INDEX
Weeks 1/2
- Introduction
- Arrels Foundation
- Talks and Lectures
- First Subject of Research
- Projects with Arrels
Weeks 3/4
6. Talks and Lectures
7. Collaboration with Parson Students
8. Progress of Individual Project
9. Progress of Collective Project
Weeks 5/6
10. Planning
11. Progress of Individual Project
12. Progress of Collective Project
Weeks 7/8
13. Progress of Individual Project
14. Progress of Collective Project
Weeks 9/10
15. Progress of Individual Project
16. Progress of Collective Project
17. Final Presentation
WEEKS 1/2
1. Introduction
Homelessness defines the state in which a person does not have a permanent residence and has to spend the night in public places, outdoors or in shelters.
Central human needs such as sufficient and healthy food, warmth, but also relaxation, social exchange and intimacy are difficult to satisfy without a home of one’s own. Difficult hygienic conditions and difficult access to health care impair life. A life without hope of improvement makes it more likely to turn to supposed problem-solvers such as alcohol or other drugs and makes people more susceptible to addiction. Moreover, homeless people often experience social coldness and rejection. Not only are there still many prejudices against them. There are also many bureaucratic hurdles that hinder participation in society. The reality is often: no home, no work, no home without work!
People who spend the night on the street or in the open air are repeatedly the targets of violent attacks.
There are many reasons for a person to end up on the streets.Homelessness is often caused by crises and situations of radical change. These include, in particular, loss of employment, separation from the partner, migration, conflictual and abrupt departure from the parental home or from youth welfare institutions, mental illness, over-indebtedness or release from prison. In regions with specialised centres for securing housing, people are less likely to become homeless because of rent debts. Homelessness resulting from a difficult situation can basically affect anyone. However, homelessness lasts longer if it affects people living in poverty without a (resource-) strong social environment and if social assistance is lacking and, in addition, affordable housing is not available, or municipalities are unable to provide appropriate housing.
Thus homelessness is caused by a combination of inadequate housing policy, poverty, social exclusion and inadequately functioning social services that do not provide sufficient assistance to people in overwhelming crisis situations.
To address these problems we are working together with Arrels Fundacio to develop two projects which support homeless or formerly homeless people. Specifically, the projects focus on La Llar Pere Barnés, where they provide medium and long-term housing services for people who have been physically and emotionally affected by life on the street.
2. Arrels Foundation
They are an entity that, since 1987, they care for and guide homeless people living on the streets of Barcelona. They accompany them to achieve a life as autonomous as possible by covering basic needs, providing social and health care and ensuring accommodation for those people who are in a more vulnerable situation.
They also work to raise public awareness, report unfair situations and provide solutions to administrations and civil society.
Missions:
- support and care for the homeless who are in the most consolidated phases of exclusion towards a situation as autonomous as possible.
- raise public awareness of the problems of poverty in our environment.
- denounce unjust situations and provide solutions to administrations and civil society.
What do they do?
They support and guide homeless people living on the streets of Barcelona, prioritizing attention to those who have been on the streets for years and are in a more vulnerable situation.
- guide people on the street about what they can do to improve their situation and explain the resources that exist in the city.
- provide useful services, accommodation and social and health care to cover the basic needs of the most vulnerable people.
- accompany people on their personal journey to a situation as autonomous as possible.
Arrels has some initiatives to help homeless people to give them decent housing and improve his situation. Specially they have three projects:
· Housing First, a model of an initiative that offers people of maximum vulnerability a permanent home but with certain conditions
· Piso Cero, offers a space to sleep for people who have long lived on the street and have not found help in other resources.
· Llar Pere Barnés, is an innovative housing program in Arrels that responds to the lack of medium and long-term residential resources for homeless people who are physically and mentally affected by having lived on the streets.
The home is located in Barcelona in the Raval district, on Carrer de Puig i Xoriguer number 14–16. Currently, about 36 people live there, who have no house or place to sleep and have previously been living on the street. Most of these have some form of mental illness or drug addiction. At home, everyone tries to have their own space to rest and live. There are volunteers and workers looking to help them improve their lives.
We are going to do a project for La Llar Pere Barnés and for the homeless people that live there.
3. Talks and Lectures
In the first weeks to find out more about the Arrels Foundation and with the people we will work with we had a few talks by workers, volunteers and users of the foundation.
