PSI - Issue 29

Leonardo Zaffi et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 29 (2020) 157–164 Zaffi, Capestro and Viti / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000 5 order to give to the façade the appearance of a human face. The project, planned by Clet, has been initia lly defined through sketches (Figure 3a) and models (Figure 3b, c). When the sculpture has been defined in its shape and dimensions, the constructive phase has been planned. A wood frame has been chosen for the structure, due to its light weight and to the constructive simplicity, compatible with the skills and the operative background of the students. The external skin, instead, was planned to be made by wood sheets. 3. The “Maso” p roduction The construction of the sculpture has been made by Clet, together with the students, inside the specia l University room dedicated to carpentry works (Capestro and Zaffi 2018). The room is placed at the ground floor of the University complex, it is very large for Ita lian standards, and it has a large externa l door, suitable for moving the sculpture from the room to the outside courtyard. Nevertheless, the length of the room was shorter (about 1/3) of the tota l length of the sculpture; moreover, the sculpture had to be moved from the University to the Power Station through a simple van. As a consequence, the sculpture had to be made in three pieces each time, and each of them had to be completely disassembled just after its first construction. In this section the construction phases have been described. 3.1. The construction in the University room The carpentry room (Figure 4a) has a plan of 6.15 x17.10 x m, and a height equa l to 4.50 m. The sculpture consisted of a frame of paulownia wood, fixed by glue and na ils. The dimension of the sculpture was 12,50x4.00x3,70m; therefore, it had to be divided in five parts (three for the ma in septum and two for the “nostrils” of the nose), eachof whichhad to bemade separately. 161

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Fig. 4. The construction phase inside the carpentry room ( Laboratorio di Architettura e Autocostruzione ): (a, b) Laboratory technicians, students and Clet at work. (c) Testing the preassembly of the structure

The entire project had to be performed within the time of a semester (between September and January). Moreover, the “Maso” inaugura tion was planned for December 15 th , during the pre-Christmas activities, just after the opening of the newmetro-line of the area. As a consequence, the construction phase had to be very limited in the time; indeed, it started at November 9 th and ended on November 26 th . In order to be able to complete the construction activities in this short time, the students had to work well beyond their officia l lesson time; a proper organiza tion was made, to have different teams, made by 5-6 students each, which covered the entire opening-time of the University. A superposition of two students was made between the previous team and the following one, in order to assure continuity to the construction. In Figure 4b and 4c some images of the construction phase can be seen.