‘Building Materials and Joinery’ is an introductory course in construction for the first year architecture students at CEPT. As discussed in the previous post on the same subject, the aim of the course is to give an idea of all the prevalent building construction materials, and joinery in the same materials.
The course has four major objectives through which it achieves this aim: theory lectures and exercises, field-trips, Construction Drawing assignments, and workshop related exercises.
- Theory lectures and exercises: The exercises given under this category will be more research based and market-survey oriented. Students will present these exercises to the class in the form of half-imperial cartridge sheets. The faculty will also give some theory lectures.
- Field Trips: In order to get an idea of the manufacturing process of some key materials, students will make trips to brick kilns, timber saw-mills, steel rolling plants, etc.
- Building Construction Drawing: Construction Drawing is a very important tool that every student needs to master; after all, that is the primary medium of communication for an architect. The drawing exercises will be closely connected to the workshop exercises.
- Workshop Exercises: Workshop exercises are meant to encourage students to explore the properties of the materials by working with them. Students will be given joinery exercises in timber, bamboo, steel, and brick.
EXERCISE:01 (Theory)
First exercise given to the students is a theory based exercise. The class has been divided in to groups of four/five students, and each group has been assigned one construction material from the following list.
- brick
- stone
- earth
- clay and ceramics
- timber
- bamboo
- steel
- aluminium
- concrete
- ferrocement & ferrocrete
- glass
- plastics
Students have been given a framework under which these materials are to be studied. In each material, students will try to cover the following topics
- History: History of the selected material from the point of view of building construction. Key dates, buildings, timeline.
- Source-to-site: The origin/source/raw material for the particular material, and the process/processing/dealers/vendors it goes through before reaching construction site.
- Forms & Sizes: What are the different forms and sizes in which the selected material is available in the market? Doing a market survey, collecting samples, information.
- Storage & Transportation: What is the way in which the selected material stored and transported? specific requirements connected with the properties of the material.
- Properties: Physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the material.
- Tools: What are the tools/machines needed to work with the selected material?
- Application: Structural and non-structural elements possible with the material.
Note:
- Presentations will be made on half-imperial cartridge sheets with the prescribed format given in the class.
- The sheets have to be self-explanatory, substantiated with sketches and photographs, and bare minimum text.
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