Studio Construction: Filling the Trench

I worked carefully around the tree roots while digging the trench. I covered the exposed roots with strips of wet, wool blanket to keep the roots moist. Luckily we had a number of drizzly days which also helped keep the roots from drying out too much.

The white pipes are part of  the irrigation system for the current garden beds. Most of this system has been broken during construction so we will have to get it redone. We would have had to anyway because the new back yard garden beds will be in different places.

Jason lines the bottom fo the trench with several inches of sand as required by code.

He then lays the conduit in the trench. Here he is gluing sections together.

The 2 conduits have to be kept 12" apart. This pic shows the 2 irrigation pipes on top of the 2 conduit pipes with the white water pipe below all of them. One conduit pipe is to carry the electricity the other is to carry cable, wi-fi or any future communications technology. I plan to not have any wi-fi in the studio, but it is there in case I change my mind.

I worked as Jason's assistant to weave the pipes around the tree roots. Jason said I earned some hours towards my journeyman electrician training if I wanted to pursue the trade.

Now the conduit was ready to have pipes and cables pulled through them. I wasn't present when this event took place and apart from using long strings I am not sure how it was done. To me, it is still another mystery of the electrical trade.

Meanwhile in the boiler/mechanical room connections were made with the power and communications cables. These went through the new holes drilled through the foundation walls.

I was very pleased when the back-filling started because it meant I could get going on establishing the new garden bed.

It is a big step to finally have power in the studio. We no longer need to drag extension cords from the house to the studio. There is still no light inside the building. Lighting is a whole other issue we are still investigating.

Studio Construction: Back To the Trench

A delivery truck dumped a load of sand that will go in the trench.

The trench will hold 2 different types of conduit full of different pipes and cables carrying all of the services to the studio. The water pipe has already been connected from the house main to the studio.

An early morning project meeting takes place between (from the left) Dave, lead carpenter, Ron, construction owner and lead trench digger, Jason, journeyman electrician, and Eric, journeyman electrician and owner of E M Electrical.

Eric decides the trench needs more work. Dave, Ron and I have to make it deeper and break up the huge rocks that would block the path of the pipes.

Meanwhile, 2 holes are drilled through the house foundation from the boiler/mechanical room to the outside. They are hard to see in this pic. This is where the power and other services will be taken from the house along the trench and across to the studio.

It was a wet cool day but the physical labour kept us warm. By the end of the day, we had the trench completed and ready for inspection.

Back Yard Project: New Garden Bed Prep

While the trench is being dug right through the garden bed on the east side of the house, I am taking advantage of the opportunity to redesign the whole bed. The tractor path coming from the front of the house too steep, slopes outward and goes close to the base of the tree nearest the house where it is causing the soil to become compacted around the tree's roots. 

I marked out the new path, lengthening it so it would be less steep and moving it equidistant between the trees.

Previously this area was a garden of river stone on weed cloth. The river stones were a problem. Litter from the overhead canopy continually falls to the ground, breaks down and turns to soil that supports new plants. These 'weeds' then need to be pulled out from between the river stones to keep the whole area looking tidy. Walking on river stones is difficult. Pulling weeds out from between river stones is tiresome and time consuming and needs to be done often. I feel the esthetics of round river stones does not fit with the forest ecosystem on a hill. The river stones were imported.

I have a big problem with weed cloth. It stops 'food' from falling down to the soil around the tree and produces sterile conditions under the cloth. 

I have lifted and piled up all of the river stones with the last few left to move seen in the image above. Friends have helped me with this big job.

I have pulled up all of the weed cloth to expose the lifeless compacted soil that now needs remediation.

I have collected up saw dust and shavings from the construction site and spread them out on the newly exposed soil

Rotting wood provides a host of fungi and insects to get working on the soil.

I collected up the blasted granite rock exposed when the trench was dug. This rock came from the area blasted out for the house foundation. It belongs to the site.

I collected up non-shinny cardboard and paper to lay down on top of the grass to smother it. 

The green-lidded container has rock dust to be sprinkled on  the ground to stimulate organic activity.

I have collected many bags of used coffee grounds to add as another layer.

I am ready. 

Once the trench is laid with cables and is back-filled I can start making the new garden bed. 

Studio Design - Pattern Language #116 Cascade of Roofs & #117 Sheltering Roof

Pattern Language # 116 Cascade of Roofs

Few buildings will be structurally and socially intact, unless the floors step down towards the ends of the wings, and unless the roof, accordingly forms a cascade (p. 566).

The studio, relative to the house, is a small and simple building yet the architect, Jonathan Aitken, managed to work in three different roof levels at three different angles.

Inside the floor steps down towards the south end of the building reinforcing this pattern.

Here is a classic example of the Cascade of Roofs, a stave church in Norway. The roof shape also emphasises the entrance as in Pattern # 110 Main Entrance which I discussed in the previous post. 

This building also illustrates Pattern #117 Sheltering Roof where the eaves are low enough to the ground they can be touched. 

The solution to the Cascade of Roofs pattern is to visualise the whole building, or building complex, as a system of roofs. Place the largest, highest, and widest roofs over those parts of the building which are most significant (p. 568). Jonathan most successfully satisfied this pattern for the studio.

Pattern #117 Sheltering Roof

The roof plays a primal role in our lives. The most primitive buildings are nothing but a roof. If the roof is hidden, if its presence cannot be felt around the building, or if it cannot be used, then people will lack a fundamental sense of shelter (p. 570).

The Pattern Language research team have concluded this is one of those patterns (along with #110 Main Entrance and others) that describes a deep and inescapable property of a well-formed environment (p. xiv). This pattern has a profound effect on the building.

