More than expected

More happened today than I could have expected!

Yesterday I had tried to build a prototype for the playground at the QEII, but because the maintenance guys could not make it that was rescheduled for today. So at 2pm I showed up, as planned, and in a little over 2 hours, with very little resources we were able to do it.

When I say very little resources, I mean literally all I had was a cutter and 2 screw drivers… Later when I needed the sand and gravel Ntate Molosi helped me with a shovel.

With a jig-saw and not using an old drawer for shuttering I guess it could have gone better. However the result was more than satisfactory and both of us are now confident that it will work. In the process we discovered that if we make the wholes in the tyres (for the metal support) fractionally smaller than the screws there is no need for the bolts and washers! Cost saving! One of the advantages of doing these 1:1 models is that you can quickly understand what is needed and what is superfluous.

So as I was saying by 4:20pm I was finished, and eager to visit the site. When I had spoken to Ntate Sello he had told me that today they had started to pour the concrete for the foundations! I wanted to see it…

I decided to take the bypass, to avoid traffic, and managed to make it on site and still catch them there! The foundations had been cast in the two circular parts and ¼ in the long part. They had stopped because they feared they would not have time to allow for the first settling period before the day started to cool down.

When I arrived I found them covered, as I had suggested the day before, with the old thatch grass. Great insulating value, and as you can see in the end I did find a use for those old materials!

But this was not the only surprise they had reserved for me today. Two of the block A rooms are already compacted and ready to receive the slabs. Hopefully next week we will be able to speak to the electrician, so that the routes are set in and we’ll pour the concrete here as well.

The other surprise, to my delight was that they had started to underpin the gable wall. I have to say that this was a really nice surprise as I had been discussing the matter last night with my dad, also an architect and a lot more experienced than me. They had decided to underpin it with 3 “pad” foundations of 800x800 and all the way down to solid rock! They were asking me when they should fill in the bits in the middle, and I replied that with the way that they had done it, there were only now about 5 or 6 blocks which were not directly supported (45° force distribution).

So now that all these new features are nicely tucked away in straw…

Good night Concrete! Hope you stay warm during the night!