Gdes3003 Cob Oven Build on UW Student Allotment

Students from the Gdes3003 'Green Design' module and from the digital media masters course all donated some of their time today to help build a traditional earth or 'Cob' oven on the UW student allotment garden.

The build project is part of a new, covered 'student social space' that is being created on the UW student allotment with help from students and staff for client Katy Boom - Director of the UW Sustainability Dept.  Help and guidance on the oven build came from Matthew Lloyd or the 'Cob Oven Man', build expert and owner of the 'Fabulous Cob Oven Company' based in north Herefordshire. Additional build assistance was supplied by Senior Design Lecturer Andy Stevenson - who helped negociate the students' 'live' brief this year with client UW Sustainability Dept.

The same Green Design students are also in the process of creating a supporting .pdf 'eHandbook' for the oven's use and maintenance for their fellow students and allotment users. Additionally, design students are also creating concept work for a wipe-clean, reusable eco pizza box or linked 3D sustainable package design.

This year's project comes on the back of numerous years where previous student cohorts have created similar sustainable packaging prototypes for small & large external clients. These have included: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce (Heinz UK), the Wye Valley Brewery and Edward Bulmer Pots of Paint.

Pictures from the build:

Students Be, Matt & Fran help build the oven's initial sand domed former.

Students Fran and Josh on clay-breaking duty (and still smiling!).

Sausage sarnies for lunch on a portable woodstove.

From left: Hannah, Sian, Katy, Sophie, Matthew, tutor Andy, Ally and James
at work on the early clay layers.

Katy Boom, Head of UW Sustainability helps students Sophie & Ally
with the early clay layers.

Professional cob oven builder Matthew Lloyd and tutor Andy on a
quick coffee break.

Student Kirsty looks on as we light lanterns as we start to lose the
afternoon light.

End of Day 1. From left: Green Design students Kate, Emily, Mitali,
MA student Rich and oven builder Matthew Lloyd bear their clay hands
before the end of day clean-up.

Pictures from the build v2:
 

Morning of day 2: Work Gloves dry out in the morning sun
before our volunteers arrive.

Oven builder Matthew with his wooden 'persuader' moulds the oven
thus far into it's proper shape.

Our cob mixture of clay, sand and hay..

Tutor Andy doing his outdoor chef bit on his mini wood-fired 'rocket' stove
- spare burgers went to lucky students too!

Group on day 2. From left: student Scott, oven builder Matthew Lloyd
and students Martin, Dawn, Be and Megan.

The build ran on tea & coffees brewed on tutor Andy's woodstove.

The finished product (now covered-up and drying-off).

Students Dawn and Be hard at work making the final batches of cob.

Tea break at the end of the day - oven builder Matthew Lloyd & tutor Andy..

  
Drying the oven & free pizzas for all student helpers..

The white board in the Green Design students' final session: after the session
free pizza samples were offered to all who kindly helped us build the oven.

Drying-out the oven in readiness for the full firing later in the day.

Matthew took a low res phonepic of the first group of students to arrive
and try some pizza samples.

Matthew busy cooking pizzas in the glow of the oven.

We had a full house eventually with students and visiting staff from the
University coming along to try some of the wood-fired pizzas.

Inside the oven as one of the newly inserted pizzas starts to quickly cook
surrounded by the hot coals.

Director of UW Sustainability Katy Boom tries her hand at cooking
some of the delicious pizzas on offer. Katy kindly supported the
build in numerous ways - including paying for all the
pizza ingredients - big thanks Katy.. :)

Tutor Andy and Matthew on pizza production line duties.

And finally.. The warmth and glow of a fantastic new Cob Oven built
for allotment users and UW students to make use of.. With a
little help from Green Design students.. Job well done!