The first talk was given by Laia, where she gave us our first contact with the home and where we started to get an idea of who we would work with and how we should do it. He told us about his experience with homeless people. One of the things he told us was that they were normal people who for some reason had ended up on the street but were still normal, ordinary people, with a normal life and most with family, not how many people can come to think. Also, some of them do not want to receive help from anyone for whom it is more difficult to help them. Most homeless people have problems with alcohol or some other drug, but mostly with alcohol. So, bottom line is that they’ve gotten to the point where they’ve lost touch with family, friends, and basically their lifestyle. Apart from any kind of help, they need to be heard.
The second talk was given by a volunteer, Xavier Terrades. He explained to us the reasons why he decided to volunteer for Arrels and help these people, as well as his personal experience at home. So we could hear a more direct experience. Part of the talk was similar to Laia’s as they both told us what they were like and how we had to try to talk to them at the same time. We were both told that the most important thing was respect without forgetting the context and its situation. It should be noted that they can get angry quickly because something has gone wrong for them as they see things with more exaggeration.
The other guests were Juan Lemus and Miquel Fuster. Juan is the photographer from Arrels who takes social photographs to show and represent the prey without showing the person who suffers from it. One of the things that struck us most was that they often didn’t want me to take pictures of them because they knew what they were like before and now they were embarrassed to see it. We also met Miquel Fuster, who told us about his own experience on the streets of Barcelona. He is a painter who lived on the streets for about 15 years and is currently living in one of the flats in Arrels. This talk was the most shocking of all as we got to know first hand the experience of a person who has lost everything. One of the phrases he told us to highlight was “Avoid being homeless, if necessary stop eating but you always have to pay the mortgage”, “You can live a few days without food but not without a place to sleep ”, Or also“ You can enter the street easily, but not leave ”. He told us some anecdotes about the difficulties of living on the street and that many times people are very disrespectful and looking for evil for evil. On the plus side, he has now been able to find a solution and improve his lifestyle.
4. First Subject of Research
Our first investigation concentrated on already existing and succeeding homelessness intervention projects.
The projects we found during our research can be devided into two categories. On the one hand there are projects which try to intervene directly. Their goal is to support local homeless people as much as possible. On the other hand there are also projects which goal is not necessarily to support a single person in the best possible way but rather to spread public awareness and have an impact on national or even international level.
Little Homes
Little Homes is a project which started in Cologne, Germany. The association builds tiny homes for homeless together with volunteers and also offers workshops for schools and enterprises.
The 3,2m² big houses offer a matrace, first aid kit, fire distinguisher, camping toilet, sink and a small cooking place.
In three years Little Homes managed to build over 150 tiny homes for homeless people of which 99 now live in a permanent home and 83 have a job.
Orange Sky
Orange Sky is a mobile laundry service operating in Australia and New Zealand. Using transporters and vans equipped with washing machines and dryers Orange Sky provides showers and cleaning of clothes and bedding for free. Their goal is to improve hygiene standards and restore dignity. The most important impact happens through hours of conversations that take place during the service. Over 1000 volunteers help to provide more than 470 loads of washing, 49 showers and 632 hours of conversation.
The Street Store
This project started in South Africa as the worlds first rent-free, premises-free, free pop-up clothing store for the homeless. Its goal is to offer a free and dignified shopping experience for homeless people. More over the stores are supposed to bring people together and gather awareness. To make the biggest impact possible everything needed for the stores and events is opensource. Street Store also offers help with translation, organization and publishing of the events. Almost 1000 Street Stores have taken place globally so far.
Die Tafel
Die Tafel is an association which rescues access food from supermarkets, restaurants and bakeries and distributes the goods to people in need.
Every year more than 60 000 volunteers in over 940 cities help to rescue 265.000 tons of food and support approximatly 1.6 million people.
Gimmeshelter
Victor 4 is a project organized by the association Gimmeshelter in Belgium. An old office building is used to offer a place to sleep during the night . Every night between 56 and 170 people find shelter. Since many people on the streets had a bad relationship with their parents often their grandparents had to take care of them. Victor 4 tries to recreate the atmosphere at the grandparents homes using old vintage furniture to make them feel comfortable.
