Moore, Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans

Our last day in New Orleans started with a seminar in the Piazza D'Italia, a post-modern square designed by Charles Moore.
In the afternoon we split into two groups, the first went to the WWII Museum near our hotel, then visited two more Tulane projects, and took a drive out to Venice - a nearby fishing village.
The rest of the group stayed in the city. We went to Wednesday at the Square - a free concert in Lafayette Square, then headed to Jefferson Square to do a bit of reading. Afterwards we went to Cafe du Monde for beignets.

Piazza d'Italia

Piazza d'Italia





Make it Right, Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans

New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward is the site of Brad Pitt's Make It Right project - a response to the devastation that resulted from a break in the levee wall during Hurricane Katrina. The houses are raised off the ground to help in the event of future floods. A series of houses, designed by architects from all over the world, are repeated throughout the area.
Make It Right

Make It Right
Make It Right

Make It Right
Levee Wall in the Lower Ninth Ward
House of Dance and Feathers





UrbanBuild, City Park pavilions, New Orleans

In the morning we split up, some of us went to picked up two rental cars from Hertz, while the rest of the group took the streetcar to Tulane University library to get some articles for our debate. We met up at a store called Mushroom near the university, where we got some cds for the road. We split up again for lunch on Hampson St, at the riverbend (Refuel Cafe, Hana Japanese Restaurant, and La Macarena Pupuseria and Latin Cafe).
Afterwards we visited the New Orleans Mission. The facility provides emergency shelter for up to 300 people. The mission acts as a transitional living space that involves many of those who stay there in programs which help them find employment and regain financial security.
In the afternoon we visited a few more Tulane projects, then headed to the Musician's Village and the Lower Ninth Ward.


Duplantier Volunteer Pavilion

Duplantier Volunteer Pavilion

Duplantier Volunteer Pavilion

Eco Pavilion Sustainable Exhibition
Eco Pavilion Sustainable Exhibition

Eco Pavilion Sustainable Exhibition

























UrbanBuild, City Center houses, New Orleans

We took the trolly car to meet Emily from the Tulane School of Architecture. She took us on a walking tour to see some of Tulane's recent student design-build projects and some other projects in the area.

Trolly Car
Faubourg Delassize Community Garden
URBANbuild03
URBANbuild06
URBANbuild04
URBANbuild02









After our tour of some of Tulane's projects we decided to visit a nearby cemetery, but it was closed for Memorial Day. In New Orleans and a lot of the surrounding area the graves are all raised above ground because of the high water table. Next we began a long, hot walk through Audubon Park, then along the levee ending at The Camillia Grill.

high water at the levee





























































New Orleans

After breakfast at the Hilton we headed to get some prepaid cell phones then to Cafe Du Monde for Beignettes, but by the time we got there the line was about a block long. We spent the rest of the morning walking around the French Quarter, looking at different housing types in the area.







After sketching houses in the french quarter we went to a nice little outdoor cafe for lunch ( Cafe Amelie ). Then we went to Jefferson Square to sit and discuss the sketches and what we had noticed about the houses. We split up for the rest of the afternoon and met again for dinner at Praline Connection, then went to Snug Harbour to see some New Orleans Jazz but the show was sold out. We ended up going to Maison Frenchmen and saw a great band called Corporate America.

Corporate America




Bourbon Street, New Orleans

After having our flights cancelled we finally made it to New Orleans in time to check in at the Hilton Garden Inn, grab some dinner at Liborio's Cuban Restaurant then head to Bourbon Street to take in the night life.

Bourbon Street












Hand Grenades



A Quick Shout Out

After three weeks of hard work we have finished the concrete slab successfully!
It could not have been done without the help of our local Cheverie team.

Bill

Ted

Mike






































































We would like to thank the community for their support during this project.

P.S. The lunches were especially delicious : )

Camera Obscura -- Slab on grade formwork

There was rain again in Cheverie this Monday, so coastal studio took to the road to visit the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, the site of last year's project, to look at the lamella structure and to discuss freelab possibilities. After leaving Ross Creek we visited the Look Off, Hall's Harbour, Kentville, Wolfville and New Minas on our way back to Cheverie.

