Not so Hot

As the title suggests, today hasn't really gone to plan.

The tubes were coated over the weekend and we had a good look at them this morning. We began looking into sourcing varnishes but heard from our head of year that we may be able to get someone to donate them so we are currently waiting to hear back about that before we order anything.


The road trip became behind schedule very quickly. The plan was to leave at 9.30 this morning but there was a mix up with the keys or something so they weren't on the road until about 11.30. They did however let us know how it was going.

The Tube Pirates with the plunder

Things then went from bad to worse. We have had no response from the e-mails we sent out so we have to assume that we won't get anywhere with our sponsorship scheme. We began then to start considering fundraising and looking else where for sponsorship. The biggest idea we had for a fundraiser was a people auction where we would auction group members off to the highest bidder for the day. 

Later on in the day we came up with a plan for the off-cuts from the frames. After using the CNC machines, we would be left with a large amount of 100mm diameter circles of plywood. Just big enough for an image. Out of sheer luck, I heard about a craft fair being held this weekend in Prestwich so the idea is that we decorate the circles with illustrations, paintings, drawings, what ever we feel like and sell them as coasters or just images/decorations at the fair. This of course will all depend on when we get the frames cut, how many we can make and how quickly we can make them.
We also got into contact with family and friends who may know of companies etc that would possibly sponsor us.

After spending the best part of seven hours in the library, we headed over to the Shed to meet our well-travelled team mates and their cargo. When I say the van was full, I mean it was full! Despite it being cold and dark, I think we kind of enjoyed getting all the tubes out of the van and into the Shed where they are now sat in the corner waiting to be cut'n'coated.

Told you it was full!

Human conveyor belts at their finest.

Floating heads.

Backed up on the conveyor belt

Keeping the tubes in the corner was a
challenge - it involved moving lots of tables around.

Finally all in place.

Unfortunately, the Shed closed soon after 6pm so we couldn't make a start on the cut'n'coat tonight but we are all getting in nice an early tomorrow to make a really good start - and hopefully finish. There was nothing else to do except go home and watch the fireworks!

Waterproofing test of tubes

Another early start in the library for Tube Cubed. After hours of hard work the tube team managed to test the waterproofing for the coated tubes. Coating of varnishes will help the cardboard tubes repel water and will stain the pavilion with a nice earthy brown, fitting right in with the beautiful gardens of Dunham Massey. A little experiment has been done with three one-meter cardboard tubes which were treated with different varnishes and different PVA base applications. Three qualities were tested:

1. Type of varnish (outdoor vs. yacht)

2. Number of layers of varnish

3. PVA base quality (diluted or not)

From the results of the experiment, both outdoor and yacht varnish worked well on waterproofing and gave the same result. Water flowed down the tubes and did not soak into the cardboard. Water formed droplets and slid off the tubes. The number of layers of varnish and PVA didn't affect the waterproofing much in this test. It is, however, important to know that more layers of varnish tend to darken the tubes. We may need to coat the ends of the tubes with more layers in order to protect the weakest points. 

Of Road Trips and E-mails

Friday saw the group spending all day in the library. The big event of the day was probably getting the sponsorship pack sent off to about 260 local architects. 
The brochure was nearly ready Friday morning but we made some tweaks to it - aligning the text etc. The brochure was finally ready after lunch so we tried to send it. They bounced. All 260 e-mails. This called for drastic action so three of us took it in turns to send e-mails individually from the account. That didn't work either. In the end, Jamie was able to send the e-mails via his university account, with minimum bounce back. We are now awaiting replies . . .

Trying - and failing - to send the e-mails

Tomorrow, some of the group are going on a road trip to pick up our tubes. We are hoping that they will be back by around 3pm so we can make a start on the waterproofing. Two of the group were going to look at different coatings over the weekend and have a go at testing them. They were researching on Friday. 

With regards to the framework, we had an e-mail confirming that the costs of the workshop would be covered by the school so that is one less cost to worry about.

