We did not have the permission of using the fire so our marshmallow barbeque did not work as expected, but the final structure worked well! People were interested in what we were doing but were a little bit scared at the same time bout taking and eating some marshmallows! Also, there was Mr Marshmallow (Ben) who was trying to call the attention on people, and especially young children! Maybe sometimes they were too scared to approach to the structure! It has been really funny to see people’s reactions though.

The review has been good and comments were not that bad! Also, others’ work has been successfull, and all the main zones of Barnsley were occupied by at least one piece of work!

Today we came in the studio for the final discussions and the reporters prepared the two A1 sheets for the exhibiton at the Civic. Unfortunately our trip to the brick factory has been cancelled so we did not have the opportunity to assist at the process of making bricks and collect as much information as possible from the company that is giving us the bricks. Tomorrow morning they will be delivered for the installation and then recollected at the end of the day!

We are all sure tomorrow will be a great and fun day, but tiring at the same time! We are going to use something like 1000 bricks and no mistakes can be made during the process of building!!

We are also working with CAD to draw the plan of each layer of the structure in order to know on Friday how we are going to build it and not to lose time!! 

For the final presentation, we though that one of the members of the group will have to wear a marshmallow costume!! That will definitely call the attention of people and will be a successfull and funny part of our project!!

After that, we all met in the studio and started again thinking about the design, and again about the bricks’ position as it is the most important and time consuming part of the project process. It will influence the final shape of our structure. We found a really interesting brick bonding for the pyramidal part of the structure and we are developing it! We think we probalby are going to adopt this one!

The top part of this brick small structure is the best brick pattern we imagined: it does not make the central part really wide, it is strong and stable, it does not allow heat rom fire to reach people cooking their marshmallows and it is functional as well.

From this detail we tried to develop the rest of the brick donding and we decided that there would be 6 layers from the ground to under the beginning of the pyramidal part. One member of the groups started using the computer to draw eah single layer and each single brick position in order not to waste time on Friday when we will be building our piece of work!

We also worked out the different holes used as bins, sticks and marshmallows holders. At one end of the gap for the fire there will be the bin and the other end there will be the marshmallow container (both are located right before the beginning of the structure we called the ‘chaos’ part: the brick’s order turns to chaos). The sticks will be located on both sides of the coal/fire’s gap as the brick we will use are perforated, so we though it would be nice to follow brick properties and insert these sticks in these perforations. Also, their position would be functional as people find all they need in front of them and do not have to look around the structure to find sticks.

First idea for the bin, marshmallows, sticks and coal’s position.

Final decision for the different holes. The second picture shows just one hole at one edge of the coal’s gap.

We also though about the part of the structure that turns from orer to chaos and the curves. The idea is that as we go to each edge, bricks are in a less regular position, contains disorganised gaps between them, but all this is made gradually. The level becomes lower and lower and this can be seen as an integration with the surroundings because if we had just one regular and ordered block there would definitely be a big contrast and a bad integration with the site.

Some photos of ideas for the beginning of the ‘chaos’ part.

The day after Barnsley trip we all came to the studio to discuss about our design decision and tried to analyse all the aspects of our project. We also had tutorials in which we have communicated our design intentions and fortunatelly the tutors didnt seem really scared about our decision of toasting marshmallows!!

We started thinking about the brick layout of the structure and tried to find a solution which would not require too many bricks as we have a limited time for constructing our piece of architecture! We came out with some ideas that have to be more developed next week. We also need to try the different possibilities with the bricks we have in the studio and choose the strongest and most suitable one.

     We tried to find the best brick layout for our structure. Our requirements were: as less bricks as possible in order to avoid long time construction, a strong bonding at a reasonable height, good aesthetics qualities.

For the central part of the structure (where the ‘order’ part is) we though about a pyramidal shape as it is stronger, requires less bricks, and forms a nicer and safer pattern for people who will be using this piece of architecture. We can see the pyramidal idea from this section through the structure. At the moment we are working on how the bricks will be positioned, and especially the ones under the ‘pyramide’ (where it goes straight down to the floor).

Today some members of the group also tried to see what the brick reaction is, when in contact with the fire. As expected, the brick gets really hot when close to the fire. We need to put some insulation and the structure can not be just a one brick thick wall! For this reason we tried again to organise the bricks’ position in order to avoid danger for people using our work!

Also, the majority of consumers will be children cause they are really attracted by these sweets! The structure should be high enough to avoid children to be really close to the coal but at the same time costumers need to reach the fire with their sticks!

On thursday we all took the train to Barnsley and explored the site assigned as well as the city itself. We went in the centre of Peel square and observed its features and people in there. Then we chose a pub facing the square so we could observe our site while talking about design intentions. Here are some conclusions we came to:

1.   Site investigation

·      Peel Square – place In the heart of the city, relatively crowded

·      People passing by: lots of children, youngsters

·      Already existing elements which have to be taken into consideration: toilets, benches, traffic lights and cars, buildings (shops,..)

·      Slope of the site – a need to choose a relatively flat surface to build our construction on it

·      Movement of people: along 2 main axises (rows of buildings, shops, pubs etc. )

Our site in Barnsley and a sketch showing the best location for our structure

2.   Design of the place for conversation

·      Position of the barbecue: perpendicular to the direction of movement of pedestrians, also easy noticeable from the distance

·      Shape of the barbecue: accessible from both sides so that people can see each other’s face and start talking to each other

·      Marshmallows or sausages? A decision to go for marshmallows due to a large number of children and youth passing by. The structure will attract more people! Also, marshmallows for safety reasons as people do not always rely on meat and because they are easier to cook.

