Thursday, June 12, 2008

Shou-kashiwa-ban

I've been deliberating and worrying about the finish of our daikokubashira. A friend of mine suggested burning the timber which I've heard of but was concerned about the method of finishing. He then found me a link to a house blog in San Diego (*edit) which has cladding finished as Shuo-sugi-ban. Sugi is of course Japanese cedar so I'm guessing mine might be shou-kashiwa-ban? Kashiwa being oak... (edited by Makiko who thinks haku is a misreading of kashiwa)

Here are a few of pursuingwabi.com's images (they didn't mind) but the post above is really good and worth reading.





The final finish - Brazilian Rosewood Oil - is regarded as ecologically unsound read more here.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Progress



Didn't have any pictures of progress - the slab cast and set. 7th June 2008.

My big black pillar




My tree trunk soon to the daikokubashira; 100 years old, died at least 60 years ago and found fallen in a wood near Dunfermline. Courtesy of Scottish Wood.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Dormer window


A lovely dormer window in the Azores
source

Cumbernauld Road



Very intersting housing scheme by JM architects of all people.

source and More about this scheme here

Friday, June 06, 2008

How I would lay the foundation if I was doing it again

Specification:
Strips
600 wide by 200mm deep
Celcon Foundation Blocks no cavity

Slab
200mm well compacted type 1 gardcore (no sand or weak mix)
dpm (sheets)
100mm insulation
150mm r/c slab with UFH inside
5-10mm thin screed finish

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Building Junctions - SANAA museum in New York

I have a problem junction to solve with the neighbours garage. Here is how SANAA did it in NY. Photo by jedisalf from here

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Cranes


Another world.
The one above from Caledonian Lifting Services

Bernard Hunter do a mini crane
at 986.40 per day.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Daikokubashira - a big black pillar

大黒柱

Japanese is just so logical. The main column of the house in old Minka is called Daikokubashira literally big (大) black (黒) pillar (柱).

2 A structrual post *hashira 柱, in vernacular houses, *minka 民家, which was considered to be an embodiment of *Daikoku 大黒, one of the seven gods of good fortune *shichifukujin 七福神. Daikoku had come to be associated with the kitchen and hearth and was regarded as a tutelary deity of the house. The post was located in a variety of places in the house: a) most commonly at the interface between the earth floored area *doma 土間, and the living rooms kyoshitsubu 居室部, approximately at the center of the building's cross-section. This location marked the boundary between the public front half of the house,hare 晴, and the private domestically-orientated zone toward the rear, ke 褻; b) on the upper side *kamite 上手 of the large room(s), *hiroma 広間 adjacent to the earth-floored area. In the case of houses with a 4 room cross plan ta-no-jigata 田の字型, the daikokubashira marked the center of the plan where the arms of the cross interesected.
source JAANUS


A not so good example as there are 2! My picture from the Edo Open Air Architecture Museum in Tokyo.


source


An example from JAANUS


Our Daikokubashira is being picked up on Tuesday. I visited Scottish Wood a few weeks ago to discuss cladding for my house but also to see a fallen oak log that might work for the house.

Architect in the House - Portobello

We're supporting Architect in the House - RIBA, Shelter

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The concrete pour




11.8m3!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Kotatasu



A kotatsu is a table with a heater underneath that can provide direct heat when you are seated at it. Sadly they ahve become extraordinarly ugly in modern Japan but there are some nice old ones and some nice new ones - mostly in sushi resturants. We will have two in our house. One as the main dining table (rebar pictured below) and one outside for the chilly scottish summers!

Nearing slab pour





Wednesday, May 21, 2008

20th May 2008







Site images from installation of the drains

Thursday, May 15, 2008

May 14th



Monday, May 12, 2008

Building foundations







A good solid weekend of work on the dwarf walls!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Dodgy cladding detail


The use of clout nails to stop the cladding pulling off the wall in high winds looks terrible at low level especially where in damages teh wood and creates a broken area for water ingress, although shown here is very sheltered.
The Birdlife centre in North Berwick by Simpson and Brown

Materials






to make textures for sketchup etc

chimney pots 2



Chimney pots?

Chimney pots 1



As seen in Musselburgh

Wednesday, April 16, 2008