A cornucopia of architecture projects beginning with my masters of architecture degree studio work. WARNING!! Have food while you read. Best to make one aspect of this experience delectable.
Above is a template of how I document the drawing work on the Black Box.
I am making an archive of the drawings on the black box & in the black box by photographing entire elevations of each wall I draw on. I take a photo, then invert the image - turning white lines into black, black walls into white paper. The elevations, arranged one next to the other at the same scale becomes a construction drawing document. The series of elevations documented over time shows the progress of the work. It will be a record of the decisions made in drawing leading to making: a construction drawing set - an archive of the built work, a prescriptive language of how the phenomena is made apparent through drawing. The drawing as the language of the architect.
The language of the drawing, and the construction set as encyclopedia, compliments the tacit knowledge embedded in the built work. And vice verse.
I can also add to the drawings once they are arranged in the drawing set. I can bring into my studio measured information about the black box, and continue the process of drawing without being at the site. The drawing will give me a "whole view" of the project, an effect not apparent when I am standing outside the black box itself, dominated by it's one to one scale. I can reflect on the work, make adjustments at other scales otherwise not possible if I only carried on the work on site. Being able to transport the black box with me to different places will enable me to continue the project say, in the evening, when it is too dark to work outside. The drawing will help me organize the work schedule. Daylight hours are dedicated to actually making on site, while drawing, and building in the shop could take place at night, or when the weather is too difficult to manage.
Whoa! thanks guys for all the help in trucking out this beast onto the lawn (what lawn---all I see is snow) in between the School of Architecture and CAST. The black box is now "at home".
foundation: shoveling snow and putting down cinder blocks
erection: view of Black Box through the trees. And, one of four elevations
Standard 4' X 8' sheets of OSB determine the limits of the space
Vapour Barrier and Foil and Heat Gun - making a continuous seal
Detail of Vapour Barrier heat seal from initial testing- some shrinkage!
The structure is a stud wall construction. Two layers (permeable and impermeable) make up the "original" building envelope: sheathing (interior and exterior finishes) and Vapour Barrier. The latter layer seals the interior space from the forces of air and water existing in the exterior environment. And it establishes, alongside the perceived rigid and generic form of the wood enclosure, the parameters of equilibrium between interior and exterior space. So long as the Vapour barrier remains a sealed, no moisture can pass between the wall, and into both spaces.
To ensure that this is properly made, I have heat sealed the vapour barrier at the intersection of wall to wall, wall to floor and wall to roof connections. Rather than risk breaking the seal with nails traditionally used to fix the Vapour Barrier to the stud wall, I have welded the different plastic frames together.
I have also distinguished the two sides of sheathing. The exterior is painted black, and the interior faces painted deep red. Though both surfaces are the same material, I want to establish a clear difference between the homogeneous interior space's enclosure from the exteriors facade. Starting with the appearance of a solid, form from the outside, I will soon discover, after entering the space, that is is fact a composite envelope.
Above are measured drawings of the black box. I will building the room out of 4' X 8' Oriented Strand Board (OSB) sheets, 2X4 X8' Spruce studs, yellow zinc wood screws, and 8X8X16 concrete cinder block.
Water and Architecture: I have turned to a number of sources of inspiration, local and beyond, for the design of the black box. One is the story of the biblical flood, and Noah's Ark. Second is the Kabbah, the room built by Abraham for Ishmael. And third are two buildings in North Point Douglas, one recently built, and the other as old as the first developments of the Point Douglas neighbourhood in the 1870's. For each of these examples, I focus on the allegories of water as a destructive and creative force in Architecture. The different relationships between water and Architecture are complex, and dynamic. Time has permitted that this relationship change, mutate, develop, even contradict the first contacts between water and each of these buildings. How is this relationship going to be examined in the black box?
1 & 2
3 & 4
5 & 6 7 & 8
1. Noah and his sons constructing the ark, after God's design. 2. Michaelangelo depicting the flood and the destruction of humanity. 3 & 4. Flooding in the Harem and around the Kabba. 5 & 6. Flooding all thoughout Mecca, inside the passageway between the two mounts. 7. The Barber house, in NPD, built by businessman E.L. Barber in 1865. 8. circa 100 years after, we have this example of housing in NPD.
