/fountain-the-cathedral

Water fountain inspired by the story named "The Cathedral" by Jacek Dukaj

Water Fountain "The Cathedral"

The story behind:

  1. AD 1882 — Antoni Gaudí builds the Sagrada Família church

  2. AD 2000 — The Sagrada Familia church inspires Jacek Dukaj to write a short story — "The Cathedra".

  3. AD 2002 — Tomasz Bagiński ilustrates the story with his wonderful (and at that time technically astonishing) animation "The Cathedral".

  4. AD 2019 — After seeing the Church, watching the Animation and reading the Story (in this order) I decided to build a tribute to the Three Great Artists: Gaudi, Dukaj and Bagiński

They have already used three art techniques: architecture, literature and digital animation. To continue the chain of inspiration I had to choose a different one.

... continue

Update

Stage 1

See photos

Done:

  1. Built cathedral backbone of copper wire
  2. Secured the backbone with styro foam

Stage 2

See photos

Done:

  1. Selected and prepared 2 granite stones
  2. Drilled fi12mm holes for the supporting rods (3 holes in the smaller stone and 7 in the bigger one)
  3. Drilled 19 fi8mm holes to attach the cathedral building

Comment:

I used diamond hole-saws together with constant water flow (using 450l/h pump). Despite using the maximum rotation speed of the driller it took more than 16 hours to drill all the holes. During the drilling I destroyed 4 saws.

Stage 3

See photos

Done:

  1. I drilled the "magnum foramen" through the centre of the bigger stone. Because of the limited length of the hole-saws I had to mark the position stereotactically and then drill separate holes on each side. Then I used a hammer and steel rods to carefoully chisel the remaining stone from inside.
  2. On the upper side I widened the foramen opening using diamond mills (spindle- and ball-shaped). Thanks to that I achived an "anxious" look of the dark and deep hole. What is more — thanks to the wide opening — woter that is flowing upwards through the tunnel doesn't "shoot" in a fountain-like manner. Instead it flows slowly.
  3. I drilled many glens, gorgens and faults to guide the direction of water flow. After the procedures water is flowing only in the front direction spreading into an elegant and majestic delta.
  4. I drilled supporting tunnels that connect with the main foramen and open on the front waterfall. The idea is to have limited amount of water flowing through the floor of the cathedral while maintaining high flow through the waterfall.

Stage 4

See photos

Done:

  1. First, I encountered a problem of creating a plane model of holes of the bottom side of both stones. When I was drilling them they often were misplaced compared to the original stencil. I had to position the stones correctly and then somehow create another plain stencil. Positioning was demanding since the stones are very heavy. i used wooden blocks and old clothes to precisely position them. To create a stencil I put a huge transparent acrylic glass onto the stones. Using a laser (which I ensured that was staying in a perfectly right angle to the glass) I ensured that the laser dot appears exactly in the middle of each hole. Then I marked the laser spots on the glass. Next step was to drill the holes through the acrylic and copy the appertures of the holes to a semi-transparent engineering paper.
  2. Using the stencils I drilled the same set of holes in a wooden 600x600mm shelf which then I hanged above the stones. I inserted fi12mm rods both into the wells in the stones and the holes in the hanging piece of wood. I had to position it using steel wires attached to the ceiling and walls. I used level tool a lot to ensure that all the angles are correctly positioned.
  3. I marked the position of the wooden plane on the rods, labelled them with numbers (put the same numbers on the stencil) — and then I cut each rod to end at the exact position of the plane.
  4. After I had each rod lengthened properly I secured them to the plane with nuts and steel rings which also prevented the plane from oscillating on the steel wires.
  5. Then the most time consuming process begun. I had to attach the rods to the stone in an extremly strong and reliable manner. The best idea that appealed to me was to use a "chemical anchor". After studying chemical and physical specs of several of such products I bought a Pattex chemical anchor that was waterproof and was designed exactly for connecting steel and stone. A chemical anchor consists of two ingredients that mix up in a special mixer attached at the end of aplying tool and then are applied directly into the holes.
  6. Over the next 4 weekends I was unscrewing 3 rods each time and apply the chemical anchor. Then I needed to leave it for about 18 hours to get a strong bond. Almost half of them didn't mount securely at the first appliance and I had to clean the holes, drill-out the artificial sand and apply it one more time.

Stage 5

See photos

Done:

  1. Built temporary base mad of three old wooden 600x600 shelves
  2. Assembled base and the stones on the rods in a vertical position
  3. Connected the pump to the bottom tunnel to test the waterflow
  4. Using diamond mills I deepened the glens to guide the waterflow in a more even way
  5. Sharpened the bottom edge of the fall to prevent water underflowing (and thus corroding the steel rods)

Stage 6

See photos

Done:

  1. Cleaned the stones with pressure cleaner
  2. Removed stone impurities with diamond and corund mills
  3. Glued the cathedral backbone using poxillin glue

Stage 7

See photos

Done:

  1. Removed the temorary base
  2. Built a new base made of 4x 18mm plywood planes and applied a black glass ontop of that
  3. Attached 8 aluminium u-profiles to separate the plywood from the floor.

