Building a courtyard classroom

Here is a look at my latest outdoor classroom project I completed recently. 

In early 2015 Scoil Mhuire National School in Lucan, Co. Dublin put out a tender to commission a creative outdoor space for the students to utilise for years to come. It was commissioned under the government's 'Percent for Art Scheme' which allocates 1% of the building cost of any public building to the installation of an art project.

 

The school prides itself on its commitment to sport and creativity. Drama and music are very important in the school, and the school wished for this to be reflected in the submission. It was also essential that the children were to be involved in some aspect of the work. 

Having consulted with the children they had recommended that the project have something uniquely Irish. The design must be site specific, and be sympathetic to the local geographical and historic context, with reference to local heritage.

Taking all this on board, my design was based on a space that is both functional as well as sculptural, a structure that is visually inspiring from both the outside and the inside, a place for children to get excited about being in the great outdoors as well as learning about it.

Uniquely Irish.

Two ancient and iconic features of the Irish landscape are the dry stone walls that knit much of the landscape together and the ring forts that perch on many of its hilltops.

This outdoor classroom pays homage to both.

Structure Description

The main structure consists of a 6 meter wide circle with two entrances with curved timber seating lining the walls. The walls are constructed of dry stone walls that slope in height from 0.5 meters up to 1.2 meters. A second two tiers of seating protrude out from one half of the circle creating additional seating for larger classes as well as creating tiered amphitheatre style seating for events like class plays and class photos. The walls of the outer tiers descend in the opposite direction to the inner walls creating flowing sculptural shapes.

Building the courtyard classroom

Built during the spring of 2015 almost every weather condition imaginable was experienced. Fortunately one of the many benefits of building walls dry (free of any mortar) is that you can still work even when it's raining. 

 One major challenge in this project was the fact that it is a internal courtyard in the school, meaning that everything coming in and out had to be transported by wheelbarrow through the school corridors.

An estimated 60 ton of material had to be wheelbarrowed into the courtyard through the school. About half of this was the limestone used for the walls.  The walls were built with the help of Ken Curran, a fellow dry stone waller from Co. Tipperary. 

Another challenge was building the walls themselves due to their shape. Putting a 'batter' (tapering the wall in) on a curved wall is a challenge in itself, but this project had the added dimension in that the wall was also tapering down from a height of 1.2meters down to 0.5 meters. As a result of this the foundation of the wall gets narrower as it goes along. 

The dry stone walls of this project are limestone and come from Mike Kelly's quarry near Knockcrockery in County Roscommon. All the stone was handpicked and bagged at the quarry. Most of the rounded cope stones were shaped in the quarry to reduce the amount of waste material being shipped to the school. Approximately 32 tons of stone was used in the construction of the walls.     

'Leamhcán' A river runs through it.

 The river Liffey plays a vital role to the creation of the Lucan village as many of its early settlers would have arrived here travelling up the river. In the Irish language, 'leamhcán' means 'place of the elm trees'.

The name probably comes from people that travelled by river, as Lucan is the first place that elm trees are encountered if travelling inland from the Liffey.

The paths that lead up from the double doors at either end of the courtyard are inspired by this, made up of leaf shaped patterns that are laid in a flowing pattern to give the effect of elm leaves flowing down the river Liffey. 

This pattern flows from either end of the courtyard, swirling around in the centre of the circle where the two streams meet. The leaves that make up the floor of the classroom are a combination of mosaics made by the students and hand cut leaf shaped stone engravings.  

The brief required that the children were to be involved in some aspect of the work. This provided a wonderful opportunity for the students to have their own stamp on the classroom.   

The leaves that make up the floor of the classroom are a combination of mosaics made by the students and hand cut leaf shaped stone engravings. All 414 students in the school got to make their very own leaf tile. 

The inclusion of a number of large metal flowers by Irish artist Jack Harte bring additional colour and interest into the space throughout the year.

The beautifully crafted curved timber seats were made by West Cork master carpenter Noel Burke  

Click on the video below to see the making of the project from start to finish.

