theCASTLE: Week 7

From week 6 we came into the week 7 class directionless, but having had an enjoyable and informative exploration of some ideas. We knew that Andrew Maynard (whoever that guy was) was coming this week, but with only Ian and Robin to guide us, somehow it was decided that we would start making some torsion box panels to model up a one to one model of the Castle size, volume and form. We started off the morning with a workshop induction and tryout of all the relevant machines that we might be using to construct panels and other items later on. The panels were to be 600mm wide and 1200mm deep, and keep a regular module happening, as a basis for regular design if nothing else. Off we went and set up manufacturing lines of the panels, cutting up cardboard and gluing them together. At about 10:30am, Richard came back from the airport with Andrew and several of the representatives of the clients came over, and we were wrestled from the heart of the workshop and set up to explain what were the things that we had discovered so far and explored in last weeks lesson since the week before where we had discussed what we had discovered so far and explored in the previous week’s lesson. So started a common theme of being pissed off at the number of darn presentations we had to do throughout the Castle. Anyway, I may have missed it but we didn’t get a really clear introduction of who this Andrew Maynard guy was, and why he managed to think of all the questions that we didn’t have any answers for. Luckily, before any of use completely put our foot in it and asked what was his story he gave a presentation on his and his firms work and what direction he takes in his design. I think we were all pretty much blown away. It was really amazing to see the vibrant, colourful, playful and explorative work that seems to count as architecture from where Andrew is standing, and it really impressed us all. Everything from his wacky ideas, his sketch up models, the use of materials in his built works and the cheekiness in the way he presented, it had us all sold and it took the few weeks till Andrew came back again for some of us to have the courage to talk to him face to face! Anyway, there were really ingenious projects that Andrew shared, such as his Poo House, a half barrel textile home with the volume filled with water that slowly got used up and replaced by poo and waste from the household (only very unrealistic with the amount of water that Australians use), and also his design for a house for his friend that fitted the planning regulations for being a certain height and distance from the edge of the property, but which unpacked into a beach house styled home only one storey off the ground. It was also Andrews collection of images from the web (and other places), of lots of different precedents for houses of this type, that made use think this crazy guy should be given an award, it was exactly the kind of influence we needed to have injected into the Castle process at this time.







Unfortunately after lunch, instead of continuing our fawning over Andrews’s sketch up projects, we were back doing the next iteration of the design phase, where both Andrew and Richard critiqued us on our new 1:10 models. Lots of these new iterations were playing with ideas that Andrew presented in his talk, such as curved forms, gas-armed tilt up parts of buildings and slide out halves and thirds of buildings and service areas. My groups contribution to this discussion was probably the most unrealistic and conceptual model anyone had put together over the last couple of weeks because it involved a breadbox sliding roof area that was pushed up to make another storey above ground level. Andrew pointed out that if we could get that design to work we had to tell him and it would save the world, so it was really that unrealistic. Lots of sensible ideas did come out of the discussion though, one group presented an paper idea where a kitchen and bathroom area had a series of steps up some drawers to a mezzanine bed area (inspired again by one of the images that Andrew showed us as precedent). It was this idea that was taken, with many different manifestations to actually become the later test rig. We ended the day being thoroughly inspired by what Andrew had to say, but a bit lost as to where that left us in the process of the Castle having been working on 1:1 panels at one point to then goggling over slick renders of crazy schemes the next. Interesting all the same.