Makati...isang malaking Banyo...

Bad trip talaga yesterday...

Nagmamadali na nga ako maka uwi, with a birthday cake in tow for my son. Pero di ako makapagmadali kasi ang mga sidewalk sa Ayala Ave. are totally covered in tiles. E nag uuulan pa. Apat na beses ako nadulas... And now my left foot is blackened (sabi ng officemate ko nagka sugat sa loob..and that is blood inside) and hindi ko mai bend ang paa ko. There were a lot of people with me who were walking at a snail's pace because the entire Ayala Ave. sidewalk is a 'dulasan festival' of sorts. Hirap na nga akong maglakad before pa sa harap ng Enterprise kapag umuulan kasi madulas, naisipan ng Makati na pahirapan ako lalo by putting tiles on the whole Ayala Ave.

Akala ko kasi nakarecover na ang mga pinoy sa 80's phenomenon na 'basta naka tiles, sosy!!!' (with kasamang hiyaw ng "ahaaaay" sa dulo) nung nagaaral pa ako sa kolehiyo. Kaya nga mostly ginagamit ng designers e road bricks or other materials with a high friction rate even when wet.

Kaaaso meron n naman palang hang over ng 80's phenow movement. Kaya kailangan kong bumili ng sapatos na mas makapit dahil sa ginawa sa Ayala. Pero, dahil wala pang bonus, sa may Dela Rosa na lang muna ako dumadaan.

(Ay, naku...nasabi ko pa...baka Dela Rosa naman ang tadtarin nila ng mga tiles...oo yung mga mariwasa na pambanyo...para kahit maaraw, basag ang bungo ng mga naglalakad...put@#%in@)

Floating Frame for Seaside Structure Against Tsunami and Seaborne Flooding

The strong earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last March 11 is definitely a great tragedy. Watching the video of the raging water pounding the sea side structures, and creating havoc further inland made me weak in the knees.

This event got me thinking of a system that would prevent such widespread destruction, if not, lessen such occurances. If the years I spent developing and detailing structural retrofits for seismic events has taught me one thing, it is that a full-on resistance to the forces of nature can create adverse effects on the structure, and in a worse case scenario, contribute to the self-destruction of the structure. Recent trends in seismic design is to allow the building to sway with the motion of the earthquake instead of resisting it. The same is also applied to bridge design w

herein the more the structure moves along the direction of the forces acting upon it.

Therefore, I thought up of a system that would allow the structure to ride above the tsunami and sway along with its awesome power.

What I came up with is a network of steel frames with air tight steel drums or tanks to provide bouyancy. The floating steel base is then anchored like a boat to its concrete base or tiers.

But this alone cannot cope with the total forces that the tsunami can bring about. On the area in front of the structure, standing between it and the seafront, is a pair of pneumatic water barrier. Water barriers are already used in buildings around Tokyo to prevent flood waters from entering the structure. In this case, the barrier doesn't aim to stop the water but to redirect some of the forces so that the structure and the floatation frame will not face the brunt of the tsunami.

This system is not only applicable against tsunamis but also help seaside structures from seaborne forces like hurricanes or tropical storms.

The Tatami Room Clone Conversion

I always love Japanese architecture, both the traditional styles and the modern styles that are now integrated into the International Style.

In the styles of western architecture utilized in Japan, there's always something Japanese left in the design: the Tatami Room. In all the types of buildings or structures I've observed in Japan, there's always an allocation for that private/ intimate/public/ traditional space.

I love the aesthetics and the utilization of that room. So I tried to adapt that design into the living space I am currently renting out.

Since tatami mats are not sold in the Philippines, we had to improvise. To simulate the soft rigidity of the compacted rice straw, we assembled these small, inexpensive rubber mats.

With double sided tapes, a tightly woven 'banig' is secured to the rubber mat. The banig is used in place of the Igusa (soft rush) straw. Fortunately, the banig we bought almost has that same soft texture and the sides are bordered with cloth...just like the real tatami mat.

One major feature we applied is this low Japanese style table, almost like the one used in a kotatsu...without the heater, of course. This article was a hard table to find. It took us almost 2 weeks in looking for it...and after finding one, it was the last stock.

The Final Product.

It didn't turn out as I planned it to be due to lack of resources but it did half the trick. Add a couple of seat pillows for guests and presto, a tatami room clone.

Roof Repair Weekend Fun

My sister asked me to fix their roof which keeps on leaking even after it was re patched by some construction workers. Here are some of the things we found out in repairing seals on your roof

a certain area was evidently a trouble spot since it shows signs of accumulated rust and layers upon layers of seal and waterproofing (the original asphalt, the one painted green, and the recent gray.) seeing cracks within the seals, we decided t0 remove all the seals.

as we suspected, pockets of moisture and water lies under all those seals. Although there are layers of seals, some had succumed to time and heat which led to cracks within the layers. We decided to peel off all the  layers of sealant.

the new single layer of elastomeric seal

the shotty way this overlap in the flashing is sealed makes the perfect spot for a 'capillary effect', wherein the small creek opening up to a larger interior space creates a vacuum therefore siphoning the water into the larger interior space. You have to make sure this area is sealed up good.

another example at the junction between the flashing and the firewall which needs to be sealed up

Vacuum Concrete

For almost a whole week, me and my boss was stuck with translating Japanese design documents into English. As the task was such a pain, a part of me was elated because it was a chance for me to tank up on my Japanese while looking back at my specification writing.

In one of the construction notes, I came across a concreting method loosely translated as "vacuum concrete" (shinkuu konkuri-to). The english outcome was 'vacuum casted concrete', this spiked my intrest.

I searched the web and found out that this method is used to make the poured concrete useable as early as possible. This is mostly used for slab constuction.

As the Nakayashiki site explains, when this system is applied, the freshly casted concrete attains its rigidity and strength faster, creates a more durable hard surface after curing, and decreases the amount shrinkage (cracking) that occurs in concrete after setting.

These features are attained by laying a mat over the concrete and attach it to a vacuum pump. The mat maintains the atmospheric pressure required while the pump sucks out the surplus water used in the cement mixing. After this process, the concrete is dehydrated by 15 to 20 percent, enough to make a RC slab treadable. Another element of this system is the metal O-ring which raises the vacuum mat over the slab.

As the pressure is decreased, the metal rings emboss themselves into the concrete which leaves a tell-tale mark of its use. Some users even out the surface afterwards, some users leave it there as a floor pattern.

Like the 'punched concrete' presumably started by Tadao Ando, this might spark another building feature that started as 'purely Japanese' and integrated into the International Style.