Radical collaboration is the name of the game. The idea was to create an interactive experience that transcended age, race, gender and culture to push kids to work together on a common goal. The concept design that came from this conversation was for a play area filled with slabs of concrete that have holes drilled throughout to weave a large 4in diameter rope through to create climbing structures.
CMoD interactive slab exhibit premise video
SKETCH! SKETCH! SKETCH! With a project this big I am making sure that I experiment with all the design questions on paper before I begin building. During this process I am making decisions about scale and dimensions. I propose that the angled platform will both serve as a stabilizer when under load but also add an interesting play characteristic. The first slab I am going to build will be h6’ w4’. I think these dimensions will give me a good idea as to the construction process and overall rigidity. I will cut the holes with a router and connect the holes with 4” PVC.
The building process of the first slab was pretty much straight forward. I started by making the main frame, it follows building code with 16 on center studs. 2x6 were used for added dimension and rigidity. I used as common dimensions as possible to eliminate material waste. The angle of the base doesn't really matter just make sure it is at least above 1.5’ from the bottom so you don’t just end up with a big lever.
The PVC installation process was pretty much straight forward. Buy the PVC from a plumbing company instead of a big box store the PVC from the plumbing store came out to $5.29 per foot VS $10.25. I cut each piece at 7” (2x6 + 2x 3/4 ply) I used gorilla glue die to its expanding properties and ok adhesion to wood and plastic. I would much prefer a better solution but price and workability were factors i had to take into mind. I just did each piece one at a time coating the plywood first then spraying the PVC with water to activate the glue when I added the pipe.
F52E29CB-7DB4-4684-AA87-10471A46AE92 2.MOV
The rope solution we went with took a moment to figure out, we began by collecting old retired climbing rope from the local gym. (check climbing gyms because they are usually trying to get rid of as much of it as they can). The first iteration was an attempt at making a 6 strand plat to get the size we needed. The issues that arouse were manufacturing time and not being thick enough. The next idea we tried that ended up solving the problem was to take a old fire hose and fill the center with rope. Essentially we made a fractal rope because climbing rope does the same thing where smaller strands fill a braided tube, this gives it abrasion resistance and flexibility.