Getting organised

We are proud to present our new library at Facet Studio - da-lah!

If there is a competition for material library at small architectural practices, I believe we have a good chance at winning it.  To be organised is to be efficient - and to be ready for expansion.

Our new staff's first task was to sort and complete our material / trade literature library. It is very important to our efficiency and design process, to be able to visualise the materials' application onto our buildings, and to be able to compare and match materials compatibility. Building materials and technologies are constantly updating, importance of keeping in the loop is needless to say.

colourful cats and spiky openings

Yesterday we have received photos of M House in the snow....deep deep snow.

Don't you just love the quirky Japanese? to stop people from trespassing the site they have employed bright orange cats to scare people off.....

Well, back to work.

So the builders have removed the formwork around window openings today. Given the building was covered in snow and temperature lingering around 0 degree, there really isn't much to be done on site.... so everyone was in the factory chopping up timber roof rafters....

the green panels on the wall are the styrofoam insulation panels, casted in together with the concrete. I wonder why people in Sydney don't do this? it makes things much easier, all done in one go.

can you see the spikes to the inside of the opening? They were there to hold down the formwork, and will be removed with force...literally....with hammers....one by one....

here you can see how the insulation panels are casted in with concrete at the opening.  Bottom of the opening is slightly slanted for future installation of flashing underneath window frames, allowing water to drain out if in any case water was trapped in the frame.  This will prevent leakage at window and damage to window frame.

Suzhou Museum - I M Pei

After seeing -and impressed by- many of the gardens in Suzhou (see HERE), I had high hopes for I M Pei's Suzhou Museum.  Especially having seen his Luce Memorial Chapel in Taiwan.

The Suzhou Museum is all about modern interpretation of the traditional methods utilised in Chinese garden-making.  Whilst the Suzhou Museum employs some of the techniques and elements - such as pond, rockery, diminishing of perspectives, view borrowing...and more..... - the entry, the first point one encounters, already makes a very Westernised decision by exposing people directly to the view beyond.

Beautiful building..... but the liveliness and strength evident in Luce Chapel was nowhere be found.

at the entry forecourt to the museum. sophisticated proportion and material selection was very calming

entry forecourt

automatic doors to entry airlock, when closed, formed some interesting illusional effect together with the oriental suggestion by utilising the circles.

entry porch. when the doors opened (comparing the last photo) the view was taken through the building, directly to the view outside the building opposite the entry. Which was something quite so contradicting to the traditional Chinese garden philosophy - which is suggestive, and a lot of play with imagination by manipulating what is shown and disguised. The moment these doors opened the build-up on approaching the building was instantly questioned.

inside of the museum.  beautiful skylight effects.

looking directly up at one of the skylights

ceiling detail inside the museum gallery rooms. lined fully with timber, the gallery rooms were warm and and elaborated, formed a strong contrast to the architecture itself.

window element reminiscent of the traditional gardens

view of the entry building from the internal courtyard

internal courtyard with formal elements of pond, bridge, and rockery. Can you see the difference comparing with other gardens such as Huan Xiu Shan Zhuang (“Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty”) or Master of Nets Garden?   By the way one has to cross the bridge to circulate from one side to the other side of the Museum.

More reading on Suzhou Museum:

Suzhou Museum official site

Wangjiangshuo's blog

World Architecture News

What defines the edge

Starting up 2011 with discussion on how to define the edge of the roof.

As you know, with M House, the roof is the physical presence of our design philosophy (read more HERE); how that roof finishes itself at the outside of the house, where visible by whoever walking past it, will set its first impression.

Again, we have constructed a 1:1 mock-up of the roof edge to help us thinking and deciding (by the way our builder, skeptical and resistant at first, now LOVES the idea of making 1:1 mock-ups!  They see the value in checking prior to construction on site - saves so much time and cost!)

our first go was to align the edge of the roof plane with the edge of the exposed timber rafters. By doing so the entire composition of the roof (rafter, ceiling/ bracing, insulation, roof sheeting) becomes one element, and was inevitably visually heavy.

we then tried pushing out the roof plane (ceiling/bracing, insulation, roof sheeting) proud of the roof rafters by the thickness of the fascia board. What this does is starting to break down the mass of the roof composition visually and gives it a slightly finer presence at the edge.

then we pushed the roof plane out further.. further... stop! It looked good there! Let's see how much we have pushed it out..

now the roof plane and the rafters are visually distinguishable, and gives a sharper definition of the roof edge!

the cavity between ceiling bracing and the roof sheeting is where the insulation will be. The cavity is 20mm bigger than the insulation material in order to have some airflow for ventilating the moisture during the wet summer seasons

looking between the rafters towards the outside of the house....the gap between rafters, roof plane and top of wall will be filled with clear glass, so the extension of roof rafter to the outside of building will be visible.....and permitting natural light to enter the building (the timber beam over top of the wall will be continuous rather than broken as seen here in mock-up)

testing the edge gutter....it was initially a box gutter at the edge of the roof plane (so hidden behind the fascia board) but for practical reasons it is now hanging out at the edge... we decided to go with the bracket on the right, which has fixing at the same level as the bracket (the one on the left has fixing points above the bracket) so the gutter will be raised higher to better catch the roof water, and allows for more room for gradient along the gutter.  The gutter will be in the similar silver colour as the brackets.