Raincity
Raincity is housing charity in Vancouverwhich provides a range of housing and support services, including:
- temporary shelters
- transitional housing
- long-term housing
- LGBTQ2S+ housing for youth
- housing for women-led families
- outreach based housing programm
RainCity teamed up with Spring Advertising to create a bench that folds out to provide a simple shelter.Though they’re not a permanent feature in the city, they have certainly done their part in raising awareness of the problem of homelessness in Vancouver and worldwide.They gained a great deal of media attention in light of the ‘homes not spikes’ backlash following the decision of a building in London to install spikes on its boundaries to deter rough sleepers.
5. Projects with Arrels
Individual
Part of our project is to develop a custom project for a user of the Pere Barnés Home. Our contact with the Bernard was established via zoom, given the current circumstances made it impossible meet in person. The interview was difficult since there were connection problems and a lot of background noises. Bernard has been living at Arrels for over 4 years already. He ended up on the streets of Barcelona after coming here from Albania when his car got stolen. He does not speak spanish or catalan very well which makes it difficult to communicate with some other residents who do not speak english. During the interview he complained a lot about the current situation and the fact that they are not allowed to leave the builing. Most of the time he spents alone in his room, which he showed us during the interview, watching TV or reading books.
Collective
Our group will work on the terrace, because homeless people that they stay there can’t go outside so the terrace is actually a very important place on la llar, it’s the only site to get out and to be outdoors. Actually we can’t go there because of the Covid virus, but we saw some videos of the terrace. We started to think of many ideas for that place, to be able to develop a good project and improve this site. First of all we did a brainstorming and a mindmap about all the ideas of a possible project. This kind of method it’s good to start to organize the ideas of the project.
WEEK 3/4
6. Talks and Lectures
During the last two weeks we had several talks about projects connected to Arrels but also about new methodology.
The first talk was given by Eva Serrats, the architect responsible for the renovation of the Pere Barnes Home. She gave us insights of what was changed in La Llar during construction. The most significant changes took place in the dining and entrance area, but also in some floors where the layout of bedrooms and bathrooms was improved.
The main part of her talk was focused on Piso Zero though. Piso Zero is like the Pere Barnes Home another housing project from Arrels Foundation which is only intended to offer temporary overnight shelter instead of permanent housing. It is opened from 9 pm to 7 am and also provides dinner and breakfast.
The shelter was founded to give homeless people privacy, which they would not be able to find on the streets. Another important issue is the fact that many homeless people are afraid of losing everything after accepting a permanent housing because most of the time they have to leave all of their belongings and also pets behind. Many would rather stay on the streets and keep their belongings and overnight places they have found for themselves than taking the risk of losing everything.
Piso Zero allows the users to bring all their belongings and also pets, making it a lot easier for homeless people to accept the help. The furniture is very durable and functional, the beds can be converted into tables and there are curtains which offer privacy. Also, every user gets an individual lamp. Offering a secure overnight space without the fear of losing anything Piso Zero is supposed to be an intermediate step before getting a permanent home.
The second talk was given by a Font Designer, who worked together with Arrels Foundation on an initiative called “Homeless Fonts” where different typefaces were created using the handwriting of homeless people in Barcelona. These typefaces can now be bought online, and the revenues shall help the organisation and people in need.
The final lecture was by Ibon Bilbao, co-director of the Head Architects Project. He gave us insights into three projects, giving us detailed information about results and methodology. He also proposed to do an mental map where we note all lectures, references and inputs we had in the last weeks and also reflect as a team what we have already accomplished but also visualizing what steps we have to take in the future.
7. Collaboration with Parson Students
In the last week we were joined by students from Parson University in New York. Each group is supposed to work together with at least one student from Parsons. The collaboration is concentrated onto either the individual or collective project. The partner student is going to accompany us for the minimum amount of 2 weeks and if they wish to even longer.
Goal of this collaboration is to explore and find new methods of working together and benefiting from each other.hrough online meetings we will share our progress and ideas and gather feedback and new thoughts.
8. Progress Individual Project
In the last few weeks, we collected as many information about Bernard as possible, to find possible interests, problems or wishes we could use as a starting point for our project. Most of those information we got during the meetings with him in which we always tried to implement as many new questions as possible. We did also get some information from Daniel. One of the most important information was the fact that he was a painter before he became homeless and also enjoyed painting artistically in his spare time. Sadly, he does not paint anymore since he became homeless and even now in La Llar he has not painted anything for several reasons such as missing inspiration and too many noises and distraction.
