Gluing Process

One additional thing to think about is that it takes about one hour for two people to glue one eight foot floor section. So rather than planning to work for four hours in a row and waiting for glue to dry - I would suggest, coming to glue for an hour (or two if you glue two sections), leave and come back a few hours later (3-6hours) unclamp them, stack them in the hall there, and glue up another section. Basically whenever you have an hour free and a partner stop by and glue up a section. Leave a note as to the time that you glued so the next person won't unclamp too soon.

Lots of varieties of wood now. All of the wood that is wrapped in duct tape in the bins in the undergrad studios are ready for use. Clean brushes and pans and leave there when you are finished.
Great work today.
Marion

how to make your very own scrap wood floor . . . .

as requested, here is the quick and easy process:

step 1. arrange on the floor 24' or 26' long sections (I recommend adding a couple inches to the finished length) of aggregate wood, approx. 3" in width. note: strips look best if you alternate adjacent wood types

step 2. divide the 24' or 26' long section into approx. three 8' lengths. (for 26' long sections, may alternate to two 8' + one 10', or other arrangement deemed acceptable by zach)

step 3. place one 8' length onto the "gluing jig" (aka. the 20' long c-channel + osb screwed to 2x4s). note: be sure to keep aggregate wood pattern in the same order for all three 8' lengths.

step 4. make sure one end flush.

step 5. start gluing. probably best to work in pairs for gluing, since wood glue can set quickly. note: don't be cheap with the glue, more is better.

step 6. once all strips are glued together, place the extra 3" osb strip on top and the extra c-channel against the side. don't skip this step, the osb/channel is needed to distribute evenly and keep boards flush.

step 7. vertically clamp the freshly glued wood aggregate between the two 3" osb strips. alternate with horizonally clamping the freshly glued wood aggregate between the two steel channels.

step 8. finished with one 8' length? move onto the next two.

*enjoy the dumbed down process diagram, not sure why the wood glue looks blue?

Press Preview Photos in the RV

Press Preview with Senator Valesky and Mr. Pomfrey from POMCo

another step closer to liminality

Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold"^[1]) is the quality of the second stage of a ritual in the theories of Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, and others. In these theories, a ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.^[2]

The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives.

We made a lot of progress over the charrette since Matt arrived last Wednesday evening. He was very impressed with our project and thankful for the opportunity to contribute to it. He is even considering coming back to help some more. From Thursday mornign to Monday morning we worked nonstop designing, driving around getting materials, grinding, cutting, welding and fabricating.

If you haven't been by the bust yet, we have a really beautiful/powerful/awesome/accessible threshold into our M-LAB. If you are at the bus, be careful to step through and over the door frame to enter. We don't want to rack the door any until we get the front and back panels on it. You can swing the door open and step on the door jam all you want.

Its amazing how something as simple as offsetting the hinge on a door completely changes the experience, or the semiotics, of "doorness". The next step is to work out a latch/lock that also refuses the signification of "door". Why go through all this trouble designing and fabricating these ideas? Because, these details contribute to the ambiguity and indeterminacy of form and function which will foster the liminal spatial properties of our classroom. Just like the unexpected aggregate wood floor, puzzle benches, cloud ceiling and cabinet wall.

We're not out of the woods yet though. There is still about 6 hours of fabrication work left on the door... I mean threshold.

Matt is on his way back to CT with the oak panels which will be milled on the large format CNC machine and sent back up here next week or so.

Thanks Marion for helping us work out access to the tools and shop over the weekend and Roslyn for the trip to home depot... we broke the rest of those bits that night and had to use the ones you picked up.