Manpower!

Referring back to the previous entry, this is how the extra extra long steel beams got through the narrow door at Uchi Lounge.....

truck delivery......

builder Charles: "... (what did I get myself into?"

builder Ken: "ok lets make sure it really is as long as it looks..."

 

LIFT!

TURN!

"sorry people...we will be quick!"

little rest

...so we can keep going...!

 

narrowly passing the internal staircase to reach the restaurant space 

 tight squeeze!

 

careful.....lets not damage anything......

 

the little trolley was indeed very helpful!

one in, one more to go..

all in! just how do we store this for the time being?

Yoshi happily filming away

the FS clam...yaiii!

One day outside Facet Studio

Today we made a visit to The Brick Pit to pick some recycled bricks for Uchi Lounge project.

Uchi Lounge is a 2 storey restaurant, whilst ground floor is under renovation, the restaurant operates as normal on the upper floor, and vice versa.  Now that we are very close to the completion of ground floor, we need to start firming up on a few things for the upper floor design - brick selection is one of them.

As we are keen to continue the organic, deep atmosphere of existing Uchi Lounge within our new design, we proposed to use recycled brick which affords a sense of artistry and individuality.

So here is our day today..

upon arrival we were greeted (and overwhelmed) by tonnes of recycled bricks...being hand cleaned and slowly compiled into pallets.... how are we to find the bricks we want from here?!

we were shown around the compiled pallets; these yellowish sandstock bricks were from the Merrickville area - each area has different clays and as the result produces different characterised bricks

....there we ventured into an interesting world of recycled bricks.....

Keith from The Brick Pit was very passionate when it comes to the difference between modern bricks (the ones behind him) and the recycled bricks

Keith was very kind in showing us photos from some of their past projects

With the help of knowledgeable staffs, we were able to find from towering pallets of recycled bricks....

....our dream bricks for the project (by the way, these bricks are original sandstock from late 1800's, with a beautiful deep red hue... Can't wait to see them in Uchi Lounge!).

Afterwards, with full brain-ful of new brick knowledge but empty stomachs, we made a pitstop at Chinatown for Yum-Cha refuel session......

.....and back to the high-density FS office!

 

Vivid Sydney 2011

Vivid Sydney has drawn its curtain for 2011.

It has been a wonderful 2 weeks of festivity, turning the iconic buildings - Sydney Opera House and Customs House - into canvases for international artistic collaboration.  The play of light and effect on architectural perception is truly wonderful.

Here are some photographs of Opera House... we live in such a beautiful city.

excitement along the walk leading up to Sydney Opera House

(Additional information June 15 2011)

Here is a realtime video of Custom House light show..... it is truly amazing!

Many thanks to our friend Matthew Ho for filming and editing the entire show, and generously allows us to embed in our blog.

Customs House, Vivid Sydney 2011 from Matthew Ho on Vimeo.

Meter for meter

Here are some photos we have of Uchi Lounge construction...it was so cool we had to especially call in our photographer to take some professional shots before the project is finished.

Uchi Lounge has a long and skinny floor plate, very narrow access.
The restaurant area on ground floor, where we are working on at the moment, is 11m long and 4m wide but with an unusually high ceiling of 3.5m.
So here we have 2x 11m long steel beams penetrating the entire volume, supported off the end walls at either side of the 11m without extra support inbetween, exerting tremendous sense of existence within the peculiarly proportioned space.

Anyone curious about how the steel beams got into the restaurant in one piece through a very narrow door way?

Photo (c) Katherine Lu

The entry door way is to the left on the furthermost corner (spot the green exit sign?); the bright square in the centre of the photo is a bay window with fixed glass fronting the street. Photo (c) Katherine Lu

M House - DONE!!!!!

We are proud to announce...... M HOUSE IS COMPLETED!! (*scream with excitement*)

M House has successfully obtained 確認済証 ("kakuninsumi shou" = Occupational Certificate in Australia) on May 27th, and construction team has cleared out of the house completely.
Construction was officially launched October 23rd 2010, the entire construction period was 7 months despite the heavy snow and earthquake.
It feels a little sentimental, especially with a project which has been around for such a long time (it is as old as our practice!) to see it finally becomes an individual identity; I guess this feeling will be even stronger when the M family moves into their new home!

Here we have some photos taken by our multi-talented builder, Otsuki san.... they are so good that we can probably save on professional photography?!

our familiar shot.  Question: "where was Otsuki san standing when he took this photo?"

view from inside the entry box ("genkan") to the outside through main entry door

the deck viewed from outside entry door

view from the street (compare this with the last photo)

view of the deck at night

view from street

good bye! old M House!

Wardrobes!

Admittedly I have been too carried away with site(s) in Sydney lately and have slacked off updating on M House....these photos are from Yoshi's last visit (beginning of  May)....oops!

M House is raised off the natural ground level by 1m, and with an entry door of a rather modest dimension.
In order to move in the wardrobes which are prefabricated in factory, this is what has happened.....

delivery truck has arrived outside M House

...careful.....

wow...this is a big one.....

.....more careful......

man... this is HUGE!

Come everyone!
(later on the joiners put a large piece of timber to span between the truck and the house over the fence......and "walked the plank" with furniture pieces)

all sitting silently in the bedroom

just installed.  looking very pretty (my nerdy love for plywood is showing..)

...open this way.....

...or open this way....!

Can 100% sure be sure enough?

After we have built the part mock-up of Uchi Lounge and tested in office, in order to be more sure and lighting effect, we built a full scale lightbox with cardboard to test the effect on site after majority of the wall painting was completed.

Our mock-up was one section of the actual lightbox, approximately 1.1m (L) x 1.4m (W) x 0.3m (D)....it was transported by cab from office in parts and assembled on site... does that sound like some DIY off-site prefabrication?!

Ben working away on the mock-up in the meeting room..... where is the meeting table?

on site we emerged from the dark....

Who designed this cool shop?

Sneakerology (photo: Katherine Lu)

ok...WE did...!

This is Sneakerology in the new Westfield Shopping Centre, Sydney.
We completed the design and documentation of it, and its sister store Streetology adjacent to it, end of 2009.   The two stores completed construction and opened end of 2010.

Yesterday we went in for a photoshoot.... I was feeling so proud....
I will talk about them in more details in a later post!

photoshoot in Streetology; our photographer Katherine looking through the finder

photoshoot in Streetology; there I was looking rather nervous.

Studio SPEC published in Malaysia!

Our project, Studio SPEC, is published in Space Magazine, Malaysia!

I am not sure if Space Magazine is selling here in Sydney (we have received our copy from the publisher in mail today), but if you happen to spot Issue 2011 #2, check out p114 - 117!