Exhibition Day

We all arrived in barnsley carrying A1 presenation boards, for the exhibition, and the seats. Once we had found our site, near to the council building we waited for the van to arrive. After helping te stone group unload their materials we were able to begin the final part of construction on ours. The structure arrived on site half built and using a battery powered drill and hammers we were able to fit the dowel and add the layers relatively quickly. The exhibition was a success as the presentation boards were displayed in the un opened civic gallery. The only downside was the lack of wireless internet which prevented us showing our blogs.

The review went well on site, with issues being raised about the heights of the seats for safety purposes, but generally with the structure recieving praise for the quality of joints considering the materials that we had used.

We also recieved an offer from someone wanting to keep our project, and so it will now take pride of place in one lucky persons back garden.

The Final Countdown

Our final day of building begun with an epic feat of strength.  Gemma, Helen and Andy carried the reamaining timber for the chair legs up a full 17 storeys of the arts tower as it was too big to fit in the lift and the paternoster decided to break.

The day progressed with the seperating blocks being drilled and dowels being hammered in, and then with the layers being put together up until seat level.

It was also importnnt that we got the seats finished and the legs fitted and we worked very hard throughout the day and late into the afternoon to get these finished.

With this major section of our structure completed on time and only the seats to be finished it was a very productive day, and hopefully tomorrow it will all stay together.

Finally we had to load what we had done into the lorry to be transported to barnsley. Tomorrow we will have to finish putting the structure together with all the seats in which means yet another early start as we have to be in barnsley and in our site by 9 to begin unpacking.

joke of the day

why do seagulls fly over the sea?

because if they flew over the bay they’d be  baygulls

Construction Day II

The day started early again with workshops in the morning and then carrying on with building. We finished off the cutting for the lap joints and fitted them together. We then cut off the extra dowel and filed the joints down to give a smooth finish.

Meanwhile blocks were cut to space out the squares and we debated the best design and connections for our seats.

By the end of the day we were able to drill the large holes for the broom handles to hold the structure together and stop the squares sliding apart.

Construction Day

We got in early today knowing that we had a long day of building ahead of us. We also were able to use a new set of tools to make our construction quicker. A jigsaw and crowbar helped dismantle the palettes and made cutting them to the correct length a lot easier. In the wood workshop upstairs we also had a new saw which made a massive difference to the one person who was lucky enough to have it, while everyone else struggled on with blunt tools.

As the day went by we got better and faster at cutting our joints and by 2 were able to drill and hammer a set of 5 squares together. Another delievery of bought wood to replace to poor quality palettes, that were splitting as we dismantled them, arrived along with another saw arrived late in the day and we were able to finish another 2 squares of before we all went off home for pancakes.

Panic

We have been struggling for time ever since we realised how time consuming making each one of our joints is. Hopefully this will become quicker over time as we become more used to the construction method, but we also found that the tools from the workshop were blunt, making the process of cutting down the plank longer. 

The dimensions were also causing us problems but eventually after a long discussion they were agreed and a series of blocks were decided upon to seperate the 11 squares and give the structure strength and height.

We did still have the problem of not find any wood strong enough for our seats over the weekend.

Dismantling the crates

We set about demolishing the palettes, but because it was mostly low quality wood we had to deconstruct it carefully in fear of the wood splitting.

This was nearly impossible and was the most time consuming part of our experimentation. They were held together with either staples or nails that had been turned back in on themselves, making it very hard to get the lengths of woods off the palettes.

In some instances the wood was damp because it had been found outside. We contemplated the idea of buying new wood, but were scared that we would end up making rubbish out of something beautiful!

This made our expermentations with our jointing techniques very time consuming as we still had to make a lap joint to join the square together. We then used short lengths of dowell hammered through the joints to connect them and hold them in place.

Sourcing Materials

As a group we thought it was important that we stick to the idea of making something beautiful out of rubbish, so we set out trying to find (and steal!) used pieces of wood large enough to make the main squares from.

Having already played with joints for the design competition using palette wood and we found it to of a relatively good quality and so it was decided that we needed to find more palettes as our design would require an awful lot of wood.

We used family connections to gain some very large palettes, which had to be cut down outside to even fit them inside the arts tower, as well as finding a few that had been thrown away.

Combining Ideas

Group F4 won the design competition with their idea of moving chairs but had a major flaw in that their central pole and actual base had become extremely heavy and bulky in order to support their chairs.

In tutorials, the issue of a “solid structure” became a key topic of conversation. We were reminded of the importance of making seats that appeared seat-like and sturdy to the public, who would otherwise approach them with caution.

Therefore we used group A1′s jointing principles and square forms to create their central axis, in theory solving their weight problems as it would have a hollow centre and would use lightweight palette wood.

Design Competition

As part of the project the two groups were pitted against each other in a design competition. Both designs were very different with one an object of conversation and the other a seating area for conversation.

A1 designed a large arch structure made out of rotated squares. As you walked under the arch the squares would twist. This meant that from the end, looking through, the straight lines of the squares would make a circle. This ‘gateway’ was a symbol of the new barnsley and the principles behind its regeneration.

F4 designed a seating structure with moving seats and wanted to explore the idea of the public being able to interact with the form by moving their seat to the view they wanted.

Both of these designs had their positives and negatives, and it was clear that a combination of the two was necessary.

One of the benefits of having such a flexible material to build with, much unlike glass or brick, is that it allows us to make something more flexible and playful in it’s nature. How can we engage the user with our structure? We soon decided the idea of moveable components would both be possible considering the properties of wood, and interesting for the public to interact with. However, we realised immediately that our making techniques were not yet up to the standard required to make a structurally sound object.

R2

Both groups visited contrasting wood processing sites. One dealt with Glulam construction and the other with fencing and made to order beams.

Job Earnshaw operates two sawmills and supplies both timber and fences to the public and the trade. The trip showed us how highly mechanised the process was and what could be done with the waste material, which was either used as bark for playgrounds or in chipboard production.

http://www.jobearnshaw.com/jobearnshaw/

Group F4 visited Kingston Crafstmen, an engineering company who specialise in glulam timber, as seen in Hopkin’s Norwich Cathedral Refectory (R1). Whilst they also produce large oak beams, they emphasised that glulam timber is beneficial in terms of sustainability, increased flexibility, and production technqiue.