[ayiti] Simple rubble math

Let's do some simple math related to rubble and (wo)man power.

The question is, how long would it take to process all the rubble necessary to build a single family home?

This wasn't the question I set out to answer today.  Instead, I just need to crush up some concrete debris some new friends of ours of Maple Hurst Builders gave me as part of thesis research.  The equation was actually

me + sledgehammer + large rubble + a good pair of safety glasses = crushed rubble

And certainly, the assumptions in this equation to answer the above question are that:

1. This is done by purely human power, not mechanical means (potentially applicable to areas where machinery can't be reached)
2. You have a woman doing the work (and a small one at that, given my own size)
3. The measurement is for a rubble gabion house because this building method requires hand-sized pieces.  (A rubble crusher would be necessary to make the debris size any smaller.)

Anyways, when picking up the concrete debris with my trusted strongarm Marcus, we estimated that we hauled back about half a ton of rubble.  (As in, he carried most of it.  Thanks :)  )  I broke almost all of it into hand-sized pieces or smaller in about 1.25 hours.

If concrete weighs, on average, 150 pounds per cubic foot, then I crushed about 6 cubic feet, or 0.17 cubic meters (because we like meters in Haiti - and in all other parts of the world except for the US).  A rubble gabion house contains 46.3 cubic meters of rubble (calculations based on the Haven/Oxfam gabion pilot house in Clercine).

Therefore, it would take 341 hours or 6 weeks working 9 to 5 to crush enough rubble to make the house, let alone actually build it.

This number isn't particularly significant except to say that although I'm glad I can do this work, that is a LONG time.  At least I am not making a whole house for my thesis, nor am I doing this work alone because there are such people as men and more women, and such things as machines that can help get stuff done faster.  Oh, progress.

But indeed, women aren't afraid to sweat!

On another front, my mini material tests worked and didn't fall apart!  A preview for now:

[Note: no, the one on the right is NOT a big gray cake ... although it does look like frosting.  It's hiding a secret instead!]

Guastavino as a first word

St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University houses an example of Guastavino's work

I thought that getting tenure meant that professors get to take a breather, but not my structures professor, John O.  Instead, he's been teaching his kids to say "Guastavino" almost before they could say "dada," and now has published a book on the thin brick vault master who inspired some of our own vaults.  Although I'm not sure how much brick laying I'll be doing in the near future, it's still cool to read a feature about his own research outside of teaching and how it has influenced my own education.

It also makes me ask myself a question I've begun to ponder in the last few months: what is it that will be my own research focus (or, dare I say research obsession)?  In some ways, the MArch degree doesn't really prepare you to give a good answer until our very last year (or half year) of thesis, although research through design methods is hopefully what we'll leave with - or at least, what I'm determined to leave with.

NYC-style remembrances

 NYC love remains, even to the end.
More photos to come, once I download them to my computer.

Every time I visit NYC, I remember just how much I miss the City.  Of course, I'm happy to be in Boston and know for certain that it's the place where I'm meant to be right now, but excursions down the coast are always like mini homecomings of sorts.  This time around, the reminders came in various forms:

• The end is the beginning
  Celebrating Christine and Jonathan's wedding together with old friends made for a splendid reason for being in the City even for one short day.  They were one of those couples who seem like they've been together forever (well since college, which almost seems like ages ago...), and witnessing their happy day was an end to their wait but also the beginning of a new adventure, probably one that will feature pandas and piano serenades in addition to their faith in God.
  
  As an aside, I like how the pastor shared using Colossians 3:12-14 rather than 1 Corinthians 13: maybe it's bad to suggest that weddings are cliche, but the latter is so typically quoted that it was refreshing to meditate on a different part of scripture in relation to marriage.
  (In self defense, 1 C. 13 is still very poignant and true, but it's also not a monopoly.)
  
