Footprint

Last week Footprint joined students on the Centre for Alternative Technology’s Professional Diploma in Architecture with Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies course for the practical element of their summer school. The students had spent the last week working away on their design projects in studios within the WISE building. This was to be contrasted with five days building in the woods across the Dyfi Valley.

Course tutors Duncan Roberts and Trish Andrews, were joined by David Tasker, a director at Gifford and Geoff Stow, who teaches on the Timber Frame Self Build Course at CAT and is on the Board of Trustees of the AECB.

The students were building two structures in Coed Gwern, a woodland area close to Machynlleth, used by CAT for teaching forest management. The area is off grid, so students not only have to learn the essential skills needed to build these timber structures, but they also must do it with minimal use of power tools. The first structure is a temporary bird hide in the Coed Gwern woodland and the second, a pavilion for the Shambala festival. The two structures were designed after a one day charrette held earlier in the academic year. The winning designs were then developed over the following two months, allowing materials to be ordered and preparations for their construction to be made.

The Esgair timber sawmill

Douglas Fir Belfast trusses make up the roof structure

The Hemlock timber used for the build came from the Esgair Timber Company Ltd. A true example of local sourced materials; the timber for the two structures came from the forest next to the site, was taken less than a mile up the hillside to the sawmill for processing and then returned down the hill for construction. Students were given the opportunity to visit the sawmill where the timber was being processed, in itself a fascinating example of timber construction. The building was constructed using timber grown within one hundred metres of the site. The roof is an excellent example of timber Belfast trusses, with a twenty metre clear span. A slide show showing its construction process can be seen, here.

The Shambala structure

Students were asked to design a place to sit, chat, and relax whilst visiting the CAT area at the Shambala Festival. The final design, originally produced by Emma Donnelly, features three petal like forms which will offer shelter to festival goers. The three spines vary in height from 3.5, 4.2 and 5.5m. To add further challenge, once constructed the structure had to be capable of deconstruction to allow it to be transported in a van to the festival and reconstructed on the Shambala site.

A jig was set up for constructing the structural spines

Making finger joints

Slotting the finger joints together on the jig

Another jig was created to allow the completed spines to be erected in the right position

Erecting the structural spines

Joints within the structure allow for it to be deconstructed and transported

The three elements of the structure erected

Once at Shambala the final structure will be covered in muslin to provide some shelter from the elements

The bird hide

The second of the two structures was a temporary bird hide. The design, conceived by Bryn Hallett, is a curving form made up of timber slats, creating an interesting and rather stunning visual appearance.

The foundation and floor beam detail

Many pieces of timber were used for the hide, each one had to be individually cut and drilled by hand

The steel rod around which the structure pivots

The floor construction

The finished floor construction, awaiting work to start on the wall structure

With few resources students had to come up with ingenious ways of constructing the bird hide

Details of the design as it is constructed

Window details within the structure

The interior of the bird hide

The finished bird hide

The above video, produced by the students, shows the bird hide in construction.

The summer school has run in the woods near CAT for the last two years. As a student of the Professional Diploma last year, I found it particularly interesting to see how the course, and indeed its students, had progressed. Last year we created the frames for a classroom on the spot which the bird hide now inhabits, and I am sure next year the spot will become home to another structure, equally if not more, impressive than this year’s structures. It was great to see this year’s summer school taking a more design-led approach, and this has led to exciting structures which the students themselves are passionate about.

The summer school gives invaluable hands on experience of working with timber, which is rare in architectural education. It not only teaches about self-build construction techniques, but also problem solving and team working: skills which are needed throughout any architectural career. It was interesting to observe the change in student’s attitudes from the first day, when they often referred to the design as it looked on the computer screen with its millimetre perfect dimensions, to the final days, when students were beginning to realise the impacts of changes during construction and how decisions had to be made once on site. For these students, building in the woods has provided an important opportunity to see a project go from design stage to construction and to be involved in the complete process.

Places are still available in the next intake of the diploma, which starts in September. For information on how to apply, see here.

For more information on this, and other MSc courses, see the MSc guide on the AJ website, here.

Read Footprint’s previous post on the WISE building at CAT, here.

by Laura Mark, AJ sustainability intern

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