The Sawmill in Robin Hood

PDP Diary Semester 1 Mufaddal Nagree K1130963

Introduction “The home should be the treasure chest of living”. Everyone would love to experience life through someone’s art that not only covers the basic necessities and comforts but also makes a direct impact on their lives via both modern and cultural aspects. My fascination and appeal for the design of the built environment has been mounting since a very young age. I have always been interested in the areas of mathematics, sciences and visual art and design. My ability to draw and create led me to appreciate other forms of art of which the setting of a domestic environment allured me most. My interest was further developed in the unique styles of Fatimid architecture which reflects Fatemi civilisations and places of worship usually contribute to a strong cultural background of a child and if these structures respect the environment, our future generation will do so too. Hereafter, I made a firm decision that I am going to become one of those who will combine his artistic skills and scientific knowledge to design physical structures that would directly impact people’s lives.

Despite not having the opportunity to get education in art and design at IB-level, becoming an architect is what I have always aimed for and the comparative lack of art and craft skills did not demoralize me in my endeavours. Being part of a third world country the architecture cannot be compared to that of the developed ones. Tanzania is full of history and some of its architecture clearly reflects German, British and Arabian influence and portrays the nature of civilisation during the colonial period. Architecture would provide me the opportunity to put my skills forward and help the society in my home country.

In the first year I saw myself as a beginner in the field of art and design and could not keep up with the sheer talent that environed me. Despite having issues with drawing, making and presenting my work, I was focused and charged by passion which, even though barely passing my studio modules, led me through to second year.

One of the most challenging parts of the year was coordinating the work load with the hours of commuting. Time management is an ongoing skill that needs to be improved and I shall hope to do so in my following years. Also, there was a lack of boldness and confidence in producing hand drawings and fortunately now CAD will be useful whilst at the same time hands-on working skills will be developed via modules like Design Representation. Research skills will hopefully be improved as well as exploratory and process skills in realising and resolving design projects. By learning more of architectonics and building services, more knowledge can be integrated into design projects and carry out sufficient experiments to test proposals. Social and cultural aspects of architecture shall be kept in mind as often they do not receive the desired attention even though it is absolutely important to consider so. After all, buildings are made for people to inhabit. above

Jame-ul-Anwar Mosque, Egypt

Object in the Landscape

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Studio 2.3

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Construction of a waterwheel

To start the semester with a hit, studio 2:3 planned to take on a 1:1 intensive construction project to get us back in momentum after a lazy summer. The three week project; to design, construct and install the 1:1 scale timber waterwheel was undertaken as part of semester one’s focus on the industrial heritage and infrastructure of the Derwent Valley Textile Mills, where the mechanically powered factory system that underpinned the Industrial Revolution was first developed.

The first day at studio was creative and bustling with ideas as different proposals and approaches to constructing the wheel were presented. With a series of sketch models, iterative drawings and a will to install a sculpture in Hogsmill River, a design was agreed upon. This was followed by two weeks of intensive drawing, making prototypes, redrawing, and remaking.

A series of obstacles and constraints were faced in the course of this project including delivery delays, health and safety requirements and coordination between different teams; the wheel, base and metal/axle teams. However, on the day of execution, a group of dedicated individuals, with a strong will to drive them, managed to construct an elegant and mesmerising undershot water wheel, in the landscape ‘home’ to Knights Park students and staff – the first gesture towards sustainability and history in accordance with this year’s theme.

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Elevation top, left

Section bottom

Proposal

1:20

Wheel Isometric Drawing

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Base Isometric Drawing

By Paul Johnson

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1:20

Process and Prototyping

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Testing axle elements right

Making templates for wheel elements Photos by Archie Watson

Construction

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Base construction right

Wheel construction

As Built

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View from KP Bar right

View from workshop

Catalogue Trip to Derbyshire Little Experiences In preparation for the upcoming design project, it was first important to look into the wider context of this semester’s project; hence a trip was made to Derbyshire; where the birth of industrialization took place.

