Near Kin Kin Folio

Near Kin Kin

Cave Urban

Preface

Cave Urban was started as a research and development arm of our existing architectural practice. Its aim was to explore vernacular systems and materials used for contemporary sustainable design solutions. We embarked upon a series of research folios, the first of which examined bamboo and lightweight structures.

Art has become a medium that has allowed us to explore the structural capabilities of bamboo. Working closely with Event Engineering we test and document every struture that we create.

Near Kin Kin was made possible by the structures that came before it, that allowed us to undertake this project with confidence.

Creating a 23m high bamboo tower offsite that would be erected in the middle of Sydney, posed a number of design challenges. These challenges where overcome through the fantastic support of Event Engineering, Marco Steel, AOR Cranes and the City of Sydney.

As always the generous assistance provided by the many volunteers in both Sydney and Brisbane allowed us to create a work that showcased bamboo as a material and created an interactive artwork that allowed those who enter to be transported to a different place.

Nici Long Cave Urban iii

Any copy of this book issued by the publisher as a paperback is given subject to the condition that it shall by way of trade or otherwise be lent or otherwise circulated with the publisher’s blessing.

Copyright Š 2014 by Cave Urban, Sydney All parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Contents Preface

iii

Part One Planning

4

Design

6

Harvest

8

Part Two Creation

16

Splitting

18

Construction

24

Weaving

32

Tower

46

Part Three Completion

58

About the Artist

70

Thank you

74

Near Kin Kin

3

Part One Planning

5

Design

7

Art and About is an application based exhibition. In February 2015, Cave Urban began developing ideas for their submission. The desire was to create a tower of bamboo that gave the experience of being within a forrest. It would be a work that in particular drew on two previous works; S.O.S (2014) and Harvest (2014).

The initial thought was to place the work in the centre of Martin Place, however the scale of the space felt wrong. The final site at Customs House was instead choosen as it allowed for the work to exist within the city, whilst also seperate from the scale of the tower skyscrapers that would reeduce the impact of the work. By placing it in direct relationship with Customs House, it is able to relate in scale.

Their is also a juxtoposition with the organic and the manmade, both in form and materiality. The colour of the bamboo as it dries would speak to the tones of the sandstone connecting these two very different forms. Its position in a square would also allow for multiple view points and ability to interact with the work.

Left: Initial sketch for Near Kin Kin Above: First site visit, Martin Place 9

Save Our Souls (S.O.S) was a 12m tall bamboo installation for Sculpture By The Sea, 2014. Built offsite the work was placed on the headland of Marks Park overlooking Bondi Beach.

The piece alludes to the image of the lighthouse as a symbol of welcome (or peril) for those entering our country by sea.

Significant engineering by Event Engineering was required for the installation of this work. The data that we collected in turn provided precedence for when we came to design Near Kin Kin. During the period of installation S.O.S had to withstand gusts of up to 100km/h, demonstrating the structural ability of bamboo. Like Near Kin Kin, S.O.S was unable to attach to the ground and so had to use concrete ballast as a footing. This was the first instance that Cave Urban integrated steel, bamboo and concrete into a the same work.

At the completion of the exhibtion the work was sold and relocated to a vineyard on the Mornington Penninsula.

Cave Urban was commisioned by the Brisbane Festival to create an installation for the Southbank Cultural Forecourt. Standing at 18m high and 60m long the light garden was composed of 1000 bamboo poles, connected by rope lashings. This allowed for deconstruction and re-use with little waste.

The concept of the work was to introduce the feeling of being inside a bamboo forrest into an urban environment. In particular the movement and feeling of harvesting bamboo was invoked through the sweeping forms.

The structure is designed upon a notion of redundancy. The multiple ties and connections allows for no single point of structural integrity.

Rather, as in nature it is a system of many making up the whole. The final design whilst appearing chaotic at first is based upon a series of underlying structures in the form of a hyperparaboloid that is then infilled with multiple pieces of bamboo.

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Cave Urban

‘Near Kin Kin’ takes its name, inpsiration and even its materials from a humble hilside farm in Queensland, whose prodigious stands of asper, guadua and giganteus bamboo invoke a sense of wonder in anyone who stands beneath them. This sculpture attempts to regenerate something of that sensibility at Sydney Cove - the very place where the first axe blows were struck against forests that had stood unmolested for millenia.

The free-standing sculpture’s swirling external shape is organic and yet possesses the very human, architectural quality of symmetry in common with the dominant built environment.

Inside, however, the intention is for visitors to feel transported to a wilder place and time as they step onto a forest floor, enveloped by a grove of giant bamboo soaring 23 metres to frame a sky that could be a time before 1788 or somewhere near Kin Kin. Above: Initial internal and external render of Near Kin Kin, with an image of a bamboo forest demonstrating the experience that was intended to be invoked standing within the work.

