Photographing Takara

We photographed Takara at last.

The small Japanese Restaurant at Sydney's Chinatown is a project of experiments.  We tested new ways to consider structure, new materials, new spatial layering...

A lot of newness led to a space very much out of the ordinary.

Looking forward to the finished photos.

softly wrapped seating area

 

Photographing Eki

Today we photographed Eki.

It was completed just before I took off to Japan to join the team for Doshisha in November... Just made it in time.

It is a strange feeling to photograph a project, like making a mental note that the project is in fact, completed.

Looking forward to seeing the finished photos.

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.

Heavy, delicate, plentiful

The true test for Eki has begun.

Prefabricated steel panels were delivered, and our "thinking power" is to be put on trial (fingers crossed!).

With prefabrication, absolutely everything is in the head until the very moment it becomes reality, so we have to keep simulating situations in our head and find solutions that way before problems take shape. Especially with steel as there is so little can be done on site.

 

 

 

 

It was literally a truck-ful of panels... They were taken into the site one by one, heavy stuff.

We then went through all panels to measure and cross check against drawings, to understand the variations and tolerances. Turns out 3 panels were made incorrectly and one was missing... Good we found out early enough to rectify without holding up the project.

Panels were grouped according to types, each with "name tag" on it to make the builder's job a little easier... And to help him plan ahead. Most importantly is to avoid making mistakes...

So here's the "skeleton" we've prepared earlier...
Panels are forming part of the structure so the frames were propped on timber until fixed with panels.

Slowly, carefully, but surely, one by one....

New start

Same crew
Different site
New start.

Tangled

Making a start on a new site. Peculiar... A shop changed hand half way through construction with all kinds of cables embedded, making the start to our construction slightly more confusing than usual...

To kick start construction, we need to disconnect services first.
Here we need to trace back all these cables with very little clues.. Almost like reading a suspense story.