The picket fence is a type of timber fence often used decoratively for domestic boundaries, distinguished by their evenly spaced vertical boards, the pickets, attached to horizontal rails. The white picket fence came to symbolise, particularly in the US, the ideal middle-class suburban life: the nuclear family with its 2.4 children, a dog, a station wagon, a large house and peaceful living. With his film Blue Velvet, David Lynch deployed the picket fence as a visual ploy to subvert suburban living as “stultifying at best, soul-poisoning at worst. The visual monotony of a given neighborhood’s cookie-cutter architecture becomes a predictable stand-in for the unthinking conformity of the community’s expectations, as well as the narrowness of the denizens’ dreams and desires.”

The materialisation of our Costa Street project in Peckham is merely a contemporary interpretation of the traditional two-storey semi-detached house. Formally this was a central entry, with framed windows and a pitched roof;  materially, brick walls and a slate roof.

Whilst studying under Peter Cook of #Archigram at @TheBartlett in the mid-nineties I was exposed to architectural discourse as tittle-tattle. Yet as this article in @TheObserver suggests, gossip unlocks the secrets of power: or rather what I experienced as an exposure to the back story of architectural politics.

Slate (roofs) and brick (walls) are ubiquitous building materials in London and thus can readily facilitate planning consents through ‘normalcy’. On the other hand the architect in her quest for innovation is always asking: how can I contribute something new to the dialogue between brick and slate? She did a quick mock-up… TBC

Keywords:

• xylothic conversion
• taiaha
• inclusive Māori carving

     

How are fires fought in high-rise blocks?

The deadly blaze at the 24-storey Grenfell tower block in west London has shocked the UK. Fire services around the world have to deal with blazes in high-rise blocks, so what lessons have been learned?

Firefighters arriving at the scene of a high-rise fire would normally set up a base about two floors below the actual fire, says Bob Parkin, an ex-firefighter turned safety consultant. This allows them to set up entry control points, so firefighters going to fight the blaze can be recorded, and crucially, have their breathing apparatus checked so it’s clear how much time they can spend in a dangerous, smoke-filled area. The amount of time each person can spend fighting the fire is limited by the amount of air available – so any minutes spent climbing up into a building with equipment is precious fire-fighting time wasted. “You’re going to use a considerable amount of air going up the 10 floors, so because of that and various other things, they will set up the control point two floors below the fire,” Mr Parkin says. Once they are able to go in, the immediate focus, if people are reported to be trapped in the building, would be on rescuing them, rather than firefighting, and the firefighters would carry minimum levels of equipment for that reason, he adds. “They will have to fight their way in, in some instances, but they will take chances when people’s lives are at risk, without a doubt.”

But the situation faced at Grenfell Tower in London would have been extremely difficult, Mr Parkin says, because the fire was able to spread so rapidly, and appeared to engulf nearly the entire building. Having to get 20 storeys up to rescue people in that situation “is just unbelievable”, he says. Without extra air supply for the person rescued, the journey back out of the building would be extremely dangerous.The fire brigade would also have had to operate from a very low level in the building because of how far the blaze had spread, and there were concerns that the building might collapse. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40273714 We now asked Bob to look at a small block of flats made from CLT. Surprisingly CLT solid wood elements are more fire-resistant than is generally assumed. CLT panels have a moisture content of approx. 12%. and so if CLT is exposed to fire, and thus to an elevated supply of energy, its temperature rises and the water molecules embedded within start to evaporate at approx. 100 °C. At temperatures above 200-300 °C, these chemical compounds decompose in a process known as “pyrolysis” (whereby gas emissions from combustible components in the wood burst into flame), gradually spreading along the wood, leaving a charring area behind it. This char layer is formed from the carbonaceous residue of pyrolysis, which burns, generating embers. This layer’s properties — in particular, low density and high permeability — act as heat insulation and protect the underlying, undamaged wood. This results in a carbonised surface which protects the internal CLT layers which have not yet been exposed to fire and although in a fire, solid wood constructions become charred on the surface, the process of pyrolysis and the behaviour of wood can actually be predicted (unlike steel or concrete constructions). Through the properties of pyrolysis and the ability to form a char layer, the building material, wood, has inherited its fire resistance from nature itself. By contrast, steel constructions, for example, require additional fire protection measures. The environmentally-friendly building material offers unique features when exposed to fire, which means that CLT elements have a high level of fire resistance.

Clandon Park, a National Trust-run stately home near Guildford, was devastated in a massive blaze on Wednesday April 29 2015.

Clandon calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down
Clandon calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
Clandon calling, now don’t look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
Clandon calling, see we ain’t got no swing
Except for the ring of the truncheon thing

The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
‘Cause Clandon is drowning
I live by the river Clandon calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
Clandon calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out and draw another breath
Clandon calling and I don’t want to shout
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out
Clandon calling, see we ain’t… [morse code S-O-S fade out]

Words: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones (The Clash)

“London Calling” is a reference to BBC reports that were broadcast during the darkest periods of World War II. “This is London Calling,” a voice would say, before delivering the news to people who worried about their very survival amid the most destructive war in human history

Who would have thought cutting slate could be so easy? I start to think a whole generation of architecture students at NCKU Taiwan making slate models. Marvin will make a slate model of our Costa St project, by way of example. 

The tramezzino is a: triangular Italian sandwich with the crusts removed and are popular and inexpensive. The origin of the tramezzino can be found in (Caffè Mulassano) in Turin where I worked for Andrea Bruno Architetto and where I also met both la Juve and Lingotto.  The tramezzino I understand to be a halfway, between breakfast and lunch but also between the triangle and the regular polygon. I like triangles. It reminds me of Polynesia as triangulation in navigation gives 3-point geo-spatial fixity. What happens if we triangulate the fibre cement sheet cladding on our proposal by cutting along the diagonals?