Month: August 2014

How to Build a Model Railroad Layout (Doc Handy’s Hobby Helpers Book 1)

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DIY Publications presents Doc Handy’s Hobby Helpers Series. This series of how-to e-books is designed to provide interesting projects for the hobbyist. From the beginner to the expert hobbyist, there’s something for everyone.
This book describes in detail how to build a model railroad layout starting from the design phase and carrying you through to wiring your layout. This book is the first of a series of four books on model railroad building. Be sure to look for the other books which cover the subjects of building realistic looking scenery, building locomotives out of brass from scratch, and building railroad cars from scratch.

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Clovelly Residence by Tzannes Associates

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Tzannes Associates designed the Clovelly Residence in Sydney, Australia.

Project description

The residence forms a L-shape to create a protected enclave and to maximise solar access, natural ventilation and aspect as well as utilising energy efficiency by including 3 water tanks, reverse brick veneer walls, sun control louvres and shutters, natural ventilation, hot water solar panels and photo-voltaic cells.

The building has an expressed off-form concrete structure with flush oiled infill timber panelling, providing an honesty of form and legibility of structure. The robust materials compliment the natural cliff reserve setting, with the restricted material palette continuing through to the interior. Polished concrete floors turn up to form the monolithic kitchen island bench which accommodates a cooking range, commensurate with the clients love for food. Internal timber joinery and wall linings utilise the same external timber species; tallowwood.

© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back
© Steve Back

Architects: Tzannes Associates
Design Director:Jonathan Evans
Project Architect: Vera Batalha
Building Surveyor: Dunlop Thorpe & Co
Hydraulic Consultant: Neil Lowry & Associates
Structural Consultant: Simpson Design Associates
Mechanical Consultant: Nappin Partners
Cost Consultant: Page Kirkland Group
Landscape Consultant: Secret Gardens of Sydney
Builder: Building Partners
Photographer: Steve Back

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Logan #450 Intermediate Mat Cutter with Free Video

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Logan #450 Intermediate Mat Cutter…An economical all purpose 40″ (101cm) mat cutting system capable of cutting full 32″ x 40″ (81.3cm x 101.6cm) sheet of matboard. Includes parallel mat guide for setting border widths up to 4-1/4″ (10.8cm) 90-degree squaring bar for true corners straight cutting head and bevel cutting head. Designed for artists photographers crafters and framers. Includes creative matting instructions and five extra blades. Bevel Cutting Head “Start” and “stop” indicator high performance pivot-and-pull blade action Adjustable blade depth Anti-crawl button prevents “creep” Uses Logan 270 blade.

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Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten

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Architects: RO&AD Architecten
Location: Bergen op Zoom, The
Year: 2014
Photographs: Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten

From the architect. Dutch military engineer Menno van Coehoorn built the Ravelijn op den Zoom fortress in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands, in the 18th century. Designed with a moat as its system of defense, Ravelijn op den Zoom was only accessible by boat. Today, the fortress is used for small events—and with the moat still in place could only be reached by a single bridge. RO&AD Architecten sought to provide additional access to the small island to better accommodate guests as well as provide another exit for emergencies.

To increase access without distracting from the historic appearance and layout, the architecture team designed a floating bridge that sits on the water. The bridge is 80 meters long and echoes the same path boats took to reach Ravelijn op den Zoom. The bridge follows a curved pattern that doubles as a design aesthetic as well as covering the floaters—polyethylene pipes filled with air—on which the bridge sits.

Designed with Accoya wood, the bridge surface features a natural and beautiful appearance that complements the historic nature of the fortress. Accoya wood undergoes a revolutionary proprietary modification process called acetylation that renders it an unrecognizable food source, preventing fungal decay achieving increasing Class 1 durability while increasing its dimensional stability; swelling and shrinkage are reduced by 70% or more. The material is sourced from FSC-certified forests, Cradle to Cradle Gold certified and independent tests have shown its carbon negative.

Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Sketch
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Floor Plan
Dutch Floating Bridge / RO&AD Architecten Floor Plan

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Elements

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Architecture is a strange mixture of persistence and flux, an amalgamation of elements — some that have been around for over 5,000 years and others that were (re)invented yesterday.  The fact that these elements change independently of each other, according to different cycles and economies, and for different reasons, turns each building into a complex collage of the archaic and the current, the site-specific and the standard, mechanical smoothness and the spontaneous.  Only by looking at the elements under a wide lens can we recognize the cultural preferences, forgotten symbolism, technological advances, mutations triggered by intensifying global exchange, climatic adaptions, political calculations, regulatory requirements, new digital regimes, and, somewhere in the mix — the ideas of the architect that constitute the practice of architecture today.

A collection of these essential elements into 15 books in a package launched at the 2014 Venice Biennale that allows us to look through a microscope at the real fundamentals of our buildings and see again the essential design techniques used by any architect, anywhere, anytime.

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