Open_Sailing at the Art & Architecture Association

http://artandarchitecture.co.uk/photo/aa-event-jul09-nomadic

Information

Cesar Harada / Hiromi Ozaki / Ruairi Glynn

Monday 06th Jul 2009

6:30pm for 7:00pm

The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street

London, EC1M 6EJ.

Nearest Tube: Farringdon

Entrance: £6 non-members - £4 members/Students - £2 Student Members

Synopsis

Open_Sailing is an alternative vision of life at sea: pioneering innovative architecture, navigation and sea farming techniques to create a life that’s comfortable, sustainable and safe. This interdisciplinary team are developing a floating architecture: a laboratory for techno-social experiments that evolves like a living organism. Gradually, this project is building towards a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Azores to Brazil; currents and drift will carry this nomadic structure on its way.

Cesar Harada studied Applied Arts at Ecole Boulle; animation at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs Paris; and industrial design at the ENSCI Les Ateliers Saint-Sabin. He is author of HARADA and Open_Architecture (RCA publication.) and taught at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Versailles.

Hiromi Ozaki is a programmer and artist. A Maths and Computers graduate of Imperial College, As Sputniko! Hiromi also creates music, performances and films which humorously explore quirky ways in which we engage with technology. Hiromi is the creator and developer of hi-ve, a swarm intelligence-inspired operating system.

Cesar and Hiromi are both researchers in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art collaborating on Open_Sailing. (www.opensailing.net)

Ruairi Glynn is director of the blog www.interactivearchitecture.org

Open_Sailing at the Barbican

Open_Sailing was presented by Cesar Harada & Hiromi Ozaki at the Barbican as a part of the Radical Nature exhibition. The conference was called "aqua-tecture".

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=9353

3 parts video on youtube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMq-Xgmms54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBx0ZQVqkb8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSJlzp9pRS0

Aqua-tecture 27 August 2009 Redgrave Suite, Level 4

Tickets: £5 Time: 7.30pm

Discover extraordinary examples of architecture designed for and inspired by the sea. With Cesar Harada and Hiromi Ozaki of the Open_Sailing project, along with Frank Gutzeit, who worked with visionary architect Wolf Hilbertz and his Biorock coral structures.

Construction in progress, need help.

We are now in the middle of the construction. We need help. Gumtree ad.

If you fancy gettig your hands dirty, just pop in! We are working in south London, behind Peckham Librairy, come.




Nasser Moustakim, welding his life away


Ian Daniell cutting, Andrew Friend adjusting and fixing the wood on the structure.


And because people are often asking : the Open_Sailing_1 is 9.6 m Diameter, 4.5 meter high, 4 tons. Hiromi has calculated we have 90cm in the water with 4tons.


Overview of the construction, in the same room on the right, the Happy tree friends.

Now we are in a ruch, public presentation saturday, AAAAAAHHHHH

Construction update

Yes, the construction is going well.
If you haven't yest, you want to check our webcam here :



The thing is that we dont necessarily work right under it, actually most of the time we are working in a different building, but check it out, see the time moving - it is live !!!!

There is a lot of welding action (Nasser Moustakim)



Cutting action (Adrien Lécuru)




And Cooking (Cesar - doing the runner + secretary)




In a week time we have a show, ooohh, that's very soon !!!! RUSH !!!!!!!



So that's the site inside, where most welding work is carried on.



And this is the construction outside, where most cutting happens.

It is a very enjoyable work. It is quite tough. Now Adrien and Nasser are heavily involved, I (cesar) wish I didnt have to do all the admin and spend my day either on the computer or driving the van to collect and deliver raw materials or tools. I reclaim more time for design! After graduation... Sleep after graduation ...

it is maaaaaasive !

Today we got the team together, above 9 men carrying a 12 meters long beam, that kind of stuff feels good together, no serious, it is goood... and so light !!



And we started cutting and welding, here, the outer frame, it is going to be maaaaaassive !!!!! 9.6 meters in diameter, YAY !
Oh yes, and daytime, check our webcam, and see us work in real-time baby ! opensailing.net/webcam/webcam.htm

Our construction shed

Now we have built a construction shed in Area10, the only thing left is to build.



