PUKE ARIKI 'COTTAGE TO CUTTING EDGE' EXHIBITION

In the spirit of MOMA's 'Home Delivery' exhibition, Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth New Zealand are hosting 'Cottage to Cutting Edge" together with Wellington's Victoria University Architecture School and PrefabNZ -  to open in December 2012, which is great news as it will allow sufficient time to get click-raft sorted with suppliers and partners on board. Lots to do yet to get this project properly resourced, but we're very much looking forward to producing a beautifully crafted 1:1 click-raft along with a series of 1:10 scale kitset models for kids of all ages to explore, test out and play with - it would be really nice to entice people to invent their own, perhaps even launch a competition for alternative click-raft designs ... for details see  http://www.prefabnz.com/Events/Upcoming-Events/National-Prefab-Exhibition/

FUTURE SCHOOLS COMPETITION, AUSTRALIA - SUSTAINABILITY AWARD

CMA+U and team have just won a special award for Sustainability in the Future Proofing Schools Competition in Australia - based on the click-raft. This is both a huge surprize and very exciting news. Competition panel images are included. It was an awesome team effort including Jaap Dankert, Luke Engleback and his team at Studio Engleback, Patrick Arnold and his team at eCubed, we also had wonderful advice from Matt Jackson, Liz Kingsford, and Chris Winwood including an intense crit session with Chris at the end to give the submission the necessary kick in the butt - which clearly made an important difference - thanks and congratulations everyone ! Next stop is the ceremony in Melbourne on 12th December to receive the Award and also the opening of the exhibition.   A full list of the winners can be found on  www.msdincubator.com/gallery       

   

2.5m Cube in Friesland

Jaap has been exploring new prototype developments in his 2.5m cube pavilion which is being tested on the beautiful lake edge in Friesland

Hum Salon Coffee Kiosk

While Jaap is recovering from his self build workshop in the netherlands (see new mini prototype post below), I've been continuing to work on a 10m2 click-raft outdoor coffee kiosk we have been asked to do for Hum Salon, a new rather cool and different kind of community centre / cafe / meet and greet space for creatives located in an old villa right next to Grafton Bridge in Auckland between the hospital and universities. We are doing this project together with Gary and Emile from Stanley Modular see http://www.stanleygroup.co.nz/page/137-modular who are fabricating the project in their Mata Mata factory (checkout their live webcam), the plan is to locate it under the tree on the corner so people can still drop in while the house is being restored. The team at Hum are promoting the project via their website, and are going to make a time-lapse video of the assembly process on site - for more on Hum Salon see http://www.humsalon.co.nz/

larger structures

click-raft is about how to achieve low cost, super fast alternatives for small scale live/work environments in the minimalist spirit of Thoreau or Citroen 2CV, but its value also lies in its open additive building system approach which is akin to mechano, or current generation Lego assemblies that are so easily added to or adapted... and this approach is also possible for larger scale structures (see below the post on Click-Raft TYPE03 - business/retail unit).
The images above show a two level structure which wraps around two courtyards providing a base building which unites a series of smaller pavilions within, larger buildings above (not shown), a cool densely planted court, and a hard open sunny court. This diversity of environments is woven together into a coherent but fluid synergy of inside and outside spaces which extend and blur the choices and range of comfortable places to be depending on the time of day or changing weather conditions.

time is right for a radical economic enabling device

“how should we dwell on planet earth?”  If a computer can be made for $100 (think how absurd this would have sounded 20 years ago) - then why not a building? It is time to drag architecture kicking and screaming into being an accessible, super inexpensive enabling tool. A device that is in-tune with our fragile planet !

New Mini Prototype

update from the Netherlands: 

1) prototyped low-tech production facility on-hold.

2) prototyped medium-tech production facility is a SUCCESS. manufactured and assembled a click-raft-cube within one day, with just one person...

- table-saw, set to 200mm

- measurement board for quick marking the holes

- fixed drill

- saw with custom sliding jig for cutting the click-joints

3) now trying some weatherproofing ideas and am about to test the unit in the field, 21st to 25th, by sleeping in it.

This approach continues to search for and refine minimal production processes. However it is good to reflect on the consequences of not fabricating all those 'potential' click-joints...

1. without click-joints there is less flexibility to change or adapt the structure later

2. without click-joints there is reduced opportunity to utilise the structure as integrated storage/shelving.

3. without click-joints there is less potential to (re)use it for other things or upgrade/improve over time

4. without click-joints there are no integrated fixing points for cladding systems, furniture options etc.

This prototype offers a new type that is even more minimal, while its trade-off reduction in click-joints reduces adaptability, it offers hugely valuable cost/time advantages.... so much so that one person can fabricate and assemble an entire click-raft in one day.

CLICK-RAFT video's

I have just uploaded a series of video's, which you can view by clicking on the youtube images to the right. Some of these were taken in 2010 at the FabLab in Groningen, the Netherlands while producing 1:10 scale cnc laser cut and fabricated pieces with Jaap Dankert. Another of the youtube video's 'click-raft city:globe:octopus' is a clip taken from the project "The City, The Globe, and..." Scenario's of real growth for future cities, part 1.  filmed and produced by Pavlov Medialab - special thanks to Nathalie and Thuur, Gerard, Carla and Alex, Janet, Ringer and Mo.
Together, these video's provide some insight into the thinking behind click-raft, show how they are fabricated, and how incredibly quick and easy click-raft is to assemble.

PREFAB EXPO - Puke Ariki Museum, NZ

Click-Raft has been selected for a special Prefab Exhibition to be held at the Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth (home town of Len Lye). Being organised by PrefabNZ (Pamela Bell) with Victoria University School of Architecture (Mark Southcombe) and Puke Ariki (Gerard Beckingsale) is based on the very successful 'home delivery' Expo at the Museum of Modern Art in New York exploring the latest developments in fabrication design - see http://www.momahomedelivery.org/
The Project Team includes Jaap Dankert Alistair Scott & Chris Moller, fabrication and assembly by Stanley Modular (Gary Caulfield) , plywood generously supplied by Plytech (Craig Floyd), and support from Paul Mather and his students at Weltec Petone. A full scale Type 02 will be assembled in the Museum, along with click-raft workshops in click-weave fabrication and assembly techniques at 1:10 -  to enable kids of all ages to play and explore this new approach to architecture

Click-Raft website - http://click-raft.com

http://click-raft.com/ is the newly launched website address - currently the focus is on the TYPE02 range with three offerings currently available - the Mini 10m2 unit (02B-M01), Basic 30m2 (02B-P01), and Extended 30m2 (02B-L01).

Next up will be the larger TYPE03 Business/Retail structures - see previous post below.

Click-Raft TYPE03 - Business/Retail Unit Launch

This week was the BuildNZ/Designex show in Auckland, along with PrefabNZ Event - so a perfect moment to launch the new TYPE03 Click-Raft. Together with Stanley Modular, the Click-Raft Team have been super busy putting together a proposal for a temporary 200m2 retail unit for Queens wharf. The project can be inexpensively and quickly cnc machined in the Stanley Matamata factory then delivered as a flatpack to site for rapid assembly....
.... especially for those last minute projects that need to be delivered "just in time" !