Since the communication with Bernard is sometimes quite difficult and talking about painting was the only topic he got excited about we figured giving him art supplies and varies tasks to paint or draw could be a good opportunity to gather more information and also pushing Benard into being creative again. The tasks included drawing his favorite place at La Llar, his favorite person at La Llar, his ideal place to paint, how he would like his room to look like if there were no limits and how he would imagine the perfect terrace. Ideally, he could have taken part in the creative process of our project. We were able to give Bernard the supplies at La Llar and explain the tasks and the idea to him in person. Unfortunately, he did not use the art supplies and did not want to do any of the painting tasks we suggested.
9. Progress of Collective Project
At the beginning of our investigation we quickly realized that there is a lot of unused potential on the terrace beeing unused due to the fact that there is unsuficiant protection. Talking to Daniel and and watching the video of the terrace proved that the terrace is very exposed to sun, wind and rain. The current shading is not well mounted. The shades move around in the wind a lot and and do not provide good shading. Because there is not any nice shelter the terrace lacks a great atmosphere. We think that there is a lot of improvement possible with developing a structure that will give more shelter from the weatherconditions.
Since we decided to create a structure for wind, sun, rain and maybe also visual and acoustic protection we proceeded to collect more information about the terrace such as usage, weather, current situation and surrounding buildings.
The user and his interaction with the terrace:
It is open all day and night and there are usually 10 people more or less. There is no maximum number of people, but covid recommended not to be too close together. The user goes to the terrace when a snak is given, or at 12:00 or 17:00 when the alcohol is given to those who need it, also they go to meet and talk and not be alone. They go alone but depending on who they are, they already form a group and go to smoke and talk with the others. Some people go there just to have a cigarette and some people stay there most of the day.
They have many reasons to go on the terrace but sometimes people don’t cuzy the weather is not pleasant like with hard wind, raining, a lot of hot…
Weather in Barcelona:
In Barcelona have a mediterranium climate, it doesn’t have extreme temperatures. The average annual rainfall is around 600 mm, with slightly higher values in the Collserola mountain range than along the coast. The rainiest season of the year is clearly autumn (especially in September and October), followed by spring and winter, while summer is the driest, with a minimum of rainfall in June. and July.
In terms of temperature, the thermal amplitude is moderate. On the one hand, winters are mild, averaging 9 to 12 ºC. It should be noted that the night temperature is especially high in the city center, where it almost never freezes. On the other hand, summers are hot, averaging 23 to 26 ºC during the months of July and August. The proximity to the sea makes the sultry atmosphere one of the main characteristics of Barcelona’s summer, with a maximum temperature that only widely exceeds 30 ºC during the heaviest heats.
Modells:
To better eveluate the space and test different protoypes we build a 1:20 scale model made from cardboard. To eveluate the effect of the current shades we also constructed the terrace using Rhinoceros 3D to simulate the sun conditions.
WEEK 5/6
10. Planning
Most of our planning takes place using Miro and Google Drive. All of our new thoughts and ideas regarding the collective but also the individual project are collected together with all of our already existing concepts in mindmaps on Miro. We also created a timeline and to do list, to keep track of all important tasks and dates.
11. Progress Collective Project
Sun Simulation
To better evaluate and improve the shading on the terrace we did a sun simulation with the 3D model using Rhino. It enabled us to check visually how good the current shading is working in different seasons and daytimes and compare them to each other without the need of going on top of the terrace, which is currently not possible due to the situation with covid.
Views and Privacy
Another important aspect we focused on was views and privacy. We do not want to cover up nice views you might have from the terrace. On the other hand, we were thinking about if we can improve the atmosphere on the terrace with providing visual protection. In the conversation with Daniel a worker at La Llar our concerns turned out to be unimportant, since there are not any particular nice views or buildings from which other people constantly look on the terrace.
List of Demands
In order to have a good overview of all the aspects we have to consider in the development of our concept we created a list of demands. This list will help us focus on the most important points. We made the list of demands together with the student of Parsons. We did a brainstorming between the four of us so we could get organized and start determining the features we wanted for our design.
