Author Archives: Chris Chesman

Any business is only as good as the people working there

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I feel fortunate to have been able to work alongside George and Marcela all of this week. None of us had spent time together prior to the project but I think we’ve gotten along grandly as a little team.

Marcela is definitely an architect in her thinking and were it not for her vision we would have ended up with a big circus tent. Today she has diligently been constructing most of the internal rooms, quietly getting on with it – which takes some patience and determination after 8 hours cutting foam board!

George had been terrific, taking on the outer shell construction with gusto and imagination, maintaining a great work rate the last 2 days despite clearly getting a bit fed up at times with setbacks and obstacles in it’s completion.

And then Meriam and Noushak are back with us tomorrow. Their ideas on Monday helped very much, they did good work on Weds and tomorrow we’ve a big ask for them to help ensure we meet the deadline – but if their efforts so far are indicative – they should manage it all in their stride.

Drawings & reflection

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Due to our modelling having taken longer than expected – with a pressurised session due for tomorrow morning as we race towards the deadline – I find myself at home, up late, working on content for the poster that supports our design.

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Knowing that George is home working on the floorplan and technical data, and Marcela working up our precedence studies and concepts, I have the overall sketches, performance schematic, room sizes and infrastructure plan to complete, to add to our poster design tomorrow morning when we meet.

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I’ve added a couple of designs also for our flat pack furniture – needed to maximise shipping container space – plus a quick logo for our building – the Life Shell.

Could this last minute work have been avoided? If we were to do this again next week then I’m certain we’d structure our weeks schedule more strictly.

We probably spent a touch too long on design and planning, although slightly conflicting information from our lecturers had us scratching our heads, lack of thought for how we’d actually build the model resulted in time that could have been used more efficiently, and leaving the poster till the end all were roadbumps as we’ve travelled through the week.

The team has worked well I think, although there was a difference of opinion at the design decision stage, a good compromise was worked out and I must say I’m pleased with our structure design which has a lot more performance positives than I saw originally – where at the start of the week I was more for a conventional ‘boring’ approach that simply fulfilled functional requirements.

Life Cube inspires design

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A little late in the week, but this is the Life Cube which has been something to draw a little inspiration from.

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An emergency shelter deployable that packs into a tiny box, and erects in 5 minutes with room for 5 people.

Carrying it’s own air supply it is ideal for first response and emergency deployment applications.

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Researching fabric structures this week I have been amazed at what’s possible and already in production thanks to innovation.

Many inflatable deployables are used already by industry, military and aerospace. The military field hospitals and surgeries particularly are extremely well designed and pertinent precedent studies that have informed our project.

The thermal properties, lightweight space saving aspect and minimum material production value certainly give this form of construction good credentials.

I’ve seen innovative uses also such as covers for loft extension/roof work in place of scaffold, and wind breaks for house protection use in areas prone to hurricanes.

This is a structural form that we’ve not touched upon through university lectures in any detail but seems to me to have huge potential, with likely more attention paid to it in the very near future (particularly due to it’s flexibility and green credentials).

Feeling the pressure

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Mid afternoon, and we’re realising how long modelling takes.

Marcella is finishing the internal rooms, George is continuing with our outer shell, and I’m making a start of some of the presentation elements needed for tomorrow.

Despite feeling the pressure a little, we’re still in good spirits and feel pleased wit way we’ve for so far.

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Progress pains

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Mid morning: the team struck upon something that had been overlooked in coordination between internal and external structures.

The awesome roof shell George has been working on, when placed into position above our internal structure, comes into contact with Chris & Marcelas rooms due to their ceiling height.

After agreeing we could not rebuild the roof with our time available, and cutting the bottom off of the rooms would reduce ceiling height (undesirable) and compromise the representative quality of our models, a discussion with Noel found a resolution:

For presentation purposes we will continue, building a low perimeter profile to raise the shell the required height off the ground to give us the needed space.

Should the design be developed for use in real life, we would specify the shell be either slightly wider to gain the height needed without altering the shape, or specify a more vertical profile at the lower part of the shell.

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Love design? Critically Ill? Team Nightingale has all the answers.

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The marriage of stylish design and treatment of the sick is never without challenge.

Team nightingale have spent day 2 of design week in a whirlwind of concepts, prototypes, inspiration, space planning and compromise.

In the middle of difficulty however, lies opportunity.

The result of teamwork and collaboration of ideas results in a well rounded response to the challenges set.

A stunning, lightweight external facility structure has been decided upon, with a large nod to simple assembly and deployment.

Inside, the patients will be distracted from their unfortunate circumstance as they marvel at the intelligent and functional layout, their experience made more comfortable through well thought out space planning and pathways.

Facility patients will leave not only healthy, but energised by their whole experience. As Florence Nightingale changed the face of nursing, so to have Team Nightingale showed their potential for facelifting the business that is field hospital care.

Structural concepts

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Playing with design concepts for the main structure – looking at mast and tent assembled, plus barrel vault design.

Assuming there is a simple way to raise the masts, whether by winch etc, this seems a simple, relatively low-tech option that doesn’t require too much labour.

Tent structures seem quick to assemble and disassemble, plus offer more integrity than inflatable structures, though need coordination and thought to secure cables between the upper points.

Barrell vaults offer a more interesting design with visual appeal, with better head height around the internal perimeter. This could reduce noise and movement also, caused by wind loads.

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