Final Submission

Individual work

In a time of growing need for housing the concrete jungle appears to be an inevitable outcome. This housing scheme for four families in Ponsonby beckons to an alternative solution, giving families the connection New Zealanders seek to the outdoor environment, whilst still responding to the inhabitant’s spatial needs. Shared and individual spaces are used within the scheme. Colour and lushness of the natural world are inserted as a means of humanising the space, giving inhabitants a connection to nature through indoor-outdoor living. A meadow is implanted as a piece of the wilderness from far away, extracted and then placed as a sanctuary in this urban setting. The form of the building appears manipulated by nature, curving around the meadow as mountains do for a valley at its feet. The rooftops are distorted, their undulations becoming rolling hills and mountain peaks. The meadow feels no boundaries, flowing apparently wild into the living space of each family(which can be closed off or opened up) and then overruling the building through a roof garden which makes up for space lost on the site. Subtle imprints of wood upon the concrete face of the building suggest a natural gesture upon a material commonly associated with the urban environment.

1.200 site model

 

Plan

 



Planting plan

Sections

 1.50 sectional model

Detail drawing

Collages

 

Group work

An iconic outdoor object is transformed in this project in a bid to break down division between children and adults and the interior and the exterior. See-saws are a nostalgic part of growing up, rough and ready objects found at most playgrounds. In an expression of the nuclear family, here three see-saws have been designed as sophisticated, furnished objects, essentially treated as interior objects. Suddenly they become something even an adult could play on. Bells placed on the underside on each see-saw give the installation a playful, interactive edge. This encourages interaction between users, who work together to create a ringing sound. Ultimately this reflects the importance of communication within the family environment and its necessity in enabling families to function as a unit. The appearance of each see-saw clearly reflects the notion of an interiorised object: wood oiled beyond the care of a typical see-saw, the application of collected door cabinet handles rather than conventional see-saw handle bars, and the subtlety of the underside painted a gloss white, a finish which speaks of interiority.

LAB Submission: Individual Work

Rather than suggesting a concrete jungle is where higher housing density is heading, here colour and lushness can be found even as this demand is met. The key element is the meadow, which could have been a piece of the wilderness, extracted and placed as a sanctuary in this urban setting. The meadow is protected from its surroundings by the building itself, which wraps like a wall of mountains sheltering a valley at its feet. Drawing from New Zealand home ideals, a key focus is creating an indoor-outdoor connection, enhanced by the flowing of the wildflowers into the living spaces below. A combination of both shared and individual spaces is explored, as a resolution in meeting an increasing demand for space.

Plans

 

Planting plan

Sections

Reworked collages

 





Final Day: the Bells

The verdict was that the 'clapper' would be placed on a hook outside and immediately next to the bell. The bell itself would stay still on its own rigid hook, but the clapper would move and hit against it as the see-saw moves up and down. It took a couple of trials to get the bell and clapper in the right place for each see-saw. The bells are very important to our design as they add a playful element to the see-saw, and in a sense reward the users in their co-operation in working together to make the bell ring.

Assembling Everything Together

The powder coated pivots were collected first thing in the morning, and the results were great.

 

To secure the doormats to the grass we stitched in each corner.

 





The first fully assembled see-saw (minus the bell)

 

The bell issue:

• It was a bit of a struggle to get the bells working. We tried out many different variations. The main thought was that the piece within the bell was not large enough, so thus had to move too far in order to hit the side of the bell and make a noise. Firstly we thought that a possible way to solve this was by having the central piece on string rather than stiff wire, so that this could move more easily. This did not work- it still did not ring, and it also was too difficult to attach the bell to the underside of the see-saw without the string being broken by the screw driver.
• Next we tried making the central piece larger- making a mockup out of spare nails- again this was unsuccessful.

• Another idea was that the bell could be placed on a smooth rail, so that when the see-saw goes up and down it would slide along and the force of this swinging would be enough to cause it to ring when it hit each end.

In the meanwhile, there was an issue with the third see-saw. This particular piece of wood was incredibly hard unlike the others, and so it snapped multiple screws and drills as the pivot was attached. Thankfully it worked in the end.

 

 

Three working see-saws:

 

Prepping for Powder Coating



We finished off the pivots first thing in the morning, in order to get it powder coated in time to be picked up the same day.

 

In the Workshop

Our Pivots are in the process of being tacked together, which is incredibly exciting to see. We spent alot of time in the workshop today drilling holes in our wood for the cabinet handles. M4 screws worked for most of the handles, with the exclusion of the ones from trademe which require something a little longer. It was incredibly important that we did not make any mistakes with the drilling, as having the wood in perfect condition was very important to us.

Fully Prepped Wood

The Oil

After numerous base coats and coats of gloss, we finally removed the tape. Thankfully there was barely any bleeding at all. We had a slight issue in the workshop where the newspaper we laid the finished paintwork on discoloured our hard work. It didn't take too much paint to fix it luckily, and so we were able to begin oiling without too much delay. Danish Oil was the chosen type to use. Hannah was responsible for the oiling, as we were informed it would be best to have one person doing the oiling as it would help to ensure that they would all be continuous with one another.

 We thought it was important to first do a test, to see how far the oil would spread and sink in upon application- just in case the oil would lift off the paintwork and undo our many coats of hard work.