Sun, wind and rain protection are the most relevant demands for our structure. Wind and rain protection are ranked lower than the sun protection since the high wall around the terrace is already providing some shelter from the wind and it is simply not raining a lot in Barcelona. Also the visual protection from other buildings can be neglected as we found out in the further research. It might still play a role on the terrace with creating a nicer atmosphere using deviders to create more privacy from other users. An very important aspect is the budget. Since Arrels is an social organisation their budget for builds like this is very small. Our goal is too keep the expenses low with using the least amount of material as possible and reusing recycled material. This will not only save money, the project will also stay more sustainable. Collaborating with different companies to receive financial support or material donations is also possible. When it comes to the structure itself important aspects are durability and stability. We want to create a structure which is going to be very stable and also last a while, so that Arrels does not have to worry about the terrace constantly. Making the structure easy to assemble and also low in maintnance plays an important role. The more work can be done by us, together with the residents and workers of La Llar, the more affordable and therefore more appealing the whole concept will be for Arrels. Idealy the structure should be adaptable of different weather conditions and also user scenarios to offer the best solution at any time. We also want to implement the users somehow, either in the building process or in maintaining the project.
Bambusa Estudio
During our research on possible materials we found a lot of interests in the construction with bamboo. Bamboo is known for its great characteristics such as being lightweight, weather resistant and durable. Also it offers many possibilities to construct permanent and temporary structures which provide shelter and a nice atmosphere. In asian countries bamboo is often used to build scaffolding for the construction of houses. The bigger poles are often used to construct permanent houses.
We have contacted Bambusa, a studio and company which does not only import and sell all kinds of bamboo material but also develop and construct different projects with bamboo.A collaboration with them would be ideal for us since we need more information about constructing with bamboo and also with the supply of material. After mail contact we had a quick phone call. The two owners were very open about our ideas and we arranged an online meeting on Friday.
12. Progress Individual Project
The online meeting, we had with Bernard after we gave him art supplies and various tasks/ ideas to draw or paint, was very difficult. We had the impression that we put him under too much pressure. He told us that he could not paint anything because the distraction and missing inspiration in La Llar is a problem. Maybe he does not want to paint for some other reason he does not want to tell us. We felt like we put him in to an uncomfortable situation and were worried he might not want to talk to us anymore, because he seemed to feel bad about the fact that he could not or did not want to draw anything.
After that conversation we did not want to give him new or different tasks again, because we were afraid of putting him under a lot of pressure and into an uncomfortable situation again. We decided to approach our task a lot slower and tried not to force anything. We focused on having a relaxed conversation and also told him more about us and what we did during the week, so that the conversation was not focused too much on him. We found out some more things about him, for example what kind of books he likes and where he usually goes when he is outside. For the next meeting we bought him three books, one about nature, one about crime and another science fiction book.
Instead of meeting online we were able to go on a walk together with Bernard, when we came to La Llar to give him the books. This was the first time for him to be allowed to go outside since a few months. We got some coffee and sat on a place where he would usually stay sometimes before Covid. There we met a friend of him who Bernard knows already since several years. Afterwards we walked through the city with Bernard for almost two hours. He showed and talked about many places where he stayed or lived while being homeless. He also told us some places where he would not stay because there were too dangerous. We also found out that he likes to listen to music especially Blues. Since he can only listen to random music in his room on the TV radio we now want to organise some headphones a CD player and CDs for him.
WEEK 7/8
13. Progress Collective Project
Collaboration with Bambusa
The online meeting via zoom on Friday with Bambusa was a huge success. We talked to Francesco and his business partner. To give them a better understanding of our project we had prepared a presentation with all important information about La Llar and the results of our investigation. We also showed them the video of the terrace and talked with them about our first sketches and ideas.
Very important for us was their assessment of the feasibility of putting a bamboo structure on top of the terrace. Luckily in Francesco’s and his partners opinion there are not any big difficulties considering the construction since on every side of the terrace are walls or fences with strong columns to fix the bamboo poles.
Also they are very open to collaborate with us in the further process. For helping us with the next steps they provided us with some manuals about construction with bamboo and sent us some samples of different bamboo poles so we can take a closer look and do tests with the material. They will also play a key role for the final realization of the concept. Not only will they probably provide us with all or most of the bamboo material needed for the structure, they also liked the idea to help us with the construction. It is very unclear though how this is going to take place since La Llar is currently closed down.
We will now stay in close contact with them to ensure the feasabilty of our concept and discuss further steps.
Model Building
We made a prototype of our idea of the shades on the terrace. We want to cover the first part; the entrance and the middle with fabric shades or reusing the shades that they have now and cover with climbing plants where the chillout will go.