Ross Creek Lamella

















The rest of the week was spent in Cheverie, getting ready to pour the concrete for the slab.
Mechanic Drilling



Timbrel Vault -- beginning the floor slab

After a weekend in the city we went back to Cheverie to work on the formwork. The pieces started coming together early in the week, but a few rainy days slowed down progress. We rearranged our week so that we spent Wednesday and Thursday in the city to wait out the rain then returned to Cheverie for the weekend. We finished a fair amount of the formwork, which is turning out to be pretty complicated.
Shovelling and compacting gravel

Laying out the keys
Olena and Veronique cutting pieces for the formwork









































View from site













Formwork pieces

Installing the first sections of the keys




Some complicated formwork






Everything starting to come together

Formwork connection

Coastal Studio in Cheverie

The site of the pavilion overlooks a recently reclaimed salt marsh. The marsh is flooded during high tide, when water from the Bay of Fundy rushes through a culvert from across the road. 

The site
Ryan and Vero on the walking trail
























Members of the community's Salt Marsh Restoration Society have been building walking trails along the marsh and working towards building a discovery centre, which the camera obscura will be part of. The hope is that this will bring tourists to the region and allow them to witness the 50 foot tidal range.





Coastal studio arrived on site on May 3 to begin laying out the plan of the pavilion. Most of the week was spent re-working the design and figuring out details of the slab.

































We took a break to go see a church being floated across the bay at high tide. We just missed the church being loaded onto the ferry, but were able to catch a look at it from a distance.

















Back on site we began laying out forms for the keys that would be suspended in the formwork. The keys will eventually be the base for the walls of the structure.





Camera Obscura





A camera obscura is a light-tight box with a small pinhole in one end. As the light from the exterior scene passes through the pinhole, the scene is projected, upside down, onto the interior wall of the camera obscura opposite the pinhole. The camera obscura in our pavilion will project images of the tidal range of the Bay of Fundy into a darkened interior space. 
Our camera obscura is partially complete.





Timbrel Vaulting

The structure we will be building in Cheverie consists of three outer shells and an interior egg that will house the camera obscura. 
The construction technique that we will be using is timbrel vaulting. This technique uses the layering of brick tiles to create thin, structurally sound vaults. The shells, which are catenary arches, will be self supporting. Only minimal formwork will be needed to build the first layer of bricks. This layer will then act as the formwork for subsequent layers of bricks. Michael Ramage's article Guastavino's Vault Construction Revisited outlines this technique.
Crossway was built with this tile vaulting system.



Our project will build on an earlier freelab done at Dalhousie which investigated the same technique.



Coastal Studio Is Back At It

Coastal Studio is up and running again for the summer semester. This years studio will run similarly to previous years, with students taking part in design-build projects on the coast.
The semester will begin in Cheverie, NS, where students will be building a camera obscura pavilion using a brick timbrel vaulting technique developed by Raphael Guastavino. The pavilion will be built overlooking a recently reclaimed salt-marsh on the Bay of Fundy. The camera obscura will project images of the tidal range onto an interior wall.
In late May we will be travelling to the Southern United States, beginning in New Orleans and making our way to Savannah, then returning to Cheverie to complete the camera obscura pavilion.
Throughout the beginning of the semester students will be working in two groups developing designs for the school's freelab course. These designs will will be built during July in Cheverie, Ross Creek, or Cheticamp.

Cheticamper Design Process

Theses images are design ideas and mechanics of how we plan the Cheticamper will work. Not every on the finished Cheticamper may be as shown but quite close.

Progress Shots Of The Cheticamper!

Matt measuring up a 2"X 4" for the wing.


This will be the deck system. We cut cider boards in half length ways and then drilled holes three inches from the ends and then fed rebar through to serve as a pivoting point.
Our work station for malleting the cider over the rebar.
Keri is cutting and measuring the poly-gal for the spin of the mobile. The poly-gal will then be covered in perforated steel and underneath the poly-gal will be LED lights to light the spin at night.

This is right after we got the wings on the mobile working. We were really excited.
Right after we installed the fold out deck system.


Late night Tuesday we got the van truck shocks installed. The wing is being held up entirely by the van truck shocks.


We had to fiddle with the wings and the shocks a bit more. We realized that they didn't open up high enough and there for need three shocks to bear the weight of the door. The rotational pivot of the shocks and the length to which they can extend took us quite a while to figure out.