The Construction Process

Posted by Aaron Rueda May 05, 2019

The Construction Process

STAGE 1: DECONSTRUCTION & PREP

Commencing with the deconstruction of one of the two pallets, this pallet will function as the structure which will house the plants.

The centre pallet slats are removed along with the nails; these slats are to be reused in the wall to add additional openings within the wall which allows the structure to house more plants.

The deconstructed pallet and window are placed together to give us a preliminary idea on where the window will be placed, and their scale.

Taking into consideration of the window size, we decided to remove a corner of the pallet, as this was the most time effective and retained a majority of the original palette (adverse to cutting a hole in the centre of the pallet). The top right section of the pallet is sawed off and serves as the window opening.

STAGE 2: RECYCLED BOTTLES

Throughout the duration of the wall project, we have been collecting empty 2L soft drink bottles, which were cleaned out to be reused as the ‘pots’ which will house the plants.

The 2L bottle necks are cut of: 2 cut bottles are then overlapped together and then hot glued together, to create a more structurally sound pots.

Early tests of hot gluing the bottles together in a single strip resulted in overheating the bottles, which resulted in warping.

Splitting into 2 groups, Billy and Arneth began hot gluing the bottles together, whilst the other members continued with the pallet.

Through trial and error, we found the best method to hot glue the bottle ends together was to ‘stitch weld’ using the hot glue; this was a result of the bottles melting at the seam, which warped the form and made for less uniform bottles. The stitch weld allowed less warping and resulted in consistency throughout all the plant holders.

Slots were then cut into each plant holder; this served as the opening for the plants to protrude out of. The slots were the best solution, as they would house both the soil and plants, without compromising the strength of each bottle.

4 holes were then marked and drilled at the bottom of each plant holder; these holes allow water to escape out of each plant holder, avoiding drowning the plants and improving the wall’s permeability.

STAGE 3: PALLET STUD WALL

During the design stage of the project, we considered placing the pallet that houses the plants in front of a brick wall and use the pallet as a facade for an existing brick wall. But, because we had an extra pallet, we agreed to re-purpose our extra pallet as a ‘stud wall’ which will house the window, and sit behind the first pallet which houses the plants.

The top right corner of the wall, similarly to the first pallet, was cut in order to house the window.

We placed the window atop the cut pallet to gauge how it would it within the wall, and it was decided to fix additional timber members from the cut pallets to reinforce the structural integrity of the wall.

The black corrugated plastic sheeting was used as an alternative waterproofed cladding. With the lightweight material, the sheeting was fixed to the pallet ‘stud wall’ with a staple gun, which was the fastest and most efficient solution.

The sheeting was cut on an angle and folded around the window opening, and was fixed with the staple gun; the fold was done to improve waterproofing of the wall.

The window was fixed using galvanised screws into the wall through the existing holes in the window.

For flashing, as an improvised solution, duct tape was placed around the window opening to represent the flashing between the stud wall and window frame. Though the tape was not a legitimate application, we considered that the duct tape would serve its purpose of waterproofing within our timeframe.

STAGE 4: GREEN WALL PLANTING AND FINISHING

With the internal wall finished, the finished bottles were fixed into the exterior pallet wall, between the slats using staple guns as the fixings.

Taking into consideration the longevity of the wall, we chose plants which would flourish within the frame. Buying select plants from Bunnings, and utilising local plants provided from one of our member’s garden, we filled the bottles with soil and potting mix and planted the array of plants diversely throughout the wall.