Assignment 4 - Monograph- A Mill - Here we go!

The alarm will rouse me tomorrow morning at 6:00 am. I will be on the road by 6:30 at the latest. I have rented a 2010 white ford focus for the occasion. The car has shitty wipers and handles like a go-cart. Luckily the weather looks promising.  

My breakfast will be 1 egg, a toast, and some left over baked oatmeal.  I have baked a fresh loaf of whole wheat bread and will make my lunch with it and some farmers market summer sausage, aged Gouda cheese, 2 apples and 2 Litres of water and thermos of coffee. 

I will arrive at my grandparents’ house for morning tea close to 8:30 -9:00am. The visit will last 2 or three hours. My grandma recently suffered a massive heart attack while I was in a different part of the country. I have not seen her since as the M1 started the day I flew home.  I am very much looking forward to seeing her and my grandfather. 

My Uncle John will fetch me from my grandparents’ house around 11:00am. Together we will drive to the mill, arriving around 11:30am.  I have packed, 2 pairs of wool socks, work boots, 2 pairs of gloves, a newly purchased Thinsulate toque and a full body micro-fleece long underwear. 

My tools are as follows:  

A tri-pod, 

1 sketchbook,

1 -UW digital SLR, 

A beater Panasonic digital camera. 

A Mac powerbook computer,

2- 100' tapes,

A 25' tape. 

2 sharpie markers.

4 pens (2-black of different weights, 1 blue for site notes, and 1 red for dimensions)

John has warned me that it takes him about 3-4 hours to do a full tour, it will take me an additional 2 hours to measure the building, and mill pond + and hour or two to sketch, hopefully I can used the tour to do most of the photography. He may also have some two-person jobs that he has reserved specifically for my visit. 

It’s going to be a great day. 

Assignment- 2 Manifesto - A Coach House Continued

Ok, Here is the final design, mostly in model form, but I will try to explain it as we go.

Plan above

The Front entry/door design enables the front door to function as both a large garage door for motorcycles, but also as a visitor door / front entry.

This is a view of the work area at the South of the house. It shows how the public work space located at the front. The work bench on the east wall is deep enough to put large rolling tool boxes beneath. Also the wall mounted screen is seen here above the bench. This location works for movies from the Couch, but also as a computer. A wireless key board and wall hung mac mini would do the trick. 

This view is a bit deeper into the space, Here you can make out the kitchen better. The west door leads into a shared back yard. Not shown here is the number of shelves and hooks that could be on the walls both above the work bench, and along the East wall. The West wall I would reserve for coats firewood and circulation. 

The couch cabinet would have a hard finished work top, and maybe a large pull out drawer. This would provide another working surface when the couch is not use.

This is a view from directly above the bed.  To keep the exposed rafters on the interior the exterior of the roof would be insulated. Also shown here is the recovered dormer on the west wall.

A West view without the roof showing the layout of the 2nd floor. The sleeping area is in the south, and the bathroom in the north. 

A view of the kitchen area, the wood stove and the dining table. I can't decide wether the table should be wood to isolate some of the heat from the stove, or concrete to act as thermal mass to store the heat. In the summer months most of the cooking would be done in the shared yard on the BBQ.

This is a view of work area. Lots of custom motorcycle mechanics like to have a machining drill press, a welder (could replace one of the tool boxes ) and a grind wheel (not shown) this combination allows the mechanics to: a. bring worn out parts back into tolerance, and b. allows them to make their own custom pieces.   

Assignment- 2 Manifesto - A Coach House - Design Development.

In spite of the model building requirements for this assignment I constantly figure things out on paper. Here are a few design development images from my sketchbook and trace scraps. 

Early brainstorms

Thinking about the workspace and openings. 

Early planning sketches

Finally decided on a plan 

Interior elevations and details

Here I was trying to figure out if I wanted an overhang on the south to shade the door, it could also potentially collect some energy? 

Kitchen layout, I think by now I was building. I decided to go with a larger Fridge too.. for the beer. 

This is the design for the fold down couch, or at least how it would work. I think I would used cables to pick up the end of the bench part, and bold the whole thing back into the wall. Less moving parts to collapse. 

Assignment- 2 Manifesto - A Coach House - Precedents.

In preparation for the design of the coach house I have gathered some precedents that I have been looking for inspiration.

