S(l)OSH Pop-Up – Spa of Algorithmic Knowledge and Mud-

Project Summary

S(l)OSH (standing for ‘ slosh= to move through mud’) is a new Pop-Up Spa situated in Hackney Road, in East London. It is designed as an interactive relaxation area to be experienced through exploring and reflecting within a cavernous space, surrounded by mysterious voids, while soaking in a healing mud tub. S(l)OSH represents a new concept of fun mud house, that tells a different side of the wellness story.

The Spa aims to promote the cleaning and health rituals around the world and invite the users to become aware of the areas in need of healthy kickstarts. The new concept started from the idea that spas and relaxation areas are generally luxurious places to relax and heal and sometimes they are too expensive for the general citizen. S(l)OSH wants to bring healthy hedonism to the city while boosting urban areas that need a little support, while making the cleaning and health rituals accessible and fun to everyone.

Philosophy

Bathhouses, spas and saunas have long been part of cleaning and health rituals around the world. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years, and can be found now in high-end spas in many countries of the world. Mud wraps are spa treatments where the skin is covered in mud for a shorter or longer period. The mud causes sweating, and proponents claim that mud baths can slim and tone the body, hydrate or firm the skin, or relax and soothe the muscles. It is alleged that some mud baths are able to relieve tired and aching joints, ease inflammation, or help to “flush out toxins” through sweating.Opportunity

The design is composed of layers of horizontal wooden planks that follow the mathematical formula of a Scherk’s Minimal Surface geometry of a continuous surface, placed in and around a shipping container. The Spa has been designed after several form manipulation and shape iterations of the initial system, followed by massing of standard bath tubs in a tight space. The proposal stands somewhere between the realms of both sculpture and architecture – a spatial construct where movement through will encourage intimate social interaction, and a full emerge into the relaxation experience.

Physical Description

Visually, the main part of the Spa is composed of three main areas: the reception, the mud baths and the outdoor pools. The spas includes hot mud tubes, cold water plunges, a changing area, shower and relaxation platforms. The structure will be built from layers of horizontal CNC cut wooden planks stacked on top of each other and fixed together. Internally, the bathtubes will have a smooth concrete walls to hold the liquid and make the stay more pleasant for the sitting. Despite being designed to fit in one or two containers, the spa can expand even outdoors and other spaces.

 

Reflection

Reflection presents this years burners with an intimate setting in which to share their inner most confessions, secrets and tales – With the option to do so both openly with other burners face to face, or retain the mystery of their identity by sharing with a complete stranger through the pavilions semi private screen. Reflection embodies the theme ‘Carnival of Mirrors’ in a variety of manners:- the geometry of the pavilion not only mirrors itself in its own form, but also incorporates a reflective surface within its interior spaces. The reflective physicality of the pavilion beautifully juxtaposes its function, by giving its burners a physical platform with which to cogitate their innermost thoughts and feelings, and share these with others. The pavilion is created as a result of rigorous testing of origami in order to create a single Spiralhedron which is then mirrored through along all axis.

Based upon a geometric origami principle which outlines the rules for the triangular subdivision of a 2-dimensional shape and assigns mountain and valleys creases to each subsequent subdivision the Spiralhedron has been optimised through both digital and physical testing. Reflection takes an abstract approach to this years theme, the pavilion’s form manifests itself as a result of mirroring this singular Spiralhedron in the X,Y and Z axis, which in turn creates its enclosing plywood form. In order to create the semi-private confessional screen, the panels incorporate a pattern, providing both the function of privacy, but also narrating the origins of the pavilions final form.

The principles of Burning Man are carefully considered, by providing an interactive base for participation that is never fully accomplished without the burners involvement. By sharing their stories, burners create a unique experience manifested through the ideals of trust and sharing, which facilitates a special bond between the burners. Upon its burning at the end of the festival, ‘Reflection’ becomes a resting place for the confessions, secrets and stories of its burners, allowing new bonds to be formed.

Construction

Due to form being created through the act of mirroring the entire pavilion will be made of 9 unique laser cut panels which will be bolted together with both metal hinges and 90 degrees and wooden brackets at 135 degrees.

Dimensions

Constrained by the size of a plywood sheet each individual Spiralhedron is made of two sheets of plywood (requiring 16 in total). Made of eight spiralhedrons ‘Reflection’ has a footprint of 3.5metres*3.5metres with a maximum height of 3.5m creating a footprint equal to that of the height of the pavilion.

16/05/14 DS10 Final Cross-Crit

We had our final crit today! Great projects concluding our brief2B:Realize. Here are couple pictures. Thank you very much to our external critiques Daewha Kang (Associate Zaha Hadid Architects), Lawrence Friesen (GenGeo), Stephen Melville (Director Ramboll UK), James Solly (Buro Happold), Michael Clarke and to our colleagues Anna Liu and Roberto Botazzi.

