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!

So, Day 1 of our Emergency Shelter Exhibition prototype. VDD, herestudio, and team.

Quite a time-consuming process, but many hands make light (and social) work.

We reflect, that if you want to build without processed- industrial materials and tools, it takes a lot of labour!

Our prototyping day started early at 11am in Kensington. The trains were replaced with buses so we had an audience every 20 minutes! It was a cool, quiet morning. We were at Mary Ann's house - out on the nature strip.

11:31 This is out worksite from across the road.

11:34 First, we had to split the bamboo into strips so that we could lash laminated beams. Here is Munir, Katherine and Nicole splitting the bamboo with a special  tool against a tree.

Video:

11:50 This step is to strip the edges with a blade so that the cut is smooth for construction - and occupation. Both green and flesh sides. Here is Michelle, Soledad, Marjan, Katherine, Munir, Nicole stripping the bamboo. Jim is across the road cheating with the angle-grinder to remove the inside bump of the nodes.

11:52 Munir Michelle Muhammad (Kamil) trying to understand the drawings

11:55 Rouging in the shape - Kamil and Munir sketched out the arc on the grass with spray paint.

12:15 Michelle sat in the space to check the size. We are thinking that it's looking a bit small and the scale should change.

12:16 Marjan and Soledad - the bamboo stripping continues

12:33 Kamil and Munir finish pegging in guides for the bamboo to bend inside. There will be 12 bamboo strips in one beam. Munir made a centre point to draw in a radius and marked the level of the floor.

12:45 We then decided to stand it up to make it clearer. Michelle pretends to be one of the kids in the space. We bring in the palettes from Bowens Hardware and dry bamboo from Melbourne Uni FabLab that Katherine and Nicole just picked up in the car. It looks better standing up- much clear and looks bigger, but it still is a bit small maybe, especially with the palette depth included.

12:54 That was looking good, standing it up. So we decided to build it in full to have a look - standing up vertically. 12 strips clamped together, many hands holding it above the palette.

here's a video

13:02 A natural catenary structure formed itself, almost by accident. Nicely, it solved the issue of the low height, instead of a circular form, we ended up with something parabolic, therefore slightly taller and thinner. It gave a nice sense - almost gothic, of human occupation.

13:05 The issue we wondered about, was how to connect the arch to the palettes. Because it was 12 strips thick the inner strips were longer then the outer ones - and hence the base was stepped. We called Shaina (ARUP), who assured us that the downwards force wasn't important, it was just important to tie the structure down well. With only a couple of strips touching, we should tie the lashing down to the base.

13:21 We discussed if for half an hour..

13:47 So, after a fair bit of deliberation, we decided we were happy and roughed out the parabola on the grass. And pegged out the jig.

14:31 AND then it was time for lunch. Mary Ann cooked amazing burritos, fresh salads, sauces. We blogged on our phones.

14:47 Back to work Michelle gets the splitter tool out again to split some more bamboo.

14:58 All in place, the 12 strips with nodes all staggered and ends steps are arranged in the jig. Because the bamboo has a top and a bottom (it grows vertically!) we had to alternate thick and thin ends so that the arch was balanced. We staggered them slightly so that the nodes of the bamboo didn't align.

15:42 Here we are a third of the way through the tedious task of lashing. As well as lashing with natural twine, we drilled a hole with a drill and pegged in a bamboo chopstick each lash to act as a dowel. The chopsticks kept breaking but we eventually got them all in one by one with a developing method. The chopsticks we chose were oblong to lock longitudinally into the bamboo. We used clove hitch knots and simply lashed 20-30cm width of twine each time, sometimes with multiple lengths of twine. We decided to soak the twine in water first so it would stretch and then tighten when it dries.

The twine was tricky to use as it kept fraying apart and breaking. We had to be careful to learn how tight to pull it, and remember to twist it each time we lashed it around the bamboo. Jim found a towel to kneel on, and so that the twine didn't get dirty. The best procedure was with two people, one on each side pulling the twine tight and under the propped up arch.

16:04 Katherine still getting over the halfway mark.

16:43 The last lash is started.. It's tricky to keep the clamp on for the bottom lashes.

17:01 And with a lot of excitement, we finally stand it up! Note the rope at the bottom to hold it into shape. We will keep it tied so that the bamboo does not push out and loosen the lashings as it dries.

17:04 Mary-Ann comes out to get a photo too, with Kamil.

17:08 Michelle orders a few more bamboo poles to be split. Aren't the poles beautiful!

17:13 Pack up time!

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