In the 18th Century, an important figure, Sir Richard Arkwright, claimed to have made an important invention of the time; a ‘Water Frame’ – a machine powered by a waterwheel, independent of human labour. The Derwent Valley is where this clustered production by means of water power began. Alongside these factories, houses and other facilities were built for staff, forming new industrial settlements in the pristine landscape. The task was to observe, evaluate and document the past and the impact upon it the course of history and its position in the present.

A group of us made a trip to Derbyshire a day before the whole studio went, to get the ‘feel’ of the place in advance. Our first day drive enabled us to appreciate the built environment in the complex landscape as we observed various level changes, vernacular architecture, traditional building materials and a very humble society and culture.

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Pump House

Promenade along the canal

The next day we saw ourselves walking from Cromford village, the home of the Arkwright Mills, all the way to Ambersgate station. With obsessive photography, the explorer’s spirit and the appreciation of rich natural elements, observations were made to get an understanding of the canal and river network and the adjacent built environment. Having to absorb this promenade and think over it during the night, the next day was spent at the Masson Mills Museum, where an awestriking demonstration and display of the tools of trade of the past was held.

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Pile of bobbins opposite

View of rail track

Catalogue Trip to Derbyshire The Mill

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Painting of the Mill right

The actual ring where Sir Richard Arkwright tethered his horse when the weather was bad

In the demonstration at Masson Mills a pile of information was thrown at us and I managed to pick up a few interesting points: Some of the looms present were approximately 240 years old and bought second hand.

Flying shuttles travelled at approximately 60mph. They were alternatively known as Kissing shuttles and were banned in 1950s because they were thought to transmit diseases.

The man who was always on alert and ready to maintain the looms if anything went wrong was called the Tackler.

The good quality designer material which was very expensive at the time was made in the Punch-card Jacquard looms. It dealt with very thin thread which was difficult to handle and to be done approximately 4400 times/ ends otherwise it caused imperfection.

The Pattern book contains designed patterns which are then copied onto the punchcard.

After going through the process of carding, the cotton needed spinning to give it strength; locking all the fibres together with the help of a Spinning Mule. The Spinning Mule was the most sophisticated machine at the time – 50p a week was the standard wage compared to the 7pound-wage a spinning mule man earned.

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The flying shuttle top right

Detail of carding machine

Catalogue Trip to Derbyshire Taking part in a team Hereafter, the studio was divided into teams to collect and record as much information as possible in a range of scales and perspectives, to produce a catalogue; a body of work that represents and directly impacts on the forthcoming design proposal. The following body of work covered a documentation of a series of different themes; nature, built environment, infrastructure and tools of trade of the textile industry.

Taking part in the tools of trade group, it was critical to understand the development of physical context in order to satisfy these tools as well as the factory and its products. As a result of Arkwright’s invention of the water-frame and the persistent will to expand the production, a building typology had to be considered to serve these needs and equipment, and hence the Mill was born.

Masson Mills being our case study; we looked at the journey of the raw cotton being imported, travelling along the transport network and delivered, or rather, dragged, on site by children, going through the manufacturing process with the help of hydro power and being exported again along the same transport network across the UK and Overseas.

We divided ourselves to produce drawings and photographs at a range of scales.

The task at hand was to look at the immediate context of Masson Mills and an understanding of the chanelling of water, the man made change in level; the weir; and its journey to the wheel to harness power. The aim was to represent the plan as it would have been at the time when the Mill was built. A significant amount of time was spent on the importance of representing water and its journey towards the wheel.

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Strategic sketch of weir and mill bottom

Water contour sketch

Manchester Liverpool

America

Brazil

Key Canal used for transporting cotton Children carrying cotton to Masson Mills Scale 1:5000

Strategic maps showing journey of materials

By Esra Tekagac

Masson Mill Site Plan and Section at 1:500

Masson Mills site plan

Section showing mechanized processes

By Nael Kazma

Section showing mechanized processes

By Nael Kazma

Cotton carding machine

By Camille Lacoste

Wool carding machine

By Simon Dean

MACHINES AND PROCESS

(Above left) The Spinning Mule, used to spin roven cotton into thread.

