Fabric 

With the structure of the shelter sorted I went to abbacarns in the northern quarter to get the fabric for the covering . Even though I had though about all the different things to cover it with like mosquito netting and water proofing It really comes back down to money . standing in abbacarns looking at all the cool interesting fabrics and then looking at the price per meter , considering I estimated I needed at least 6 meters by 3 meters , except the rolls are 1 meter wide ... so i needed 18 meters , the price really looked like it was going to stack up , so I did the natural student thing and went with the cheapest fabric I could find that would still do the job , even then it still cost quite a bit .

To cut the fabric I went out on the new roof garden of the art building , it worked quite well but I was lucky because the weather gods could have really messed with my plans.

First set up

All the parts have been cut and all the tubes have been cut and drilled . After getting some longer bolts from B&Q I could now fit the whole thing together for the first time . Not wanting to risk the whole thing falling apart I only tested it with 4 of the branches attached and not knowing how big it was going to be I did it in the park . Reasonably pleased with the result , but the reality of what I've made is starting to look me in the face . I did get some inquiries about what I was doing while setting all this up. 

Laser Cutting 

yesterday the first set of parts came back from the laser cutter , really pleased with the result and they fit together fine .  Currently preparing the next round of parts to be cut , when they are done I can cut all the tubes and fit the whole shelter together for the first time .  Its worth noting that laser cut things that are fresh out of the cutter smell really good .

PVC Tubes

After compreing the plastic tubes to the wood the plastic came out on top , so i promptly returned to B&Q to purchase 7 more tubes so I could start building my shelter . Except for this time the bus driver chose not to let me on the bus with 7 10 foot poles so i has to walk back from Withington , unexpected exercise I suppose .

B&Q

In todays adventure I visited the local B&Q . Considering I live in manchester nothing is really "local " so it was the closest one geographically. After finding the general direction on google maps I did the usual thing of thinking I knew what I was doing , and like usual I was wrong . After walking for ages I found I had been walking in the wrong direction the whole time and my destination was 50M from where I started , Another lesson learned I suppose . 

After spending a good deal of time wandering around the store uming and arrring , I left with a 10ft long PVC tube and 8ft piece of wood to try out and see which would work better .  I was rather thankful that the bus driver let me on the bus with these long tubes .

Home Build

Home Build

During a short stay at home I wanted to try out a few things , mainly building a tipi after reading about them so much . Heres the result .

I couldn't find a material good enough to clad it with but still 

Maquettes

Maquettes 

this week I have been making maquettes of some of the ideas I've had , it was really good to see them in a 3D form and be able to get a better idea of how they work . There is section i have just put in the sketch book about this but I I'm putting the photos on here too 

I am defiantly starting to fall for this umbrella tipi cross idea

Pillow forts

Pillow forts 

After having a look at some pillow forts on the internet that I have not been getting the most out of my pillow forts over the years 

A good pillow fort needs

1. A roof 
2. laptop 
3. Bed 
4. Music
5. fairy lights 

and of course lots of pillows .

this is a great example of spontaneous creation. almost everyone I have ever spoken to about it has memories of building a pillow fort at some point but its odd to think that nobody ever teaches you how or what to do , it just sort of happens . When you get older of course you can do it with bigger things , I have made ones with mattress roofs in the past .

here are some examples

this has really got me in the mood to make one now ...

Austria

Austria

For the past week I have been in Austria on a snowboarding holiday . Not knowing to expect having never been before I can now say that I love the place . Its hard to pinpoint individual points that made it so good . Just the general design of the place everything seemed to work together .

We were staying in the town of kitzbuhel . 

  I have to say just being around town was an inspirational experience .All the streets seemed interwoven and planned but still felt organic , which makes finding your way home after a heavy night of beer quite easy . 

Like I said I cant put my finger on it but whatever it was we need more of it england .

Oh and the snowboarding was awesome.

Chris Drury

Chris Drury 

I really like Chris Drurys work and i didn't feel l could fit enough pictures into the sketchbook to do it justice.

Bits and Bobs

Bits and Bobs 

Today was an interesting day of material testing . I particularly wanted to test out materials that were just lying around , this involved rummaging in draws and cupboards for bits and bobs that might be potential contenders . kind of like a material olympics. 

In the end my contestants were

1. A paper bag
2. grease proof paper 
3. a plastic bag 
4. cardboard 
5. thick plastic bag 

Just things that were lying around , then i set about thinking up different ways of testing their properties including

• water resistance 
• strength 
• frie resistance 
• insulation 

after a fun afternoon of tests and some minor disasters including flooding the kitchen . I came to the conclusion that i wanted to use none of these materials . It was still worth doing

Festivals

Festivals

In an odd flashback moment I remembered the huge tents at at the festivals I've been to . could be useful in keeping this in mind as an example of a huge shelter for lots of people .

Bivouacs

Bivouacs 

After doing some my section of research for the sketchbook on bivouacs I found a host of videos on youtube about how to make a bivouac in the woods . 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFY8ggXSLno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3UiZUnLHRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yHZdSm0rY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXmQ9xSNSBI

interesting stuff , shame its hard to watch instructional videos in the woods when you need it 

on a minor note - this is really cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrgTtZXuj4w

Umbrellas

Umbrellas

Today was one of those wet and windy manchester days when you really need an umbrella . While putting mine up I had a sudden thought that if it was much bigger my folding umbrella could be a shelter . A shelter that could be folded up small then when you press a button it explodes outwards ready to use .