It was wonderful to get to build another outdoor classroom project for students to enjoy. You can see some of the other public projects I have worked on in the "Commissions" section of my website here 

StoneFest 2014 and the Irish connection

So after a number of years of procrastination and dreaming about going to StoneFest, this year I finally made it over to Seattle to attend the event. Procrastination was of course not the only factor in making the 14,623 km round trip to the event, finances and situation also played a big factor. If it were not for Alexandra and Scott of StoneFest and the work they are doing with the 'OnTrack' scholarship, dreams and procrastination would still be my only memories of StoneFest.

About StoneFest

StoneFest came to be after Scott Hackney (partner of Marenakos Rock Center), Alexandra Morosco (sculptor, and Trow & Holden Field Representative at the time) and Randy Potter (Trow and Holden Tool Co.) had a short tool demo day at Marenakos. It was such a great experience they visualized, bringing together carvers and masons and working together for several days. As director, Morosco planned a four day event in 2004 through the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association which was a total success! Sculptors were exposed to the vibrant stone mason, Bobby Watt and learned about function, gravity and basic building principles. Masons got to blow off all their corners and make a square stone round or curvy. They had so much fun, It was clear this needed to happen again.

Marenakos Rock Center adopted the role of sponsoring this most extraordinary event in the Pacific Northwest and called it StoneFest. StoneFest is now the annual gathering for those who LOVE STONE. This educational event offers something that is a unique experience for the stonemason, the carver, architect, landscape designer, or simply those who want to further their connection with stone.

The story of this years StoneFest however, starts much closer to home at a stone festival far more familiar to me, Feile na gCloch on Inis Oirr. I have written about it many times, and it is a place special to many of us here in the stone world in Ireland. It has also become precious to Scott and Alexandra who have been coming to Inis Oirr for the past few years and will be back again this year.
Inspired by their recent experiences in Ireland as well as the large number of Irish and Scots attending, Scott and Alexandra went with a very strong Irish theme for StoneFest 2014.

Renowned Irish stonemason / author Patrick McAfee is a regular instructor at StoneFest and has brought a regular Irish influence into the projects at StoneFest (note the Clochán in the photo at the top of this post that they built during the 2010 StoneFest)
For this years festival Patrick designed two very special Irish inspired structures.

The Early Irish Christian Church 

This replica of an Early Irish Christian Church was built using local granite rubble and earth mortar and is only slightly smaller than the similar ones found in Ireland.

Tomas Lipps cuts quoins for the church as building continues in the background

Stone busting under the watchful eyes of instructors Pat McAfee and Bobby Watt 

The church site-a hive of activity.

The church rises out of the ground.

Stonework nearing completion. 

Pat McAfee having a well earned drink upon completion of the stonework. 

Stonework complete and ready for its timber roof. 

The dry stone 'Krak'

Newtown Castle

The dry stone project was inspired by the unique Newtown castle in Co. Clare (Unique because unlike most other tower houses in Ireland, Newtown Castle is round but rises from a square pyramidal base).

Inspired by this Pat designed a scaled down version of a 13th century defensive structure known as a 'Krak'.

This type of defensive structure has the same type of complex shapes as Newtown Castle, with round turrets emerging from the steep sloping defensive walls. The turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position for archers, allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall. The steep slope (or batter) of the wall prevents attackers hiding at the base of the wall but also allowed people inside the fort to throw rocks and other projectiles down that would bounce off the sloping wall and into the faces of the attackers. (as demonstrated by Nick and myself below)

Defending the keep with arrow and stone.

The Krak was built last week under the instruction of Nick Aitken, with the help of Ken Curran, Sunny Wieler, Eric Landman, Russ Beardsley, and Alan Ash to name but a few. 

This scaled down Krak is a complex looking structure, but when broken down into individual elements it was essentially an L shaped wall (plum on one side, 1: 2 batter on the other) with round pillars on the corners.

Building of the Krak begins

The part that had everyone stumped for a while was the quoin stones, and how to get the cylindrical shape to emerge from the pyramidal shape wall. After much head scratching they managed to carve the cylindrical shape into the unforgiving Pennsylvania blue stone. This stone only wants to break perpendicular to the grain so trying to achieve  a 1:2 batter into a 6" bed took up a lot of time.

Some much needed shade in an unusually sunny week in Seattle 

 Fortunately the guys at Marenakos guillotined the limestone blocks into pie shapes for the turrets and so sped up the process and got everyone back on track.

