There is a wide variation in the practice of meditation; different sitting postures, breathing techniques, focusing methods, eyes open/shut, and even walking meditation. Although we studied as wide a range of methods in the field of meditation as we could, we tried to focus on the most common or persistent themes and practices in meditation. We incorporated two different option of sitting positions that are based on the most commonly used postures of meditation: cross-legged or lotus position, and seiza position.

    The design strategy for executing this assembling can be thought of as taking the design and dividing it into forty different sections that were each an inch thick. Each of these sections would then be divided into two to four pieces. Although this may seem complex, the reasoning for this was to get the most of the very limited space on the 40”x 60” panels for the milling process. The smaller the pieces of the project, the more of the pieces we could fit onto each of the cardboard sheet. The more pieces compacted onto each sheet, the less material we would have to use.

    To CNC the cardboard, we needed to laminate five sheets of cardboard together to get the proper thickness for each of the sections of the model. We used a mixture of Elmer’s Glue and paper mâché glue for the lamination process. Although the Elmer’s would give a stronger hold to the cardboard, cost was considered for the design, which made the use of paper mâché glue more reasonable since it was less expensive. We strategically focused on using the Elmer’s for the edges and the center of the cardboard where as the twisting motion of the CNC bit was most likely to pull apart the cardboard lamination. In addition, because both of the glues we used were water based, chemicals in the glue will have little to no environmental impact just like the recycled cardboard and plywood.