We are interested in design as a process of discovery. Through exploration and analysis, design solutions suggest themselves which confound (hopefully) our own preconceptions. The format of SITW poses an interesting challenge to this approach. In a 2 day workshop there is no time for detailed analysis in the abstract followed by design. As a result our strategy has been to set a specific task for each SITW which would result in both construction and analysis simultaneously.
In SITW 06 the project programme was to find and materialise a series of conflicting light conditions within the woods. A number of light clouds were constructed based on data mapped using lux meters. Each of the resultant constructions were a record of a particular moment in time. The final piece was the constructed outline of a volume of sunlight as it moved through the forest over the course of 7 hours. This patch of light was connected through invisible lines of sunlight to gaps in the forest canopy. This connection became the subject of our interest in SITW 07.
We decided to reverse the process. Instead of investigating and constructing the movement of sunlight at low level, we asked the group to make a hole within the canopy that would control how the sunlight behaved on the forest floor. The first task was to make a physical connection between the forest canopy and the ground using string. The lines of string were representative of a virtual line of sunlight at a particular time on a particular day. The technique used of firing lead weights with string attached with catapults high into the treetops came from Gianni’s experience of seeing how foresters get their climbing ropes up trees in the rainforest of Costa Rica. The most interesting of these connections was the longest. There was something quite awe inspiring about seeing a line of string about 100m in length disappearing into the canopy. This line (altitude xx asimuthyy) represented a ray of sunshine 11 pm on august 8th .The project for the weekend became to construct a perfect hole in the canopy which would allow the sun would shine at this time of day.
There was debate about whether it was important that a particular time was chosen, whether the line should be steep or shallow or whether we could find a place at which at one time it would be parallel to the ground.
The position of the sunlight had to be calculated using a mathematical equation. It was exciting to use an abstract mathematical concept to predict a physical event.
A bamboo and willow gridshell tube was constructed that was to be wedged into the canopy, pushing leaves and branches out of the way to create a perfect window to the sky.
Technical challenge of heaving the tube to the full height of the canopy proved too ambitious to be achieved on this occasion and our tube was left suspended, representative still of a line of sunlight but sadly not creating a window to the sky.”
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