The model of the terrace is at a scale of 1:50 and we wanted to represent our prototype of our idea for the protection of users from the sun, rain and wind. Our proposal is based on the creation of structures with bamboo poles where you can put the shades. For the protection of users we have covered the main part and the center because with the previous study on the occupation of the terrace, these two spaces were the most occupied by users, especially the central part. That is why we want to cover this area. For these shades we want them to be easy to remove when needed for example in winter when more sun is needed. We also realized that the final part was no occupation, so we wanted to create a new space in the place where the clothesline is, a good place to be able to create a new space for home users. Especially in this part we have the idea of moving the laundry place to another one and thus get the free space. Our idea is to create a new atmosphere by implementing climbing plants on the bamboo structures that we will put on it, thus creating a new space on the terrace and generating a natural awning that will be very low for maintenance. In the place of the clothesline at the moment also we found in the ground enough flower pots with plants, to solve the problem of where to keep them we thought about creating a wall to the part of the side with bamboo woods tied horizontally obtaining a shelf on the wall where to be able hang these pots. The new place for the laundry place will be at the end of the terrace, which has never been used by users, so that they can make better use of the entire terrace. Seeing that it tends to get quite windy and can sometimes be uncomfortable for users, we thought of designing some kind of wind protection using some kind of modular and easy-to-use structure. We do not yet have the final idea but we have different options such as using bamboo for the creation of modular panels where you can divide the space and playing with their joining distance to get more or less protection and increase visibility between them, or use some fabric shade and be able to change the place to protect and with easy use.
To make the vertical poles more durable we will use a cap made from metall. It will not only prevent water from leaking into the pole but will also serve as the mounting for the fabric shades.
Regulations for the construction
For construction on the roofs and terraces of the floors there are a number of rules for construction on them. Before carrying out the development of the project in reality we need to know what rules we must comply with. So we searched the internet and because we didn’t get any results we called the town hall to find out more about regulations, but they told us to look on the internet, which we did again but to no avail. Finally we were able to contact an architect who explained the project to him and he passed us some of the regulations that interested us. So then we had to change a few things but be able to comply with the construction regulations on the terrace of La Llar d’Arrels.
Basically the pergolas on the edge of the façade should have a maximum of 1.80 m above the roof slab, and could be higher in the center of the roof.
Now we are working on another model of the terrace with a new idea of the bamboo structure and the shades. We want to lower the height of the poles that are touching the outside in order to obtain an inclination and to be able to comply with the regulations. Also we are putting some poles to the columns of the terrace and we are thinking for a new wind protection ideas.
14. Presentation for Arrels
On tuesday the 17th November each group presented their ideas and current progress of the collective and individual project to the responsible persons from Arrels.
For the individual project with Bernard we could mainly talk about all the research we had done so far and what plans we had for the futher weeks. Unfortunatly we were told that Bernard was going to move to another housing project 60 km away from Barcelona and that it might be difficult to keep on doing the weekly meetings. If not possible, we will have to work with another resident of La Llar for the last 3 weeks and try to develop something for the new person.
Our ideas and concept for the collective project got positive feedback. Daniel liked the idea of implementing moveable panels to adapt to different scenarios and needs and also liked the overall layout of the terrace. He told us to keep it quite simple.
15. Progress Individual Project.
Since we could not continue working with Bernard, we are now working with a new resident of La Llar, her name is Carme. She likes painting and usually goes to a place for drawing every morning. In the first meeting we could only talk to her very briefly. We found out that she needs an easel in her room to be able to paint there. Not only do we want to think about the easel, but also about her space to paint in generell. Maybe we can add or reorganize some things. For the next meeting we will think of additional questions and try to get pictures of her room. Since there are only about two and a half weeks left, it is crucial to get all important information very fast.
WEEK 9/10
16. Progress of Individual Project
Since our first meeting with Carme was very short, this week we focused on getting as many information as possible. She paints daily, using oil paint and mostly canvases in the size of 41x 36 cm. Since she does not have an easel at La Llar she mostly paints at a different place outside. If she had an easel at La Llar she could also paint in her room or in the hallway. During the meeting she also showed us her room and art supplies she uses. The room is comparably small as Bernards room and does not offer a lot of space. Therefore we want to make the easel foldable, so that it can be stored next to her closet. The rack of the easel is supposed to have the hight of a chair, but ideally would be hight adjustable. We should also think about a small table or storage surface for her supplies which she keeps in a box.
Since we are currently working with bamboo for our collective project we came up with the idea of building an easel completly made from bamboo poles. That way we want to give Carme something special and individual, in contrary to just giving her an ordinary easel from a store.