Left: Night render, showing our intent for light to pass between the bamboo Right: Early sketches exploring structure and aesthetics Right: Initial render, juxtaposing the organic, vertical tower against the horizontal lines of the sandstone Customs House

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The presence of the sculpture at the centre of the forecourt disrupted the formal setting of the square. The work drew participants in rotated them out, introducing and flowing movement across the forecourt. The solid hermetic shape and the sight and sheer mass of an organic material juxtaposed against the city fabric invites speculation as to what lies inside.

Walking around the installation reveals the clefts that lead to the dramatic internal space, drawing the eye upwards to a patch of clear sky by day. By night, uplights alter the way in which the void is percieved - light receds to darkness as the bamboo tips blend into the night sky.

Above: Initial render of the entrance to Near Kin Kin Left: Prototype of the connection method for the external stair.

Right: 1:20 model of the work- its size allows us to test structure and create the final render.

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Plan

Cave Urban

The plan is two overlapping semi circles that join together 7m above the gound. Entering the space, participants pass between two skins of bamboo, emergin into a larger central space. It is only then that the sky above becomes apprent, as the gaze is drawn up the multitude of poles to the sky above.

This transition seperates its ocupants from the city around, drawing them into a different place, a space that through its materiality evokes a natural setting.

Sitting the work in the centre of the Customs House forecourt, Near Kin Kin sits proud of the building behind and is able to be viewed in 360 degrees, allowing for a number of different backdrops. The Cahill Expressway and Customs House are both of a scale that allows for viewers to appreciate the scale of the work, rather than have it dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers.

Customs House

Cave Urban

Section

Top steel ring

Vertical and hyperbolic pattern are combined to create a strong structure.

Concrete ballast

Intermediate steel ring 21m 23m Base steel ring

The sculpture was fabricated offsite at the City of Sydneys

A steel created the shape structure The depot. sculpture willarmitage, be partially fabricated off- of the This core structure will be braced onsite and allowed for lifting points for transport and erection. site. This will include a steel base ring with with a diagonal grid of bamboo that will The bamboo is attached driectly to the steel with a lattice of the main vertical bamboo poles in turn be covered by vertical poles on the structural bamboo bracing theattached structure. The floor is elevated off the ground allowing for 12in tonnesstructures of concrete to it.1100mm We will also build the floor beneath, exterior. Different species with ballast to be concealed below. which the required concrete ballast will be varying sizes will be used to create a textural contrast between the exterior and interior of concealed.

Another steel ring the willwork hold would the be transported Constructed in two halves to the work. bamboo in shape about 7m above site where it is at bolted together and ground the final bamboo poles to ensure steel isstabilised visible. Different species of and are theadded structure will beno further with varying stays sizes will be used to create a textural withbamboo concrete-anchored for the contrast between the exterior and interior of the work. duration of the build.

7m 17

Cave Urban

Ballast 12200 kg 4 x 380kg (12 pavers pile)

Concrete blocks 10800kg using 16(500kg) cubes, 2(650kg) slabs and 48(32kn) pavers

16 x 500kg (600/600/650)

2 x 650kg (1200/1200/200)

Sand 1400kg On top of the plywood goes 100mm of sand over an area of 10sqm

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6000

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6000 PROPOSED DESIGN FOR

Bamboo Tower

31 Alfred Street SYDNEY, NSW, 2000 CAVE URBAN Pty Ltd

0m

1m ABN 99156120393

2m

FOOTPRINT SCALE : DATE : DWG NO. : DRAWN BY :

1:25 @ A3 07 Aug 2015 3 Juan Pablo

73 Bulkara Road Bellevue Hill NSW 2023

+61(02)93635952

nicilong@bigpond.com

Given the public setting of the work and the short installation timelines, much though had to be given to the engineering specifications and the construction of the tower. Working closely with Event Engineering and Marco Steel a steel armitage was developed that would allow for the work to be constructed offiste in two halves before being transported to site, minimising the installation time.

In order to recieve certification the structure had to be able to withstand winds of up to 200km/h. This was achieved through the two steel trusses that run below the floor and transfer load over an area large enough to not damage the forecourt below. As the work had to be freestanding, the ballast had to be hidden within the work. Steel joists that would hold up the floor also allow for the 12 tonnes of concrete blocks to be strapped to the tower.