• Old faces never age
  ... literally and figuratively.  My friends - even the non-Asian ones - somehow have the Peter Pan gene and look the same.  Their ridiculous dance moves are also the same...  but it was awesome to have a reunion with people I haven't seen for a while.  Some of the news revealed was surprising ("What, you're engaged?!"), while other conversations were more of a confirmation of news procured in other ways ("Are you J's fiance?  I saw your picture on Facebook, and no I'm not a stalker." - I confess this was me...)  Chilling out on a rooftop after the wedding festivities, challenging our brains at Contact and Categories (thanks to Steph's expansive pool of group games), and squashing roaches with paper bag-encased feet made for a great end to the night.
  
• The vault lives on
  Although I didn't have time to make my way over to the Cooper Hewitt, the vault installation (Vault201) still lives in the 2nd floor exhibition space and will be there until January!  Check out freelancer Logan Ward's article in the Smithsonian Magazine for more.  Our names aren't in the article, but you'll find them on the wall placard in the museum.
  
• Driving in the City is a video game
  ...especially after years of not driving in Manhattan.  Nothing like weaving taxi drivers and nonexistent lane lines to wake you up at midnight.
  
• It's delicious
  A late night grilled cheese from HamDel (or Hammie's - take your pick of monikers).  A macchiato, croissant, and pretzel sandwich from Stumptown.  Boston, I'm determined to find simple ways in which you can compete.

... but back to the realities of Boston, school, and new life developments.  More updates soon.

An Ex-vaulting experience

The massive crowd of designers and donors at the preview

I figured I should recap on a previous adventure closer to home before heading overseas.  I had talked about the vault sighting at the Cooper-Hewitt, but the preview reception came and went as a milestone in MIT MRG's book (Masonry Research Group - yeah, we came up with a name instead of perpetually calling ourselves "the Team").

As I mentioned before, the group had been working on this project since last spring, so I was really looking forward to actually seeing the vault in person.  Walking into the CH that night of the 13th was a surreal experience.  Not everyone on the team could make it, which was a shame, but it was still a very festive (and cacophonous) night.  The museum was absolutely PACKED.  It's moments like these when I truly lament being short, since most people's armpits are at my nose level and it's difficult to get people to notice that I'm trying to push past without jabbing them in the ribs with some generous elbow movements.

And then,

A little walk-through leading up to :

Perhaps the other photos look better, but somehow this is special because I took it in person.  The vault in all her arching splendor!  So unassuming and light yet heavy with the hours of work involved in getting those catenaries just right and the bricks laid with minimal mortar wasted.

This vault need not go on a diet - she's so thin already!

And of course, you can't leave without taking at least one (or more...) silly pictures, here with Flo as my partner-in-crime.  No worries, though - the vault can't be destroyed with a mere push by a small one like me.  You need a couple sledgehammers and many minutes of sweat to make the footings budge.

One of the most surreal aspects of the event was seeing our names on the wall plaque, and then going around the exhibition and seeing other well-known names we also recognized: MVRDV, FOA, KTA, Norman Foster...  and MIT MRG.  Although it was cool sitting virtually side by side with these architects and their firms, one major difference stood out: most of them had renderings, models, or other forms of representation for their buildings, whereas we had a full scale installation.  KTA did have a massive wall section of their Loblolly house there, which was cool to see, but I would have expected more 1:1 mockups or at least larger scaled prototypes than the typical renderings you would see in a magazine or monograph.

There are too many other cool projects within the overall "Why Design Now?" exhibition, but one that I thought was semi-insane yet admirably intricate was this sweater:

Look closely.  Yes, it's made from those little plastic tags retailers use to attach price tags to clothing.  Now that's what I call attention to detail in reuse before recycling.