The turrets begin to rise

Ken Curran breaking stones

Alan Ash enjoying some stone pies

Ken and Russ's lovely round caps are placed under the watchful eye of Nick 

The builders had hoped to go higher with the towers but the lack of time and stone gave everyone an excuse to come back. All said and done, it did make for an attractive structure. It was also great for wallers from Ireland, America, Canada and Scotland to come together to play with stones.

Fortress completed

Ken Curran and Rory Noone enjoy some fortification inside the Krak

Sunny propping up the outer turret 

King of the castle. Scott Hackney enjoys the new addition to the stone village at Marenakos yard

Milestones 

Under the instruction of some of the finest stone carvers and letter cutters around (including Nicholas Fairplay, Keith Phillips, Karin Sprague, Tracy Mahaffey and Richard Rhodes)

The theme for this years workshops was Milestones.

 Most commonly, Milestones are known as a stone by the side of a road that shows the distance in miles to a specified place. Metaphorically, they have also become known as an important point in the progress or development of something, a very important event or advance. Students were given the opportunity to explore all the venues of StoneFest: Build a milestone into a wall, carve one for a personal achievement or celebration in ones life and bring it home.

Karin Sprague surrounded by eager students.

Learning from each other. President of the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association Carl Nelson takes some pointers from instructor Tracy Mahaffey

Randy Potter in the Trow and Holden tool shop

Rory Noone

Instructor Nicholas Fairplay giving some guidance

Neil Rippingale of The Dry Stone Conservancy getting a taste for letter carving

One of the things I love about events like this is seeing people getting their first taste of stone and instantly becoming hooked. Whether its someone like Neil above who has decades of experience working with dry stone, who has only now discovered his passion and talent for letter carving, or someone like Daniel Poisson (below) who before StoneFest had never touched chisel and stone before.

Daniel Poisson and his first ever stone carving

Daniel Poisson is a graphic artist but this was his first ever carving. I am also delighted to hear that not only has he sold his first stone sculpture, he has already begun work on his first commissioned piece. You can read about Daniel's experience at StoneFest on his blog here. 

It is a wonderful feeling making that first connection with stone and thinking 'HELL YAAA' and being hooked evermore. 

Mike Schroeder works with a group using Portland cement based masonry

This is one of the things I love about StoneFest, it is a convergence of all the disciplines of stone. There is no cliquey groups here, no hierarchy or prejudice, just people brought together in a collective celebration of all things STONE.

     Another highlight of the week was the big StoneFest Feast on the Thursday. The spectacle put on by the hosts in honour of the Celtic themed festival was nothing short of jaw dropping, with a night filled with festivity, music, food and a few pints!

The opening of the StoneFest Feast (Photo Tomas Lipps of The Stone Foundation)

  It is important to note that the StoneFest Feast was also a fundraiser for the wonderful 'OnTrack' Scholarship which made it possible for people like myself, Ken Curran and Rory Noone to attend. You can read more about this Scholarship program here as well as information about becoming a sponsor of this wonderful program. 

The Lords of StoneFest Scott Hackney (in the white blazer) and to his right Alexandra Morosco (Photo Tomas Lipps of The Stone Foundation)

And so ended StoneFest 2014. With a heavy heart I packed my bags and started the long trek back home. Arriving back home in Ireland I felt jet-lagged but yet strangely invigorated at the same time. Convergences like this are important, I feel, the energy and enthusiasm here is infectious. Just as important is the exchange of stories, knowledge, and the lessons learned with people in the same industry, which is hugely beneficial. 

I cannot thank Alexandra and Scott enough for what they are doing on both a personal and professional level. It was so wonderful to see people connect with stone and indeed explore stone in new ways.

To my knowledge there is nothing else like Stonefest that brings together all the disciplines of stone and celebrates them equally together. There is a great scene of passion and inclusiveness here that was evident in all the smiling faces I saw there all week.  

I must admit that the past few months leading up to Stonefest I had been doubting my future with stone due to the sheer lack of opportunities here in Ireland. But as I had hoped it would, spending some time with like- minded people during and around StoneFest has given me the inspiration and focus to carry on.