here studio

10:45 It’s hard to remember what day it is. I am so exhausted, both physically and mentally from trying to get this over the line. This was about to be a big day, and we had made a big call out to extra volunteers.

Here is Alice, Eric and MaryAnn getting the bicycle tubes out of the car. The bicycle tubes are to cover the edges of the corrugated iron.

10:57 We have all the modules laid out to be tied together in the back lane. (We have to store them and pick them up out the back and they obviously don’t fit through the house!) The idea was to get the worksite hyper organised for maximum efficiency – many hands arriving.

11:15 Here we are roughing in the overall module with the purlins and bracing. Ammon, Alice, Louise, Carley, Racer. Everyone needs to get a sense of the outcome we were working towards. We went through the design concept again, giving a sense of our community shelter – as emergency shelter.


11:23 Eric and Louise. We got all our small dry bamboo from Melbourne Uni, and had to prepare them a little in anticipation of work to come.
Jim arrives in his ute, having picked up the second-hand corrugated iron from GHG. Really lovely bloke, Jim says. Ammon helps him to take off the pieces with gloves one by one being sure the wind doesn’t suddenly take it up in the air. We stack them in the backyard.
And here we are preparing the palette bases. There are 35x90mm studs joining two palettes together so that they work as a pair. We cheated a bit with drilling them in.
12:06 Ian and Steve finishing the palette bases.

12:10 – 12:50 At the same time as the bases are being prepared, the team grows: Mei Ting, Charlotte, Louise, Carley, Alice, Sophina tie one half of the purlins on using square lashings. Ammon teaches two then they teach the others.
12:52 – 13:35 Tony joins us. He’s a builder. He did a 17hour day the day before (he told us at the end of today). With Steve and Ian who is quite experienced, and cheating with some good power tools (drills and circular saw) the boys get the three module bases solid and complete with a rail. Note the long stud on top of the palette near the edge. This is for blocking the spread of the arches.
13:37 We bring over an arch to rough in the base and check it is all good. There is a long discussion about how to cut the bases of the arch – flat, staggered? We eventually choose the height at the ultimate datum, and, looking at the position of the bottom lashings, choose to slice off 70mm of each for a flat base.

Dave and Jessie arrive to hold the arches in place.
13:38 Lunch begins for the lashing team. It’s important to stagger the jobs. When the base to arch arrangement is lined up the second arch can be lashed on.
It’s around here that Michelle and Kamil arrive and start setting up out the front (the old work site) to form the arms of the cat.

13:49 Here we are trying to finish for lunch (and prepare for the other team from lunch to return to lash more). In the background Kaletha and Faz arrive and sort more bamboo, and start to prepare rope lengths for lashing.

See video:
14:32 Nicole is inside working through the spreadsheet of all the events we have planned. She is calling performers to confirm their needs. Our aim is to do it all on no mains power - imagine what we would have post disaster? This is a community facility, events to connect and socialise are key.

14:34 Rushing to start 2 modules simultaneously. Louise is in charge of lining things up. They need to be held constantly until the bracing is placed.

15:01 Dave and Jessie and Faz start the first bracing piece!
15:20 Here’s the view of the backyard from inside. Everything has to fit in here at the end!
15:44 Meredith (who will be running the yoga sessions) and Tony and Carley and Faz are finishing the bracing on first module. It’s quite time consuming. There was some small packing to do to get the bases flat.

Charlotte, Ian and Michelle and Kamil are out the front lashing the arms in form. They need to stake a jig into the grass.
16:18 Ammon, Carley, Dave and Jessie finish the first module lashing and move onto the second which is well lined up with the purlins.
16:27 Almost everyone has left so our team out the back decide to start packing up.
16:41 Here Jessie and Dave pack the backyard tightly with the arches lined up.
Photo opportunity! Jessie, Carley and Dave.
16:43 Pretty exciting inside the arch structure.
16:44 Here is a snapshot of all the knots.
The square (perpendicular) knot is basically: clove hitch + up around the back to up and turn, down around the back to down, up to up (repeat so there is 3 times), then binding 3 times, then tie off and tie in the starting end 2 times, then clove hitch, then repeat a few times.

[start - up to up and down to down x 3, binding x 3, tie with start, end]

The diagonal knot is the same as the square knot but the pattern is 3x top to bottom, bottom to top, then diagonal cross 2-3 times, then binding knot, then tie off.

[start - up to down and down to up, x 3, cross cross x 3, binding x 3, tie with start, end]

16:46 This is our worksite in the back lane, all packed up.
16:58 Iconic photo of it all packed up.
17:02 Michelle and Kamil meet the neighbours who have been following the process. Out the front they are lashing the arm structures in a jig set in the grass.

The knots are tied together with surgeon knots and dowels. Each curve is held together with two ropes to hold the shape. Each curve has 3 bamboo strips.

Michelle and Kamil stay on to finish the 4 arm structures!