The Three Little Pigs...

Who would of thought that something such as a kids story could be inspiration...

The 3 little pigs story, they have used the forms of construction that could be used throughout our design.

First of all the straw house, we could straw bales as a main building block for the building construction, a very sustainable construction technique with very good insulation values this is something that will be considered… although it may be blown down by the big bad wolf…

You then have the wooden house. Timber can be a major part of our construction for East Bridgford Hill. A timber frame can be erected quickly and with a small unskilled labour force. Straw bales can be inserted and form the skin of the building, which again only requires an unskilled labour force.

Lastly, you have the brick house. Although this is the strongest of the three, we won’t be looking to use this material as it does not have a high U-value when compared to straw bales, and also the construction of bricks requires quite a skilled labour force to construct. We will however be using a similar ingredient in the way brick build are constructed in the way that we will be using a lime render to coat the building in. The main advantage of a lime render is that it will allow the building and the straw to breathe.

So there you have it, some well learnt knowledge through one of the oldest child’s stories.



Team W.I.N.

Quick update on Team WIN

As we're getting closer to the deadline day I thought it would be good to provide an update on the team and goings on throughout.

SOME IMPORTANT NEWS!!

We have a design done! And it is being drawn up as we speak! The team got together about 1 - 2 weeks ago to get a design together. After hours of talking and discussion, bouncing ideas off each other from what we have all designed. We ended up agreeing on one… Pictures will be revealed in the coming week as little surprise for you all.

It is quite the design, or at least we think so, it includes everything that we feel has been asked for and will be a fun filled classroom for children while also a romantic night for a couple on the glam camping side.

Heavy research has been carried out by the team on all parts and lots of precedent studies have been conducted by Georgina, Emma and Jessica.

Laurence has fully done his background research on the site, as well as Ben on his historical research. Rhys has been active looking into materials for the build and locating suppliers nearby.

Ryan has also come up with the Twitter hashtag, #winning, so if you do follow us on there, get it trending!!

Overall, it is at an exciting stage of the project for all and we cannot wait to show it off the world.

A Case of Bad Design?

Check out this link on an eco-classroom... It's all well and good designing something "eco" and sustainable but when it doesn't work it can be a waste of time...

Check it out>>>>>>> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360297/25-000-eco-classroom-used-solar-panels-dont-provide-heat.html

Any feedback on comments below would be greatly received.

Team WIN

Spot the idea...

Interesting picture below that Emma found when doing some research:

Let us know your thoughts and what you see on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WinNottinghamTrentUniversity

An Emotional Experience...

Thursday, 10th January 2013

Indigo Brave ran a workshop with us to show everyone on the project what they are all about and how we could include there main opinion of peace and sense of emotional intelligence into the design.

(Introduction given to us by Indigo Brave)

We all entered the room not quite knowing what to expect from this activity but to be greeted by Charlie and Lalia from Indigo Brave. We quickly sat in a circle on chairs and they quickly gave an introduction into what they do and emotional intelligence.

After the introduction the chairs had been dropped and we started to carry out different tasks or challenges given to us by Charlie and Lalia. It was all about learning not to be scared to make mistakes, make a fool of yourself, and find inner peace...

(Discussing on what to do next...)

We started with the activity of having to make scenes out of our bodies in groups, no more than 5/6. Some were just still movements, others moved, and others included sound. I mean at one point I was pretending to be a wave along the floor making gushing noises of the waves crashing in front of my course mates that I've known for a year. Okay yeah I would do that if I had a drink maybe, but not at 11am on a Thursday... this was to again show that you shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes, to open up, show off the skills you wouldn't normally do. When Ben Thomas (a member of WIN) did his, he was meant to be a wave but it sounded and got interpreted more like a seal (well done mate)! But that's the thing, no one really cared or thought anything of it, okay Ben probably felt a little bit embarrassed afterwards but it quickly went!

(Do you know what it is yet... It's Tower Bridge of course!)

