Making Foundations

An exciting day for everybody, as we really got our hands dirty on the site. Luckily the rain held off, and we successfully filled three 500x800 holes with cement. 

The dept was quite an issue - very strong power cables were discovered underneath our foundations - meaning we could not go any deeper than 300mm.

Timber Ordered! £250 from DUSA!

Today we finalised our sponsorship with DUSA! They paid £250 towards the costs of timber. In return we are spraypainting their logo on planks on the design. We will also be advertising with DUSA, hopefully on their billboards, website and magazines. 

WATCH THIS SPACE!

As well as this we also finalised our order with the timber merchants. They will also be doing all the cutting, because it will take Lyle far too much time and effort to do in the workshop, and we as students are not insured to use the saw required for the chamfer.

Alan from DirectLine Timber hopes the delivery will be on Monday, Tuesday at the very latest. Fingers crossed. Once the timber arrives, we must sew, bolt then glue it together. However the pieces are so chunky and heavy I'm not quite sure how easy this will be...

On Site: Marking out Foundations

Today was very exciting...

Pretty much the first day that we actually got a bit physical and dirty!

Don't let the images of the guys fool you into believing us girls got our hands dirty too... They are actually just posing...

Because the wall is already very animated, we had to be careful deciding where we would want our timber to run. We used an orange spraypaint to mark out where the foundations would later be dug, and cordoned off the areas. We will need 3 foundations in total, one for each part of the ground that the shelter has contact with. The bench will be self supporting, and not require any.

Builder's Bum.

Mark's Typical Pose

Testing out Some 1:1 Big Pieces of Wood

The following images show the team handling a 1:1 section of the design. 9 pieces of the timber have the screwed, bolted and glued together to test the strength, weight and durability. Its VERY heavy. But the sections show a lovely grain of wood!

However we are going to have to be positive that the shelter will stand - this falling on someone's head could kill them! Other problems we are going to encounter are the countersinking of the joints - water will catch very easily and sit in the holes. However treated the timber is, water is going to be a huge problem for our whole project. Oh and we probably need to be a little more accurate with the glue spreading as its caused quite a mess.

Fundraising Update

So far the beer for a year raffle has been a major success! We are selling tickets left right and centre and have a profit of £200+! Today we set up a table outside the union and poached people as they were walking by. 

                                      

To be honest the keen buyers weren't particularly interested in where their money was going...

Andy and Dave posing as walking advertisements... Next steps are to hit the sports clubs.
I think that anyone who wins should just have a massive party!

Site Survey

Today, Aleksandra, Anastasija and Kaleena completed a survey of our site.
They set the laser up in the corner of the site, and directed it towards the three parts of the wall where the foundations will be set. This showed the change of level between the three points.

RESULTS
There are slight changes of 25cm in gradient over the whole site, which we can adjust with our concrete pad foundations. ie. not such a big deal, but a good learning experience.

ART BAR RAFFLE

A HUGE amount of prizes have been collated from various businesses who are willing to support our cause.

We will be holding a joint raffle along with the 'Point' shelter group to give away all of this amazing stock, on Wednesday 27th, from 6pm, at Artbar.

Our prizes include:

1x£25 voucher for Chambers Food

Jar of Sweets from Americandy

2x£10 vouchers for Arkive clothing

1x£25 for Arkive clothing

£30 Hamper from Spink's Fishmonger

Breakfast for 2 at Kennedy's Steakhouse

1x£20 H+M voucher

1x£20 Lush Giftbox

Teapot from Braithwaites

2x£15 Braes vouchers

Lunch for 2 at Artbar

Crate of Peroni

6 pack of Corona

Bottle of Red Wine

Bar starter kit

50p or 3 for £1

LOGO

Tagging will start! Beware!

Design Update

So, after all the advice and criticism Mark has been getting for his design, he has not decided to change it.

Although as a group we are generally concerned about not only our reputation, but the safety of anyone who sits in the shelter nothing can be done to change Mark's mind. He is adamant that the design is faultless.

We now have a 1:4 (ish) scale model of the large arch, completed by Ed and Mark in the workshop. Although the model does not fall down when someone (fairly light) stands on it, it does show that some of the joints are failing, and there is a warp in the structure.