Editor's ref:
http://www.coboven.co.uk/

Gdes3003 Prototypes Session/Client Feedback & Glueless Packaging Nets Refresher

A good session last week in which we covered quiet a bit of ground including: 

1. Prototypes: All getting to see what each other had done to that point on screen and as mini 3D 'proof of concept' mockups. Then we had a wander around to look and a 'vote with your feet' on the most interesting progress to date..

2. Help and suggestions: Feedback on ideas/work to date from both David from UW Estates and tutor Andy.

3. Hands-on tasks: The chance to 'improve' the design of an old glued package via simple 'locking tabs' in a small/informal 'refresher' workshop around packaging nets.

Here's a few pictures from the session:

David Mourby of UW Estates looks over Scott's concept work.

A quick snapshot of Sophie's eHandbook on screen in development.

Jess' pizza portions concept underway.

Dawn's generic food container concept.

Be's measuring cup/plate concept at this stage.

Scott's ongoing ideas for his pizza portion concept.

Josh (actually sitting still) working on the locking tab task later in session.

Gdes3003 Visit to the Worcester Resource Centre (Scrap and Reclaimed/Repurposed Materials)

A huge thanks to Paul (and manager Kate) at the Worcester Resource Exchange who hosted a visit from our group of Green Design students late morning/early afternoon today.

Paul gave an introductory talk to a small group of students including: Scott, Leszek, Mitali, Megan, Be, Dawn, James & Liam. He talked about the way that WRE takes post consumer or industrial by product waste materials and re-introduces them back into society through re-selling in the store or via their range of 'new' goods made from re-purposed materials ('WRE mades'). Also on sire are art materials, papers and cardboards which WRE sell for a fraction of the price of any other art shop in the city.

Tutor Andy also added a short talk about the way that design and advertising services were now procured from larger companies who were commonly 'greening' their business models in line with their 'Corporate Social Responsibility' charters.. 

I think it's fair to say that all who attended weren't aware of WRE and what they did and wished they'd known about the materials and art supplies earlier on in their courses. All students left eventually with materials and goods of some kind which they thought they would experiment with in readiness for next sessions expected 'prototypes' deadline..

A selection of pictures from the visit:

Paul talking about WRE's methods and how they work.

Be and Dawn buying lots of cheap raw materials for artifact experiments.

Some of the group in store during the introductory talk.

Just some of the wonderful artifacts and materials on offer at WRE.

I wanted to add a caption to this.. But (for once) was lost for words! :)

A small sample of some of WRE's 'WREmade' goods.

Some of WRE's incredibly cheap art materials on offer at the site.

WRE are moving..
After a number of years at the present location WRE are moving their store to a new location at Blackpole: Unit F9, Blackpole East, Worcester, WR3 8GS.

They'll close at their present location on Sat 5th Dec. They hope to be up and running again in full flow by: Sat 9th Jan, 2016

Gdes3003 Visit & Lecture to the Centre for Alternate Technology, Mid Wales

We went on our annual day visit to the Centre for Alternate Technology this week with the Gdes3003 Green Design cohort. We were back to a small, but free minibus this year - but still managed to get there late morning and spend about 4 or so hours on site.. As we're now out of the tourist season it was quiet and we pretty much had the site to ourselves. Despite this, there was also a hive of activity ongoing with the sustainable development MA students up around CAT's new WISE building and Sheppard Lecture Theatre.

While on site this year we managed to have a look around some of the interactive exhibits and document, make notes/pictures of these (most of the design and info boards used were informal, dynamic and oriented to families - something style-wise that might be considered too in your own design work for this brief). Of particular note was a setup with a Cob Oven/covered social area (very similar to that planned at the University of Worcester's allotment and of course which your brief this year is oriented around).

Additionally, in sessions and via online learning, we've looked at a range of themes, research, refs and historical sources linked the genre over the last few weeks and some of these issues were touched on again in the afternoon lecture and workshop sessions.

