Otakuro Orchard FESTA Pavilion
The FESTA project was the Final Semesters design Project. The Subject brief for this was that our tutorial group would design and construct several different pavilions for the Christchurch Festa 2016 festival. This was the Primary reason that I choose this tutorial, the very real aspect was something I had not encountered in any other Design Semesters prior and something I was very much looking forward to.
FESTA is a biennial Labour weekend Festival of urban creativity that has occurred in Christchurch since the devastating earthquake of 2011. When it first occurred in 2013 it was the first time that the public had re-entered the city centre since the earthquake. It continues to be an opportunity for the public to experience a reimagined Christchurch, comprising imaginative architectural installations, workshops, talks, pop-up projects, family events, tours, live performance, artworks and more.
Our tutorial was involved in the headline event a temporary city of pavilions that exists only for first night of the festival.
FESTA meant that we had a very real deadline, with a very real deliverable sooner than would be normal for a design semester. This meant quick iteration and experimentation. The first weeks were concept design primarily focused on determining a material to use and what it's possible uses could be. The theme for FESTA this year was sustainability as such all materials that were going to be employed had to be recycled or be able to be reused after their use as a construction material. I early on settled upon hung strips of material either fabric or translucent plastic, during tests the way we these strips could move in the air was the element that captivated me. Basic concept being a grid of material strips hung from some sort of mesh or grid suspend off of the ground in some fashion. This basic idea of strips hung from a grid would be the foundation and through thread of the project
The primary reason for the quick beginning was that within four weeks on of the organisers of FESTA would be visiting to determine which project were suitable for FESTA. Before things were rationalised down we had a project for pretty much each member of the tutorial around 13 or so. After the organiser had been through we had 3 all projects therefore were amalgamations of ideas. I was combined with another grouped who had the idea of hanging frost cross walls, we were joined due to the similar theme of hanging materials.
Most excitingly we had the a special brief, we had to provide a temporary enclosure for a fundraising dinner. The dinner was for and supplied by the various community gardens that had emerged around Christchurch since the earthquake, the project takes it's name from one of those gardens that we were particularly involved with Otakuro Orchard. It was determined that our two material schemes would exist in tandem, their would be a solid frost cloth walled restaurant space with frost cloth strips to the rear.
Following this I decided to make the fabric fold so that when hung the strips would fold and turn at right angles, this caused some issues as fabric does not normally behave in this manner. Bent wire would determine the shape of the fabric being employed a frame with wire at the top and the bottom of the strip to hopefully encourage it in to the desired shape. It was finally determined that the way to get the sharp corners I desired would require a two fold process Ironing for a sharp crease and then sowing. this solution would result in almost one kilometre of thread being employed.
Given the real Deliverable structure that would be part of the this semester testing was important both in mininature and at scale to understand how the materials can be used and how they will exist and move in real world conditions. Wind was the primary real world concern because Christchurch is a windy city.
The result of these tests was invaluable for me as it revealed that the frost cloth material could become a very capable sail, to remedy this shapes were chosen that would consolidate the material to minimise the frontage that could catch the window as well as creating holes in the fabric to give the air ways to move through the strips.
This would allow the wind to move the strips but to also not have the strips get violent in their movements by catching too much of the winds energy.
Before we could get to Christchurch however given the public and real way this pavilion would be exhibited we had to provide the Christchurch council engineer with documentation detailing how our structures would be put together. Below is the drawing and approximately shows how the project came together in the end
Unlike some pavilions we were to undertake a portion of our work before we left for Christchurch. By the time we left I had been able to prepare all of my fabric in a week of ironing and sowing. this left the assembly of the frame and fishing line grid in Christchurch. The Fishline was procured in Australia and brought across the Tasman but the PVC pipes required for the design would have to be acquired in New Zealand. PVC piping was significantly more expensive than it was in Australia, luckily another group who were operating out of a recycling centre found the fabric tubes shown below. Whilst perhaps not ideal it was light, cheap, and most importantly the same dimension as PVC meaning that PVC adapting pieces could still be employed to join the pieces and make them form the rectangular frames.
Once the rectangular frames would assembled the grid net had to be assembled, holes drilled into the pipes to allow the fishing line to be thread through and between the pipes. because there was a reduced number of pipes than original hoped/planned for the had to be improvised somewhat. Only two rectangular frames could be assembled with rope to join the two frames and bridge the gap. This meant that the structure had less rigidity than was ideal but given the light weight of the hung materials it was hoped this would not cause a huge issue.
The most arduous part of the process was attached the fabric to the net, this was either through gingerly stepping through and navigating the net or sliding underneath and reach up like a car mechanic.
After two weeks in Christchurch the pavilion had to be taken outside of our unused office space and attached to the underside of the Art Gallery base shelter in preparation for the nights events. Luckily our group had a pair of expert riggers with both a cherry picker and scissor lift it was not easy but it came together thanks to expertise and ingenuity of riggers.
once up the final issue I had not resolved was able to be fixed how to weight down the strips the riggers had sandbags available. The Strips were gathered into groups of seven or so and attached to the sandbags forming the archway seen below. As can be seen in several of the photos below it was not the most sound of structures but it was able to stay together for the entire night and still had to be taken down by us the next day.
in the wind it provided a beautiful and serene backdrop to the dining room.
