those bodies are not us

Ark_set_2_main_b_lo_res

Since Thursday morning the entire crew have slept little.  Building the \ARK/ in Durban is an exercise in how to make tea for mutineers and a lot of practice walking planks. Not to mention the forms we are completing. There is a form even for walking the plank though we still have to request that those be completed. Ms Olive Branch says she will include one in a Captain's log soon.

We have brilliant new engineers working with our structural engineer Jacek, trying to extract his intelligence (!) from one computer programme into another ... into one that can actually play out the drawings that are needed by the fabricator. In case you missed it, the scale of the \ARK/ is something like 30 metres long, 12 metres wide (not counting side door ramps) and 16 metres high. The scale is also as intense in its minute detail:

It is way more complicated than the drawing above. Every connection has to be produced in three-dimensional detail down to the last mm. This kind of detail is what is referred to above as intelligence.

The files have been sent across the world and Ms Olive Branch has written by dove to say that there  is something beautiful about engaging an international community to build the \ARK/ in Africa. She says it is better than just waiting for a tsunami.

Here is the dove. Those bodies are not us.

477px-dove_sent_forth_from_the_ark

This image was sourced on the Wikimedia Commons. Engraved by  Gustave Doré (1832–1883), and entitled "Le Lâcher de la colombe"

Tagged #drawings
let the animals take charge

Porkyonsite_31oct2011_lores
Porky said it. Here he is the man himself, artist Mr Hefer, seen on the Ark Park aka Pavilion Square cnr KE Masinga and Marine Parade in Durban one fine morning on the 31st of October when it was a bit cold. Unexpectedly. When we had a meeting with tape measures. Porky was in a good mood actually. The weather was moving in and a little voice was whispering in his ear. Build an ark, build an ark. He was pretending to listen to us but really he was wrapped up in the other conversation. We knew that.

We never even had time for a swim.

After the Ark Park we went to Selby's Boardroom at the Elangeni Hotel which Od dreamed was tsunami'd to the third floor a few nights ago. The whole Ark Building team was there and we talked until we were blue in the face:

30m long x 12m wide not counting the 5m ramps to get inside (on each side like little wings) and 16m high more or less at the top of the roof. Steel, machine drawings, spreadsheets, budgets, cranes, cherry pickers, lawn, bollards, tennis court area, diagonal, maintenance, irrigation, gazanias, swathes of colour, good coffee, legacy, revisions, compliances, safety, fire, portaloos, forms, forms, lots of forms.

Then we went to the airport and flew home on mangos over our dream. Jacek was snoring he was so tired and Auds was hysterical because she just loves flying. Ms Branch sat between them.

Here's a little aerial layout ... shot from the mango ... of where you may find the \ARK/ one of these fine days.

Aawarksizeorientationonsite2nov2011

Tagged #artist #drawings #photographs
ark-e-type

Everyone at AAW! is drowning (not because we have no boat / lilos / armbands) but in an attempt to find the elusive massive quantity of steel we need to fabricate the \ARK/ ... which btw is also becoming a lesson in typography by 2point8 (the buccaneer) online ... type being much easier to source than 25tonnes of steel cut to specific size and weight.

Though I might add that this particular pirate is styleesh which is why we called her in to mess with the CSS on this blog so we could do away with Times New Roman which was not one of the animals invited in to survive.

But doing the project online is not exactly what we have in mind ... so, in the interests of keeping our spirits up while MacSteel, Trident and every other steel supplier in South Africa is receiving impassioned calls, here's another drawing by the engineer that we favour.

Jacek_drawing_3_revise

Tagged #drawings