PROJECT TITLE:
Plastic Booth
TEAM MEMBERS:
Damon Chen, Winny Wang & Xiaoyan Kong
PROJECT PARTNER:
Sproutworks
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
- Plastic Booth is an experimental project intended to combine community service-learning and the environmental issue-learning of plastic waste. It first reflects on the
- The project will transform a corner of B1 cafeteria into a space using a divider screen made of recycled plastic materials. The transformation will serve two purposes: A slightly private space where sproutworks staff can rest, play phones and chat; A living exhibition to raise people’s awareness on plastic waste issues.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Research & Methodology
- We did three interviews and some casual chattings with Sproutwork staff to know more about their working conditions and their needs, etc. We also did observations during our free time in order to investigate their potential needs they themselves might ignore. Eventually, we came up with the idea of creating this resting space for them to use.
- Our inspirations for the projects: Pinterest
Short Film
Proposal for Public Safety and Facility
CONCLUSIONS:
As we write earlier in this journal, our goals of this project are: 1. Provide a space for Sproutworks staff to rest, play and chat, etc. 2. Use the Plastic Booth as a living exhibition to educate/let more people be aware of the plastic waste issue.
Me and Xiaoyan have installed the booth on Monday, December 14th. However, we are not sure how the project aligns with our goals. We still need time for observation and user testing. And for the following two weeks, three of us will take turns to maintain and observe the booth at b1 cafeteria. Then we will decide if the project result is aligned with our goals or not, as well as if we should apply for a longer installation time.
We met various difficulties when creating this project. As stated in Xiaoyan’s blog and during our presentation, in terms of the divider part, we mainly have two issues: materials collecting and assembling. Aside from the lack of materials and difficulties in the assembling process, I will focus on other difficulties we have encountered.
The qualities of the plastic strips we gathered differed greatly. The first few bags of strips were relevantly tougher, while the last few bags we found before the presentation were extremely brittle. When we pressed holes on the end, the strips easily cracked and became unusable. We have to cut the broken part out, reattach it with new strips measured in specific lengths, which prolonged the process and wasted our valuable materials.
Another difficulty we had is connecting the finished panels together with door hinges. Door hinges should be placed precisely and correctly, otherwise, the booth can not stand. We need to make sure all the panels are at the same level horizontally at the bottom and parallel at the top. This is actually the hardest technical part of all, and I am grateful that we successfully executed the procedures. We could have never completed this alone. You can see how happy we were lifting the divider up and knowing it’s stable at the end of the video.
Getting a general consensus within the group is also a struggling process, especially in finalizing our idea for this project. We had a conflict within the group during preproduction. After talking to my teammates individually, the misunderstanding was resolved. I am glad that our divider is able to accommodate Winny’s work, fusing it into a collective project.
One of the important takeaways from Chunhao is that, for community-centered projects/services, we need to consider the product’s sustainability and longevity after it is put into use. After all, we should be responsible for fixing the damages and regulating the uses. At last, I would like to show appreciation for my teammates. I learned a lot from Xiaoyan’s dedication and Winny’s determination. I am also thankful for how serious they treated this project, which motivated me to be more responsible too.
If we could have done more, we would like to do the following improvements to our project:
- Make the biggest piece of divider denser if we have more materials (Sproutworks staff like it to be denser)
- Perfect the wooden frames: the accuracy of the wooden lengths/ fill the small holes that we miss drilled
- Add more decorations on the two other pieces of the divider
- Put a pair of wheels on the divider in order to move it easily