We got asked to portray an emotion, which was quite hard. The group of people I was with at the time decided on happiness, which when you actually think about it, a happy emotion is a lot harder to show than a sad one, or at least I think so... Anyway to show it we started off in a circle and turned outwards (facing out), laughing and cheering, and funnily enough everyone else got it! Just from our body language.

This was another important point they were trying to get across, body language. The way we come across comes in three main ways (correct me if I'm wrong, this is from memory), but something like 7% was actually verbal, so telling someone how you are, the most was through body language which was a ridiculous 55% (again correct me if I'm wrong), and then the rest was made up of our tone. This goes to show just how strong our body language is and how important it is that we portray ourselves right because we can and are affecting other people without even realising.

After some more chat we did a I'm strong, I'm weak exercise... Believe it or not it actually worked!! This was where we basically had to try and push a partners arm down while they said I'm strong or I'm weak again and again while we tried to pull it down, when they said I'm strong it stayed up but when they said I'm weak it went straight away. So this meant apparently that we (as people) are what we tell ourselves, so if we're sad a lot of the time, there is a high chance this is because we are telling ourselves this is the case, and visa versa.

One of the last tasks was to tell everyone what we liked about ourselves, what we're good at and then what two others thought of us.

I personally loved the experience and as another course mate said to the group, felt more connected to everyone. It was a real eye opener for some I think and now we have to see how we can incorporate there practices into our designs.

Indigo Brave, I'd just like to say on behalf of Team WIN and all the people that went to your workshops, thank you, it was fantastic to be part of it and be part of this project with you.

Getting to know the team... Part 3...

As we saw you all clearly loved the latest of the team profiles, part 2... we thought we'd treat to the last and final section of getting to know the team!! In this post we follow Laurence, Rhys and Callum.

Callum Bott

Callum is in charge of the PR & media side within Team WIN, so yes I am currently writing about myself if you did wonder. Back in school my favourite topic was geography (it probably still would be), my favourite colour is red (after my beloved football club), and my favourite food is pizza, but in particular a good calzone, you cannot beat a good Italian pizza!

In my spare time I am a massive outdoors person, spend a lot of time hiking around the UK, rock climbing and orienteering. I also love playing FIFA on the PS3, and watching football (though not biased towards Liverpool what so ever).

In a word I would describe myself as adventurous.

Laurence White

Laurence is our site man, he is in charge of the site analysis at East Bridgford Hill and also attended the school on behalf of team WIN. Laurence's favourite topic at school was maths, his favourite colour white (wonder why that is), and he loves doughnuts! Though they cannot be the ring ones but will take any filling.

He likes ITF Taekwondo, orienteering and playing on game consoles, but favours his Xbox 360.

In a single word he said he would say he was scruffy... which if you saw his hair you would probably agree... sorry Laurence...

Rhys Bevins

Rhys is one of the researchers at WIN, whether is be history or materials Rhys is the man on the job! Favourite topic at school was maths, favourite colour white, and his favourite food a full English breakfast with glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Rhys is passionate about Motorsports and in one word summed himself up as hard-working.

Well that's it for the team profiles of Team WIN, we hope you enjoyed them and feel like you know us all a little bit better.

TTFN

Walking In Nature

Getting to know the team... Part 2...

We hoped you enjoyed the getting to know the team section the first time, that much in fact we've decided to give you another three profiles!!

In this post we'll be looking at Ben, Georgina and Jessica.

Benjamin Thomas

Benjamin aka Ben is the Head Researcher here at WIN, he is specialising in precedents and materials. At school his favourite topic was geography, his favourite colour is green, and his favourite food is a steak, done blue with no sauce!

In his spare time Ben likes country pursuits, skiing and travelling. Val D'Isere, France is the place he named as his favourite place he has ever visited so far.

In one word he summed himself as detailed.


