When first brainstorming a project we looked around for issues that pertained to our daily lives -- how could we make them better? We soon realized that storage is a problem for everyone, and specifically recognized this in our Invention classroom at school. In this classroom there are many ongoing projects and materials around which leads to minimal space for working or storing items.

We came up with the idea to create The Space Box. It is a pyramid style box that is attached to a pulley in the ceiling when the pulley is pulled, the box descends down from the ceiling and then lands on your table or workspace and you can resume your previous days work. The Space Box also has hinges that help it fold down flat so you don't have to remove your project from the box itself, it also features a see through plexiglass bottom so that when you are looking up at it in the ceiling you can see what is in it.

Our first prototype began with a flat sided regular square box. We found out that when hoisting it on the pulley system it would often twist on its way up into the ceiling and would not always fit into the square hole. (We had removed a square ceiling tile in the drop ceiling so that the box could “hide” in the ceiling.)  We recognized that the shape and size was the problem. To change this we decided that slanted sides would help guide the box into the ceiling if it twisted on its way up.That is how we came up with the pyramid styled shape.  

Another issue we encountered after building our prototype with slanted sides was we realized it was somewhat heavy which reaised concerns for us because it was hard to lift and if it were to fall, it could be dangerous. To change this we made the bottom of the “Space Box” plexiglass which made it lighter along with using the milk carton to counter weight it and make it easier to lift.  A benefit of this is the milk carton makes the “Space Box” descend from the ceiling more slowly, which is convenient and safe.