Last week marked the opening of the Pulse Dome exhibit. We went there to check out the artwork and were a bit surprised by the atmosphere. It seemed like we are surrounded by artists while listening to a band and sipping fine wine. The artwork was beautifully displayed and gave a great representation of Zanfagna’s approach. They even had a movie playing to tell the public what a great life he lead. Overall, it was a great experience and would have impressed Don Zanfagna.
Currently, we are racing toward the finish line, one lash at a time. April Magill, Architect and founder of Root Down Designs, came in the shop today to help us in bamboo lashing and other techniques. She looks to out of the box techniques such as natural building to create green, functional and beautiful architecture. She brought us plenty of resources and sat with us all day trying to figure out lashing techniques as well as solutions for the stairs.
It looks like we have come to a solution with both the lashing and stairs. However, we are meeting with a engineer to finalize our methods on Monday. For the time being, we are using thick rubber which has solved slippage within our lashings.
For the stairs, we are playing with flattening the bamboo to give a solid surface to walk on, with vertical members for support underneath. This process includes breaking off all the bamboo nodes for the flat surface and then lashing the vertical pieces together. The picture to the left demonstrates the process of lashing within the stairs.
This weekend we hope to build a section of the truss within the dome as well as a section of the stair. Hopefully Monday we will start our final build!