AT17

AT17
The blog will now be devoted not to boat building but to my 82-year-old Vertue, Sally II, now undergoing a well needed refit at Johnson & Loftus in Ullapool (and gliding...)

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Blimey!

Thanks to Bursledon Blogger, and photographer Piconasso, I can bring you the largest wooden structure in the world, the Parasol in Seville. No mention of plywood, but I suspect that's what it's made of, so that'll be "the world's biggest plywood structure" (completely different to my mind).

Image Credit Flickr User Piconasso
Like it or not, it's a hell of a way to blow 130 million euros. Wonder what it'll look like in ten years time. And all that end grain.

Personally, and I have looked at the photos from all angles, I think it's horrible, but I don't know why. Not because it's probably responsible for destroying a forest, or consuming a swimming pool of e**xy. I just think it looks like it's been designed by a computer, which it was. As every element is uniquely shaped (I read) it would have taken a team of architects 20 years to draw it on paper.


Incidentally, that Collano glue stuff is shaping up well. It's not a complete alternative to epoxy, but pretty close. No waste, no mixing, cleans up pretty well, chips off like epoxy when dry, strong, water resistant. I wouldn't suggest using it on something like the Parasol without further tests though... But that Nutshell dinghy went together pretty well without a drop of epoxy in sight. Fingers crossed...


 

1 comment:

  1. as my original comment I think it looks amazing well worth travelling to Seville to see. While you might need a computer to model and do the calculations it shows that we're not restricted by imagination or at last the technologies of woodworking.

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