As stated previously we had solely discussed some ideas for this project prior to arriving on site. So on the first day, once we had cleaned and removed some soil and rubble within and around the bunker, we began to sketch some ideas for the project. Working the same as previously we started sketching individually, then coming together to chat about some ideas, breaking apart again in smaller groups, then bigger groups and by the end of the second day we had a floor plan pretty close to what we ended up building. We arrived on site on Monday the 21st of September and finished the main structure of the Sauna on Saturday the 3rd.
Being that this was primarily an internal project, we had to work within a defined framework and as our drawings progressed certain elements began to inform the design. The plans became simpler with each round which initially explored making openings in the bunker in different ways. Being that we were building this thing in two weeks, and that bunkers are made to be solid, reducing these would give us more time for other things. So by the end of the day we had a floor plan for the sauna with one continuous wall defining three spaces with an existing external opening, or some natural light, each. The door for the first room, one window to the second room and the other into the sauna at the rear. At the rear of the bunker an existing opening within the ceiling space indicated a rational location for the fireplace.
For two days of the first week three of us went to a saw mill and cut up all the timber we needed for the project. Two of us operated the machine below and the third was moving the timber around and calculating how much we needed for the project based of these preliminary plans made the day before.
Meanwhile the remaining students worked bolting battens into the walls of the bunker of which the large timber walls were to run along.
Once back on site we had to develop a system for joining all the pieces of timber together. Again each student had a go at designing details for the timber to meet at the corners. The timber we cut at the mill was approximately all the same width, although the heights of each piece were different. The timber joints therefore had to cut right through each piece in plan as one piece of timber might interact with two pieces in an adjacent wall. Sami suggested a simple frame joint at the corners with a butterfly type pin holding them together, as it would be easy, however another student outlined that this would require one layer of all internal walls needing to be placed at once in order to hit each butterfly pin in. As seen below there were to be 6 internal walls, so instead of having to build all these layer by layer, as opposed to completing each wall at the back of the bunker first, simple timber joints were designed to hold each adjacent wall which would be able to be placed from the sides. Therefore one wall could be built, then the next and so on. This should be clearer in the photos. These were then made into 1:1 reference templates.
Then we started to make them. After the first joint was made it was redesigned, as were most of the others, so it was a little quicker to make. The bottom members were elevated from the floor with small pieces of perspex to permit water to flow to the front door. Being that the timber was going to be exposed to a significant amount of moisture, another change was to route a groove into the top and bottom of each piece which would be fitted with a short strip of timber. We initially thought we would secure each piece of timbers to the battens but this would restrict movement and it would crack. I put this little mishap down to an oversight of the behaviour of timber rather than particular site interaction and experience, over studio work, permitting the change. Maybe seeing this happen at 1:1 will make me think about it more in the future.
Making timber joints continued over the next week and was my primary job, along with a bunch of others. Using oversized circular saws and chisels we made these corner joints as well as others at the doors. A couple of students managed which timber pieces were to go where in order to get the most out of the limited supply we had and others spent more time within the bunker putting them all in place. The top most piece on each wall had a little detail which allowed it to stay attached to the roof, detached from the rest of the wall to permit movement. Things that were screwed in were hidden with timber plugs. Roles shifted here and there by what was available.
These students below also began to work on an outdoor seat and wall which was to reflect the design inside. This was begun once the platform within the bunker was made and therefore constructed in reference to this. The platform within the Sauna was designed on the spot and this outdoor area followed suit based of scale and enclosure.
We continued finishing all the walls while a few of the girls made some removable platforms which sat in the cross members within the sauna room as shown in the photos above. Another couple of students worked installing two sliding doors to the sauna and a window unit which were made at theUni workshop through the week. We will continue working on other bits and pieces over the next couple of weeks including stools, coat hangers, shelving and the like and some more photos should follow.
What I thought of the workshop:
At the beginning of the workshop there were some periods where I felt a little aimless which began to change once everyone settled into particular roles during the second week. I was questioning as to whether some more direct instruction may have facilitated a little more even education. A student who is a qualified carpenter very much took charge which I initially wondered as to whether it was getting in the way of other students trying these things for themselves. As the workshop went on though it was such agency, brought about in all the students, which was an important trait to develop working through such practical matters.
Further on I began to think about how such workshops operate, whether that be being run exactly as a worksite where perhaps it is primarily results that matter, and potentially sufficient teaching of apprentices, or still very much an educational environment. Fabricating a worksite environment however may be detrimental to matters of indirect or implicit learning such as the observation of the aforementioned carpenters work, but I did believe that some direct instructional matters do need to coexist throughout the process. The levels of how these coexist may simply be the difference between various apprentices education or lack of on worksites. It eventually dawned on me not not be overly concerned with these matters too early as these matters seem to sort themselves out.
That aside, was the work we did do, which was primarily making timber joints, not so time consuming the project may have gone in a different direction. Were a simpler means utilised perhaps more time would have been available for additional external structures, as we had initially discussed. But it's interesting the see the open manner in which these workshop are approached in that many final results may have come about, particularly because the joint design was such a quickly made decision. Although final images are still to come it was a good result, but there would definitely been other ways in which to do it. Knowing what it is appropriate and how to move forward enables a good dialogue between creative nature of designing bits and practical nature of getting things done.
It was nice to source, prepare and install the timber. Working at the mill, seeing Vegard and Nikolas (two students) managing how the timber was to be implemented, cutting it to lengths, preparing joints then finally installing it in the sauna, allowed a continual perspective of timber at each stage of it's use.
At the end of each day we would play a bit of Basse, a local Trønder game.... maybe throw some rocks.