In our eleventh week of ACE 2014/15 (wow! only seven more meetings left!) Team 2 met at Primera’s office to learn the particulars of MEP and related architectural engineering. After a nice tour of the office students were presented with the ceiling-in-a-box challenge. Using copper wire, a variety of colored pipe cleaners, a white foam rectangle, and wooden spools and cylinders each pair of students had to coordinate typical MEP systems within a small box, representative of a ceiling cavity. This was a unique activity to help students truly understand the challenge in coordination, creativity, and space management that engineers undertake daily.
Having completed the ceiling-in-a-box challenge Team 2 reconvened to decide on a final floor plan configuration for the performance space. After this exercise, the students were divided up into discipline groups: architecture, structure, MEP, and construction management. Each discipline group met with the respective mentors from each profession to discuss what specific deliverables or product would need to be presented to our client and the rest of ACE 2014/15 at the final presentation in April. The next several weeks will be spent preparing drawings, models and other tools to convey the project’s concept and goal.