An exploratory illustration into the romance of mechanization
[UCLA ARCH&UD 401]

TIMEFRAME: 4 weeks

TEAM: Daniel Hesketh

ROLE:


How to use the machines to cultivate the land in a poetic way? We started the research with this question in mind. Soon potatoes caught our attention because of their highly mechanized planting progress. Each step of the planting: sowing, cultivation and harvesting, has a specific machine, which usually results in very artificial-looking fields.

We studied the potato cultivation machines manufactured by John Deere. The research drawing above shows the system and geometric information our design is based on, including the appearance of the field at every step of planting, which is the result of the machine dimensions and turning radius.

The image above shows the operation process. We first set up the most efficient method to cultivate the basic quarter-mile-square unit. Then we start to break this boring, artificial, Cartesian mahjong by rotating them from their centers. With the imagination of poetic cultivation in mind, we picked the most satisfying pattern for further development. 4 units are grouped together as a compromise to the original road system on site. The boundaries of units are carefully broken under the precondition of continues cultivation path.

The result is a pleasant surprise. Our potato field looks patterned and organic at the same time. The Cartesian fields and roads seems to start distort themselves to rejoin the nature, which presents to us a poem written on the land.