(Above) View of the workshop and engineering room, housing the gears that powered Masson Mill.

(Left, from top to bottom) Carding, roving and spinning of raw cotton into thread.

Loading of a Flying shuttle (c. 1890) with pirn.

Design and manufacturing of a punch card for a Jacquard loom; example VM H Ă„UPZOLK JSV[O (Below) Assortment of dyed cotton, to be roven and spun into thread.

Photographic study of cotton manufacturing process

By Simon Dean

Design Project The Saw Mill in Robin Hood Site The Robin Hood site was chosen for the revival of the memory of small scale industry – a micro timber sawmill powered by the natural force of water. But why this site? In comparison to the other two sites by the river, this one is by the canal; one of the most significant transport network before the rail. It is a quiet, intimate space with a beautiful landscape and a stream running down from a height to a deep pit; the perfect spot for a turbine. An old sawmill was operated that cut stone and the stone came from the quarry owned by the local Duke of Devonshire and transported by barges along the Cromford Canal. The site was originally an industrial settlement built to serve the quarry. The horizon towers above the site to the South East, the uneven hills composed of the, now overgrown, spoil heaps from the old abandoned quarry workings enhancing the area’s mystical and magical feel. Most importantly though, there is an existing sawmill, and in its echo a timber sawmill shall be proposed.

There is a tree in the site, and the tree is important and beautiful. It stands separate from the forest that surrounds it and next to the powerful waterfall; and the aim is, not to get rid of it, but to build around it. There are retaining walls; old, mossy and sturdy stone retaining walls; an existing structural and beautiful feature to be used somehow.

There is the Cromford Canal, which is assumed to be a working canal, like it used to be in the past, with barges constantly travelling along the canal; helping the raw material to be delivered to site, and the finished products to be departed. The site is archaeologically rich and so the foundation was to be a shallow concrete raft. There was a need to depart from the domestic and local language and yet compliment the context and so the material of construction was to be timber; long lasting and adaptable in the future; like the Old Sawmill is.

The planning had begun.

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Waterfall

Promenade on site

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Contrast of texture - Stone pavement and canal right

A hole in one of the retaining walls where the coal was fed to the blacksmith of the estate

The Old Sawmill

Design Project The Saw Mill in Robin Hood Initial Approach The first version was based on a couple of ideas as mentioned earlier. The retaining walls were to be used somehow, as they are beautiful; the timber structure would seem to emerge from an old stone wall, slowly revealing the timber structure to a stroller along the canal. Vertical larch cladding was chosen to compliment the warm ambience with its warm colour and texture. Vertical because the building sits on the edge of water; a reflective surface; giving depth to the canal as the larch strips would dive in and show itself off on the reflection.

The floor area is enough to accommodate the gang saw, board edger and pendulum saw and so the journey of material is straight forward; in through the canal and out on the Old Sawmill front yard for drying and loading them on the barges. It’s a wet and humid area, and so a pitched roof was ideal. Since it is a timber construction, it was bound to be a framed construction exposed from the inside, and so a framing option was also tested.

The criticism was that this volume appeared to be too tight to the pit and the tree; which of course are the key elements, and therefore the volumes needed development.

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Sketch models looking at framing and reflection bottom

Sketch model showing volume

First version; strategic sketch

First version; planning sketch

Design Project The Saw Mill in Robin Hood The curved wall As a result of the tight space and the fascination of building around the tree and adjacent to the retaining walls, a solution of a curved wall seemed spot on.

This would also help maximise light penetration on the North facade – another element; light. This created generous breathing space and made use of a second retaining wall. However, timber framing would pose a problem. Studying principles of coopering and steaming wood; the structure did not seem to work. The tree did form more of a social space and the idea was to bring the workshop and office people together; people; the heights weren’t working and needed to be ‘human scale’. Also, the whole timber processing is quite linear; the machine arrangement looked out of place. A critical decision had to be made.

