Bed

Here's a blog post talking about how I did a small project of my own - building a car bed in my Nissan Tiida hatchback for small road trips.

Pro-tip: always reverse into the best view.

Ever since going camping in my friend's Honda Fit - a relatively small hatchback - I started thinking of what I could do with my own car. My workmate also removed the back seats from his van and created a plywood haven with a kitchenette, providing inspiration. Staying in Airbnbs and motels/backpackers can get a bit samey and I've always wanted to give the character-filled camp sites a go without the drama of a tent.

The Honda Fit has the advantage of having the back seats lay down flush with the boot floor, so add a foam mattress and you're sorted. My Nissan Tiida is a different story - the seats laid down are quite a bit higher than the boot so it needs something to raise it up.

The Tiida is longer than it looks and with the front seats pushed as far forward as possible, there is just enough length for me lying down. Anyone shorter should be fine!

The car bed in it's set up state, mattress in. You can see the storage space underneath.

Chuck bags up the front, less used items underneath, the arm rests/door pulls hold our phones. 

Putting my architect skills to good use, I measured it up and started drawing.

Lying down in the car, I could get a sense of how much room I would have to sleep. Headspace is an issue, but it is passable. The simple X-shaped baffle support was the brain child of my fellow architect Han. Highlights the importance of bouncing ideas off others. One of my engineer friends thought up something far too complicated. Go architects!

I ended up purchasing a single sheet of 1.2 x 2.4m plywood (12mm thick) and cutting them into panels. Then a few cut outs and some sanding later, it was all done!

A bit of planning before prefabrication, always best to use material as efficiently as possible. I also made sure the plywood was E0 grade which means that almost has no toxic formaldehyde emissions as we would be cooped up in the car with it.

All it needs is a bit of set up and a thin self-inflating mattress. Unfortunately the head space isn't very much but it's alright as a sleeping platform. Feels like a capsule hotel in Japan. The upside of building it up a platform is that we get storage space inside the baffle construction.

A few details: we made 'curtains' with suction cups to stick to the inside of the windows. For the back seat windows we opened them up a crack for cross ventilation and put mosquito nets over the doors.

None of it is permanent, it's just a few plywood panels that can be removed through the side door. To drive, we just slide the panels on top of each other and slide the front seats back to driving position.

Now we can do weekend road trips easy as!

Archery

Having finished the main bit of thesis, things are winding down to a bit of a holiday period. That means more blog posts right? Not exactly. The backlash of being so focused on one endeavour for so long leaves a sense of floating in its absence – a tensely strung bow after the arrow is released. So here is a baby post to get me started again.

Recently I came across two architectural projects that had to do with archery. I've always love archery, and someday I'll get down to it and give it ago. But look how it inspired these two projects – one referencing the precision of string, air and direction, the other, a truss embodying the inherent tension of a bow. Both are inspired by archery and nothing to do with the popular culture hype that is going around at the moment (think Hunger Games and the Avengers).

Archery Hall and Boxing Club by FT Architects

The archery hall uses the multiplicity of finely detailed timber members, a motif of fingers grasping the bowstring, ready to release. In its serenity, there is an aggressive gesture as every step falls beneath the vector of a potential arrow. 

In the boxing space, the oriental layered timber language takes a heavier form. As opposed to the expansiveness of the archery hall, the boxing hall is cave-like and oppressive, like a boxer cornering his foe.

Bowstring Truss House by Works Partnership Architecture

Although this building is named after the formalism of the truss, the design captures the airiness of the activity. Expansive light and directionality can be felt in this space as the rafters roughly focus to the inhabited space.

The depth of the roof members help to baffle the light down into the space. Penetrations draw light in, even taking a moment of a glazed box, like a shaft of light.

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Sprint

The sprint to the end is always the hardest. This is no different (or, more so) for finishing a thesis. As you can see I haven't been blogging for a while despite the many ideas that spin my way - the task at hand is a big one after all.

What I will share is my final design presentation (shown above) that just exhibited over the weekend in Parnell. The presentation went well, the design was well received (thank goodness) and the critique was spot on. How it's a matter or funneling that discussion into the written thesis document.

I'll be done in a week, and I'll be back!

Participation

Here's to my 300th post on Creative Collision! Thanks for all of your readership.

The public streamed into the exhibition this weekend, helped by large boat show happening next door. Non-architectural people readily engaged with architectural design with a workshop that was run over two days. In fact, some kids got so into it that they begged their parents to bring them to the second day!

The participatory design system is the brainchild of Tim de Beer, a Master of Architecture (Professional) student at the University of Auckland.

A 3-storey monopitch design by a 7 year old, created all by himself. Each floor is insightfully planned, too.

Working with the children and parents into imagining/designing space was an incredible process. It reminds us that a hands on approach to architecture can be so engaging to both clientele and architect.

And that's the end of Architecture Week 2013! For more of what happened see the Architecture + Women Facebook page. Look forward to it next year and for now I'll still be tweeting architectural things on Twitter.