Joe Leach’s Burning Man Temple

Joe Leach’s Burning Man Temple

Andrei Jipa’s 3D printed fractal city

Andrei Jipa’s 3D printed fractal city

Josh Haywood’s Pop-Up Mosque in Trafalgar Square

Garis Lu’s Mont St-Michel’s Chanting Bridge

Lorna Jackson’s Surreal Dali Museum

Lorna Jackson’s Surreal Dali Museum

William Garforth-Bless’Bamboo Tower for the Damyang festival

Charlotte Yates’ London Fasion Festival Origami Catwalk

Charlotte Yates’ London Fasion Festival Origami Catwalk

Sarah Stell’s Zipped Building

Sarah Stell’s Zipped Building

Georgia Collard-Watson’s Burlesque Festival Pop-Up structure

Naomi Danos’ joyful wall breaking media centre in Israel/Palestine

Jessica Beagleman’s Kabbalah Centre

George Guest’s Fringe Festival Bridge

Sarah Shuttleworth’s Promenade Concerts in Hyde Park

Dhiren Patel’s twisting hexagons bamboo structure for Durja Purja

Mark Simpson’s Artificial Diamond Funerarium

Updates on Burning Man – Fractal Cult and Shipwreck

Hello! Couple technical updates on our Burning Man Projects for the team, donators and potential collaborators:

• We have developed the structure, geometry and details of the two projects with the help of Ramboll Computational Design (RCD). See drawings and analysis below.
• We have signed the contract with Burning Man and received the first grant payment 20 of us are signed in to go.
• We have sent our first fabrication files to get an initial quote on CNC milling all the pieces on 2440mm x 1220mm exterior grade plywood sheets of 9mm (for Fractal Cult) and 3mm (For Shipwreck). Our hope is to collect the pieces on the 19th August.
• We will start small models to test the new structures
• The Shipwreck now has a parametric model which outputs all the cutting profiles.

Please help us continue the work, even £10 helps – Donate Now –

You can also comment on this page to make suggestions on the fabrication – We need more quotes for the CNC and/or Laser cutting job in the U.S. West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Fresno, Reno preferably) . We also need quotes for the scaffolding structure.

Stephen Melville of Ramboll RCD sketch for the Shipwreck structure

Shipwreck – Looking at different Versions with Parametric model

Shipwreck – Looking at different Versions with Parametric model

Shipwerck – Low View

ShipWreck View from above

Current Profiles for Shipwreck

Current Laser cut Profiles for Fractal Cult

Hinged Connection for Fractal Cult by Thanasis Korras with Ramboll

Ramboll’s suggestion for Fractal Cult’s Scafolding structure

Fractal Cult Build Plan

Fractal Cult Build Plan

Ramboll Ground Reaction Wind Analysis

Wikihouse – Open Source DIY kits to build a house

” WikiHouse is the ultimate self-assembly kit: an open-source construction set that lets you build your own home from online templates. Download the plans, source the parts and get building — your new home can be up by dusk. The designs require no formal skills: assembly is a 3D jigsaw, with numbered pieces that slot together and are hammered down. And there’s no need for power tools — even the included mallet is computer numerical control (CNC) milled.

Alastair Parvin, architect at 00:/, the London design practice behind WikiHouse, says the logic of economist John Maynard Keynes (“it’s easier to ship recipes than cakes and biscuits”) applies to these homes. By putting design into the public domain, WikiHouse hopes to incite real change. “That’s the ambition of the project,” says Parvin. “To lower the threshold to making your own house.”

It is based on 10 Design Principles:

10 DESIGN PRINCIPLES

1. ‘Be lazy like a fox’. Rather than solving problems from scratch, adapt other people’s solutions, and then give them credit. Linus Torvalds thought of this phrase.

1. Design for materials and components which are reasonably cheap to buy, low-carbon and fully recyclable or biodegradable.

1. Design is disruptive when it lowers the threshold. Design structures which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training, and without the use of power tools.

1. WikiHouses should be capable of being habitable throughout the year, and as efficient as possible in the use of energy and water. We are working to get to the first habitable WikiHouse prototype built in the near future.

1. Design in such a way as to offer maximum provision for the safety, security and health (both mental and physical) of the users at all stages of the structure’s life.

1. As a general rule, design for the climate, culture, economy and legal / planning framework in which you live, and you know best. Others will then be able to adapt the design to suit their environment.

1. Share your work as much and as openly as possible, it might come back better. At very least you’ll have contributed to solving a common problem. All components on WikiHouse are shared under a creative commons license, and authors are always attributed.

1. “It is easier to ship recipes than cakes and biscuits” – John Maynard Keynes

1. Design to dismantle. The easier it is to dismantle structures or replace individual parts, the better.

1. Design for mistakes. Try to design components which either make it impossible for the assembler to get it wrong or are designed in such a way that it doesn’t matter if they do.

Below some image of the house in the London studio 00:/

Via Wired

Shape to Fabrication Team 4

Here are some process images from the Shape to Fabrication workshop. I was part of team 4, with Lawrence Friesen and David Rutten, who were designing a cast high tensile gypsum foundation to take a corian bench surface. The design was conceived as a close packing of egg shaped forms whose centroids lay either on the top or bottom surface. The interlocking egg forms would reduced the amount of material required to form the foundation to a minimum whilst maintaining a strong band of material through the centre of the foundation. The total volume of the foundation design was 0.34 m3. The moulds were CNC cut from expanded polystyrene and finished with PVA release agent. The moulds were then cast with a high strength gypsum usually used for taking moulds of teeth. Unfortunately the release agent did not work correctly and as such the moulds had to be forcefully removed using a water jet. This slowed down the process significantly and meant we only had time to release one of the three foundation blocks.

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