Author Archives: Robert Smith

9:00AM – 11:00AM : Total panic rules the drawing studio. However our group remained a good level of composure as we were busy finishing off the final drafts for our precedent studies, drawings and script for the presentation. Paul arrived with the model in his car. The Hazelwick student arrived after they crashed their minivan as well. (I think they wanted to be level with Chichester for having a crash on Monday evening). The information they gave to us was quickly read and understood by the group.

11:15AM : The project presentations began. The constructive criticism offered by the judging panel was informative and allowed us to deepen our understanding of the project and the roles that we are training to fulfil in the near future.

We finished at 13:30PM with a sigh of relief. Hopefully we have done enough as a group to meet the clients expectations and maybe given him  a few different ideas to make the most of when this project is taken to the next stages.

All in all the week was fun and informative. Well worth it.

9:00AM – 17:00PM: Today I spent the entire day helping Paul to build the model so that it would be ready for Fridays presentation. Between us we worked out that if we had a sliding door that was made up of two sections rather than one we could have a cavity behind it that would allow us to run the electrics and plumbing through from the kitchen to the bathroom. We also built the kitchen, the sliding shelf unit that would fill the dead space behind the bathroom. This unit would hold the batteries that would be charged by the solar panels, also cushions, bed linen, etc. During the day we communicated with George and Jake as they had included a glazing system and a flexible waterproof fold out structure that would enclose the folding wall to make it into a bedroom. We also asked them to get quotes for extractor fans, pulley systems, 4.5 litre calor gas tanks,  wiring and plumbing supplies. Paul also asked the Hazelwick students for the dimensions of septic tanks, water tanks and calor gas tanks.

9:00AM – 10:00AM : I arrived early to Chichester college as I chose to drive my own car in rather than travel down to Brighton then get the train to Chichester. My group didn’t arrive until 10:15. Once we were assembled we were given a health and safety talk by the college tutors to ask us not to use equipment if had not used it before and were not competent.

10:00AM – 13:00PM : Paul took the lead in assigning each member of the team a job to do to complete the model. The two Hazelwick students were making the furniture, George and Jake were cutting out panels and constructing the roof while I was downstairs using a router to create lines in the outer boards to give the impression of cladding.

13:00PM – 16:00PM : Once I had finished with the router I used a soft grain sandpaper to rub down the sharp edges that had been created. I then painted the panels with watered  wood stain to give a more appealing finish to it. While waiting for the stain to dry I set about making the hinged side panel and doors that were to be part of our design. attaching the hinges to the side panel showed up an issue with our design. I realised that when the panel is closed it sits in a recess, but when open the base of the panel moves away to reveal a small gap, but when the gap was multiplied by five it soon became apparent that wheel chair users would not be able to manoeuvre their wheelchairs over such a large gap. Therefore we decided to incorporate into the design a shelf that would fold down and slide into the gap when the side panel was down allowing safe wheelchair access.

16:00PM – 17:00PM : We spent the last hour discussing what jobs had to be carried out the next day to ensure that we were on schedule. Also we decided that it would be beneficial for me to spend all of Thursday at Chichester college to help Paul finish the model while Jake and George completed the paperwork.

9:00AM – 11:00AM : The second day of the design week started slowly. We had to finalise our design for the eco-cabin so that our master builder Paul Ferris could get to work building the 1:5 scale model. Once myself, George and Jake had finalised the design we contacted Paul via skype to talk him through the changes we had day to the design. We emailed Paul the dimensions so that he could begin.

11:00AM – 13:00PM : Once Paul had been given the relevant information we contacted the students at Hazelwick school to remind them to research renewable energy sources and septic tanks. George then researched costs for the different materials and units that we would be using in our eco-cabin. While he was busy doing that me and George were working out the finer details of the design, such as how we would assemble and disassemble the eco-cabin when it arrives on site or when it is being moved to another location.

13:00PM – 13:30PM : We had a short lunch break so that we could spend as much time as possible researching and drawing.

13:30PM – 15:00PM :Myself and George finished the internal layout of the furniture and had worked out how we were going to create more indoor space with out changing the size of the shipping container.

1500PM – 17:00PM : The three of us drafted up a list of jobs that had to be done during the week and decided who would do what jobs. Also we briefed Paul as the the different building components that we would require on Wednesday to make the model.

Group Carson. (No not the butler from Downton Abbey, the marine biologist Rachel Carson)

9:00AM – 10:00AM  We started the day in room M21 design studio. We were given the project brief which detailed the groups that we had been placed in. We then met the student s from Chichester College and Hazelwick college who will be working with us for the week. Our head lecturer Poorang then introduced the client (Chris the owner of Care co-op). Chris then took us through the project brief and explained what Care co-ops aims to delver to its clients and what it expect of us. The brief is to design an ‘eco-cabin’. There are some very strict parameters on this project, for example the maximum budget for all of the materials is £7000. Also it has to be for two adults and two children. Possibly all of these individuals may have either physical or mental disabilities.

Our group consists of myself Rob Smith, George Hart, Jake Hagan, Brighton Students. Paul Ferris the only Chichester Student. And Dane Christensen and Lennard Jovan, Hazelwick Students.

10:00AM – 11:00AM  We were introduced to edublog and word press. These two systems were put in place to allow us to post blogs during the project and to communicate with each member of the group. However the word press system didn’t work so we were advised to use skype to conduct group conference calls.

11:00AM- 12:00AM  John Smith, a graduate of the university came in to give us a short lecture about the way in which shipping containers can be used to create interesting, space saving pieces of architecture. His dissertation was on shipping containers and their uses within the construction industry.

12:00AM – 13:00AM  During this hour the group as a whole looked in detail at the design brief, questioned the lecturers and the client to establish exactly what we were expected to do and how far we could push the boundaries of the project e.g. budget etc. We also decided on the rough design for the cabin (which I am now calling the eco-caravan). We decided to use a steel shipping container as the starting point for our design. The reason for this is that the structure is very strong and durable. It is designed to be transported. They are constructed from Core ten steel which rusts to a certain point creating an outer layer. this then forms a protective layer which stops any further rust.  I found AutoCAD drawings of a 20 foot shipping container on-line. This is simply to give us dimensions and cross-sections to work with.

13:00AM – 14:00AM The most important part  of the day LUNCH

14:00AM – 16:00AM During this hour we were supposed to visit the modelling studio but instead we had the lecture that Noel had prepared for us on the subject of deploy-ability, mobility, flexibility and cost. This reinforced what we had already discussed as a group and what we had obtained from the client.

16:00AM – 17:00AM During the final hour of the day we distributed different roles to each member of the group. For example the two Hazelwick students in our group are going to fill in a cost plan that has been developed in Excel which has a running sub-total which will allow us to stay within the budget. Paul from Chichester will be constructing the skeleton of the model and some of the major components. Myself, Jake and George will research sustainability issues as well as different products and materials that are at our disposal.