technē and poiēsis

The first step to making the Carabane liveable: put in a bed! I had picked up a slatted bed base for free, second-hand (and hauled it back on the train!). I want there to be room for storage under the bed, so the idea was to attach the bed base on hinges. It was a bit complicated to figure out how to attach the hinges and in which order (first to the bed base? or first to the wall?). It involved crawling around under the bed trying to reach for drills and screws. I was very happy to be finished! Next, there was the skylight to insulate and frame: And next, the wardrobe. I worked on making invisible shelf attachments. I wanted a system with a groove in the shelf that I could slide onto a rail. I thought I could make a groove that was 7mm deep and then slide it onto a piece of 7mm plywood that I screw into the wall. But 7mm plywood splits way too easily. Driving screws through it made the rail very fragile. You can see in the bottom right corner that the plywood is ...

When I was deciding what to use on the roof of the Carabane, I quickly arrived at the conclusion that corrugated aluminum panels would be best. For multiple reasons: -They are light (3kg/m2) -I preferred using large panels over small elements such as tiles, because I would need to anchor each tile individually. I felt that large panels was a more secure option. -They are pretty much foolproof in terms of rainwater shedding, as long as you overlap them properly. -I can use screws to anchor them directly into strapping- no hooks or special anchors needed -I could order them pre-curved with the radius I needed. The manufacturer had certain requirements for the curving radius and the minimum/maximum length of panels. So after a few back-and-forth e-mails with the technician, I came up with my order: The width of the panels was fixed at 1m6, with a corrugation every 7.6cm. I adjusted my design so that the roof would be a whole number of corrugations, so I wouldn't end up wit...

According to the manufacturer of the wood fibre sheathing , the boards could act as a wind and waterproof layer. But a couple of issues made me question that idea. First of all, I wondered how I could make the connection between the sheathing and the windows. I asked for a tape that would stick to the sheathing, but the building supplier couldn't find me one. Also, because I made lots of cuts into the sheathing in order for it to go around the curve, it was definitely not meeting the manufacturer's specifications for wind and water tightness. So, I decided to play it safe and install a housewrap-type membrane. It's pretty straightforward to install- roll it out over the roof and walls, staple sparingly, and tape the joints. There was just a bit of complicated tapework to make it go around the curves. Cutting out the opening for the skylight Installing the big window