Fatma Alhashimi

PolyHelmet

Class of: 2023

Major: Architectural Design BFA

Medium: Bristol board and glue

Faculty: Ben Pranger

Prompt: We were asked to create helmets out of Bristol board. They had to take on the form of polyhedrons, with glue being another medium that can be used. No other materials were allowed, it had to serve its function as being a bike, and should take on an artistic form.

Looking at the resources Ben provided, I decided to just use origami to create my piece. I chose that because I noticed that some of my classmates were actually creating cubes and tetrahedrons without anything inside them to actually protect the piece from impact. Researching hundreds of folds, I found a piece that looked compact and sturdy. As a means to test that strength, Ben had us place the units on the floor, place a slab of wood on top and stand on them. It didn’t break under the force. We were also asked to allude to biomimicry. So instead of taking on the form of a conventional helmet, I made it to look more like a garland. I intended to create something that looked like it wasn’t functional but technically is, in terms of the project where we had to use paper rather than plastic and foam to create a helmet. There are four major points where the helmet stops, forehead, back of the head, and the sides of the head.