PROPOSITION STUDIOS
MODULAR & REPOSITIONABLE + SHORT TERM USE
TEMPORARY/MEANWHILE BUILDING
PARTITION WALL SYSTEM FOR SMALL & MEDIUM SCALE
EXHIBITION & STUDIO COMPLEX
Supplied design brief
Movable modular [freestanding] walls for studios, gallery space or showrooms.
Sections that can be locked together/detached to create bigger/smaller walls
Initial Technical Advisements / Visual Material Treatment
Each section 2440Hx1220Wx100D
√ - APPROVE - F&CP@PROPOSITION:
8X4 SHEET GRID DIMENSIONING we can suggest that the ideal format for a panel is the conventional theatre industry half-flat of a 4’ x 4’ square, and that a suitable framework will enable a roster of multipurpose interior and exterior modules to be interfaced with each other.
In essence conforming the dimensions and grid of all surfaces to an 8’ x 4’ format is highly recommendable, since London was originally built on an imperial units scale, and the entire theatre industry and domestic construction industry runs on “eight by four” sheets.
For convenience and mass-ordering 8x4 sheets should be accomodated for wholesale use by the designed system, but in practise, particularly in narrow or spiral staircases or loading via Hi-Ab crane, such large 8ft sheets are highly unwieldy, comprising a two man lift and a significant dry storage issue, nor can 8x4 sheets be palletised or lifted in bulk without a crane - whereas 4x4 sheets are much more portable and much safer to handle and lift.Imperial units, rather than Metric - 1220mm x 2440mm dimensioning is an inauthentic expression of the format, which is a standard imperial measure for a flat, and it is very likely that planning and drawings should be conducted in FEET and INCHES for the purpose of convenience and ergonomics - the british imperial system of measurements is designed around features of the human body, and is ideal for designing spaces around the requirements of people.
It is also popular in America, and NASA still use it for most of their bases. The system is also preferred in automotive settings, from bicycles to lorries imperial measures make parts the right size without having to fiddle with loads of numbers and find nothing lines up or looks the same size. The origins of the British Imperial Weights and Measures 1824 precision standards date back to antiquity.
18mm MDF, painted white
X - TOXIC OFFGAS + SERIOUS FIRE RISK - DO NOT APPROVE
MDF is essentially made up of small wood fibers held together by urea-formaldehyde glue and paraffin wax. When burned, these chemicals will deplete the oxygen from the airspace, release ferocious quantities of energy, and release toxic fumes and smoke, which can be very harmful if inhaled.
MDF is a highly inappropriate material for the construction of gallery walls, especially if combined with novel thermal and electrical hazards which are hard to anticipate in the real world, and are highly likely in artists’ studios. Pine or Oak panelling or Dibond would be less dangerous - and that’s saying something.
Any resulting assembly constructed from MDF is similarly heavy compared to concrete or limestone due to the quantity of formaldehyde glues and paraffin wax resins involved.
SERIOUS FIRE HAZARD
MDF DOES NOT MEET REGULATIONS FOR STAGE, SCREEN, OR COMMERCIAL RETAIL AS A PARTITION OR CURTAIN WALL – We simply cannot recommend MDF as a material for internal walls, especially not at such an extreme thickness and substantial calorific content, especially not when situated in free air or in proximity to sources of combustion, electrical appliances, or heat. Timber has significant fire safety issues, which can only be mitigated at considerable expense.
No more than 30% of an internal area’s walls may be comprised from timber materials, under current UK fire legislation - a system which we might add is hardly stringent - please note that DTP@F&CP was the designer who came up with the Grenfell Green Heart symbol.
Even outdoors in a field the presence of handheld high technology presents novel sources of hazard - an electrical fire caused by a laptop or mobile phone battery presents a significant risk, and a lithium-based battery fire typically sustains temperatures well over 2000ºK.FORMALDEHYDE OFF-GASSING
CLICK HERE: GUARDIAN ARTICLE DETAILING BUILT-IN WARDROBES CONSTRUCTED FROM MDF CAUSING 13X SAFE LIMIT OF FORMALDEHYDE GAS LEVELS SET BY BRE TO BE EXCEEDED
[after experiencing health effects] We contacted [former government laboratory] BRE to arrange for air quality tests in our bedroom to see if it was safe to sleep in.”But as well as the very high formaldehyde levels, the report found volatile organic compounds levels were more than 18 times the building regulations.
There was “evidence that these are emanating from the [MDF] fitted furniture,” it said.
The couple immediately asked [•••] to remove the furniture, which took place the following Monday. A second BRE test confirmed that the levels in the room had returned to near normal after it was removed, she says.
POOR MOISTURE RESISTANCE: MDF is famous for aggressively expanding from its solid state if exposed to humidity or moisture, thus turning into a cross between filo pastry and cotton wool while falling apart at the slightest sniff of moisture or condensing humidity, attracting a variety of biologically dangerous moulds and assorted pathogens.
EXPLOSIVE AND DANGEROUS DUST: MDF when worked with abrasives or rotary cutting produces a catastrophic quantity of dust, which is a COPD risk, known carcinogen, and a seriously explosive fire hazard. Metal-on-metal contact can generate sparks which can ignite MDF sawdust and cause quite serious explosions.
The fire ratings of MDF are highly undesirable - at relatively low temperatures the resins break down releasing sense-of-smell-destroying formaldehyde offgas, which is extremely hepatotoxic and carcinogenic, while combustion or pyrolysis gas and smoke contains dioxin-like and cyanide-containing components in addition to carbon monoxide, benzene and formaldehyde. Benzene is implicated in myeloid leukemia, and is a principal hazard in cigarette smoke and uncontrolled forms of hydrocarbon combustion. An ideal material has a Class 1 fire rating and is non-combustible, and will maintain structural integrity even under conditions of high heat, ideally totally preventing the spread of fire.MDF smoke is a lethal hazard under fire conditions. It has all the problems of wood, and all the problems of plastic, all in one awful material.
