Scale 1 - Table Base
Scale 2 - Crop trellis
Scale 3 - Boundary Pavilion
Brief
Carbon Fiber Base is designed to solve moving, carrying heavy stuffs for left-elderly. It's could be a furniture and Crop trellis, and Pavilion.
Problem
The phenomenon of rising left-behind elderly is one of the most controversial topics in society. Most of them are farmers, and they move the heavy tool to the farmland all days, and caused so many body disorders. So I try to explore the possibility of "Carbon fiber" as a fundamental material for design a multi- functional product, which it could help for all left-behind elderly.
Specification
Scale 1
Weight: 0.5kg
Height: 100-110cm
Width: 36(bottom)
106 (top)
Scale 2
Weight: 1.5kg
Height: 300- 330cm
Width: 108(bottom)
318 (top)
Material
Carbon fiber
Fiberglass
3:1 ratio of Epoxy Resin and Epoxy Hardener
Container
Brush
Scale 3
Weight: 2- 2.5kg
Height: 400- 500cm
Width: 144 -180 cm(bottom)
424 -530 cm(top)
Research
According to the 2010 National Population Census, the number of internal migrants reached 221 million in 2010 (SSB, 2011). As a result, more than 50 million older persons were left behind in rural areas, and more than 100 million were “empty-nesters”—older people living alone or with a spouse only in either an urban or rural area (Wu and others, 2013, pp. 31–32).
Left-behind elderly ＞60 years old
Understand
After collecting information and data, the phenomenon of rising left-behind elderly is incredibly increasing in China due to the child policy
Analyze
By observing the articles and news, most of Left-behind live in the rural areas because most of the young people they go to the big cities for a better life.
Design
According to the analysis data, most of Left-behind in the rural area are working in agricultural fields. And most of them have Musculoskeletal disorders, and other related disorders. So I try to design a multi-functional product to help farmers.
Prototype
The digital model is mainly created by Rhino, and Grasshopper. And the product itself is made by Carbon fiber and Fiberglass There are 3 different scales for different purposes.
Post-occupancy Evaluation
To test the product's stability, I made the scale 1 table base for improving a better possibility range of scales.
18.08% others
Work Categories
54%
Agricultural work
24.98% Housework
Illness
51.34%
No Serious Illness
48.66%
Self-Reported Serious Illness
Heifer, H. (2019, September 19). Providing Left-behind Elderlies in Rural China with a Way of Life: Heifer Hong Kong's Targeted Solution to Poverty. Retrieved December 07, 2020, from https://www.heiferhk.org/Providing-Left-behind-Elderlies-in-Rural-China-with-a-Way-of-Life/
The most common conditions related to musculoskeletal disorders, often seen by those afflicted as an inevitable consequence of the aging process, prolonged heavy manual labor, and a relatively high risk of work-related injuries.(Chen,2016)
Chen, Fengbo, et al. “HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE, LEFT-BEHIND ELDERLY, AND RURAL MIGRATION IN CHINA: Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 5 Aug. 2016, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-agricultural-and-applied-economics/article/household-structure-leftbehind-elderly-and-rural-migration-in-china/FD013C270F4BABD7389138EEFE403FFE.
Persona
My grandma is a good sample. She was a farmer, is gone at the end of June 2020. She loved farming even after retiring. She moved the heavy stuff to the farmland all days, which caused several severe body disorders for many years.
In the first scene below, the grandma carries the heavy table daily for her grandson’s school due to insufficient educational resources, which gives me an idea to use light material like carbon fiber as a fundamental material. The second scene reminds me of the design product’s goal could be the different scales for different applications.
Design Process
I started with shapes of hoe and sickle, the two most familiar tools to farmers. To make this design freestanding, the first thing that came to my mind was "Greek Column," and I added the shape of a column base to make it steady.
Weaving
To make this project more interesting, and look nice. I draw some 2D different weaving methods to explore the visual combinations. Then, I made 3 study models to see how they exactly look like.
1 2 3 4 5 1
1 2 3 4 5 1
1 2 3 4 5 1
1 2 3 4 5 1
1 2 3 4 5 1
1 2 3 4 5 1
Fabrication
Visual Experiment
As an art and art history student, I did a research paper on the renaissance period “Illusionism in Camera Picta and Foreshortened Christ ” by Andrea Montagna’s masterpieces. I try to use the same methods to create some visual effects by foreshortening, perspective, and shading techniques.
See more details of the research paper:
Application
