DAY THREE!!

DAY Three… Constant connection.

Today has been a big day. But we have something to show for it!

The day started out with the boys heading off bright and early to pick up our steel armature! This was going to be our main structure so it was important that we got it under way as soon as possible! After arriving on site and making a firm plan of the day ahead we were waved at from our lovely looking cement mixer!

We sprung into action, shoveling and filling the garbage bags that would form our foundation for our steel columns… It was excitement all around as we began to see our creation take form!

As the steel was secured we knew that we had a 12 hour wait until the cement would be rock hard, so we began to further discuss how our structure would take form and what it would say when complete.

The issues we are working with are:

Urban ecological systems invading the polished, pristine Docklands environment. A revolt against the sterility…!

Docklands lacks a lot of the character that ports of a similar age and history possess. Essentially due to decisions in urban development where developers were given a blank slate, a tabula rasa. The current state neglects the finer grain….the grittiness that should reflect the past uses and contribute to the story of the place.

Engagement with the site is restricted to the visual. There is little recognition of the natural systems and complex adaptive ecologies at work, still reflecting historical environmental attitudes that favour the passive, scenic background captured in quotes such as this from Martin Prominski.

Virtual link transplanting existing Docklands wharf piles on to land. Thus dissolving the amphibious grid from water to land.

We’ve observed that even the sloping piece of manicured turf that our site rests upon is a cultural construct, the dock waters penetrating far below us, leaving us deprived of an authentic terra firma. Repetition of what lies below. Our site is artificially suspended, which we have repeated with our own artificial suspension.

As a group we have constantly been aware of the connection to the site and also each other. We have fully constructed our design on site, eaten on site, slept on site (but not really) allowing the site to dictate our moves throughout the day and also our progress. We have spent nearly every waking hour of every day together and our project could not have come to fruition without the encouragement and enthusiasm of everyone.

Hopefully the next 16 hours go to plan…

Super 8 In Action!

Day One: Brainstorming on Site & Shed

This is Sam

YAY for site 3!

Concept Sketches

Day Two: Laying out spatial arrangement

The Family

?

what is a transplant?

trans plant?

life mechanism, rejection, sustenance

Site Moments...

A video from our resident artist...

Day TWO!!

After a long hard day at the office it is now 5:03, and we are taking a moment out to reflect on the day…

Today we made a few steps forward… The arrival of one of our key building materials; cardboard formwork for concrete columns. This will act as the base of our structural work. We chose the cardboard as a material as we needed something that conversed with the pre-existing conditions on site. From our sites front door, the main view is of the d

iscarded pier pylons that have been decorated, as part of an art installation, with white hats. We thought, as these were unique to our site that we would like our work to reference them, almost as if they had started to creep up onto the boardwalk and arrived on our site…

After the excitement of the delivery it was all hands on deck as we began to measure and cut our columns down to size. With the generator as our sound track the site was a-buzz!

Our aim for tonight is to have all of our columns cut down to size and have their positions on site finalised! It will, no doubt, be a late one. But, we will just increase layers and huddle together when it gets cold! We will report in when we are too tired to move…

Colonizing Micro-Ecosystem of Victoria Harbor

We are now defining our alternative perspective for landscape of Victoria Harbor.

These small plants which are dominating the harbor places are trully beautiful and variable.

Our team is going to adopt this wonderful ecosystem into our project.

Video: Team 8 / BGM: Telepopmusik - Breathe

DAY TWO!!

Day two. And it is time to get to the budget and ordering… The FUN stuff!

After spending a lovely evening in the shed (and by lovely, we m

ean freezing) our design, moved past the conceptual stages to become further refined.

In order for this progression we needed to consider the aspects of our site that we identified as challenging and the parts we could utilise.

The challenges are:

We cannot insert anything into the ground – This is a challenge as it means that to construct, we have to weigh down objects rather than bracing them with pegs. And for our structure the need for a weighty base is important.

Our site is sloped – making construction difficult as the slope decreases structural integrity… but we shall be compensating for this by making our structural elements rest on the slope delicately.

Today the plan is to source and collect our materials in order to hopefully start constructing different elements this evening!




Status updates to follow…

And so it begins...

It has officially begun…

After the initial excitement of finally getting together as a group, and the decision to name ourselves Super 8 (other close contenders were The Mighty Docks, the GO! team, and

The Transformers), we were given our brief! And this is what it read…

Site. 3: Movement or Transfer of something to another situation, with effort.

Consider the site as a body that is lacking a vital organ. Your ch

allenge is to transfer an activity within the site to improve its daily function. You are required to use objects that have a reconceived function to generate a

playful spatial outcome. You must consider the dynamic of time e.g. night, day, site

condition, seasons, etc.

Our site runs along a boardwalk in front of high-rise commercial buildings. It is a grassy patch at the end of a long grass garden bed. Our site is opposite and existing art installation comprised of remnants of dock pylons, condensed into a cluster, wearing white hats. This site-specific work ignited our interest and from then on sparks were flying!

Many ideas were flowing! Ideas about, interaction, relation, excitement, interest, engagement, play, distraction and many more were all starting to grow inside us… From here we decided we also wanted to create something that would be experienced on many sensory levels, in order for it to be able

to be experienced on many levels and also in be able to be viewed across varying scales; near, far, under, over.

At this early stage, we are not wanting to commit to anything to early… And so the adventure begins…

Peace out.t