Being Technical Drawing Students, we were challenged to construct a model of a duplex and luckily the four of us in the group are boys, which helped us to meet at odd hours putting our ideas and resources together. After being given the project we all thought the project will not take long to be actualized, but to our amazement it took longer than expected. It was a ten weeks project so, we learnt our first lesson that no good thing comes by chance in life. Hence, man must adequately plan and prepare for it.
A MODEL OF A DUPLEX
The first thing we needed was a plan of a duplex, so we started searching for suitable building plans. It was not an easy task because of the individual differences of each member of the group in the taste for buildings, but we all had to agree on something, and finally we got one. Having the plan on ground, we introduced measurements to it. We created a budget for all the materials we needed or at least what we thought was enough for the model. This summed up to ₦24,000. Since we were four in the group we split the expenses amongst ourselves. We each had to bring a sum of ₦6000.
We started to purchase materials like strawboards, cardboards, papers and glues. We thought of being unique in our project, so we decided to build a foundation. After we built a foundation of 3cm high with only two pieces of strawboards and pillars of 3cm high at strategic places. We then drew the outline of our building on the foundation, then we cut out the walls from strawboard which was 20cm high. From the walls we cut out spaces for the windows because we planned to attach the windows after we had finished gluing down the walls. After we cut out all the walls for the first floor we started gluing down the walls.
Since it was a duplex we were building, we thought on how the occupants would reach the upper floor so, we constructed a flight of stairs. We were taught in our Technical Drawing class on how to calculate the number of stairs a building can have with just the height of the building and the height of each step. So applying what we were taught our building had 20 steps. After putting in our stairs we put another strawboard as decking so we could continue with the upper floor. We cut the walls of the upper floor from strawboards and cut out the windows, then we glued them down. Then we agreed on doing a Gable roof. For the roof, we had to meet someone we know who is an architect to help us with the construction of the roof. We were almost done with the roof when we ran out of resources. We had to contribute more money, which we used to eventually finish it. We started making windows we would put into the building and finally we were done. The time limit for the project was about a term, of which we thought we could finish before a term, but the workload and execution of the project took us longer than we expected, proving our teacher to be right of which he added more time.
In summary, the completion of the project which became the talk of the school was enough fulfillment for the four of us. So, for those of us who were aiming to become architects and engineers in future, we now know that what we were aiming at is not a child’s play. It would require from us serious planning, focusing and perseverance, if we must fulfill our goals. This project has proved to us that there is no gain without pain.
GROUP MEMBERS: KOLADE SAMUEL
AJIBOLA-AJO MAYOWA
BAMGBOYE TOSIN
IDOWU VICTOR
Yaba College of Technology Secondary School was established on the 27th of September, 1999 with an initial population of sixty (60) students, seven (7) full-time and twelve (12) part time staff. The pioneer Principal is Mrs. A.O. Adio-Moses and the pioneer staff on that...read more