Assignment- 2 Manifesto - A Coach House - Program

I will start by outlining my requirements for the space. Seeing how the House is a little larger than the requirements set out by this assignment, I've decided to add one extra requirement, live work. The new minimum dwelling within the coach house will allow the occupant to work as well as live comfortably. Currently the houses primary occupant is a carpenter tooting around with a band saw and a couple hand planes, and originally I wanted to maintain a carpenters workspace. However, after examining the width of the house I've decided that it's not ideal for a carpenter. Also word working tends to generate a lot of dust, which doesn't lend to well with shared multi use living spaces. Instead I decided to make the Coach house designed for a modest motorcycle repair shop. Why motorcycles? Because there cool, and I've read a few motorcycle books lately, and I want a motorcycle.

The shop should be able accommodate a mechanic, and his tools and at least 1 motorcycle. I figure this program also works really well with the site, the house fronts right onto a street, it has a space for a car (or 3 motorcycles) to park in front of it. It also has an existing curb cut to access it, as well an awesome front door. 

Here are a few shots I pulled from a really cool motorcycle shop in Denmark. I frequent Wrenchmonkees.com often just to drool over their latest creations.

Assignment 4 - Monograph - A Mill

A few years back my uncle sold his dairy farm, he kept the farm, but the dairy left. Dairy farming is a very labour intensive and time consuming way to make a living. Upon selling the farm my uncles hands began to look for other things to do. These things included junk dealing. The man buys things (usually junk) from one person and sells them to someone else making a small but worthwhile profit with the exchanges. He also finds fun things that he keeps and fixes, like a three-wheeled ATV, various snowmobiles, antique children’s toys, you name it. While junk hunting one day my uncle came upon a small piece of real estate for sale. It was an old Mill.

The Mill is timber framed on a stone base and previously, in a forgotten time served its nearby region as a flour mill. It has stood for close to 150 years, it has burned twice. In the recent years before my uncle acquired it it served at as grist mill producing grain for small livestock operations. It was still functioning in that manor up until Sept of 1999. 

 It sits on a picturesque forest stream just out of view from the concession. The millpond is located on the other side of the road. The water flows through a culvert under the road into the mill.

Two or three months later there was an industrial equipment auction near Niagara Falls, my uncle was in attendance. He placed a bid on a decommissioned hydroelectric turbine. A week After that he had it in his dry shed and over the course of a winter brought it back into original machining tolerances and began to retrofit it into his abandoned flour mill. A generator was purchased and an arrangement was made with township and with ontario hydro. 

The Mill has been in operating in its new state for close to 10 years now. At the end of January I will meet with my uncle, at his mill to discuss, draw, measure, and photograph it. I also hope to get a better understanding of the retrofitting process. I'm excited. 

Assignment- 2 Manifesto - A Coach House

The Coach house is located in Hamilton, Ontario. It is currently stands as a shared amenity for four separate households, housing a band saw, power tools, a work bench, a coffee roaster and several bicycles. The upper level is almost wholly devoted to the drying of freshly milled Ash. The outbuilding is built of double wythe load bearing masonry, and has a dirt / concrete floor under some old barn boarding. The Rafters and ceiling joists are timber framed.

I have chosen the coach house a subject for the Manifesto assignment for a number of reasons. Firstly its size, the coach house is approx 80 cubic meters, just 5 cubic meters over the requirements for the assignment. Next the coach house exists. Let me explain. My fascinations of late have been acutely focused on the re-use and renovations of old buildings. Which also serves as a preservation and re-discovery of pre-modern ways of living. Also Old buildings are built well, they are simply executed, they use only high quality materials, and they are well established. Older buildings have seen freezes and thaws, high winds, heavy rain, and loads of snow. They are proven, tried and tested. I chose this particular building not only because I already had photos it and have measured it on many separate occasions, but also because it has incredible potential to be a really cool small house. Stay tuned.

The Hatchet.

Lets start small, the Hatchet is at the bottom of the scale, and it primarily used for traveling, and camping. It is small, usually 12-14 inches with a 1-3 lbs head.

I like hatchets. They have been my favorite hand tools for a very long time. I found my first hatchet. I was about 8 years old my family lived in a old farm house The house, was no longer a farm, or no, we didn't farm the land it was on. The house came with 2 large barns, a Chicken barn, and a small shed for tractors and tools (see fig.1). We (my two brothers and I) used these barns for games, and to test bravery. One evening we were called in for dinner, and were coming back from playing out in the fields beyond the barns. I remember the sun was crisp, it must have been fall, the grass was high and coarse, and the trees were just beginning to loose their leaves. We were passing behind the shed and I was falling behind my brothers, when I noticed a shadow on the old boards of the shed. There was something lodged in the wall. I actually remember not knowing what it was. I climbed through the brambles and got next to the wall. Just within my reach, at the tip of my fingers was the handle of long forgotten small, axe. I leapt once or twice and managed to pull it from that north barn wall. 

