HARD FIBER FUNworkshop report

EASA014 Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Yuliya Baranovskaya RU Ansis Sinke LV

Schedule for the workshop

Goals of the workshop:

> introduce new material (carbon and glass fibre) that can be used in architecture> experiment with form finding (threads)> transfer knowledge and ideas gained on experimenting stage (week01) to the architectural object (week02).

Presentation

On the second day of EASA event every tutor team is usually presenting their workshop ideas in front of 500 participats . Next day on the workshop fair every participant has opportunity to talk to tutors personally and sign for workshops.

Our workshop got 43 applications. Quota per workshop was 10-12 people.

List of participants.

Katerina Hodkova (Czech Republic), Tomas Kubak (Slovakia), Alexander Kulikov (Russia,)Thea Dahl Orderud (Norway), Hugo Cirfe (Spain), Helmi Marie Langsepp (Estonia), Zofia Kurczych (Poland), Vasil Vandov (Bulgaria), Louise Bjorn Schmidt (England), Konstantin Ikonomids (Cyprus), Rustam Nassridinov (Russia), Ivan Rajkovic (Montenegro), Zarina Belousova (Russia).

Week 01

Introduction. Modeling with wool threads according to different tasks (goal to achieve the biggest variety of possible surfaces and effects). Try to learn different techniques (winding, wrap-ping, weaving etc). Design the final object (small scale pavilion). Build models of final object.

Week 02

Build a 1:1 mock-up of final object. Figure out joint connection and rope-fi-ber connection (prevent from sliding). Make test winding in teams with wool threads. Make test short introduction winding with fibers. Prepare final scaffolding and rope connection. Prepare all rope control points (hooks and crosses). Actual fiber winding. Removing the wooden scaffold-ing.

Design

Design was not predefined before workshop started. It was planned to generate design ideas during workshop together with participants and let them explore potentials of thread material.

Final design idea came to use tensegrity structure as a scaffolding, since it gives more opportunity for surface developing and freedom for winding.

Note: In final scaffolding (1:1) the system was rotated until sticks met in the middle to provide more stable structure.

Winding

Process of winding. Most of winding happend during late hours so the resin is not getting hard fast.

Everyday process: Every single day was started from a brief plan for the day. In the evening we had overall meeting with all participants and small presentation of their models in front of each other, then discussing about what everyone learned from the day exercise. The actual winding was made by hand in shifts of 5 people each. For more smooth process we build a resin bath, that contained holding rod for fiber spool, bucket for resin mixture with metal hook on the bottom for fiber to come through and protection for spool from resin drops and splashes. In each shift we defined different roles between participants. Role1: move the resin bath around the pavilion depending where the rest of the team goes. Role2: pull fiber through bucket and control the level of mixture and if needed - mix resin and hardener. Role3: pass the thread to the winder. Role4: wind prepared wet fiber around scaffolding. Role5: overall fiber path control and guiding a winder. Every participant went through all the roles so in the end we were free to form shifts and everyone knew the entire procedure.

After removing wooden scaffolding we were able to move pavilion to the site.

Great gratitude to:

Our main material sponsors: Lange Ritter Gmbh Gerlingen, Germany.Especilally to Dirk Lange, Sven Raskob, Michael Feuchter, Sonja Buser.

EASA 014 Main Organisers: Dobrin Petkov, Nikolay Mitov, Elena Rahova.

Our parents.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Architecture_Students_Assembly - what is EASAhttp://symbioza.bg/ - website of EASA014 Bulgaria