BOULEvard
BOULEvard The BOULEbals are coming, rolling their way through Brussels to mark the beginning of the Kanal Playground festival this September. The BOULEbals come in three sizes, S, M, and XL. Through a series of workshops, ONOFF along with the people of Brussels will assemble the balls and embark together of experimental journeys through the city! The design of the BOULEbals come from the principles of Buckminster Fuller, using Tensegrity to make a balanced structure - tough enough for rolling through the city.
The BOULEbal also leads on from Fuller’s idea of shared experiment; of collective building and discovery. Whilst for some, the BOULEbals will roll p -ast their windows as alien objects invading the city, those who take part in the workshops will be in on the game! Curiosity will be shared by all. For those discovering the BOULEbal for the first time, it will be an abstract curiosity, a shock and surprise to see these structures rolling through their streets, and past their buildings! For the kids, the grandparents and the fellow experimenters it will be an invested curiosity; a shared discovery to challenge their city, their expectations and assumptions of their urban environment.
The BOULEballs have a split personality. On the one hand they appear to be fascinating objects, intriguing in their own right, as structures or as overgrown street furniture with an instruction manual like all other flatpacks before it. But on the other hand they have a distinct mission in the city, the BOULEballs are part of an urban strategy, each testing the wider area.
For ONOFF, this split is exciting. Connecting the micro - the strange object built with collective energy - to the macro -the city, where we live and where we act our everyday - is a powerful experiment indeed. DoItYourself doesn’t have to be small, the city is a Playground for experiments as much as your shed filled with half-fixed furniture and modified shelves! DIY can be collective, and it results too can be shared and learned from.
The TENSIONIZER
The TRANSPORTIZER
MATERIAL LIST - WHAT YOU NEED
BBoule O U L LBal E b aXll l X L
30 Marley Water Pipes, (2000mm length x 120mm diameter) - [Wall thickness 3mm]
Polypropylene Rope (98m length x 6mm thickness)
15 S-Hooks (55mm length)
225 Nickel Grommet (10mm diameter)
15 S-Hooks (55mm length)
Tensionizer
2 Steel Ratchets Clamps [with fabric bands] 1 Large wooden Beam (3000mm length x 180 width x 100 height) Scrap timber spacers (width 100mm x 12mm height)
CARDball M
Medi Bal (M)
30 Cardboard tubes, (1020mm length x 60mm diameter) - [Wall thickness 8mm]
Polypropylene Rope (45m length x 6mm thickness)
ScREWS
5 Timber Dowel (1000mm length x 60mm diameter)
150 Box Screws 5x50mm 150 Box Screws 5x80mm 200 Spengler A2 Screws and Caps
BABYball S
BaBy Bal (s)
Polypropylene Rope (10m length x 3mm thickness)
Polypropylene Rope (10m length x 3mm thickness)
A S S E M B LY Step 1
Let’s build a tensegrity ball! The structure is composed of struts. You start with connecting two of the struts. They connect at a third of the length. One of the ends snaps into the rope of the other strut. Keep the ropes facing upwards.
A S S E M B LY Step 2
You continue to connect struts until you build a pentagon. The pentagon is a “side� of the final 12 sided dodecahedron. Pay attention to the direction of the struts- that they all point in the same direction.
The struts have specifically fabricated end pieces. They accommodate the two ropes which will hold the ball together.
CARDball M Detail
During the construction of the CARDball M the “cap piece� is screwed in to connect the card-tube struts to each other.
BOULLEball XL Detail In the BOULLEball XL, the struts are polypropylene tubes. They connect by sliding the rope of tube1 into the cut grooves of tube2. The ropes of tube1 and 2 form a cross within tube 2. Metal shackles are used to hold the 2 ropes together and lock the joint in place.
A S S E M B LY Step 3
Triangle
Step 3 is the beginning of the next 5 pentagons. Add one more strut to each junction, by sliding it under the protruding tube and connecting it to the other’s rope. These completed junctions form triangles that are the structural corners of the final ball.
A S S E M B LY Step 4
Repeat step 1 with the strut from step 3, then finish the pentagons with one more strut.
A S S E M B LY Step 5
When the sixth pentagon is complete, you have a tensegrity dome! This is where the scale of your ball becomes significant.
A S S E M B LY Step 6
Step six is to complete the ball by repeating steps 1-5. In the case of the BOULEball XL, you need to lift your ball to finish step 6. In the case above we used a tree to hoist the structure to a comfortable height and complete the form.
collective ON/OFF are a young network of Architects, Designers, Filmakers and Urbanists. Our curiousity lies with the city, its complexity offers the ground for experiments into the contemporary condition and the opportuntiy to question, to tune and to discover new realities. With each project we draw on our combined experience and unqiue skills to investigate and affect the cities live dimension. We primiraily concieve of tools; structures both physical, social and fictional, which enable shared engagement with the citizens of the place in the experiments carried out.
www.onoff.cc
Festival Kanal 2014