Wednesday 27 or thursday 28 morning, we should receive the metal and be ready to roll, as tuesday we a buying our welding machine and cutting table ! Much welding in perspective to start with. Now we really need construction helpers for the bits and most of all, someone to do our sponsor liaison : we need to find -for free-
- kites (from any big kite company, happy to have their names on a great project)
- a few cubic meters of plastic bottles (perhaps from the council)
- navigation instruments GPS, radio, compass, (can borrow from anyone who has a boat)
...

and we need to buy -if can't get for free- :
- construction foam, breads and spray foam
- resin, fibers, to stick on top of the foam
- geotextile (polypropylene, for the big ballast bag undermeath)
...

And also we need to secure an assembly and departure harbour...

Open_Sailing_01 construction at AREA 10

WE GOT A PLACE TO BUILD !!!!!!!!!!!!

From the 21st of may to 14th of june, we are building the Open_Sailing_01 at the AREA 10 in Peckham, just behing Peckham librairy (video from the librairy elevator). The space is stunning, we have everything : comfortable access, freshwater, electricity, parking, a recycling skips, internet !!! Special thanks to
Dean Kissik, that introduced us to --> Oliver Hogan of LuckyPDF, that introduced us to --> Dimitri Launder of Area 10. Love chain !











So that's the space we will use, pretty nice huh?! YAY !!!!!!!

Thank you Dean, Thank you Oliver, Thank you Dimitri !!!!

construction-details

A bit of extra information of the structure construction process.

We are going to coat the trimrans -the downside of the vassel - with insulation sprayfoam, then coat it with fiberglass to make it resistant and finally a resins coat to get ready to sail!

Currents North Sea

from a very nice Belgium website;

http://www.mumm.ac.be/NL/Models/Operational/Currents/animation.php#tb

The North Sea has very strong surface currents, water trying to run through a very small opening in the channel when tides come and go. These currents are for sure something to keep in mind.

Here some images from an animation at the site above. Red is 1>meter per second, dark blue is <0,1 meter per second. Even when you drift with the strongest currents and they go exactly the way you want them to go, it is still going to take quite a while to cover the 350 km. Especially when those currents flow the other way again 6 hours later.

Do we have a +/- 200 meter anchor line?

Eco-Activists Storm Island On River Thames

We are warmly encouraged to do our Open Sailing assembly at the Raven's Ait Eco conference center. A few weeks ago, we went to visit and meet the guys, it is very very interesting. check the flickr set, and wikipedia page. They are talking about our project in this video. Big up Pheonix and the circle community. We can make it ! Read Guardian article.

They are good people, the space is wonderful, it has everything. This place would be perfect to assemble our floating thing, and than take it down the river toward the north sea.

Nil Norman tube poster for utopian London

While I was on the tube I found this fantastic map of London ! (nils-norman-poster.pdf 2.6mb)
There have been quite some utopian visions for London, time to make them happen.

New World Builders

That's happening near regents Park.
If you need them, just call.
Now I can answer these questions :
Where is the New World? Here.
Can I make a call, just to make sure it still will be there when I arrive? Yes.
Who will I be hanging out with, in this New World? These chaps.
And what will we spend our days doing? This.

Now you know all about the New World, do you really really want to go there?

(PS : it is not my van, heheheh)

Ok, I know, you want to sail, nevermind...

Solar Lab, serpentine

http://www.solarlab.org/



A tutor at the RCA Christoph Behling runs this solar lab on the London Serpentine, in Hyde Park.
There re quite some project of the kind around :


[via treehugger]

Delft University have hardly dried off their solar watercraft after winning the Frisian Nuon Solar Challenge in the Netherlands and we get news that Australia is launching its own version. The International Solar Boat Challenge. Due to be held on 5 November 2006 in Sydney at the Penrith Regatta Centre, where the 2000 Olympic rowing champs were staged. A prize pool of $15,000 AUD is up for grabs with several classes of competition from piloted to model boats. All three tiers of education are encouraged to enter, as well as commercial entrants. There will be sprint slaloms and endurance races, and while the piloted boats may use batteries connected to their solar panels, the model vessels may not. Organisers are expecting entries from as far afield as Japan and the US. More details at — ::International Solar Boat Challenge, via Ferret.