If we could design a memorial for the 1980s to be thrown by an animatronic representation of a paid actor dressed as a fake monsanto executive, badly launched into a fracking-contaminated river joined to a great american lake, we propose to launch an enormous fire hazard, scientifically, from a sawmill chimney in flammable glorification of MDF, and its ingredients. We could produce a series on “seriously awful materials you could find in your house that should definitely be banned”. We propose a self-non-extinguishing burning-sinking dust-ejecting financial-rocket-ship crossed with an endocrine-disrupting molecule-model ball-and-stick apparatus, like a chaotic catherine wheel made out of pallet wood, MDF and kingspan, something like a satirical depiction of the space shuttle atlantis disaster crossed with an XXL sized mega-mart retail trolley mounted to a spindle moulder. Unrestrained launch of a pallet of MDF from a suitable launch pad, low-earth orbit launch-and-burnup velocity might be achieved by sticking half a tonne of carbon or coke, coffee creamer and MDF sawmill dust into a section of industrial chimney launching tube, filled with anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen, and firing it up while sprayed from above with pressurised water jets (to produce explosive vapour during the simulated disaster) from an airport fire engine crane mounted hose, from a safe distance. We would recommend this exhibit be programmed as a co-ordinated ornamental part of the demolition program of a piece of EPA sperfund “rust belt” second-generation coal-fired industry, preferably one retro fitted to run on diesel with old storage tanks we could blow up at the same time. The trip switch should be an effigy of ronald McDonald tied to buster keaton tied to some train tracks, being run over by a steam train driven by the masked man from Harriman, with a black hat and black gloves, and a briefcase full of coins and casino tokens. No, we don’t work for Top Gear, but we have heard of the BBC.If you want that, we’re totally interested in producing it for you, and we can guarantee record-setting hits on youtube if we capture the event in slo-mo using a phantom flex camera. We’re more than halfway serious about this, all we need is the money, and you can consider it done, like an assassination or blowing up a bridge by the secret squirrels. We live for this sort of ridiculous test cell engineering. It’ll cost loads less than the insurance payout on killing members of the public slowly or quickly by fire or medical emergency.
Whereas construction of MDF walls on ground floor galleries is sufficiently dubious as an industry practise for slow-poisoning of the public in retail environments invisibly that we’d refuse to work to the spec on principal - an air quality test would be sufficient as due diligence to condemn the practise, without needing to send round the Fire Brigade to start burning things in a test cell down at the station to validate assemblies and produce BSI data sheets, and giving the structure a class 1 fire rating. Same with dibond, same with acrylic, same with non-FR polycarbonate. These are not suitable materials for large-scale installations, and can legally comprise no more than 30% of any interior surfacing to qualify for fire safety protocols - this also depends upon location and access to fire escapes.
100 Chalk Farm Road is currently extremely fire-safe, being comprised from glass, steel and concrete. An Asbestos survey is likely required, just from the look of the thing - it looks very much like a municipal fire station, in a good way - those buildings are designed to withstand a nuclear war and remain in restorable condition given a direct strike with a nuclear bomb. Anything built by the government after the end of the war was built with this in mind, until the mid 1980s spelled the fall of the berlin wall, sparking aggressive “big five” industry lobbying of the path of globalisation, muzak and mega-malls in Asia. Please see “Life in Plastic” by Bob Edwards for extensive details.
Current fire regulations as distorted by industry self-assessments, particularly those by arconic and celotex corporations are insufficient to perform an onsite assessment of real-world conditions and likely risks - so we would recommend that a fire test is conducted in the car park with a fire engine if you don’t believe us when we’re saying don’t do it. Don’t do it for grenfell. Build an example and set it on fire in the car park if you have to, but don’t put that much MDF in a building, especially not if the partition system is a long-term investment which is designed for heavy duty studio and display use in future locations.
MDF IS CONSTRUCTED FROM FORMALDEYHDE, PARAFFIN WAX AND UNCERTIFIED SAWMILL EXTRACT DUST, AND TYPICALLY CARRIES NO FSC CERTIFICATION. SUSTAINABLY SOURCED TIMBER IS ADVISABLE, AND REUSABLE AND RE-POSITIONABLE MATERIALS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. MDF IS LIGHT DUTY AND HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR TOURING SYSTEMS.
Please see prior work F&CP did with artbelowzeroº on the launch of FSC with Greenpeace in 2006 - the whole immersive 3500 square foot show was basically about orangutans vs chainsaws and sawmills.
Anticipated Design Challenges
Wheels? They would need to be hidden and lockable
How to keep the [units / assemblies] stable and standing
[safe handling & stable positioning during all phases: storage, transit, load-in/out, construction, display, maintenance/access, deconstruction, removal, reuse-replacement, disposal]
Each section needs to be transportable in stairs/lifts for office buildings etc
F&CP Suggested Features / Extras
floating floors / staging
thermal / acoustic / visual segregation + air seal curtaining
active / passive lighting
seating / furniture
power & ventilation / B.M.S. / safety monitoring
integrated accessible ducting & rigging points
fresh water / grey water distribution & exhaust
air quality management using plants & active segregation
w/ aquaponics pond + fish tank option
customisable security / lockable storage
integrated signage / displays
integrated heavy duty mounting points for artworks & sculptures
matching plinths & staging
displays & exterior signage
interior / exterior gazebos, fences, crowd barriers & entry points
safety signage / fire exit markers + site plan map documents
smoke alarms, fire ceilings, fire walls, smart alarms, fire doors
Reference Images of TERRA space @ 100 Chalk Farm Road
