Exhibition | Construction | 3D Design

Azure IDS West

Problem

Azure magazine publishing hosted a competition to design a trade show booth for IDS west with a very minimal budget. We won the competition to design the booth for their trade show booth at the Interior Design West Show in Vancouver. The proposal ask for a conceptual design to be submitted with approximate budget, design, material and concept description. We proposed a design that allows the booth to be constructed from cardboard. The brief for the competition looks for the design of the booth mainly with a shelf to hold 15 boxes of magazines with 30/box.

Role

Lead Designer, Project Manager

Client

AZURE Magazine

Duration

2 month design + 3 days on-site construction

Tools

Rhino, Laser Cutting, CNC Router, Grasshopper, Photoshop, Cardboard Construction, Illustrator, iPad

Solution

In collaboration with my partner Sonia, we designed, constructed, and recycled the whole booth for AZURE Magazine. The booth consisted of a 20 feet long and 8 feet tall shelf and a complimentary booth table, all built our of corrugated cardboard as the sole material for construction. The booth was extremely assembling friendly and is the accordion structure made it simple to transport.

Location

Interior Design West Show Vancouver 2015

Cost

~ $1000 CAD
Construction supported by the University of British Columbia

Special Thanks to

Project construction Support: Nick Scott, Melissa Jin, Phil Chang, Kimi Shen, Peter Zhang, Retaw Liu, Wenting Yang, Holly Hodge

Skills Involvement

Design Exploration

We explored a range of alternative options and made a few 1:1 scale tests and scaled models before moving on to our final design. During this iterative process, we took into account the material availability, and how it needs to be constructed on-site within three days. In the end we purchased standardized sheets of cardboard 4’x8’ from a local supplier and created prototypes to test form and
strength.

(sketches and concept illustrations to communicate with stakeholders)

Combining cardboard with wood element to create a disperse effect

Triangulated cardboard

Corrogated cardboard interlocking joints

Using ribcage structure to create a base unit

Paper model of an accordion structure that folds.

An optimized accordion structure that have opportunity for shelves.

Concept Overview

Through our extensive research into cardboard and the limits of our materials, we created a solution that optimizes the use of material for the strength is to form an accordion, this way we give the shelf volume and give it stability. The result is a beautifully designed and lightweight accordion construction that was under the budget constraint of 1000 CAD dollars. This form of construction at the tradeshow also display its potential for a sustainable construction method for product development and for sustainable tradeshow booth.

(Concept elevation view of booth design)

Construction

With the support from SALA woodshop, we CNCed our prefabricated panel pieces to be connected onsite. The prefab pieces made our onsite work assembly speedy and convenient.

Assembly Drawing

I lead the creation of design documents to communicate to our client about how the booth would work before our construction process begin. After finalize on the design, we follow the assembly drawings to construct our booth.

Impact

Through our extensive research into cardboard and the limits of our materials, we created a solution that optimize the use of material for the strength is to form an accordion, this way we give the shelf volume and give it stability. The result is a beautifully designed and light weight construction that was under the budget constraint of 1000 CAD dollars. This form of construction at the tradeshow also display its potential for a sustainable construction method for product development and for sustainable tradeshow booth.

Reflection

Coming up with a design concept and taken it to implementation can be very different. After this experience, I have always had feasibility in mind and ways to push the boundaries of concept and implementation.

Even when we first have an impossible budget and constraints, I believe there will always be some way to come up with a creative solution to a problem. Part of the problem-solving process is to understand the core needs of our users and work with that objective in mind.

This experience combined design, implementation, and project management in one setting. Design is inseparable from considering budget and time constraints, and coming up with a large quantity of ideas then prioritize base on the resources that we have.