TEST ASSEMBLING

After days of putting in work in designing the playground, re-configuring the design, and debarking the trees, we move on to testing our structure. We start the day with the arrival of the crane to move our trees to the test site behind the FabLab. The way we organized the plan to move the trunks was to take them one by one while checking for stability and correct placement.

With everything in place we start with the largest vertical trunk and strap it to the crane.

Once the trunk arrives at the test site, we suspend it vertically above the ground to check the natural inclination and accordingly measure the branches to then be cut along the horizontal axis. The excess of length of the base branches are cut, while the tree is still suspended in the air, to have them stably placed on the ground.

Once the trees are prepared and the location of the vertical trunk is identified, we slowly lower it to the ground and have them placed on temporary supports till the trunk can stand stably on its branches.

With the first vertical in place we move onto our horizontal log with the dragon head. On the site we go back and forth between the design and the construction process to get the desired position of the log and then adjust it manually to get a better visual of the aesthetic in relation to the site.

Once the dragon head is in place we start moving the other horizontal logs to the site to configure their placement.

Lastly, we moved to our second vertical trunk. We follow the same process as the first one, by cutting each leg in a way that gives it a correct stability.

By the end of the day, we were able to physically visualize our playground for the first time. The lessons to  be learned during the process were that debarking a tree was more time consuming than we expected, but the result was above our expectations. Having the trunks placed in verticals and horizontals, give us a better visualization of the actual scale of the trees, and the overall playground.

Trees in Motion: To The Test Site is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, developed at Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings in 2019/2020 by:

Students: MAEB  2019/2020

Faculty: Daria Bychkova & Michael Salka

24.10.2019