Height of steel armature before erection Only a small percentage will continue up, highest point will be reached by no more than 5 skinny bamboo

3900

Top section thin armature smaller diametre pipe or bar to be removed after installation

Height of steel armature after installation, from this point up the bamboo structure thins dramatically

2705

3000

2705

18000

3000

20000

2911

3101

100

1000

3500

8000

3500

14000

3101

6000

PROPOSED DESIGN FOR

Bamboo Tower

31 Alfred Street SYDNEY, NSW, 2000 CAVE URBAN Pty Ltd

0m

6000

6000

5m ABN 99156120393

10m

FRONT ELEVATION 1:100 @ A3 SCALE : DATE : 07 Aug 2015 DWG NO. : 4 DRAWN BY : Juan Pablo

73 Bulkara Road Bellevue Hill NSW 2023

+61(02)93635952

nicilong@bigpond.com

19

Harvest

21

The bamboo for the project was sourced from a bamboo plantation near Kin Kin. A variety of species including Moso, Old Hamaii, Guadua, Latiflora, Tuldoides and Asper where harvested.

Each species of bamboo has different structural and aesthetic properties and it was our intention to utilize the variety of species. Some of the bamboo harvested reached up to 30m in length and so had to be cut to length in order to be transported to Sydney.

As the bamboo in the work would be exposed to the sun, wind and rain, we made the decision not to treat it. Treating the bamboo would stop the borer beetle from eating the internal structure of the bamboo, which weakens the strength of the pole.

However as the bamboo would natural degrade from exposure to the sun and rain, treatment becomes redundant.

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Part Two Creation

25

Warehouse

27

The work was constructed over a number of weeks at the City of Sydneys council depot. Marco Steel fabricated the armitage offsite, in several components that were then assembled onsite with the help of Fabrellas Industries. The frames once assembled were 18m long and would allow for the two halves of the sculpture to join together with a series of bolted connections. The steel armitage was a necesity to allow for the work to be erected by crane, providing several lifting points that spread the stress of the lift along the structure. It also allowed for the two halves to be constructed seperatly and subsequently align once joined.

Once the frame had been assembled it was painted in order to camoflage the steel, bamboo was then attached to the steel using rope and bamboo splits to create a tourniquete. At the same time the floor was assembled from plywood, bamboo and sand, so that it could be installed directly onsite. The bamboo that formed the stairs and floor came from previous works and allowed us to re-use material that was nolonger structural.

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Bamboo was applied first to the internal skin to create the wall of large bamboo that would be experienced when entering the artwork. Several of the largest pieces of bamboo had been set aside so that we could attach it in two halves so that once erect the single length of bamboo would stretch the entire 23m showing of the size of the material.

Moving to the outside bamboo was first applied is a criss cross patern that would brace the structure and counter the tortional stress the tower would be under as the vertical poles tried to twist. the 12m poles would often be weaved over and under each other in order to ensure that each poles was placed in tension in order to ensure that it was contributing to the strength of the tower. the outer layers were placed in a less structured manner so that to the eye the vertical lines would appear like a series of line strokes, sketch in three dimensions rather than a rigid structural system.

For ease of construction both halves where created in the same way, however one half had to be rotated 180 degrees for transport so that they could joined together onsite.

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The chain blocks used to flip one of the halves where alse used once it came time to load the two semi-trailers and deliver the 18m sections to site. As the structure was oversized, delivery to site took place at midnight as we said farewell to the warehouse and brought the sculpture to the city.

35

Installation

37

Delivering the sculpture to Customs House was the first of three night time operations that took place. The two halves were crained off the trucks and placed atop eachother in the forecourt. The steel substructure enabled the halves to line up and bolt together, forming a single object for the first time. It also provided an oportunity to see how the work performed when it was lifted. Everything went smoothly and work could begin attaching the final pieces of bamboo to the sculpture.

The points of connection had been left free of bamboo to allow for access to the bolting points and so that there was no clear seam where the two halves joined. The two staircase where also attached and bamboo added to form the two entrances to the work.

Attaching all the bamboo on whilst the work was on the ground allowed us to work faster and reduced time spent attaching bamboo once the work was vertical.

With all the final pieces attached it was now time to erect the work, once again occuring at midnight to avoid the public looking on.

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Construction of the project began on the December 4. After marking out the footprint of the sculpture, a Manitou dug holes 1.5m deep into which the 9m lengths of pine were inserted. The trunks were held in place by a combination of crusher dust and earth tamped thoroughly by the tireless volunteers. The poles formed the base structure of the tower and the connecting tunnels.

This process was repeated along the length of the tunnels with shorter lengths of pine inserted to a depth of 500-1000mm depending upon the bedrock. They were aligned at an angle of 15o towards the centre of the tunnel.

Left: Brett uses the Manitou to lift a pole into place 47

Part Three Exhibition

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Customs House

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Woodford

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Thank you

79

Cave Urban