Pipe Rado 2018: A book documenting the 'A Tree Come True' Installation

Pipe Radio

A BOOK DOCUMENTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 'A TREE COMES TRUE' INSTALLATION

GENERATION POP UP — A SCALE RULE COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY CENTRE FOR THE BROADGATE ESTATE

" Scale Rule strives to broaden access

to the built environment professions with clever, fun projects designed for students. Today's students are the architects and engineers of tomorrow.

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In collaboration with The City Centre, Scale Rule challenged a team of London school students to design an art structure that tackles the theme of loneliness in London.

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Introduction A COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY CENTRE In June 2018 Scale Rule teamed up with The City Centre to provide a series of workshops teaching GCSE students the basics of architecture and engineering. The output for the workshops would be a pavilion designed and built by the participants to be installed within the Broadgate Estate - London's biggest pedestrianised neighbourhood.

June 2018 - Wokrshops at the City Centre July/August 2018 - Design development and material sourcing September 2018 - Pavilion build + exhibition

Proposed Site: Exchange Square, Broadgate Estate

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PARTNERSHIPS Generation Pop-up is being completed in partnership with The City Centre, New London Architecture, and Broadgate. It follows on from previous Scale Rule design-build workshops in London, Birmingham and Nottingham completed 2015-2018.

The City Centre Logo

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WORKSHOPS 1

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Generation Pop-up Pavilion Design Brief WHAT Your task is to design a pavilion which will be located on a raised central grass area at Exchange Square, Broadgate. The pavilion should provide seating for the public and some form of shelter from the elements.

This seating and shelter should also be able to be used for performances, acting as a community theatre which will be curated by both the NLA and participating schools and students.

- It is to cover an area of up to 30m², and a volume up to 4m high - It will be in its location for up to 6 months - You should provide some form of seating for the public to use, and a performance area - It should be accessible and available to all - It should be demountable, and usable in segments in the future - It should aim to reuse waste construction material in innovative ways - It should have both grand structural gestures, and finer architectural details

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WHY “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city. People make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” Jane Jacobs, urban activist Broadgate Estate has offered our teams the chance to create a new discrete settlement within bustling London - a theoretical blank page that gives a youthful london community the chance to combat the increasing loneliness and isolation being felt by central London’s communities. A 2013 survey by ComRes found that 52% of Londoners feel lonely, making it the loneliest place in the UK. The UK government recently appointed a minister for loneliness to help fix a problem that affects around 9 million British people, young and old.

The pavilion’s concept should be to form a focal point for social interaction. Think carefully about how it will achieve this. Does a certain activity take place within it? Does its shape or form make people respond in a certain way?

How will the pavilion encourage this interaction? This is for you to decide!

What is the ‘idea’ or reason behind the pavilion?

Who is it designed for and why will people want to visit it?

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WHERE The area where the pavilion will be located is shown on the site plan. After analysing the site, you will need to work out where you want the pavilion to sit and how it will fit in, both within the park area and its wider context.

- How is the pavilion informed by its surroundings?

- Where do people tend to like to sit? Think about which areas are naturally busy or quiet.

- Does the pavilion relate to any particular aspects of the plaza?

- Think about the ground conditions and any structural support required - Think about the level changes across the plaza and how your design might be influenced by, or engage with, these levels.

- Analyse any environmental influences – the sun, wind, temperatures - Remember: a lot of people in their offices will also be viewing this pavilion from above!

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HOW After a design has been chosen the project will be developed, engineered and actually get built! This means really thinking about what it is made of, how it will be made then assembled.

- What possible materials could you use to build the pavilion? Perhaps there are materials recycled from the Broadgate Estate construction sites?

- Could it be made of sheet material, strips, or planks?

- Is it made of small or large parts? Think of how a brick is a hand-sized building unit.

- Are the individual units identical or all different?

- How can the community participate in the construction of the pavilion?

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Workshops How were the workshops organised?

The 2-day workshop, held at the City Centre, was a mix of short talks from professionals about architecture and engineering, and design workshops to put what was learned into action. In teams of 2-5 the students came up with a design for an installation in the heart of Broadgate, London, Students were taken through the whole design process from creating concept sketches and models, producing detailed drawings and explaining how their design would built!

During the afternoon of the second workshop day each team presented their design to a panel of friendly architects and engineers from academia and industry, featuring Caroline Cole, founder of Colander; Peter Murray, Chairman of NLA; Ben O’Connor, Director of the City Centre; and Sinead Conneely, Director of Scale Rule.

The winning design was then developed by the Scale Rule team.