The vault made public

[ also posted on the vault's blog ]

The long-anticipated day will arrive this coming Friday! The Cooper-Hewitt’s “Why Design Now?” Triennial exhibition will open to the public at 10am on May 14th. The show runs until January 9, 2011, so there’s plenty of time to make your way over to the museum and see what has been 13 months in the making. If you're in NYC or head over to that area, please check it out! You won't be able to miss it - you have to walk underneath to move through the exhibition :)

It’s hard to believe how far the vault project has gone since its original inception last year. If we had gone ahead with our first instincts, we would have simply replicated existing structural forms in bricks instead of thin shell concrete. Instead, we dove into design and structural experimentation, expanded the team from 2 to 4 to 7, and now to 12 including the building team… And now, we get to see our baby live - in 3D - and out in public. In some ways, I feel I’m anticipating it even more because I wasn’t able to actually build this one over our spring break. How satisfying will it be to see the fruit of our labor, and to be able to tell others that they, too, can share in it!

A good portion of the team will be heading down to New York for a special opening reception on Thursday, before the exhibition opens to the public on Friday. Can’t wait! It comes at a difficult time at the end of the semester, but at least it'll be well worth it.

The bearable lightness of bricks

via Mallory

Vault 201 soars! I just got these photos from Mallory, who went down with Lara to decenter (aka remove the formwork) the vault at the Cooper-Hewitt. I couldn't help but cheer when I saw these images - she flies so beautifully! (Yes, I am talking about bricks and mortar.)

It's hard to believe that an entire year ago, we were just conceiving of this project. There were just four of us on the team at that time, and what we had originally designed was perhaps a more modest thing than what was actually built. Throughout the entire process, we zoomed up in scope, had our ambitions crash (literally) to the ground, and then went back to the drawing board several times before this form came through. It's simpler but in some ways, more elegant than before. And, the vault is impeccably clean!

Now the team numbers 7, plus additional members who graciously jumped on the bandwagon for last minute bricklaying over spring break. I look at this and feel just...really proud and happy.

The Design Triennial, "Why Design Now?", opens at the Cooper-Hewitt on May 14. Hopefully some of us will be able to head down for the opening reception, but in any rate, the vault will be there - standing tall - for 8 months. Can't wait!

A spectacular ending

The vault we've been working on for the past 3 weeks finally had its public appearance! And it went out with a bang - very, very literally...

More later - too tired - but there are SO many people I need to thank for helping us with this project... those who lent their time, energy, and money to help us out; those who bought us food, let us borrow their muscles, and who jumped in to do even the most menial of tasks just to help us get them done. People like:

Huang, Kian, Curtis, Reem, Jessi, Gerhard, Sunnie... and others who were just curious and came by to check out our work.

Now to bed after a night of celebration and drama - finally!

vault n51: almost there!

the project i've been working on since mid-july (and earlier) is finally going to be open to the public for one night - friday! (aka...tonight) 3 weeks of construction later...we're just about there. it's been a really fun yet somewhat exhausting process.

see the light at the end of the construction tunnel?

to infinity...and beyond!

rendered w/ the latitude of algeria...just because

so close to being done! we just had our final project review for our building tech class this morning, and now just one more to go on wednesday...

for this project, we had to design a long span roof that would cover 30,000 SF of space. no program, just pure structural integrity (hopefully). my partner mallory and i were interested in designing an unreinforced masonry dome that would act purely in compression. i have to fix the texture mapping, but that was one of the renderings of the project.

i actually like this one better, although it was just an initial study to see how the materials would look on the surfaces. obviously the scale is really out of whack...but i like anyways.

it was actually a really refreshing review and format: instead of us each presenting one at a time, we put up our boards science fair-style and had reviewers circulating around to critique us. we got 3 official critiques from various engineers and a couple non-official ones from our TAs and studio professors. all in all, it was efficiently timed and we were done in an hour and a half, which is completely unheard of in a typical design studio review.

anyways, back to the last project, which is an animation sequence for our design skills class. more later.

listening to what pandora has to offer with my noise cancelling headphones on
figure out what's going on for the summer, read about historic preservation in beijing and christian hedonism