·      Marshmallows can be stuck onto long sticks which people will hold above the layer of hot coals

·      A need to apply the idea of ‘order and chaos’, the regular structure of the barbecue represents ‘order’ and following rows of bricks which seem to be falling apart stand for ‘chaos’

Sketch showing the design we want to develop

Today unfortunately we lost the design competition against the other group working on bricks: E1! Here is the description of our studio day.

We all came to the studio after the early morning lecture and started working on our final design for the competition. Everyone in our group worked by himself for more than 1 hour and after this brainstorming exercise we all shared our design ideas.

First, we agreed that there would be just one curved structure in which the barbecue would be integrated at one of the edges. Also, this unique piece of work woulb contain seats, everything obviously made out of bricks.

Examples of the small bricks we made and how we ‘played’ with them

Some ideas for the final design for the competition!

Then one of the group’s members came out with a different idea that definitely called our attention. It would not be just one unique piece of architecture in which everything is connected (barbecue, seats) but different small structures workings as seats/walls organised around a central point (a rounded barbecue). This design would allow people to walk through the structure to reach the centre, then get some food and finally seat on the top of these low walls (all have different heights). The seats are arranged in order to encourage people to seat and choose where they wnat to rest for eating and conversating. With this organisation there would also be a sense of community because seating around a barbecue and talking have real social qualities. As said before, food and especially the act of eating really stimulates conversation between people, and even more if they are seated somewhere.

From this image we can see the design idea. People can choose where to seat and which way they want to face: for example, two people can choose to face each other as the whole structure allows different seating positions.

Other images (plan, elevation) showing this design idea

2 hours before the competition we had the idea of changing our design again and return to the previous concept of one unique piece of work. This decision was because with the previous desing we should have used too many bricks and we would probably not have enough time to actually build it. Also, we thought one single structure looks more like a piece of architecture, whereas the idea of different separate seats around the barbecue seems as different brick blocks have been placed. So we worked really hard for these last 2 hours and decided to design a sort of curved wall where the barbecue is located at the edge and the level of this wall changes in order to create seats for the people. Actually we almost returned at the initial idea of something curved, unique, where seats and barbecue are totally integrateg and linked. We also imagined where the queue of people waiting to be served should be and this final idea really seems to be clear and functional as well as aesthetically pleasant.

Some developments of our design

Plan of the design we presented for the competition: at the edge there is the barbecue and the rest of the structure becomes lower to allow people to sit.

At 4 all groups went to one studio and the design competition started. Unfortunately we lost (however we have to say that the votes were almost equal) even if we tried to convince people to vote for us serving them some sausages with barbecue sauce!! It did not work but it was fun and we were very proud of our design, especially of this ‘insolite’ idea. 

The people who won designed 2 brick chairs and their concept was a chaos to order. Anyway, tomorrow we will meet both groups together and start working on the design that won the competition!

This Monday we met in the studio before lectures to discuss about the weekend’s progress. Everybody came with final design ideas as the competition was on Tuesday and we all seem to agree with the idea f the barbecue as the central point in our project. These idea was well developed in our sketches.

During the weekend everyone also cutted small brick blocks made of foamboard in order to create and play with some models and see how the design would look like. Of course, we carefully took in consideration that the brick has totally different properties than the foamboard!

So we discussed about our intentions and then went to the lecture that was starting

These words are linked to conversation: people, communication, seating, standing, voice/verbal communication, eye contact, movement, letter, comfort, context, attraction, topic/pretext, sense of security.. 

We tried to understand what people need to start talking to each other and how space can be arranged in order to create comfort and a friendly atmosphere. 

After our tutorial we decided that our project should include a barbecue and seats, all made by bricks. Obviously our decision has been influenced by the material as brick is used for loadbearing structures and it is fireproof. Also, the idea of a barbecue as a central part of the project involves conversation because people start talking to each other especially while eating. Thus the brick structure welcomes/invites hungry and non hungry people with its seats and its kiln (which is a very unusual element in the middle of a public place). There will be a sense of community and people will seat long enough to start a conversation as eating sausages requires minutes and minutes and minutes!

We also though about a bridge but then realised that it would be a very complex project as the absence of mortar makes the structure less stable. The bridge would require more bricks, with different shapes, and more time for the final construction.

E1: Initial ideas

We first gathered ideas by means of sketching and discussing amongst our group, and considered that a place of conversation should be triggered by a seating arrangement. We considered that the seating would form a right-angle for two people as this would encourage, as proven by body language professionals, another person to enter the conversation – an inviting corner. 

As we were transforming Barnsley with our installations and beautifying the surrounding area, we decided that our concept would be a parallel of the town’s transformation, which itself is in process of redevelopment. The concept we concluded with for the design was ‘organization to chaos’ involving the ideas of bonding we had previously seen in our R1 building – St. Peters, Klippan, Sweden – Sigurd Lewerentz.

In order to arrange a seating area, we headed down to Wickes to by thirty or so clay bricks so we could experiment with the designs to seek constraints in the material. We found that the positioning of the bricks was highly important from a health and safety point of view, as not to fall from even a small height, which would still be potentially damaging to the public. Here are a few sketches from the designs.

We then proceeded experimenting with different brick bonds in order to create a link from ‘chaos’ to the main structure using dutch, stretcher and english bonds, and an amalgamation of others to create a unique design.