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Lectures

Students engaged in a crash course in architecture and engineering on the Saturday morning. Learning how to draw plans and sections was followed by learning how structural loads are transferred through buildings, and construction basics.

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Workshops Site Visit The students were assigned to design teams and walked to site on Saturday afternoon to begin the design process. Each group was mentored by an architect and an engineer.

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Workshops Pavilion Design Development Working in teams of 4-6, the students developed their designs for a pavilion through concept sketches, 3D Models, plans, sections, and elevations. Working with professional mentors, the teams included details explaining what materials would be used and how to build their pavilions.

Team Deliverables: -Plan, section, and elevation drawings -Perspective Sketches -1:20 Model -Basic construction ideas -Verbal presentation

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Workshops Design Proposals

ADULT PLAYGROUND This concept grew out of the observation that the area is surrounded by offices and is a place where adults have lunch. This pavilion encourages adults to interact with eachother by turning the public space into an interactive game that requies a player at each end of the square. Components would be constructed with springs and move up and down.

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CHALK & CHAT This pavilion encourages adults to interact with eachother by turning the public space into an interactive public messenging board. The structural components of the pavilion, that have been stacked to create the proposed form, will act not only to create the enclosed public seating space, but also as a canvas for city workers to draw on and contribute to. In this way, the design would change over time.

Some of the stacked pavilion components could also be slid out from the structure to become seating.

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Workshops Design Proposals

THE ARCHES This concept references the large station arches that sit behind the square and create shadows across the square throughout the day. This pavilion was proposed to be made of multi-coloured triangular panels that can spin around, changing the apparent colour of the pavilion throughout the day and acting as a moveable element for people to play with.

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BOTTLE BANK This pavilion is shaped in plan as several elements that people can weave between and wander through, maybe bumping into strangers and starting a conversation. The proposed pavilion would allow people to place their plastic bottles in the walls, building up different coloured walls and changing appearance over time, whilst sending a message to the public about sustainability. The pavilion also references a child's game, trying to fit the shapes into the holes - in this case this game has been envisioned as a way of providing seating that slots into the walls when not used, and can be pulled out by the public.

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Workshops Design Proposals

A TREE COME TRUE This pavilion was proposed to be made out of pipes, which have been bundled together to create a treelike structure. The tree like structure has roots at the base that spread out to create seating, and as the tubes rise to create the canopy, people can speak into them or listen out the other end, and have fun communicating with each other whilst sitting and having lunch.

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JUDGING 2

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Student Presentations Presentations and Judging of the design proposals took place to conclude the workshops Sunday afternoon saw the 5 teams of students present their ideas to a panel of built environment professionals, from industry and academia. The judging team provided commentary, advice, and feedback to all teams on everything architecture and engineering.

Caroline Cole, founder of Colander Peter Murray, Chairman of NLA Ben O’Connor, Director of the City Centre Sinead Conneely, Director of Scale Rule

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DESIGN DEVELOPMENT 3

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Design Development Concept to Construction Over two months the Scale Rule team developed the pavilion design from concept to construction information, ready to be assembled by the workshop participants.

Step 1: Define geometry of the tree trunk and branches Develop a 3D computational model of the tree, defining key parameters such as maximum length of pipe, height of the tree overhang, and diameter of the overall trunk. At this stage define which pipes within the trunk attach to the other pipes, and at which levels.

Step 2: Define geometry of tree roots and benching Define the base disk that the tree trunk is connected to. This laser engraved plywood disc indicates locations for individual pipes, and will be used as a prompt of the construction sequence during the process. This base disc also defines which trunk pipes extend into tree roots and form the perimeter benches. Like a real tree, these roots form a broad base to stabilise the tree against lateral loads. The plywood base also distributes the weight of the tree trunk and branches over a large area of soil.

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Step 3: Fabricating the tree components for assembly The completed 3D digital model of the pavilion is then used to produce a cutting list to be sent to the pipe supplier. The pipes were then delivered to site cut to the correct lengths for assembly. The digital model also allowed us to define the type of connectors that were necessary elbows (T-connectors, angle connectors etc) and number of connectors.

Step 4: Assembling the pavilion The pipe cutting list was associated with the 3D model, to indicate which lengths of pipe within the pavilion needed to be connected where. The assembly also defined a specific sequence to ensure that all connections could be accessed and tightened in order. The pavilion was to be assembled by a large team of volunteers, who would arrive with no knowledge of the construction plan and design. To ensure that everyone could help the construction process was subdivided into many small separate tasks printed on instruction sheets.

