OASIS [phase four]

Realizing that even though these stepping stones were easily and quickly produced we still didn't have near enough to fill the entire path by the deadline, we made some changes to our plan. 

 Rather than fill the path with our stepping stones, we took them to our site and decided to let the stepping stones border the pathway and maybe fill in the actual path with pebbles later. 

This revision sticks to the original idea of a path of circles and rectangles, it just reduces the amount of pieces due to time and materials.

Continuation is a big theme through the entire class's project, the way all of our islands are supposed to flow together to keep the eye moving along.  Our new border also relies on closure, since there is a gap and the border is only on adjacent sides.  The proximity of the border is also important.  It cannot be too thick or it will look like actual pathways instead of a border.  Also alignment - how the edges of the circles and rectangles are connected, plus the break between the two adjacent borders will line up with the brick break between the two sets of windows on the side of the building.  We are also alternating the textures of the concrete to give it an even variety.

OASIS [phase three]

Our main goal quickly became casting as many circles and rectangles as we can in order to have enough for the path.

We discovered new molds such as plastic plant liners, learned when the mortar mix was too dry or too wet, and how to fix rough edges and not so successful pieces.

And because the pillars will take a couple months to dry, we've decided to cast those last so that we finish all the stepping stones and so the pillars can set over winter break, since we wouldn't be able to even see how they turn out until next semester anyway.

OASIS [phase two continued]

In an attempt to imitate the texture and patterns of the bark on the Crete Myrtle trees, we cut out similar shapes from craft foam and glued them to the bottoms of the boxes.  But this didn't work to well, probably because the foam wasn't thick enough.

We soon began letting the way the other groups develop their concepts of texture influence ours. Since we had so many pieces to make, we couldn't make elaborate molds so we had to create simpla ways to make and mass produce textures.  We are working with the smoothness that the plastic molds gave us, the rough texture the perlite gave the open side of our casts, and how the circles made with the cardboard cylinders have a waxy texture similar to the desert's (created by trial and error with warped cardboard).  Although our pathway is very geometric, the rough perlite texture and the waves (which, in a way, mimic the crete myrtles) are very organic.

Corregated cardboard didn't work well either - the ridges showed up, the flaps on the sides and bottoms left huge impressions, and some pieces of cardboard got stuck in the concrete.

Shoe boxes worked the best.

The plastic desk drawer organizers from the dollar store worked really well also, and were easily reused.

OASIS [phase two]

To save time, we decided to use cardboard boxes and cylinders for our molds rather than building them with wood.  We reinforced the boxes with duct tape and cut the cylinders into 2in slices. 

We tried wood shavings and sawdust as aggregates but the sawdust seemed to make the concrete crumble.

We also learned not to move the setting concrete too soon, and that some of the bigger objects would need some type of reinforcing.

Perlite proved to work as the best aggregate for our stepping stones. 

And the boxes worked really well too - the concrete popped right out!

OASIS [phase one]

After observing our site through sketches, each member came up with their own ideas and precedents

Once the class set the overall guidelines during the critique, we eliminated ideas such as bird baths and benches, and made sure to stick to the following elements:

      direction

      verticality

      light/shadow

      ground plane

      texture

      circles & squares

Based on the existing pathway created by walkers, we eventually came up with a path, bordered by short, spaced out pillars. A variety of circles and rectangle stepping stones would make up the path, and several 2ft pillars would border one side halfway, then border the other side the rest of the way.

We decided that the pillars should be 2ft tall with 8in diameters, except for the four at the center of the path which would have 12in diameters to provide subtle seating.