There have been a couple of minor changes to the structure. This is just to make it more sturdy and involve using off-cuts to create cross-bracing within the pavilion. This is being looked into by Joe with Oli's team also helping to source the plywood and the materials needed to put it all together. They also worked out how many CNC hours we will need to cut out the frame: about 2 hours a sheet and we have 13 sheets. Not only that but it will be a fight to the death to get to it as there are 4 other groups who also need to use it. 

We are meeting at the library again today so I will update you on all the goings on later!

A slightly late up-date

Today is day three of the project, which means the blog is well overdue an update!
So, Wednesday, we meet early once again and the first thing we did was a little re-shuffle of the group. Jennifer, project leader appointed leaders for the individual teams and a communications secretary (Me!). This meant that while she was running around like a headless chicken between the different teams working out exactly what was going on, she could leave the leaders to sort out the teams and report back to her. My job is to run around after her recording everything from minutes to meetings to reports to the blog.

Our 'benevolent dictator' talking structures

Probably one of the biggest achievements of the day was sourcing the tubes. We had our tube team on the phones all day and, despite several wrong answers, we managed to source all of the tubes we needed. We were also left with a decision to make: what size tubes to have. The original design was 150 mm but we couldn't get hold of any so we had to chose between 100 mm and 200 mm. In the end, we opted for 100 mm tubes which means we have to go and pick up 218 cardboard tubes. Fun times!
It was then left to the tube team to find a van to travel to various placed within a two hour radius to pick them up. This is to happen on Monday after a route is planned and our tubes are 110% confirmed. 

The tube team weren't the only ones to be busy. Publicity also had some amazing progress along with a genius of an idea that was the brain-child of James (team leader of publicity). We have come up with a sponsorship scheme where we will offer packages of Gold, Silver and Bronze to local architects and companies. Each package has different perks, with Gold being the most advantageous with regards to advertising their services. A brochure was produced for this last night and will be sent out today. 

It was all busy in the publicity office

We were also able to organise a meeting with Tom Jefferies, head of Manchester School of Architecture, to try and reduce the costs of using CAM in the workshop as we felt that what we wanted to do was seriously disproportionate to the cost. We are hoping to send him a spreadsheet of all the costings so that he can help us further.

Today, we are hoping to plan road trips, contact architects and get this design finalised with the new tube sizes. It's all good on the home front!

Tube Cubed Part 2

The winners were chosen and yesterday was the beginning of Dunham Massey Winter Pavilions Part 2.

The day began with the super groups being chosen followed by each group member being assigned to specific teams appropriate to their abilities and skills.

Busy bees in the studio

The admin team: in charge of keeping everything organised and, as the name suggests, taking record of every single thing that happens within the group and any developments with the pavilion – hence this blog.

The materials team was organised into two groups:

The tube team: this team’s priority is sourcing the tubes with make up the body of the pavilion. As this is the key part of the design the group was created to focus on this aspect. This team will also look into how the tubes are going to be coated and waterproofed.

The miscellaneous materials team: Their job is to source the other materials needed for the pavilion. This includes the plywood for the frames, screws, metal plates etc.

The fundraising team: money and sponsorship is the key element of this team. They are responsible for contacting suppliers and companies to help with the construction. This could vary from negotiating prices of materials to getting advice and contacts.

The structure team: this small band of group members is responsible for making the pavilion design work. As we gather materials, we may hit snags, which result in the design having to be altered. This is what our structure team is here for. As of yet, no snags have been hit.

A hive of activity

Yesterday, once everyone had been sorted into their teams, our studio space was buzzing with activity. We made great progress with sourcing the tubes – fundraising was working closely with tube team and contacted about forty suppliers, with thirteen or fourteen confirmations of free tubes. This is great news as the tubes were going to be one of the most expensive parts of the pavilion. Today, the tube team is trying to organise vans to pick them up, along with getting confirmation from the companies about picking up the tubes and planning a route.

The misc. materials team was busy finding where we can get supplies. Today, a couple of them have gone to see if they can source them.

The admin team was sorting out the group’s social networking. Yesterday our Facebook page and Twitter account was launched and today’s sees the blog’s first entry. It was key to get as many people to see the page so we invited friends, family, roommates and course-mates to like it and have a look to see what we are up to. This, along with Twitter and the blog, is going to be updated on a regular basis to keep people informed of what we are getting up to.