Journalweek3 by ebunn

CONSTRUCTING ENVIRONMENTS ENVS10003 JOURNAL EMMA BUNN

Week 1 2nd August 2013 COMPRESSION: A force that tends to shorten or squeeze something, decreasing its volume OR the degree to which a substance has decreased in size (in volume, length, or some other dimension) after being or while being subject to stress.

Week 2 9th August 2013 FRAME: a stable construction of vertical structural members of which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof made of horizontal ceiling joists and sloping rafters (or pre-fabricated roof trusses).

ANALYSIS- Due to the shape of the small wooden block this limited the flexibility we had in a design process. We decided to follow a simple but effective design process by creating a 3 walled structure with a roof. After completing this we tested out the strength of the structure by placing a water bottle on top of the roof. The structure withheld the weight of the water bottle but was starting to cave in from the centre of the roof outwards, creating the walls to angle in order to support the roofing. To allow for more weight to be added we decided to strengthen the structure by adding another layer so that the compression level in the structure would increase compacting the materials therefore resulting in the shortening of the wood allowing for the weight load being held to also increase. LOAD PATHS- Until the second layer of the structure was added the structure started to collapse in the centre of the roof due to the both the left and right wall angling in to support the weight on the roof. With the addition of the second layer of walls the weight load was able to increase due to the increase in compression evident in the structure, therefore spreading out the total weight load of water bottle more effectively.

load path spread evenly over the 3 walls and roof. EFFICIENCY OF THE MATERIAL-WOODEN BLOCKS: Although wood is a common building material due to its extensive availability and ease of fabrication for this activity the efficiency of flexibility in the small wooden blocks we were given to use meant that the and shape of structural designs were limited without the use of other materials such as glue or rubber bands, which also effects the maximum level of compression able to be reached.

1: development of the frame

2: additions to the frame

3: structure completed

ANALYSIS: After cutting our 40x10cm piece of balsa wood into 40 without much thought into how we were going to outplay the structural design, we found that in order to get the height we needed our stripes of Balsa wood were required to be of greater length. We made the decision to split each piece of balsa wood width way and glue them together length way in order to have 40 longer pieces of Balsa wood. This then altered the load path making it weaker than if it were to be one complete piece of balsa wood. We chose to use a triangular frame as it was best suited to evenly spread the load and was subject only to axial tension or compression. After creating the base frame we built upwards following the same framing adding in pieces of balsa wood to create tension and act as a Support for the load to increase and follow the frame up another level before reaching a peak. LOAD PATHS: The load in which this structure is best described by, is that of a Static Load. Due to the structure increasing the number of balsa wood pieces (the load) slowly until it reached the peak value of static force which in the case of this structure was after all 40 pieces of Balsa wood had been added to the structure and the pieces were starting to fold due to weight loads being unsupported which is a result of creating a frame that was not able to hold the compete weight of the structure as not enough compression or tension was evident. EFFICENCY OF BULSA WOOD: Making the decision to split our 40 pieces of balsa wood in order to make them have a greater length meant that they were a thin and weak structure that could not hold much weight. Balsa wood is a material that when included as part of a structural design can be strong as long as the initial framing can withhold the overall structure through being strong and compressed.

Examples of construction concepts by fellow class members:

(Tutorial group 1 2013, week 1) (Tutorial group 1 2013, week 2)

Week 3 16th August 2013

CASE STUDY SITE VISIT:

Week 3 16th August 2013

CASE STUDY SITE VISIT: 1:

Ormond Theology Centre Reception: Links: Ormond College Construction type: Framework, compression of the roof, cantilevering, mass construction type. Structural Systems: Steel beams, spacing, steel frame/wall frame

Materials: Steel, bricks, glass, composite building board/chip board

Queens College Extension: Links: Queens College Construction type: Mass construction

Structural Systems: Structural load bearing panels, foundations, framing

(University of Melbourne LMS 2013)

Site plan for the Oval Pavilion at Melbourne University. After learning about how to read site plans this week in e-learning it has been helpful to test our understanding by marking out three different view points through out the site and documenting what we saw and the stage of development in that area whilst noting the angle in which we were standing.

Materials: Prefabricated concrete, asphalt

3 3:

• Foundations for the pavilion placed down. • Retaining walls • Strip footing 500 wide 500 deep • Steel reinforcements • Yellow caps protecting the steel beams and acting as a safety measure for the workers on site.

• Foundations for the pavilion placed down. • Retaining wall • Scaffolding • In ground foundations • Supporting beams- Lateral Bracing • Excavations • Electrical tubing in the white due to 95% of services in the concrete slab

• Screed on top of concrete slab • Basement level • Joists • Safety framing • Wooden beams • Spacing • Trench will back filled. Currently protected by waterproofing fabric preventing moisture and damage • Natural clay surrounding the site.

Site Manager: Henry talked about some of the key building materials and dimensions used on site to help better understand the process in which has occurred to get to this stage of development. Walls are load bearing 100mm thick (bottom) 230mm (on top) difference in thickest is due to the span difference experienced on site. The smaller the total span the less thickness in the slab required. 20mm steel bar in the middle acting as reinforcement due to a span of 6m.

MSLE building: Construction type: Mass construction,building ground up. Structural Systems: Spanning-column from wall to wall, cantilevered flooring for mezzanine,beam being load bearing due to span being relatively small. Materials: Brick, glass, plaster board, vinyl floor, in floor slab, prefabricated steel bracing for mezzanine. Other: Pipes for exhaust due to chemistry lab next door

Eastern Precinct Student Centre: Construction type: Mass construction Structural Systems: I Columns, custom made beam, prefabricated framing, cantilevered, spanning Materials: Glass, steel beam, concrete, concrete slab flooring

GLOSSARY:

REFERENCE LIST: Tutorial group 1, 2013, Week 1 Compression activity, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Tutorial group 1, 2013, Week 2 Frame activity, The University of Melbourne, Parkville University of Melbourne LMS 2013, University of Melbourne, Parkville viewed 16 August 2013, <http://app. lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher %3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_262371&tab_tab_group_id=_5_1#global-nav-flyout>