The design that almost was…
I started developing up the council building permission documentation. This involved an accurate 3d model from which I produced the necessary 2d elevational and sectional material. All fine, but I started feeling a little unhappy with the way the design was heading…
ghaa!
Toyota Home (part of the automotive giant) reckon they can build 85% of a house in a day.
Another way of swinging this
I've been pondering other options in getting this project built.
on drawing (two-dimensional hell)
The design of this project has heralded a new way of working for me. I'm very used to developing ideas on the computer in 2d and 3d (I liken my Macintosh to a mind-amplifier in this respect: I can get down and dirty with an idea and explore it to the max before committing it to reality), but lately I've re-discovered how much fun it is to make graphite marks on bumpf / tracing paper.
some fun and experimentation with a plywood box
Since there is nothing like seeing it for yourself, I've made up a crude prototype plywood duct / lighting-baffle, to explore options…
progress report: another design revision runs its course
Modelling this revision of the design has been fun: I've been dealing with a whole lot of the geometry issues, and getting a really good feel for the detailing side of things…
Plywood, Plywood, Plywood
I've just come off the phone from a very helpful Henk Kamsteeg of Plytech International, who gave me the low-down on some bulk plywood pricing:
(an aside)
For the past couple of days I’ve been upgrading the gvA website Have a look and when you’re done, use your back button a bit to return here and leave a comment telling us what you think…
The design ended up being compromised: after a day of trying every trick up my sleeve, I eventually gave up with trying to coerce M$ Internet Explorer (Windoze version) to do certain things.
giz: 0
Bill: 1
Bummer.
My apologies for those of you on slow connections…
I’ve just discovered that all these images I’ve been posting do not include their pixel height & width within their defining xhtml tag: I’ve heard that some browsers will not display a thing until they’ve received all images (‘cos they don’t know what size to start painting onscreen): the page feels slow, particularly for telephone modem users. Its a drag for me to go and fix all the old tags — if anyone finds the page loadings slow, please say so via the comment function, and I’ll see if the problem really exists: thanks.
…! A productive afternoon.
I've been spending the past few days sketching (gasp!) in (horror!) the garden: quite a change to the Ithaca apartment balcony.
For maximum enjoyment and enlightenment, scan from page top to bottom…
This is taking forever.
In my last post I mentioned that next-in-line with the design was the interior layout for council submission. As the design is unconventional, they'll be wanting a fully detailed design, and so I'm proceeding with a detailed look at how parts might be made — the interior layout can wait.
Exoskeleton out, endoskeleton in
On Monday I visited Kathryn St Amand (Planner, with engineers Harrison Grierson) who kindly gave me the low down on our odds of getting the design through without Resource Consent Approval…
up (yer) date
I've been exploring the design across a broad range of fronts, and its been going well (mostly).
madHouse
Most of the design is still in pencil-sketch space, but Ive managed to model up the essence of what Im after.
…and things kind of went from there…
Last Friday I had a very useful chat with Ray Patton (structural engineer, director of Clendon Burns & Park). He pointed out a couple things I should be aware of with Wellington City Council’s new approach to building approvals, and that got me thinking (always a worrying phenomenon).
Looking into the floor deck component, and a chat about helicopters.
Prior to my chat with the helicopter experts, I was thinking of lifting the main living deck in two components, with the weight of each coming in at about 1250kg: well within the lifting capacity of some of HeliPro's choppers…
Assembly sequencing
I've spent some time working out how to chunk all the building components into little bits which can be hoisted into place via chopper.
Site Survey notes
I'm talking to Michael of Peter A. Maunder Ltd about getting a handle of where things are on site. The city council contour maps I've been using for the design are not renowned for their accuracy, and we don't want any boundary disputes in the future…
Thinking aloud
Okay.
The design is sketched out — I’m happy with it in the broad-strokes area. Hmm. Still lots to shake out, but it’ll do for now.
Time now to figure out how to get it built.