It was rusted, and dull, it had a hook on the underside of the head meant for pulling nails of cutting rope. The handle was smooth black rubber, over a welded steel tube. The rubber was damaged by the weather and sun. Regardless it was an amazing find, by far my most memorable find from that farm. I brought it home and presented it to my Father. He promised to fix it up for me, the next day he disappeared early in the morning for work. He returned home with the tool wrapped in newspaper. He had wrapped the handle in red duct tape, and used a wire brush and grind wheel to clean the rust and sharpen the blade. It was sharp, it could shave off tiny white flakes from you thumb nail. I took it camping and used it to carve and cut branches and chop firewood. I got really good at chopping tiniest pencil sized kindling the kind that would light up like a matchstick. 

I am now on my 4th hatchet, the first one and the 2nd were both left in the weather by different members of my family on many different occasions, it was usually my mom, who took it out to do gardening. After a few rounds of grinding and cleaning they were restored to duty over and over. I believe both are still outside of my parents house under the picnic table my mother uses as a potting table. My 3rd hatchet was a last minute purchase from Canadian tire before a canoe camping trip this past summer. I was enthralled to have one again and promptly put it to use. But I was quickly disappointed in the blade. It dulled immediately, and my arm tired shortly there after. 

Christmas this year brought me a beautiful new hatchet. It is a Wetterlings Wildlife Axe. Made in Sweden its handle is American Hickory, the head hand-forged steel. The blade is sharp enough to shave with. This Axe may be the most beautiful tool I have ever held in my hands.  

My new hatchet

Assignment 1 - A Thesis Soundtrack

Put together a soundtrack for your thesis, or play around on itunes a collect one CD of your favorite music. This first exercise turned out to be quite fun, and it required more thought that I originally expected it to. Not only does it provide a particular challenge of sorting through months and months of music, editing, sequencing, and rearranging, but it also requires me to make very particular decisions based wholly on my preferences. Obviously searching through the endlessness of my musical sampling from the last 4-5 years was difficult without some goal in mind. So I made a few, I wanted to open with a classic, I wanted the songs I choose to be exhilarating in some way shape or form , I wanted not to tire out the listener but just challenge their stamina. I also wanted to expose my peers to some bands that they might not have been exposed to before, while still providing some familiar or forgotten ones to enjoy. 

What resulted from these goals is a thirteen song compilation that provides a pretty good cross section of my musical preferences, while still providing me with a playlist that I will enjoy in the coming months. 

Opening with "Four Dead in Ohio" was picked because of the guitar, because of Neil's voice, because its a warning for the next couple of songs. "Songs For the Dead" is next and it serves as a sprint, a cold shower, it gets your eyes open, your blood pumping and hopefully your foot stomping. but I can't keep this pace forever. Pink Floyd slows things down a little while before climbing to one of the best, most haunting Solo's that David Gilmour has ever blessed my ears with. 

Mogwai, Wintersleep, 65 Days, give a sampling of some of my favorite music to work to. Jack White then steps in to remind us that there is in fact an Axe on the cover of this compilation. At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue on the Axe path and bombard the listener with metal and garage rock, or if wanted to let the rest of the CD bump and bounce away. In the name of moral, and in light of the inevitable slog through masters, I choose the later. "City Middle" provided me with the segue I needed to go from my heavy choices into the lighter side of my musical tastes. TV On The Radio, MGMT, and Arcade Fire turn my head bang into a head bop and my headphones just seem to bounce from side to side. Muse's "Map of The Problematique" was chosen to shake the listener out of the pleasant skipping of arcade fire and remind them that this is still a thesis, and some revolt, some rebellion, some violence may need to take place, so keep fighting. 

Oceansize and their 3 pronged guitar 5 peice rock outfit from Manchester bring us back to the metal. The slow progression of instruments,  the repetition of notes, hollow echos, and the unprecedented amount of tremo picking rise and rise until I've forgotten what the vocals even sound like. My speakers are at 11, the neighbour knocking on the door, and I'm only half way through this song. but alas, after carrying me up through the storm clouds the song lets me drift sideways under the stars as the band steps of of the stage one by one.

-DS