100 days of 五穀 Wu-Gu

We have obtained Occupational Certificate for Wu-Gu on the 100th day from the start of construction.

It was opened to family and friends on FEB 15, one fine Sunday afternoon.

Soft opening to public was on FEB 17 evening.

Despite the obstacles, the space was filled with a crisp joy.

It was one of those moments - the "never been happier for not giving up" moment.

Here are some photos from Sunday FEB 15 (photo: Eugene Wu)

Followed by slideshows of the construction.

 the facade.  It is completely openable to create a seamless inside-outside connection during the day, however with the current footpath condition (which is to be paved in a couple of months time) the client is shying off the idea for the time being.

 interesting how tables chairs and tableware can make such a big change in impression...
it was suddenly a restaurant whilst less than 24 hours ago it was a construction site.

  looking back at the entry

 the solid looking facade catches glimpses of street activity.
It was designed to screen out headlights from all directions at night and maintain a level of inside-outside visual connection, to ensure comfort of the patrons.

such lovely festivity, just in time for Chinese New Year celebrations!

on the mezzanine

Love the sense of space and volume

ground level

mezzanine level

Joint effort

It has been quite emotional to browse through the hundreds of Doshisha site photos coming through the past few weeks.

Now the project is coming closer to wrap up, a lot of the hardwork in the process is evident. It is so nice to see things coming together.

Take this little toilet window as one example.

close up of window.
top and bottom of the window fall in line with the tiles, and there is no tiny off-cut tiles to left and right of the window; it is of course designed to happen this way, not accidental.

The process has roughly been:

1. internal planning to determine window location - Architect 

2. determine exhaust location and dimension - Architect + Mechanical 

3. determine window sizing - Architect + Structural

4. determine surrounding finishing detail - Architect + Supplier

5. custom tile design and tile setout - Architect + Supplier

6. fine-tuning of window location to better suit tile setout - Architect + Structural

7. concrete structure with adequate spacing for necessary window framing parts - Architect + Supplier + Contractor

8. steel reinforcement and concrete pouring - Architect + Contractor

9. opening framing - Architect + Contractor

10. window installation - Architect + Supplier + Contractor

11. exhaust system installation - Architect + Supplier + Contractor

12. tiling - Architect + Contractor

Architect's involvement is not about physically holding the power tool and building something (a common public misconception resulted from reality TV shows..) but to maintain a perspective of the whole project and to ensure each step along the way is carried out to enable the next step to occur according to plan.

Especially when multiple parties (various engineers and trades) are involved, coordination becomes vital as miscommunication is source of disaster.

... And of course there are many more windows and doors and you-name-it to make sure the building functions... 

It is not about the window itself, but about incorporating functional elements in design without distracting the design intension.

It is always about the big picture.

Last stretch for Wu-Gu! 加油! がんばれー!

For many many many unforeseeable reasons beyond our control, Wu-Gu construction is suffering from extended delay (you do not have a whole day to read and I do not have a whole day to whinge, let's not get into it..).  Now we are seeing light at end of tunnel, at last.

Some lessons I have learnt to date are:
1.
Contract is a formal documentation of human relationships.
Contractual arrangements between all parties (including and definitely not limiting to leasing contract between client and his/ her landlord) have direct impact on people's mentality, which directly influence people's attitude, performance and reliability.
2.
Amount of time spent =/= quality of outcome.
3.
(reinforced) Persistence.

Anyway, let's do look at some nice site photos!

The hoarding came down, this was the first time I have looked at the facade in its entirety.
Was so exciting!

Close up of facade in process.  The window mullions are made of 8mm steel flatbar, designed to be very refined to minimise gaps between facade joinery boxes.

Majority of the facade came flarpacked and was built off-site, they give more depth to the facade.

strong linearity inside the shop

most of internal spatial divisions were also built up by the flatpacked boxes

lights up;
modularity of the boxes extending from inside to the outside is visible; the entire shop was designed with the base unit of the box.

lighting effect from afar

Doshisha working through Christmas break

Over the quiet period of Christmas / New Year, Doshisha Chapel Complex at Kyoto continued to push on and is developing at a steady pace.

Here are some updates.

from the main campus boulevard, external tiling almost finished.. such beautiful lighting effect on the facade.

...same view of the design rendering - taking shape!!

marble on back wall of the Student Lounge installed, skylight above is visible, ceiling battens are also in place. Services underfloor (mainly air conditioning) can be seen through the floor framing.  With big volume like this, it is more energy efficient to control temperature from floor where it is closer to the people occupying the space (rather than projecting air from above).

standing on the water feature between Student Lounge (L) and Chapel (R).  Custom-made hollow concrete blocks are almost completed.

...this is similar view in render, except here we stand inside the Student Lounge not on the water....

reverse view from the above,  looking back into Student Lounge, exhibition display cases are in place.  

slender steel columns continues across the central walkway into the Chapel on the other side.

Chapel side is catching up....

entry hall to the Chapel with wall tiles almost finished.

waterproofing the roof!

Long road

Seatondale has been through a lot ..

After a very long wrestle with Council (like, 4 years) albeit strong support from Council Heritage Advisor, we have finally received Development Application approval for the entire site of Seatondale.
We received the agreed and registered DA conditions on 2014 DEC 22, I was too overjoyed I didn't know how to respond.  It is only starting to feel real for me now.

Through this long and draining process we have developed a very strong bond with the client and his family, with a deep understanding of the design philosophy and unsurpassable persistence.  Without their support it would have been a very lonely road.

For some design background you can refer to the first post HERE.
In the mean time we have also worked on interior of the Seatondale heritage house HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

The 2 new dwellings to the rear will NOT BE VISIBLE from within the heritage house (grey in model).  It is important for us to respect the view the Seatondale heritage house once enjoyed.
Extensive studies have been devoted to the overlooking, overshadowing, landscaping and visual connections in order to achieve a blurred balance of architecture and landscape, ensuring a harmonised coexistence of openness and privacy amongst the 3 dwellings.

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!

Meudon photoshoot

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

Day 67 - Almost There

Heading towards the last day of Meudon construction tomorrow.

framed good-old-time...

"new" held within "old"

a view to be remembered

Another new start!

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