This is because there has been too much of a chamfer cut into the wood to achieve Mark's desired shape of an arch. This takes away the strength of the wood, thus causing it to warp and fail.

For timber to be a successful structural element, no more than 1/4 of the section should be cut away. Any more than this an the function will be lost. However Mark thinks we will get away with it.

Raffle Night

Tonight's raffle was a huge success, earning the team a further £103! 

Art Bar was filled, and both Architects and regulars emptied their pockets to support our cause. 

Andy took the mic, with Aimee drawing tickets. However after her boyfriend won a bottle of red wine, then a box of chocolates, the crowd started getting suspicious, so we altered the hands going into the buckets!

Prize of the night, which was a  £50 Marks and Spencers vouchers, went to Adam Marley. He was ecstatic, and plans to buy £50 worth of Percy Pigs then have a bath with them. Ok......

Sponsorship Ups and Downs

A day of highs and lows...

Luckily local winery 'Cairn o' Mohr' donated us 2 bottles of wine, which Andy, Kaleena and I picked up this morning. It was an interesting trip - and a very interesting place... We will be selling the wine this evening at Blind Date - only 50p per cup!

However, this afternoon was a slight let down. Andy and Kaleena have been trudging around town daily in the hope of having a business sponsor us. Today we hoped to secure a long-awaited sponsorship deal, with Lloyds bar in town. Andy and Kaleena had been in talks with the manager who hoped to give us around £400 to have their name on our shelter for 5 years. 

However, we were shot down when her answer today was a plain 'no'. Seems as though nobody has any money!!! Kindly she gave us a sorry and some free meal vouchers - we can use these as prizes for Blind Date this evening. 

After a quick brainstorm, we decided to contact the Student's Association. Our shelter was after all located on their premises, and would be used primarily by students of the University. 

Chris Browne, the deputy president of DUSA was our first point of contact - Aimee and I took him some drawings and plans of how we could improve the campus and advertise the Union, and he seemed fairly keen. Hopefully things will pick up from here!

Fundraising Update

The estimated cost of our whole project is £1000. To ask 15 students to raise this amount in 4 weeks is a near impossible task, especially in the current economic climate.

After brainstorming, we decided to focus our energy on a 'Blind-Date' night and a raffle to win 'Beer for a Year'.

Blind Date was a previous success with Sinead's GAA football club - last year they raised £400+ in one evening. It will be held next Tuesday at 6pm, in lecture theatre 5013, hosted by Nikolas, who will be dressed as Cilla Black, dress, tights and all. The lucky contestants, all hand-picked from Dundee School of Architecture will have the chance to go on an amazing date to Wetherspoons Dundee.
Tickets are only £2, and we will be selling bottles of beer at £1 and wine for 50p. So we hope to see you there!!!

I will be attending because at the end of the evening we will be holding a Slave Auction. Have a bid for private tuition in the workshop from Lyle, CAD lessons from Fergus and Aidan, and model making/painting slaves will be auctioned off in the form of 'our group' to anyone who may need a helping hand.

If you can't be bothered staying in uni late on a Tuesday we are also holding a raffle with the prize of winning a bottle of beer, every day for a year, that 365 bottles of beer. Tickets for this are £3.50 or £5 for 2 and can be bought from anyone in the Sine shelter group.

IF YOU DON'T THINK LIKE THIS, YOU ARE NOT AN ARCHITECT

Graeme Cruikshanks

Blind Date Night!

A roaring succes!

Nick acted as a beautiful Cilla Black (even though although we had been planning the event for almost 2 weeks, yesterday we discovered that in Germany there is no such thing as Blind Date, and he had no idea who Cilla was...)

Check out the videos!

So going on dates to Lloyds bar we have...

Aoife O'Donnell (2nd yr) who chose Thomas Butterwith (2nd yr)

Stephen Weater (4th yr) who chose Katie Snodgrass (2nd yr)

Caitlin Carrol (4th yr) who chose David Byrne (2nd yr)

Congratulations guys! Be sure to let us know if there are any second dates...

The lecture theatre was full, with people even sitting on the steps. We sold over 4 crates of beer and 3 bottles of wine (mostly to the nervous contestants), and total profits were upwards of £250!