To name but some of these themes (there were loads more):
Perceived obsolescence (phones etc), properties of materials, energy efficiency (inc Cob Ovens), climate change, Zero Carbon Britain, The Living Planet Report 2015, Hans Rosling/Gapminder/his mother's washing machine (TED Talk video), quality of life, decarbonising the economy, travel & food (the most contentious aspect?), Laura's Larder, the FairPhone (& it's sustainable packaging), the largest users of resources per person (countries, Living Planet report), the future viablility of air travel, Nuclear Power vs renewables - costings, government cuts/impacts, rammed earth buildings, the Sheppard Theatre/it's heating/cooling methods, locality of materials.. The list goes on..

A selection of pictures from the day:

The 2015 visit cohort. From left: Leszek, Scott, tutor Andy,
Beth, Matt, Mitali, Martin, Sophie, Meg, Kirsty,
Ally, Hannah, Fran, Josh and Liam.

CAT's own Cob Oven setup and covered social space.
Very much like the plan for the UW Allotment.

The incredible insides of the Sheppard Lecture Theatre on site where
the afternoon's lecture/workshop took place. The walls are all layered
and made out of rammed earth - local soil that has been compressed
to about  half of it's volume.

Some of the cohort catching-up and eating their pack up luncheon
site before the afternoon's lectures and workshops.

Boards inside CAT's veggie cafe.

Some re-purposed scrap and materials turned creatively into typography.

CAT's Education Lecturer Ann talking in the Sheppard lecture theatre
to this year's Green Design cohort.

Our cohort this year listening to discussions around
materials and sustainability.

Hans Rosling's 'Gapminder' - an excellent graphical tool for showing
the many stats around climate change etc.

Tutor Andy and lecturer Ann expand on one of the
points being made on screen.

One of the massive propeller turbines on site from a commercial wind
generator system. Behind it students can be seen looking over some of
CAT's many exhibits and information boards in situ.

A student's eye view of discussions ongoing.

Kirsty, Josh and Fran arranging some of the lifestyle cards in the workshop.

Some more creative re-uses on site.

Reflective questions to answer in your own CAT blog posts (Looked for on assessment):

1. Had you heard of CAT before you came on this module? If 'yes' then please give an idea where you'd heard about them.

2. Please respond to the points below. All aspects were raised/discussed in the lecture and workshop on site:

• Power: Decarbonizing our power generation infrastructure via renewables - can it be done, is it feasible? What will it take before changes on the scale suggested by Zero Carbon Britain could happen - government intervention or market forces? Or maybe you picked up on the the nuclear power options available - pros and cons/politics involved. How do you feel about this? Please explain your answer either way and any proactive suggestions..

• Transport: Decarbonizing our transport infrastructure - electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered - are they feasible/have you heard of them? Air travel - is it feasible to lower it to the levels suggested in Zero Carbon Britain (?) - please explain your answer either way and any proactive suggestions..

• Food: Decarbonizing our food infrastructure (according to Zero Carbon Britain) means lessening our reliance on meat and it's various production methods. When grazing land is freed up, it can be 'better used' to grow crops (which ZCB says is a much more efficient use of it). What do you feel about this? Is it feasible? Would you personally want to lessen your meat intake in the week (unless already a vegetarian)? Does the very thought of this annoy you? Please explain your answers and any proactive suggestions in as much detail as possible.

3. Please tell us your thoughts, concerns and/or proactive suggests on the 3x most notable things seen on site at CAT (i.e. it could be one of the specific exhibits seen, or maybe the clever use of materials with specific buildings to help reduce CO2 emissions, or maybe their Cob Oven setup/Covered social area or maybe the food on site etc).

4. Now you've had time to reflect, what 3x things gained from the CAT visit might you bring forward into your own ideas and developments for the sustainable packaging brief? Please explain your answers and any proactive suggestions in as much detail as possible.

Ask: Thanks all, I look forwards to seeing what you've all written. Can you complete this simple feedback by end of play fri 20th Nov please and e-mail me the link to your blog post.