Early start. Bright eyes. Short dreams. Train rides. Bus times. Good fun. String some. Knot some. Admire it. Snap it. Review it. Cut it. Home.

Reality strikes

The final display day arrived. We got to our site just outside the interchange for 9am and once the large modules had been dropped off by the big blue van man we started stringing, knotting, cutting and admiring. Piecing the triangle segments together didn’t take too long as we had many hands and elderly fans.

In the making

Reach for the cloud filled sky

The straw infill panels were attached to the structure as it grew from the ground and we were able to tie in the decorative string infill panels near the tip of our triangular spectacular.

Perfecting it

By 12 noon after much stretching and reaching high our whole conversation creation was complete. Happy. We were happy. Barnsley was happy.

I love it

From 12.30pm to 1.30pm our exhibition board was put on display in the Barnsley Civic. Andrew introduced our triangular design and concept to the rest of the year who all sat on the floor and hopefully listened.

On display

After all the didactic talking and clapping in the Civic we trudged through Barnsley en masse visiting metal, timber, stone, brick, bio-materials (earth), polymers, concrete, glass and us.

Sit, chat and drink

Barnsley locals seemed to enjoy our conversation creation asking many unusual questions on their way to the number 67 bus direct to Grimethorpe. Although one fool did try and set it alight but failed.

Conversation creation

Finally Louise and Andrew remembered that this day last year there was an earthquake, an architecture open day on floor fourteen and thankfully we never even knew what P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5 meant. Time flies when you’re high in the sky.

It used to be beautiful

Goodbye and goodnight.

Love C4

Thirteen flights of stairs are not pleasant at 8.30am but it does feel good. On our last morning Andrew, Louise and Dom tightened up and strengthened last nights work with more string and willow. This took quite a while but we wanted to make sure the large modules would support the rest of the structure safely.

Lift work is tiring

From 12 noon we were joined by Niall, Helen and Beth who continued to string more triangles together to create the mini sections. After 3.30pm all the groups began to load the van with their materials. Luckily we did manage to fit our sections into the lift at last bringing them down from high in the sky.

Pure passion

Andrew finished working on producing the exhibition board which is to be displayed in the new Barnsley Civic tomorrow between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. Meanwhile Maria filled in some of the triangles with a crafty string pattern.

Flat pack

The smaller parts of the structure such as the straw infill panels and the willow triangles will be transported by a car with four wheels tomorrow morning to Barnsley.

Location, location, location

Upon arrival at our site we will construct our soon to be amazing and highly spectacular triangular conversation creation. It won’t take long if all hands are there. 

Our inspiration

Sunny intervals tomorrow.

Love C4

Day five-thousand-two-hundred-and-ninety-three in the studio. After our morning workshop on Vectorworks our production line continued for another hour or two making the final willow triangles. 

The pile just keeps growing

Ten miles of string later and more intense chiseling mean Helen, Dom, Andrew and Beth now suffer from chisel thumbs and string fingers. Also, Louise continued to cook up some more triangular straw panels in the studio entrance space whilst managing to survive the natural smell. 

Triangle monster

Later on in the day some of us started to join the triangles together. We used our model that we made to allow us to tie them in the correct sequence. These large parts will form the lower part of our structure and we have used larger heavier willow triangles to provide stability. Multiple large parts will be made and then transported to Barnsley via van so they can be joined together to form our complete shape.

More green beauty

Louise, Andrew, Helen and Dom stayed in the studio until 7pm joining triangles together. This commitment was well worth it as we now have a rather impressive form growing before our eyes.

Goodnight Sheffield

It’s tough but we’re getting there. 

Love C4

Today and yesterday were very productive days. More willow was gathered, more string was purchased, more chisels were used and more work was done. We now have about twenty straw triangle panels that are being left to dry and hopefully these will be ready for Thursday. Mixing the straw with flour and water bonds it together naturally although the studio entrance space now smells mouldy.

Smelly triangles

Our willow crafting production line is working well. It begins with two people cutting the willow into 700 mm lengths, three more chisel out two notches on each piece of willow leaving a 580 mm gap between them, two more people tie three willow pieces together with a standard knot and finally someone stacks them in a pile.

High moral

Tomorrow we will continue todays work trying to get all the willow triangles made. Once this is done we will join a few of them together so our structure can start to form a beautiful shape.

Fruits of our labour

We now see willow in our sleep.

Love C4

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will all be very busy days. Cutting willow, notching willow, joining willow and eating willow is on our quite short to-do list. We will also need to start making lots of straw infill panels along with some decorative woolen ones. 

Blue sky tonight

Sixty willow triangles also have to be made and we plan to start a production line tomorrow.

No sleep this week.

Love C4

Saturday Twenty-first           

Green beauty

A day out to Edale in the Peak District was refreshing. Louise unsuccessfully tried to capture sheep and steal their wool.

Just a normal day

Not long now.

Love C4

Willow, willow, willow. We now love willow more than bamboo because it is ‘locally sourced’. Poor panda. Today Beth and Dom started to join some new triangular willow triangles together.

Beth and Dom attack the willow

We also had both groups together and started to develop our chosen design further and experimented with making willow triangles. We now plan to use willow instead of bamboo for a variety of reasons. 

Intense discussion

After our first tutorial of the day with Dan and JP, which occurred at 11.16 am precisely, we began to develop the shape that our place for conversation will take. By making some small models we were able to work out how many triangles we would need for it to be large enough to fit a Barnsley person.

Louise loves it

Group members now have designated roles for next week so we will be able to crack on with multiple willow triangle construction, multiple straw triangle infill making and overall have multiple fun.

Andrew's triangular model

Tomorrow will be beautiful.

Love C4

Some of us went wild and decided to go on a trip out to Barnsley. Andrew, Dom and Lousie tagged along with that earthy E3 group. It was a magical experience. We found our site where we will hopefully be putting up our bamboo place for conversation. It looks pretty and not shitty.

Mandela gardens

Louise went mad in Greggs and bought a Spikey Mikey. He was gobbled up in a flash. The Barnsley population had never seen anything quite like it before.

Meal of the day

Tomorrow we will be back in the studio doing bits and bobs. Personally I can’t wait.

Love C4

Not much occurred today. We had a workshop and sat in the studio gazing at our bamboo triangles. That was fun. Wouldn’t it be cool if it snowed again? 

Snow castle

Love C4

Design competition time. After our lecture from Mr PBJ about some Aborigines the ’intensive design session’ commenced. We made more of the bamboo triangles and knotted these together to form a large triangularly shaped structure . This turned out really well and Helen and Niall felt it was a very stable form. The group got excited about sawing up bamboo.

Niall likes bamboo

When the bamboo was being joined together we also made a large piece of triangular felt. We were experimenting to see how large a piece we could make and if it would hold together well. Once it had dried Andrew tied it to one of the bamboo triangles and Louise laughed out loud and said “I now love wool”.

Louise with the felt

Maria began to make a giant woolen cobweb which was also attached to a triangular panel. It kind of looks like a cool dreamcatcher. 

Maria making a web

Joining the bamboo

Louise and Helen made some Blair Witch Project-esque letters from twigs and twine which were hung onto the bamboo structure. This brings the ‘conversation’ aspect of our design into reality.

Bamboo frame

Oh and to end the day we won the design competition for cultivatable bio-materials. From now on we will be working in harmony with E2.

Love C4