The pictures below show renders of different variations. The lower one displays the version we want to build next week. We did two different easels to give to Carme the option to choose the one that she likes more. We had one triangular easel like the commons easels and we designed with this form because it is the most stable option. The other design is a different easel with rectangular forms to take advantage of to leave the easel on a small space like the spaces she has in her room. Also, for this design less material is needed and the ability to be hightajustable is easier to add. lööFor both designs we want to have additional pieces and parts to put some paint brushes, a place to put the palette, and if it’s possible a place to put the box with all the tools that she has inside.
Progress of Collective Project
Structure
Feedback Bambusa
In our second online meeting with bambusa we showed them our structure we developed. In their opinion it is feasible and there are not any particular challenges when it comes to the construction. They adviced us to use a bigger diameter for the horizontal poles. We now plan on using 10 cm diameter poles for the vertical poles and and 8 cm diameter poles for the horizontal poles to add more stability to the whole structure. To make the structure more durable for the future they advice us to protect the joints more.
We have now changed up the structure a little bit and added some more poles to extend the surface were we can put fabric shading. Instead of putting the shades inbetween the main vertical poles we are now trying to always stretch the baric across the important joints.
Prototyping Panels
Apart of the working on the models of the structures with bamboo on the terrace we started prototyping the panels for wind protection. We make one panel to real scale with wood, what we have done has been to focus on sliding the panel through the bamboo. Seeing that it was difficult to slide because the bamboo is not completely smooth and has certain unevenness we have sanded those irregular parts that did not allow to slide well. After this we have started to create hooks where we will hang the panels that will allow them to be modular and they could slide to change their position. For its prototyping we used a solid iron bar that we manually bent until it took the desired shape. Finally to see the volume and the final shape of the panel we used four wooden sticks to which we joined together forming a rectangle where inside it we assume that they will go to the bamboo tubes.
Sun Shades
Another challenge is finding a feasible solution for the shades we want to use on our structure. Since we are very limited with the options of horizontal shading, the fabric shades play an important role in our concept. Unfortunatly fabric and especially fabric designated for outdoor use as a sunshade is very expensive. Because of the shape of the terrace custom made shades would probably be the ideal solution. We tried to find sunshade companies to support us but were not successful until now.
During our research for cheaper alternatives, we also contacted many construction companies for old fabrics they usually use on construction sites of houses or ships but did not find any company which could provide us with material.
Finally we found a sail making company which gave us two old very big sails. With them we could easily cover the whole terrace, or make several smaller shades. Unluckily when we picked them up, we were told to not use them as sun shades, since they do not offer any UV protection and should not be exposed to the sun permanently.
As a last option we are now researching on different commercially selled shades with standard dimensions, since those are quite affordable and available on many websites.
Last feedback from Curro and Salva
This tuesday 2 of december we had de last feedback about our projects. We presented the new idea covering the joints to protect from the rain and the sun and obtain more years of duration of the bamboo structure and avoid getting damage. We explained two options, one from bambusa that they would put diagonal poles longer behind the horizontal ones to protect de joints.
But we were not convinced with this idea, since we would loose the possibility of using maveable shades, so we thought of another one but pretty similar. Our idea was about to put more bamboo poles that they protruded a little bit to put the shades over the joints covering them. We wanted to raise the vertical poles inside so we could put others inclined to have a more stable structure and prevent the accumulation of water when it rains, also passing the shades over and covering the joints.
Our problem was the union of the shades with the bamboo to maintain the covering of the joints. Also we spoke withs salva and we told us about one kind of painting to protect the unions from the water and the UV ray, the Rubber paint.
17. Final Presentation
The final presentation of the project will take place on the 11th of December and will be divided into two parts: The presentation of the documentation of our process on medium and the presentation of the final results. Afterwards we will get feedback from the responsible persons of La Llar and our teachers.
Unlike the easel, which will be built until the final presentation we cannot show the whole structure, we developed for the terrace in the original scale. Instead, we will displace a 1:20 scale model of the terrace and structure. Additionally, we will construct one compartment of the structure together with two moveable shades in original scale to give a better understanding. These parts could be reused later on for the actual build.
For both projects we must create short videos. The video of the easel will show the functionality and usage in real life. For the video of the collective project we plan on using animations and renders to give the audience better insights of the project and show different user scenarios.
