Hoop House Reflection

Having worked for many weeks toward the design of a hoop house with every detail, joint and intersection thought out and laboriously modeled in digital space, it came as something of a shock to find that despite detailed preparations, the use of PVC rods to span eight-to-ten foot sections of the hoop house proved an incredibly imprecise affair because of the bowing and bending permitted by the material.  Joints which had been finely measured out suddenly found themselves working against peculiar angles, and what had seemed a simple matter of assembly became an ordeal of last minute changes.  The experience demonstrated the need for care in choosing materials as well as a better understanding of what those materials might do at different scales; in smaller scale models, any bending that occurred did so so slightly that it could be overlooked, whereas at full scale the bends became extreme.  Such issues were at the very core of what made this project an effective learning experience.