Three cups of coffee, an A4 sheet of foam board, and a stack of scavenged textures later, I finally have a first physical model of flood risk in the Tulln area. It is rough, flimsy in places, and already shedding, but it’s also the most concrete (and tactile!) expression of my idea so far.
Choosing “A4” over “A-Lot”
I promised myself to work small this time. An ~A4 footprint forces ruthless simplification:
- Only the Danube’s immediate floodplain.
- No elevation gain because there is almost none in that area.
- 2 flood scenario (HQ 30 & HQ 100).
That constraint kept the materials list tight and the cutting tolerable with a hobby knife.
Thirty-Minute Build
- Print → Trace → Cheat Printer died, so I traced the WISA map contours right off my screen onto scrap paper, then onto materials—eyeballing when necessary.
- Knife workQuick, approximate cuts of cardboard, cork, felt, and foam.
- Base & WaterCraft-foam ribbon for the Danube; its cool, slick surface instantly stands out.
- Land UsesFelt for green, cork for sealed areas. Simple rectangles keep the skyline abstract.
- Flood OverlaysRough side of each sponge = HQ 30; soft cellulose side = HQ 100. Cut to match the WISA outlines and glued as over-lays.
Total build time: ~30 minutes.
First Blind Pass
With eyes closed I traced from river outward:
- Foam river – instantly identifiable.
- Rough sponge – HQ 30; its grit jolts the fingertip.
- Soft sponge – HQ 100; squishy, cooler, clearly distinct.
- Felt – forgiving, farmland vibe.
- Cork – rigid and grainy; screams “built-up.”
- Cardboard steps – subtle, but enough curb-height to prove the land does rise.
What I Learned
- At A4 scale every millimetre matters. Flood zones have to be chunky enough to feel but not so thick they dwarf the elevation logic.
- Textures communicate hierarchy if the height difference is consistent. Soft-but-low worked only when the sponge sat at the same level as the surrounding terrain.
- Material memory is powerful. Sandpaper felt “urban” without explanation, reaffirming research on intuitive texture cues.
Further thoughts
- Movable Sponge OverlaysCut each HQ zone as a separate, magnet-backed piece. Users can lift, align, or stack them to see extent differences.
- Sliding FilmPrint HQ 30 and HQ 100 outlines on transparent acetate (raised ink or puff-paint). Slide the film over the base map; tactile bumps show where water spreads further.
- Stackable “Risk Chips”Punch small, uniform discs out of sponge: light-touch discs for HQ 100, rough discs for HQ 30. Drop them into a recessed Danube channel to build a tactile bar-chart of depth along chosen transects.
- Add a braille / raised-symbol legend to the bottom edge.
- Run a short thinking-aloud test with at least three users, including one low-vision participant.