These were distributed to the assembly teams, who would collect the right lengths of pipe and connectors for assembly. The nature of the installation allowed many helpers to complete small tasks in parallel to ensure a rapid assembly.

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Design Development Prototype Testing The Scale Rule team ordered different pipe products, different types of connectors, and different types of funnels to test the pavilion construction. The team were testing the pipes for connectivity, stability and for how sound would travel through the pipes.

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Sketchbook pages planning the connection types and seat geometry 35

01. Tree base centre point

02. Rings to define the tree trunk diameter, canopy diameter, and key levels

03. Subdivide the key geometry into 36 individual points

04. Scramble the levels of these points to generate a more textured geometry

05. Join the points to form 24 branched pipes of the tree

06. Base tree trunk geometry (increase image size so it is the same as no5)

07. Add randomised branches to the pipe canopy

08. Add horizontal connectors between the individual pipes

09. Extend some pipes at base to form tree roots and benches

10. Add connectors to stabilise benches frames

11. Add plywood surfaces to form bench seats 36

01. The base plate that all pipe tree columns fix into

03. The seating plan showing the construction numbering system

02. Base plate plan showing tube vocal connections

04. Proposed plan; showing central tree trunk and seating radiates out from a central point 37

How to build a pipe radio Volunteer Instructions

A TEAMS II / SPEAKING TUBE 4 0-12-24 1-13-25 7-19-31 9-21-33 III / ATTACH SPEAKING TUBES

0-25 / 31-9 / 24-1 / 21-13 IV / FINAL 4 3-15-27 4-16-28 6-18-30 10-22-34

A1 / ASSEMBLE INDIVIDUAL TRUNKS A2 / ASSEMBLE SPEAKING TUBES A3 / ASSEMBLE INDIVIDUAL BENCH BITS A4 / CUT PLYWOOD SEATS FROM TEMPLATES A5 / PLACE PLYWOOD ON BENCHES, DRILL AND BOLT A6 / SAND EDGES, AND VARNISH EDGES AND TOP B TEAMS B0 / CUT PLYWOOD SETTING OUT DISC BLANK AND PLACE B1 / TEST FUNNEL FIXINGS B2 / CHECK ALL TRUNKS HAVE CORRECT CONNECTORS ON AND TIGHTEN ALL CONNECTORS B3 / ASSEMBLE TRUNK - LIFT 3 CONNECT/FIX DOWN I / INNER 4 02-14-26 05-17-29 08-20-32 11-23-35

B4 / CHECK ALL BENCHES HAVE CORRECT CONNECTORS ON AND TIGHTEN ALL CONNECTORS B5 / FIX BENCHES IN AND CONNECT TOGETHER B6 / FIT FUNNELS B7 / INSPECT

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Assembly information for each of the tree trunk components 39

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CONSTRUCTION 4

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Construction Weekend The pavilion was constructed over a single weekend by the young people who participated in the design workshops.

Scale Rule volunteers supervised and mentored groups of students who worked on different pavilion components come together to create the final sculpture.

The pavilion would be made entirely from different lengths of pipe, that would be connected following printed instructions that Scale Rule had prepared. Instructions explained which lengths should be connected, and using which connectors (L-shape, T-shape, Y-Shape).

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Scale Rule team at the completion of the build weekend

Scale Rule team at the pavilion opening 57

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IN USE 5

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Pavilion Opening The pavilion was opened by Peter Murray; Chairman, New London Architecture

Peter Murray officially opened the pavilion to a crowd of all students who participated in the workshops, and volunteer architects and engineers who had mentored the students. Peter invited the winning student design team to give a short overview of their design concepts and experience building their first structure.

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The winning design team 63

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Credits Project Leads

Visualisations

Lettie McKie The City Centre Phil Isaac Scale Rule Gemma Hagan Broadgate

Jamie Vickery

Judges

Graphic Design Robert Marshall Felix Belfield

Professional Photographer

Caroline Cole Peter Murray Ben O’Connor Sinead Conneely

John Sturrock for Broadgate

Volunteers

Stephen Ericsson

Andy McFadden Premma Makanji Dragos Naicu Gaia Laidler Necdet Ozkan Aurelie De Boissieu Eduardo Velasquez Caileigh Cowan Simona Uzanova Jacquie Holland Nour Al Ahmad Mohammed Magid Hadeel Hashim Annabel Koeck Sinead Conneely Steven Kennedy Dan Bergsagel Laura Hannigan

Broadgate Event Management

Materials The Metal Store

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@scale_rule

scalerule

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www.scalerule.org

www.thecitycentre.london