For our next-to-final project, my 3D Design teacher, Jill Downen, came up with this project called an Architectonic Topography. She passed out some photocopies of this short-story about these different cities: each modeled differently (one, for example, was built among the trees).

She also wrote numbers down on pieces of paper and shuffled them in a tin can (from which we drew our 'lots'). We lined up in a ring in sequential order (where the last person and first were touching aswell).

Our assignment: build an architectonic topography out of a limited amount of wood which would connect to our partner's pieces with the specified joint (also provided by pieces of paper in a tin can).

With the project being so open-ended, I decided that I wanted to create an 'underneath space' which would have a sort of cave feel. Jill helped me refine my idea further: helping me to pin down *exactly* the feelings I was trying to evoke while also staying realistic (concerning the wood provided). After a little more work, I finally settled on a stairway that would act as a bridge between the two floating city-like forms my partners were making.

I realized that for the entire class-project to fit together as a whole, some pieces would have to have to be able to flex so as to make up for what small discrepancies and mistakes were made in measuring and cutting.

To help solve this problem, I made my entire piece a collection of joints, allowing it to be as flexible as a snake, but also making it completely dependant on its brother and sister pieces for support.