25 July 2011

Luminarium

The Architects of Air 'luminarium' is outside the Cathedral in
Sheffield city centre until this Thursday evening, creating beautiful
spaces with air and light-well worth a visit.

19 July 2011

Wirksworth Entrance Canopy

The steelwork for the Funeral Directors is in construction at Twiggs in Matlock:


This forms the entrance canopy, continuing the curved monopitch roofline of the Reception block. Its looking great, and is due for installation on site next week.

8 July 2011

Ellie's rafthouse(s)

This week we've been joined by Ellie for work experience. We set her a project at the beginning of the week to design a Rafthouse to be situated along the Derwent River in Hall Leys Park, as an ending point for the annual Boxing Day Raft Race. The brief was for a building to include a place to rest, a first aid point, space to eat and wash, along with a mooring point for your raft. Ellie produced four great designs over the week, as below:


Rafthouse 1 is an octagonal stone building with a room attached on the side. The building would be on the bank then a ramp would go down into the river. At the bottom of the ramp would be a place to tie your raft, then at the top of the ramp is the front door to the shelter. Inside the octagonal building is a seating area and a first aid kit. In the room attached would be a small bathroom.

Rafthouse 2 would be attached to the side of the footbridge. A stone arc holds up the stone building over the river then under the arc would be an ideal place to tie up your raft. You would then have to climb up the ladder at the side of the arc to get into the building then on the other side of the building would be another door to get on to the footbridge. 

Rafthouse 3 sits on the river with four metal bars under the deck to stop the site from sinking. On top of the deck is a small stone building which takes up half the deck then the rest of the deck would be used at an outside sitting area in which the raft racers can take a break. There is a slate roof covering both the building and the deck, and stairs coming from the deck and up on to the bank. The raft can be tied up next to the deck. 

Rafthouse 4 is a tall tower like building that sits on the side of the bank and has a wooden deck covering part of the river. The tower has two floors and is held up by wooden beams with a ladder going up the side to get into the tower. There is a ladder also going down into the river in which you would have to climb up after tying up your raft. Everything is made from wood apart from the roof which is made up of slate roof tiles and two beams under the deck to support the building, which are made from metal.On the deck there is a seating area. On the first floor there is a seating area, a cupboard with biscuits and a first aid kit. On the second there is a bathroom.

Our personal favourite is number 4, the timber tower, which would look great next to the river as a beacon leading rafters to the end of the race and has biscuits :)

What do you think??