AW2013

It's right in the middle of Architecture Week 2013 and numerous events have been happening in Auckland and, I understand, across the country. The main event is the exhibition at Silo Park (open 9am to 6pm all week and weekend), and the fun opening night that went with it. Even though the weather has been Civil Defence warning worthy in some places, there was a great turnout to the lunchtime panel discussions and last night's discussion at Jasmax.

The exhibition shows a wide range of work including non-architectural work by architectural graduates. As good as Urbis Design Day.

Is Architecture Week merely an inward-looking industry event? It happens every year and is open to all. Yet you don't see the public engaging with architecture and more specifically, architectural design. It doesn't get the attention that other creative industries receive - the international film festivals, art exhibitions, music events and even Taste (I learned today it involves 18 countries worldwide). What is it about Kiwi culture that seems to disregard architecture as a creative profession that is worth getting to know?

Anyone can say this is a pretty model of a building, but very few in the public audience could point out what's good and bad about the design.

Having been to Open House in London and Dublin, I can see how great architectural design can be appreciated by the public who come in swarms to see different buildings and hear about their conception. Open House is an international programme that allows the public to visit buildings that are usually not open to the public. Our version of this? The budding AAA tours that happen on a sporadic basis. If you're not in the architecture industry, you probably didn't even know we have an Auckland Architecture Association. Or not to mention the elusive New Zealand Institute of Architects.

The Longroom at Trinity College Dublin. A huge line of people waiting to be toured around the immaculately designed educational facility. It is completely free. No such large scale event like this in New Zealand.

There are many architects who believe the public do not need to understand or engage with architecture. In some way, people cannot avoid architecture so are already 'engaging', however, there is a lot more that needs to be done in terms of education and a shift in ideology toward architecture to ensure the survival of the profession and good design in our city.

Architecture Week is open for all - this year it is themed Architecture + Women and touch on issues of equality and equity. Do check out their programme and visit some of the events. Next weekend I will be helping with a workshop at Silo Park that lets the public get hands on with discussing housing issues. 

I managed to get onto on of the panels through Kathy Waghorn's Fluid City project, community-engaging architectural installations.

NZFW6

Not as immersed in NZ Fashion Week as I was last year, but I'll be off to a few NZFW 2013 shows just to keep the creative mind sharp while writing a thesis.

Ticket to the show

The other night I got tickets to the Stolen Girlfriends Club show and as usual (rebelliously) they had an off-site show. It was quite different to shooting last year's show (or maybe it was because I was in the audience as opposed to the photographer's stand) but just as impressive. The style of the clothes were inspired by 'Dirty Magic' so think dark, grungy street style and some avant garde evening wear. It's great to see a mix of male and female clothing in a show, too.

A giant projection on the facade of the building.

Alignment

Loved this photo of Vulcan Lane. Reminded me that it's one of Auckland's pedestrian 'laneways'. Think Melbourne style. Will have to get it in the thesis somehow. Vulcan Lane was one of my favourite spots, now overtaken by other places in the city. The subtext which is "Yay! We actually have choices now!"

Thanks @antsgardiner for the inspiration.

Bare

A write up about a fascinating workshop between writers and architecture students - Laboratory of Literary Architecture - lays bare the idea of space and what implications it might have when translated from writing to architectural model making. It is not a shift in medium that is utilised but the collaboration between literary folk and architectural thinkers/makers have turned up with some brilliant results.

An example:

With this narrow path I’m conveying the progression and mind of the protagonist David Lurie in “Disgrace,” a novel by J.M. Coetzee. A South African college professor who is fired after he refuses to apologize for raping a student, Mr. Lurie endures a series of traumatic events (represented by the knifelike cuts) that produce temporary changes in his perception, but he continues to believe that women have a natural responsibility to excite and bear male passion. His path zigzags, but change is illusory because ultimately he is headed in the same direction. At the end of “Disgrace,” Mr. Lurie’s new ability to relate to women as fully human is represented by a drop-off into water.
— Joanne Yao, SOA Nonfiction
Partnered with Chelsea Hyduk, M. Arch ’15

See the Laboratory of Literary Architecture Facebook page for more models generated by novels.

Melbourne

A visual summary of my Melbourne trip.

Amazing street art all over the place but this is one of my favourite. Saw a few of the same artist around too - anyone know who did this? (in Stevenson Lane near Chinatown)

Federation Square

Just a mall but had so much architectural effect to the whole thing.

RMIT building by Lyons Architects

The grand hall inside the National Gallery of Victoria - stunning piece of stained glass with Victorian motifs.

Cranes were a common sight, guess Melbourne is developing around its architectural heritage.

National Library of Victoria with two exhibition spaces on the circular spaces wrapping around this central area.

RMIT Design Hub, explored the inside of it quite thoroughly.

One of the many laneways that epitomises Melbourne.

The 'Pixel Building'

An old laneway converted into the lobby of a hotel. Notice the attempt at acknowledging the heritage architecture on the right by an imperfect mirroring.

COCA - contemporary art, unfortunately closed when I went there!

An art installation in the main lobby of NGV, the bowls circulated the water pool and every time they bumped a clear ring of ceramic can be heard.

There are also more photos on my Google+ album.