Georgina Hallam

Georgina is the Sectary within the team. She takes group minutes, organises meetings, and generally has some fantastic ideas for the team. Her favourite colour is blue, favourite school topic was maths, and favourite food is crisps, in particular salt & vinegar or quavers!

Her interests are buildings, shopping, and watching films.

She struggled to think of a word to sum herself up in but eventually went for indecisive! Non the less we wouldn't change anything about her.


Jessica Chan

Jess's role within the team is as a designer and researcher. Favourite colour is purple, and favourite topic at school was maths. Jess loves chocolate and especially Galaxy bars.

In her spare time Jess likes drawing, and to self learn languages.

One word she used to describe herself: artistic.


There you go everyone another 3 profiles for you, the last 3 will be coming soon, so stay tuned!!

The School Visit

It was a cold winters day in late November and team member Laurence White visited St. Peter's Primary School in East Bridgford along with several other A.T.'s from our course.

The main outcome of this visit was to get the children from the school involved, get them interested in the project, get their minds running with crazy ideas on what they want in their classroom, after all they do say a child's imagination is limitless and they may have some great ideas.

Upon arrival the group held a short presentation to the children, this was ran by Scott Eburne.

After this the team, went with a small focus group of about 20 from the school environment club and let there imagination run wild with what they wanted...

Below are some photos of the members interacting with the children:

(Above) Laurence and Helen talking to some of the children

(Above) Luke (background) and Tom Kirk (foreground)

(Above) Scott talking to the children

(Above) Shraddha talking and laughing with the kids

Lots of ideas were gathered from the children. Our Project Manager proposed the idea of making a leaflet which could be filled out with words or pictures to engage the children on a real level to see what they want, it included headings like what to you want in the school? What animals to you want there? What would they like to cook? What food would you like to grow? What features inside? Etc, etc. Some of the responses were very imaginative and included from bird houses to snakes & worms! Apple trees to carrots! And large windows and paintings of there own work inside the building.

Overall going to the school was a very informative, helpful and refreshing trip! It engaged and infused not only us as A.T.'s but the children, and this is what we wanted, to get their imagination running with ideas and thoughts!

At the end of the session there it ended with a nice team photo (only after a few shots though)...

(Take 1, above)

29/11/2012

Second Year NTU A.T.'s 2012/13 with the Environment Club of St Peter's Primary School, East Bridgford

(Take 2, above (the final take))

Site Visit

December 5th 2012

Wednesday afternoon, early December, yep you guessed it folks... It was cold, and today was surveying day of the site.

This hard, freezing cold task was handed out (they volunteered really) to team members Laurence White (chief surveyor), Phil Shilton, Ben Thomas and Callum Bott (camera man).

Despite it being quite cold, the four of us surprisingly had a good time surveyor up, in particular Ben with the dist-o-meter. After a couple hours of surveying everything we needed had been recorded, and Emma, our client invited us in for a cuppa tea to warm up, which was very welcomed indeed.

We also got chance to share some ideas that had come up on our side already but also that had been running around in her head.

Just before dark started to draw in we decided to call it a day and head back to Nottingham with the data recorded and some good ideas from Emma.

Here are a few photos from the visit:

Getting the equipment from the Surveying Store at university

Laurence and Phil when we arrived at site

YES! There are ducks!

Walking to the site location at East Bridgford Hill

Let the surveying begin...

I needed a photo of myself in here somewhere... (Callum - blue coat, aka the camera man for the day)

Laurence issuing his instructions to Ben and Phil

Phil reading off a measurement

Laurence still issuing his orders

Phil... In a bush...

Ben being blinded by the low winter Sun

Laurence recording data

Reading measurements

The tree closest to the road near the site

Looking out onto the field adjacent to the site

More measuring

The four Horse Chestnut trees on site

Ben using the dist-o-meter

Taking levels of the site

Levels of the earth mound wall on the site next to the road

Measuring the girth of the trees

Well I hope you enjoyed this post on our site visit, keep an eye out for more posts coming soon!!

Regards

Team WIN