principal idea using The Big House is developing a new bleacher system that is photovoltaic and piezoelectric, and automatically oriented with the sun. The bleachers could be utilized in any outdoor venue anywhere in the world, and developed with recyclable materials such as steel. The project idea comes at a good time, as the bleachers are going to be replaced in the next few years when they re-do the aisles. I am unsure if we will use this as our final idea, but it is definitely my favorite at this point. We are meeting this week to hand in a proposal Friday.