The End of Studio II

Another semester has come to an end, and it feels like rather a quick one (although the reality of it was anything but a quick semester). 

It has been about a month since the stress of the house project passed and our final project, F.E.N.C.E (an acronym whose meaning I cannot remember anymore), has now just been completed. 

It was a very hands-on project which involved designing and building a full scale fence that is at the same time a planter that provides practical use.  

Here I am, during our review, very happy and very tired after working constantly for a week to complete this project at full scale.

We were limited to a week due to the wood for the whole studio coming in late.

This project first involved understanding the site. Our site? A vacant plot of land once home to a greek house on campus next to Michigan Avenue. 

Chicago

The Downtown Area

Campus

The Site

The idea was to provide a garden that can be used by the university.

The goal also included making it rabbit proof but that requirement quickly went out the door.

Here is our model

Our (my partner Nathanael and myself) design is based off of the 4x4 post that hold the fence upright.

a 4x4 post has a measurement of 3.5"x3.5". We used that measurement as one unit. From there we made a variety of boxes, 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, 2x2, and an "L" box.

Construction had to be a quick process seeing as there was exactly one week to have everything built, placed and planted. 

For us, we had to dig a large ditch in-between the two already existing post to place our addition four into, along with 5 1/2 bags of concrete. 

To secure that all the post would be inline with each other

Once we had them screwed together then came the process of making sure they stood straight

Then next day was box assembly 

 Once they were all built they were ready to be attached to the posts, with the concrete dry and the remainder of the hole filled back in with dirt.

The end result was this, with plants included.

It might not have been my favorite project but it brought Studio II and my first year to an end.