01.04.15 | tile production

Day Four of the Visiting School was written up by Elizabeth Acland, a graduate of Aukland University in New Zealand, who’s planning on starting her Masters at RMIT in Melbourne next year:

Today was spent refining concepts and finalising designs at the farm.  After Tuesday’s individual design developments, the group decided on several approaches to further pursue.  Influenced by our visit to the H G Mathews brick factory as well as the wider context of Project Lacey Green,  the group divided up, focusing our efforts towards four main design concepts.

Working towards the same goal, the group utilised all aspects of the workshop throughout this fabrication process.  As each group developed their own unique formwork, the laser cutter and CNC came in great use. Two of Guan’s students from the GAD program at the Bartlett very kindly came up to the Farm to help introduce the robotic arm into the prototyping process. Following these developments in the workshop, the afternoon was spent at St John’s school, preparing the site for the engineer.  With the help of Giulio, Taek and Stephen, Nigel dug a hole for the soil report, while the rest of us tidied the surrounding area.

As each group continued into the evening, the robotic arm produced the first set of clay tiles. Casting several prototypes,  it ejected clay strips onto a pre-cut polystyrene formwork.  Experimenting with speed and nozzle heads enabled us to achieve variation within each tile. After sitting down to another wonderful meal, we all headed back to the workshop to complete any final touches on the formwork for the tiles, ready for casting tomorrow!