22 December 2014

Season's Greetings!

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Another year!
Peace and Love for you and your families xxx

I made 2 versions of the Christmas cards and I like them both, so here they are!

 

 

18 December 2014

Internalising Doshisha

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Structure for the Doshisha Chapel Complex project has now largely finished.

Majority of the construction team has moved inside to work on the interior fitout - great timing as true winter weather kicks in!

I have been more than excited about seeing the photos, here they are for your viewing pleasure!

looking towards Chapel side from Student Lounge side.  This is view in the perspective we submitted to the original competition, so happy to see it coming to reality!!

 

windows are up!

installation of the ceiling feature has started

above the scaffolding..

custom made hollow blocks to the sides of the Chapel

 

 

 

 

 ...as if it extends indefinitely....

 

 the calculated randomness of the tiles.....

articulation of the different volumes are clear now...how exciting!


16 December 2014

Flatpacking Wu-Gu

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One very large aspect of this project is the extensive use of off-site assembly.

Majority of the fitout was flatpacked and assembled off-site, to work in parallel with the site work in order to reduce amount of time required.

The entire off-site process has taken almost as long as the site work to date, which means, without off-site construction planned into the design, the construction time could have been doubled.

Snap shots at the off-site "assembly line" over the past weeks...

arrived all flatpacked...these are only half of the components.

painting of the components before assemblage

...drying...

one of the first few units assembled

colour matching with the sample (the little piece of plywood) - this is a pretty good match. We did have some difficulty with application method, but we ended up with a good result

full-on!!
there are a few types of boxes, some are better painted after assemblage, some are better painted prior

call in the helpers!
the system was designed to minimise skilled labour requirement, so when necessary we can get more people to help

neatly packed!
there are still more to go, but probably 90% done!

6 December 2014

Meudon photoshoot

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The Meudon apartment renovation has finally completed!

Being within a building built in 1920, there were myriads of unforeseeable issues we had to confront and resolve as they surface from behind almost century-old plasters and floor boards, but it was nice to say, the calmness of the space at the end of the chaos was well worth the pain!

The Meudon apartment project is largely about spatial layering / sense of space beyond space - how that creates ambiguity in boundary hence brings comfort to people being inside the space.  Need to think of a succinct expression to explain *mental note*.

We organised for photoshoot on DEC 05, early 7am start to capture morning sun.
The entire week was forecasted to thunderstorm, luckily we did get some good sun on the day!

I found photographer Robert Walsh for the shoot this time for the sense of extension / expanse of space in his work. It is important to capture the spatial layering we sense physically in the photos, and I very much look forward to seeing the result.

This time we have also called in our friend Justin Fox from Australian Infront (huge "Thank you!") to capture some "behind the scene" photos - now that was a first for us!  Check out his blog entry HERE.

In the mean time, here are some photos from Justin on the day:

 the alcove in joinery was designed for this particular artwork
we designed the concrete/ plywood dining table in foreground with Anomaly (more photos on it later)

 we were so lucky with the weather, look at the light!

me modelling in shoot.. reading up on Australian convicts (book burrowed from the client)

Yoshi modelling in shoot.. he was back in Sydney for 1 week after 4 months in Japan on Doshisha

Robert checking lighting level

very picturesque indeed

people have different ways of working and we just have to find out how we can best work together.

 modern space vs heritage space

the client also modelling in shoot..  

I was very happy about the progress!
sofa + ottoman courtesy of Tom Fereday

20 November 2014

Day 67 - Almost There

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Heading towards the last day of Meudon construction tomorrow.

framed good-old-time...

"new" held within "old"

a view to be remembered

9 November 2014

Another new start!

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Before Meudon has completely finished, we have to make a start on another site last week.

It was a 4am start, in order to minimise any disturbance to neighbours.  
We were starting on building the mezzanine structure to the soon-to-be restaurant first.
Because almost all the intertenancy walls are not structural, the mezzanine is cantilevered on all sides from concrete columns with some help of couple of new steel columns.  As the result the steel members are rather oversized, very heavy to transport indeed.

By end of Day 1, we had most of the mezzanine bones up - hooray~~!

 quietly......

 shhhhhhhh.......

surveying the mezzanine height...

end of Day 1 - someone said it looks like a movie set; I guess it does!!

 one of the complicated steel junctions at top of the stair

5 November 2014

Day 51 - Cheerfulness

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Jumping over quite a few hurdles here we have arrived at Day 51 of Meudon site.
There is a silent cheerfulness in the air now that construction dusts have all settled at last, light and air freely circulate in the spacious apartment, finally the space is taking the shape of what we have originally imagined.

This is probably one of those exciting moments of all things - almost there but not quite, full of anticipation and hope.. of course this excitement is only to be surpassed by the even-more-exciting project completion!

 
 
 
 

4 November 2014

Sydney Architecture Festival - "Behind the Lens" Exhibition

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Sydney Architecture Festival is on!

On the weekend it was Sydney Open, with 50+ Sydney's best loved buildings opening their doors for people.  During these 2 weeks there are numerous architectural talks, exhibitions, activities for anyone and everyone interested in architecture.

I went to see the "Behind the Lens" photographic exhibition.  Our work Sneakerology was included in the exhibition by photographer Katherine Lu. Beautiful photography works of Opera House, Apple Store, Sydney architecture / cityscape and more are also on exhibition by 5 of the Sydney architectural photographers.

"Behind the Lens" is on at The Rocks Pop Up until NOV 10, don't miss out!

The Rocks Pop Up

 

Sneakerology spotted!