The Longhill School gathering place is a project that I have been working on for several months. It began life as a creative partnership project that sought to engage a group of students with the environment of their school. Last year was spent deriving designs and isolating needs. Now that the project is coming to maturity the student originated design is being honed into a workable solution that takes into account the vagaries of the site. and the need to produce a finished product quickly.
Following the last meeting for the Longhill School gathering place I have fleshed out the design a bit more:
1 found a more appropriate curve
2 looked at some workable planter options
3 considered prices
The idea of integrating the need for planters into the curve design, and the need to have no large inaccessible areas, helped to define the curve, as did the need for a planter by each column, and some larger planters in the main area for trees.
I have therefore broken the continuous line into four separate lines, each terminating in a planter.
Smaller planters by the columns, Larger planters in the main area.
At the covered walkway there is a need for planters, but the curved seat is not to extend here, therefore I have provided some ideas for simple seperate planters - based on the minimum of labour to construct them. these planters have yet to be arranged within the space adequately (issues of escape routes and crowd flow).
At the meeting it was decided to attempt a planter design that used the same tube construction as the rest of the scheme.
These involve bending the pipe to a loop then stacking the loops until the desired height is achieved.
The most common HDPE pipe is 63mm in diameter - the prefered planter height is circa 700mm
Therefore 11 loops stacked and bolted make a workable planter.
The stacked tube planter will be made rigid by filling the bottom 63mm (pipe height) with concrete.
an additional depth of vermiculite will be added - and the rest will be growing medium.
I have constructed a single loop to the minimum diameter that the pipe will follow, it is a simple, low tech process just the sort of thing that a large group of student helpers can deal with..
The preliminary cost of the planters based on 11 times loops of black HDPE pipe (63mm diameter SDR17) is as follows
a 1.6m diameter planter (4m of tube per hoop x 11 hoops) = 44m @ £4.44 per metre = £196.00
a 1.8m diameter planter (6m of tube per hoop x 11 hoops) = 66m @ £4.44 per metre = £294.00
these estimates do not include wastage, but as the entire structure uses the same material this can be offset.
nor do the costs include the bolts, concrete or vermiculite but these are minimal perhaps an additional £20 per planter.
Where these planters meet the seating structure, the rails for the seats become a continuation of one of the levels of tubing.
The estimated amount of 63mm tube for the entire track as shown in the image is 207m.
There will be costs for the 83 leg tubes which I expect to be significantly higher than the track (42m approx of 355mm pipe).
The rendered images that are attached have not yet had the variations in height added to them - the final version will undulate between 200mm high and 700mm high.
There is scope for cost savings - the height of the planters, and the average seating height, could be lowered.
The number of elements could be reduced.
