Tornado Bunker

For this project, we worked in a group of two for the Make It Heal Challenge. This challenge tasked us with creating a design that can shelter people who were vulnerable to natural disasters. My partner and I created a tornado bunker for people to take shelter during dangerously strong winds. This bunker is designed to be able to cover people underground during natural disasters. Since the design is a bunker that means there is more room at the bottom, this part of the design helps keep people safe from a tornado because if it was above ground, it could be more easily rocked and vulnerable to being picked up by the winds. It’s supposed to house people in their time of need to get away from tornados, to recover emotionally and physically. People who would use it are all kinds of people who are harmed and in need of stable shelter from tornados.

Scissors

hot glue gun

paper

carboard

clay

plastic

paint

-Be careful with sharp tools

-Follow proper 3D printer safety rules

-Be careful with hot glue gun

-Be aware spatially of objects and people that can potentially be harmed if unnoticed

- Autodesk program (Fusion, Tinkercad, etc.)

- Computer

- 3D printer (if applicable)

We used our laptop to go on tinkercad and model the setting before creating it in real life physically to paint and craft. Being able to use tinkercad was a massive upgrade from not being able to use it because it gives us the opportunity to see our product turn into something real before we even make the actual product. Despite creating it on TinkerCad, we didn’t use a 3D printer, we used cut up carboard, clay, glue, and paint to simulate our environment where a tornado can hit dangerously.

Step 1: Planning Your Design

When my partner and I were discussing what to do for the setting we start it off as a sketch with simple trees and grass. We included the trees because they typically get knocked down and teared apart during tornados. We kept the design simple and easy to build to make the whole project more manageable in general. Our idea was to take the basic shape of typical tornado bunkers but have it have two stories of floors.

Simple shapes we used when creating the model on the website Tinkercad were squares, cylinders, and spheres. The square part was used to make the actual base of the environment. The cylinders were used to make wood of the tree, the speres were the tree leaves.

When refining this design, we ended up adding rocks. Rocks was a great investment in this environment because it added more diversity than just a plain green base with some trees.

When checking dimensions, you must make sure that the sides are even and the right size you wanted. If the dimensions are improper you will end up with a project that isn’t the size you planned for which can ruin time, material, and ultimately your project as a whole.

When improving this project, I would say we could have made the actual presentation part better. Improving the overall looks would increase its attractiveness as a building and environment. The building for the bunker was simple, but when it came to the environment, we could have done more complex eye-pleasing or added other textures to replicate grass or moss on rocks.

Something I learned when working on this project was how difficult it can be without having the proper time and days with your group. My partner and I personally missed a lot more days than we should have for this final, so we got set behind a bit. Something that was a challenge when working on this project, personally for me I would say was getting on track. Since we were set behind, we naturally had to catch up faster than anyone else could. Something I would change if I somehow could would be the trees. The trees would have been able to turn out better if we were both there for each day of the project, so now I wish I could have changed the fact that we both had our absent days during this project.

In the end I learned that communicating and gifted time can be important for when doing any project. During a project it is important to take advantage of the time given. During this project I was slacking off a lot and I want to learn from that experience e. Overall I did a great job.