...strip.....!

Formwork is off for M House!

The structural concrete foundation and walls are now strong enough to stand by themselves, so the supporting braces are also removed.

Although we have slight delay due to the weather, we are ready to proceed as soon as weather permitted.

Wish you all a great holiday, and see you back in 2011!

formwork is stripped off the concrete structure, exposing the bare concrete. scaffolding remains for erection of the roof structure later

inside of the walls. diagonal steel bracing are removed, which means the walls are standing on their own.

LOOK AT THE SNOW!! I would have to say great progress on site in this weather!

...peep.....

So this is the site office for M House...... I was very impressed!  Everything was very organised even for a single residential dwelling project.

I must admit, good partnership makes our life designing from overseas (from site) a lot easier!

Inside site office with a lot of safety cautions. they aim to have monthly safety achievement. There is a list that it is talking about the attitude of new construction workers like a mini propaganda! Too much cautions. I guess this it typical Japanese culture...

These are structure drawings. They are all laminated, so it won't be wet. Isn't this amazing?

When shit happens...... There are contact details who they need to talk to. Of course, we are one of them on the list..... Police station, Fire station, hospital etc very impressed how they are organized.

testing...testing

A few decisions to be made on site urgently for M House ...here are some examples....

on the left are different colours for the wall finish - シラス壁 ("shirasu-kabe" external rendered finish with volcano ash); on the right are the different timber decking types

bolt testing at the top junction of roof rafters (if you look closely, the bolts are all different colours and sizes); this is quite important because after 20m of exposed continuous roof rafters, bolts can be very distracting...  here we realised the length of the bolt thread (the long bit that has the grooves) is of vital importance and we need to find the one that is the same size as the nut (the hexagonal donut that goes around the thread)

timber sealant; the idea is to be as close to the raw timber as possible. here we tested this product "木肌美人" (timber skin beauty....), on the left is timber sealed with oil based product, on the right is raw, unsealed timber.  On the top right corner of the raw timber is a small testing patch with "木肌美人", water based product ....Once when the "木肌美人" is dried, it becomes just like the raw unsealed material. Timber has to be sealed to control moisture content, termite attack etc for longevity....we can't just ignore the practical side for our aesthetic preference... Best is to be able to have both!

M House update

Lets have a look of the M House construction site in Niigata, Japan.

Due to poor weather condition, there is delay in construction progress but the construction team is still pushing for the in-situ concrete base and walls completion before end of 2010.  The timber beams are being manufactured offsite in the factory during the cold season.

on site the formwork is ready to wall height, and building base is already poured; to the right of building is the entry to garage

from the inside; looking very crowded with the scaffolding...

offsite in factory. this is the beam on top of the concrete walls, where the roof rafters will come down to interlock with

the roof rafters being carefully shaped and trimmed one by one in the factory

Facet Studio Interview at Yellowtrace blog!

We are very excited about our interview on Yellowtrace blog!

(You can read the interview HERE)

Thanks to Dana from Yellowtrace for her support!

Suzhou - Huan Xiu Shan Zhuang 蘇州 - 環秀山莊

Can I be more impressed by ancient wisdom and mastery?

Huan Xiu Shan Zhuang ("Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty") is a tiny garden.  In fact it is a part garden remained after partially demolished.  It is located inside the Embroidery Museum, and when I was lost on my way there, no locals (including taxi driver) could help me with direction because they have never heard of it.  But I am speechless.

Wikipedia has a good summary of a description, probably the best I would be able to phrase it to someone who has never been:

The 2,180 m² garden is composed along a linear axis with three main elements: a grotto called Autumn Hill, and Flying Snow Pool, fed by a waterfall called Flying Snow Spring, and a main hall. The rock work in this garden displays every technique and effect used in Chinese gardens. In addition, it is a recreation of the five important mountains of China, and shows a mastery of creating a sense of vast space in a small area.

The rockery within the garden is the work of Ge Yuliang (戈裕良), some nicknamed "Master of Rockery" in China.  Although the Garden itself could be dated back to Jin Dynasty (around 300CE), it was  Ge's involvement with the rockery in 1807CE set the garden's reputation.  The garden was inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.