The sheltering function cannot be created by a pitched roof, or a large roof, which is merely added to the top of an existing structure. The roof itself only shelters if it contains, embraces, covers, surrounds the process if living. This means very simply, that the roof must not only be large and visible, but also include living quarters within its volume, not only beneath it.

How does the studio measure up to this pattern?

The studio building is most visible from the main rooms of the house which are on the upper level. From this viewpoint, the studio roofs form a massive part of the building. Check.

Another requirement of the pattern is the space under the roof must be useful. A space used every day. In the studio building the slope of the main roof and the height of the corresponding east wall was decided by the size of the design wall I wanted and the need to have a set of high, opening windows as part of the passive solar ventilation system. I will be working daily under the roof - check.

 The height and width of the porch roof was dictated by the angle of the sun shining into the building. Jonathan did a lot of computer modelling to work out the optimum angle of the main roof and the height of the different walls. He looked at the different times of the day and different times of the year before settling on the dimensions of the walls, windows and roofs.

The view from the main room down into the sunny room gives the feeling the of being surrounded by the lower roof. The top of the opening into this room can be touched which is the third requirement of the pattern. On the outside of the building, this part of the pattern is not present. Though the porch roof is lower than the main roof I can't touch it. It was a compromise because I needed the natural light to go far into the main room where I will be working and this sunlight is needed to heat the solid mass of the 8" thick walls and heat the interior space as part of the passive solar heating system.

The solution to this pattern is to slope the roof or make a vault of it, make its entire surface visible, and bring the eves of the roof down low, as low as 6'0" or 6'6" at places like the entrance, where people pause. Build the top story of each wing right into the roof, so that the roof does not only cover it, but actually surrounds it (p. 573).

Studio Design - Pattern Language #110 Main Entrance

Pattern Language #110 Main Entrance

Placing the main entrance (or main entrances) is perhaps the single most important step you can take during the evolution of the building plan.

The position of the main entrances controls the layout of the building. It controls the movement to and from the building, and all other decisions about layout flow from this decision....The entrance must be placed in such a way that people who approach the building see the entrance or some hint of where the entrance is, as soon as they see the building itself (p. 541).

The entrance to the studio is placed in the centre of the wall. This pleasing symmetry is reinforced by the matching sets of windows on either side. Garden beds built up in front of the building will create a winding path ending at the front door.

The porch sticks out beyond the building line (p. 543) emphasising where the main entrance is. Raised garden beds along the porch and arcade, either side of the steps up to the entrance, will also emphasise where the main entrance is along the wall of the building.

The Pattern Language also mentions the relative color of the entrance, the light and shade immediately around it, the presence of mouldings and ornaments, may all play a part too (p. 544). The black door with its plain door handle and minimal mouldings make the main entrance blend with the wall. This works with the general aim to have the building blend in with the surrounding forest. However with the full length of glass in the door there is a lot of play with reflected light and shade created by the sun shining through the trees over the day. It is like a changing picture on the wall as one walks along the winding path towards the door. Sometimes I see myself reflected as I walk towards the building. I hope this isn't a bit disconcerting to others as they approach the door.

The Pattern Language solution to the placement and and shape of the main entrance is to place the main entrance of the building at the point where it can be seen immediately from the main avenues of approach and give it a bold, visible shape which stands out in front of the building (p. 544). 

The studio's main entrance does not fit this pattern as strongly as it could have because of wanting to make the building blend in with its surroundings but I am hoping the landscaping will work to strengthen this pattern.

Studio Construction: Taping and Moisture

The tapers, Cameron and Jordon, have arrived. They finish the rough edges of the drywall with plastic strips...

...tape and wet plaster.

The first stage is to tape and mud all of the drywall edges and rough spots. 

Ron uses a moisture probe to test the moisture content of the materials. The building's floor, concrete and wood frame were open to the winter rains during construction and absorbed a lot of moisture. The wet plaster has added to the interior moisture level because it gives off a lot of moisture as it cures and dries. The overall moisture level of the building interior needs to be reduced before the next stages can begin. Ron has installed a dehumidifier that runs day and night until he gets acceptable moisture readings.

Dave continues to make progress lining the crawlspace with plywood.

Ron checks the dehumidifying progress in the crawl space after running the dehumidifier down there for several days.

Studio Construction: Many Trades Make a Building

Drywallers clad the inside of the building with fireproof sheets of  plaster.

All of the east wall windows have drywall right to the window frame to give a simple clean look. I am going for an industrial/farm style for the building.

All of the west and south facing windows will have painted wood sills which are now waiting for the finishing carpenter.

Drywall mud and tape waiting for the drywall taper team.

The metal soffit is being installed by the roofers who also make and install the gutters and downspouts.

The electrician comes and goes doing his job in synch with the work of the other trades.

The sheet metal team continue to work around the building cladding it in corrugated steel.

All of these different teams of skilled workers are co-ordinated by the general contractor and the lead carpenter.

New Work - 'Forest Flowers'

I am working on a new work for a Surface Design Association exhibition. It involves a number of different steps and techniques.

Random dyeing the ground cloth.

All of the fabric is worn bed sheets.

Dyeing for an all-over mottled colour.

Another sheet dyed to get a more randomly patterned effect.

Sampling different fabric paints to screen print motifs onto the dyed ground.

Resist dyeing. I tied different sized seeds in the centre of torn squares of cloth. 

The tied thread acted as a resist when dyed.

Hand stitching the resist dyed squares.

I keep track of time spent making the work.