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1:200 sketch model of curved wall idea opposite

Sketch of curved wall idea

Sketch showing framing and construction detail

The critical decision: Sketch plan showing change from curved to linear wall

Design Project The Saw Mill in Robin Hood Precedent Studies and Le Corbusier Perhaps the most influential persona this year was Le Corbusier; master of modern architecture. Not because he built timber structures (like the saw mill); he didn’t; but because his intellectual caliber is incredible. Most importantly, his profound change in direction from pre-war to post-war is quite interesting.

From pure white geometrical forms he dives into a poetic stream in his late years of wisdom. His theories of the significance of nature and other theories that are reworked are still used in his late works. A comparison relevant to the saw mill project would be that of the L’esprit Nouveau Pavilion and the Maisons Jaoul. In the pavilion he deliberately includes a tree as part of the proposal with carefully articulated floor and ceiling to allow breathing space for the tree and a direct gesture that trees are beautiful and are part of architecture. The two houses built for the Jaoul family show his obsession of exposed rough materiality and that the aesthetics of aging and weathering is beautiful. Therefore the retaining of the tree on site and the use of existing, beautiful stone retaining walls flirting with the warm larch cladding; which will eventually age.

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L’esprit Nouveau Pavilion bottom

Maisons Jaoul Photos from Fondation Le Corbusier

Tadao Ando’s walk along the wall approach outside the Vitra Pavilion centre was very interesting.

In a sunstruck open space a concrete wall surrounds a carpet of natural grass and a few trees, with a narrow concrete paving that takes control of the promenade. The notion of walking around the trees, which are beautiful in the setting, like that of the Robin Hood site, indirectly influenced the choice of stone paving around the tree, aiming to allow the space to be inhabited under the tree instead of restricting it. Next was the Musée Archéologique by Lacaton and Vassal. The façade consists of lightweight metal shutters that open to a glazed entrance. This approach however did not work for the saw mill project as the premises asks for secure and strong shutters and therefore industrial roller shutters seemed more appropriate. However, the tree in the immediate context forms an interesting social courtyard. As for minimal roof profiling to stress verticality of the larch clad was influenced by the Lanes project by Mole Architects.

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Vertical larch clad; The Lanes Photo from dezeen.co.uk left, top

Walking along the wall; Vitra Pavilion Centre Photo by Reinier de Jong left, middle

Aerial view; Vitra Pavilion Centre Photo from vitra.com left, bottom

Courtyard; Musée Archéologique Photo from Lacaton and Vassal

Design Project The Saw Mill in Robin Hood Final Version After having made an important decision; the volume now looked somewhat like a wing structure. The zig-zag gluelam frame structure was chosen, allowing an uninterrupted floor plan. The heights are now inverted, with the higher points by the canal; allowing a deeper reflection of the cladding in the canal, and the lower point surrounding the tree and waterfall to provide a ‘human scale’ and create a social space for workers and admin staff. The larch cladding would be treated with a water proof finish. Larch however, dries quickly and the moisture movement is minimal and the larch would still age beautifully in what seems like a humid and moss-prone area.

Any ideas of deep eaves and protecting the facades are eliminated and the roof profiling is minimised to accentuate the aging and verticality of the facades respectively. In order to have a subtle curve in the roof because of the nature of the form of the building, customized slates can be adjusted to do so. The industrial shutters circulation of raw materials and general heavy and bulky equipment. Their texture gives an industrial feel and a contrast to the timber structure and the vertical profiling compliments the vertical cladding.

The following body of work shows the work presented at the final review of this semester.

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Sketch of truss framing option bottom

Sketch of employed gluelam structure

1:200

Models showing development

1:100

Isometric; primary structure

1:100

Model showing primary structure

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Floor Plan 1:50

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1:100

Floor Plan

1:100

Roof Plan

North Facing Elevation 1:50

East Facing Elevation 1:50

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North Facing Elevation bottom

East Facing Elevation

South Facing Elevation 1:50

West Facing Elevation 1:50

1:100 top

South Facing Elevation bottom

West Facing Elevation