Every July, instructors in our school guide stu- dents through a short design/build project. In 2004, a group of three instructors combined forces to construct a permanent building — an outdoor children’s theatre suitable for the festival and the future theatre camp. On day one we had a surrealistic derelict playground on a twelve foot high plateau behind the school, two thousand dollars and twenty- seven of us ready to design, build and raise money for the theatre. On day fifteen we had a theatre designed, built and nearly paid for.
Dalhousie University School of Architecture ARCH 4002.08 B6 Freelab Summer Term 2004 student builders: Velma Anelo Derek Brennan
Kagiso Jobe Keemanao Kekobilwe Mark Lee Etienne Lemay Zihuan Lin Colin Merriam Benno Rottlaender Weronika Rybacka Michelle Sparks Michael Thicke Christine Thornton Robert Toth Keith Tufts Mareike Wellers Vincent Yen sponsers: Canada Wood Council Cheticamp Credit Union Cheticamp Co-op
Kingman Brewster Katrin Desjardins Colin Gash Lynden Giles Alexander Graf Deana Hall
Local wharves were constructed with wood cribs containing rock ballast. This cultural reinforcement persuaded us to build using rock-ballasted wooden cribwork for the walls and to create a permanent theatre with mini- mal wind resistance.
Facts: Le Theatre petit circle is dedicated to the memory of Colin Gash, one of its designers and builders. Overall dimensions: 180 seats, 12 foot by 20 foot stage, overall length 75 feet, overall width 30 feet. Walls: 16 foot vertical ribs laminated one by fours on wood blocking, diagonal one-by- three spruce each side screwed to ribs, rock infill for ballast. Floor: smooth gravel six inches deep. Stage: one-by-four floor deck on one-by-tens with suspended rock infill. Seats: recycled bleachers and new lumber. Other: Playground slide doubles as entry. Long axis oriented southeast to head into prevailing winds. Discussion: We started on day one with no predetermined design and presented a number of options to the local school and theatre group. Based on their feedback we developed two strategies — a theatre that could be disassembled and hinged down for winter storage or a permanent theatre that was ‘transparent to the wind’ heavy enough yet perforated to reduce the extreme wind load.
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