Flatpacking Wu-Gu

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!

Sydney Architecture Festival - "Behind the Lens" Exhibition

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!

 

Facet Studio x Anomaly at the Strand

The poster says it all...

Facet Studio collaborated with Anomaly to create a series of furniture for the inaugural collection.
SEP 15 - 28, be sure to drop us a visit!

More on Facet Studio x Anomaly... click HERE

Doshisha growing taller and picking outfit

So it is hot, hot, HOT! in Japan on site.
Doshisha is growing growing GROWING! on site.

3 months went past in a blink, what has happened?
Foundation reinforced concrete poured, 8m+ tall columns craned in and fixed during last week...
March 2015 this is scheduled to be finished.... I think it will be!

One important thing happening at the moment parallel to the structure work, is the "picking outfit" for Doshisha - deciding facade colour.
During competition stage it was nominated a mixed shade of grey....but there are hundreds (if not thousands and millions) shades of grey...

So rather than adding colour pigments (of which we have seen the not-so-pretty prototypes) we decided to go with natural cobalt pigments.
By changing the percentage of cobalt content in the clay, different shades of grey and blue are achieved.
Because of the manual process, even within the same shade there are variations - and it adds to the sophistication of the facade colour.  I like.  I like very much.

The randomness of the facade - in module width, combination, and colour shade differences - have been calculated with lots and lots of mathematics.
I know it sounds crazy .... but there is logic in randomness, otherwise we can not instruct the tilers on site to make sure this effect can be achieved!
....Maybe that is why we started to get shades of grey in our hair too?

craning in...

scaffolding around the 8m+ tall columns to protect them during construction
They need to be in place now rather than later because there can be no joint within the length (weakness in structure) and the bottom of the columns need to be connected directly to the foundation

columns seem to continue across between the chapel building and the student lounge building, which is the foundation of our design concept - the two buildings are "as one"

standing in front of the student lounge building (chapel building to the left)
Part of the foundation is one person high

different combinations of shades in grey ... can you tell the difference between panels? ... I can...

"OK, so this one....and this one....."

"NOW........which one......?!"
(do you know the math behind this? hehehe)

........contemplating project team........

To find out more about Doshisha Chapel project click HERE
Doshisha Chapel project was won over 379 international entries in open design competition in 2012.

It is people that makes the world go around

Meeting after meeting after meeting...

Our Osaka office has been very popular lately graced by many visitors! I think it was the ceiling manufacturer and timber supplier in the morning, concrete block manufacturer in the afternoon, and more. Doshisha Chapel Complex is now marching into the final crunching phase before tender package submission, for which we have temporarily merged our Sydney and Osaka office to operate from Osaka until mid December.

For this project many items are specially developed rather than off the shelf, which is why a lot of help was required of the manufacturers/ suppliers. (Can catch glimpses of the full scale mock ups in the photos..) They have been extremely helpful, even it can not be promised that they will get the project commission as we are going into tender and it's in the hands of the successful tenderer .. What I found is, sharing the vision is beyond important. If people see the same vision, they are a lot more excited and willing to participate.

Different trade

For the project Eki, we have been challenging prefabrication and customised fabrication...

Although we have been working a lot with timber prefabrication, the new field for us this time is steel manufacturing.
Major difference between steel and timber prefabrication is the flexibility to modify on site - with timber, it is a fairly flexible and workable material; with steel everything pretty much need to be spot on and there is very little can be done on site.  Hence the importance of prototyping.

For a small (but of vital importance) fixture we are designing for Eki's display system, I took a road trip (can I exaggerate any more?) to Sydney's South West and visited the metal workshop.

It is important for us architects to gain a good understanding of how different trades work... where did I hear this from?

"In order to design well, one needs to feel the weight a tradesperson carries"

fantastic blue sky.
Thanks to Joe from Impact Metalworks for picking me up from the station!

intimate workshop

 

bending ...

pressing ...

hammering ...

"Coexistence" furniture series for Anomaly

Facet Studio was invited by Anomaly to participate in designing their inaugural collection.  It was December 2012.

outside window of Anomaly showroom

Anomaly is a company made up of 2 very different companies, Axolotl and Evostyle.

One is good at surface treatment, one is good at timber work.

We wanted to acknowledge both Evostyle and Axolotl in our pieces. But how?

We researched into “volume” vs “surface”, “substrate” vs “finish” …and many more, just to come to terms in ourselves what the two distinct techniques mean in the material world.
It became very abstract, which is when we realized that, our message needs to be straightforward for it to be conveyed through a furniture piece.

What we also found is that within a single furniture piece there are 2 main parts – one interacts with human, one supports that interaction. For instance in a stool, it can be broken down into “surface people sit on” and “structure supporting that surface”.  The duality within furniture piece and the materiality started to talk.

There we assign one material representing one company – Axolotl (metal/ concrete) or Evostyle (timber) – to each part, with one rule: there need to always be a combination of the materials from each company. If we have concrete seating surface for the stool, its legs will be in timber, or vise versa. 

With the most basic form of furniture, by varying width, length and height, we were able to give different functionalities to the pieces.

Simple.
We like finding simple answers for complicated questions.

We named our range “Coexistence”.

We wanted to celebrate the 2 companies coming together with their different expertise.
Hence all pieces have timber (Evostyle) with metal/ concrete finish (Axolotl), coming together to a very fine line.

The duality of materiality and exploration of surfaces could become a constant theme in our approach.

bedside table (left) and bar stool (right)

......fine edge.....
concrete leg and oak top

plywood leg and concrete top version in dining table, stool, and bedside table
also to the left is the low coffee table in concrete leg and oak top

edge of plywood revealing honest materiality

beautiful seeing from any angle... 

delicate leg touching down

Anomaly Launch!

Anomaly's very first collection was launched on October 2nd 2013.

Facet Studio's "Coexistence" furniture series is included in the inaugural collection by Anomaly, make sure you check it out while you are in the neighbourhood!

Showroom at: 104 Oxford Street (cnr Palmer) from 2 October - 17 November

To find out more about the "Coexistence" furniture series HERE.

buzzing atmosphere at the launch party!

"Coexistence" coffee table (left) and dining table (right) in front of the Anomaly sign

 

 

  

and we design this one as well!  Pop up bar for prestigious Scotch brand - Balvenie.
Best Scotch I have ever had. Honestly.
I need to blog about this one too (mental note)

curious people walking past on Oxford Street
"Coexistence" bar stool (left) and bedside table (right) 

chatting away with Anomaly's Kris (yes it is me with my big green shopper...):
"....next time we should try..."

catching up with Balvenie's Mark ....

Mark: "hmmm.......I definitely want one of these...."

Delicate enigma

Presenting Motion Screen - a screen we designed for IDEA Award 2012 Gala Party.

(Higasa lamp was also designed for the same event)

Despite its delicacy and beauty, there is a catch in this which makes people behave strangely around it.... have a guess?