Daniel Ewald, landscape architect MNLA

Pardon the Norwenglish in this post. Papp is Norwegian for cardboard, and it sort of rhymes with black. You can handle it from there (I’m also aware the construction doesn’t resemble a swan at all, more like a swallow, but it was found to be more suitable. So there).

Excitement preceded the launch of the cardboard constructions in today’s design lessons – we were supposed to construct a device to protect an egg from a third story fall. Made as a competition, we were awarded points for our design based on aesthetics, functionality, amount of material used, and, of course, airborne style.

The maiden voyage of the “The Papp Swan”, loaded with an egg (medium sized) in it’s cargohold below the wings, was not without drama: an initial dive, followed by a loop and abrupt collision with the wall through the approximately 7 meter flight (or fall, depending on your view) made for a rather short event. Thankfully, however, both the Swan and its cargo were left intact for later attempts. Due to the nature of the event, I didn’t get much credit for style in the end (partly due to its lack of proper flight capabilities – or horrible judging, whichever you prefer). I guess aerodynamics never was my strong field.

Filed under: Illustrations, Studies, construction design, LAFT