"Live" Exhibitionism...

So the DRL TEN exhibition opened this Friday, with the DRL10 seminar following on Saturday. The exhibition showcases 10 years of projects at the Design Research Laboratory at the AA, but maybe even more interestingly showcases some of the built work of the 350+ alumnus of the experimental graduate program. Visitors to the seminar on Saturday got to see a "live" exhibition, as the primary steel structure was delivered, craned into place, and assembled. It was quite a site, as the steel members are HUGE and definitely drew an audience.

The steel arrived in 3 pre-fabricated assemblies consisting of 2 "nose" pieces assembled from 15mm sheets of structural steel, and a "bridge" piece which completed the arch spanning between them. Each assembly was hoisted by a 25 ton crane and slotted into the concrete ground cross members assembled over the last week with painstaking precision through a combined effort from the sheet fabricators, crane operators, Rieder team, surveying team, and DRL team to coordinate the positioning and notch locations accurately. As each component was placed, 3D coordinates located at pre-defined points on the structure were measured with a Total Station by our surveying team and cross-checked with our 3D model and set out drawings to ensure accuracy.





After final positioning and adjusting, the third and final assembly was dropped into place with startling accuracy (to be honest, I still can't believe how easy this one was), and then bolted and spliced to the other two to complete the assembly of the primary structure.