Stage 8

(no photos)

  1. Designed a way to quickly attach nuts
  2. Disassembled old base
  3. Covered the entire monument with foil to protect it for the winter (it sits outside)
  4. Ordered steel plates to stabilise the rods that support the heavy rocks. I designed an SVG then converted it to CAD file (with some minor adjustments). I ordered laser cutting of 6mm black steel (should get covered with rust very quickly!)
  5. Ordered the flowerpot which will be the water reservoir. I have choosen a 300x600x390 one, made of fiberglass with very shiny finish. It's said to be very durable yet it weights only 4kg (compared to concrete ones which (at the same size) weight around 30kg)

Stage 9

TODO photos

  1. Designed and ordered laser-cut steel support plates for water reservoir. Still not assembled

Stage 10

(no photos)

  1. Designing and planning waterfall disperser
  2. Main idea: ceramic maple leaves

Stage 11

Plan:

  1. Assemble reservoir circuit
    1. Plan hole positions
    2. Make holes
    3. Apply liquid rubber isolation
    4. Attach electric & water culverts to the reservoir
  2. Build reservoir support
    1. Plan height & lengths of rods
    2. Cut feet rods
    3. Make feet holes in the base glass
    4. Make feet holes in the base plywood
    5. Screw on feet rods
  3. Build electric
  4. Assemble major parts together
    1. Attach steel stabilisers to the long rods
    2. Attach base to the long rods
    3. Attach reservoir

Setting

width: 75cm wall + 7cm door border

1

2

Plans

Steel rods stabilisers

Position of holes (relative to the base — left,deep):

  1. 160,302 = 302-160 => 160,142
  2. 253,373
  3. 298,279
  4. 275,157
  5. 413,151
  6. 494,177
  7. 430,279
  8. 78,249
  9. 102,169
  10. 169,157

Todo:

  1. Order steel stabilisers

Water reservoir

Candidates:

  1. https://sklep.polnix.com.pl/pl/p/95.010/144
    1. czarna, włókno szklane
    2. 2,9kg, 70l, tj razem z wodą max 70/2+2,9=37,9kg
    3. w=600,d=300,h=390 [mm]
  2. https://sklep.polnix.com.pl/pl/p/95.038/133 (jw, ale z nóżkami)

TODO:

  1. Design support/fulcrum for the pot (should be anchored in the wooden base and do not burden the glass plane)

Todo

Structure:

  1. Stabillise rods that are supporting the stones with:
    1. (either) small welded horizontal rods
    2. (either) use multiple convolutions of thick nickel plated wire attached with nuts and glue shaped into ivory-like structure
    3. (either) use thick barbed wire attached with nuts and glue
  2. Apply rusting mixture to rust the rods. (If using nickel wires to stabilise the supporting rods: scratch the nickel wires with coarse-grained emery paper). Then secure the rust with water resistant transparent (and nonglowing!) coat.

Water circuit

Reservoir

Pump circuit:

    • Nypel 1/2" -> 3/4" m/m
    • Wąż 3/4" f/f 100cm (internal fi 19mm)
    • Nypel 3/4" m/m
    • Redukcja nypel 3/4" -> mufa 1"
    • Przepust m1" -> f3/4"
    • Nypel 3/4" m/m
    • Wąż 3/4" f/f 30cm (internal fi 19mm)
    • Nypel m3/4" -> f1/2"
    • Nypel 1/2" -> plastik 13mm (dołączony do pompy)

Reservoir refill circuit

    • 2x Przepust f1/2" -> m3/4"
    • 2x Wąż 3/4" f/f 50cm (internal fi 19mm)
    • 2x Nypel m3/4" -> f1/2"
    • 2x elektrozawór 1/2" m/m
    • 2x zawór kulowy 1/2" f/m
    • 2x wąż 1/2" 150cm m/m

Cathedral:

  1. Coat the cathedral with copper wire of decreasing sizes
  2. Design and build the Altar
  3. Design 3D model of the Priest and order it
  4. Design 3D model of Saint Ismir's grave
  5. Form and attach a Cross on the top
  6. Distort the shape of the fully assembled cathedral so that it looks haunted and almost falling
  7. Apply blue-copper-corrosion mixture and secure with transparent (glowing!) coating

Water system:

  1. Choose and buy flowerpot for a tank
  2. Design and assembly water automation
  3. shape the waterfall edge to ensure that water is flowing into the tank without spilling

Plants:

  1. Buy and attach Hedera helix ivory (darkest possible shade of the leaves)
  2. Design and assembly ivory watering system

Target site assembly:

  1. Mount black glass to the wall behind the fountain to prevent destroying wall plaster, also if the background is black and glowing: the base, rods, ivory, the stones will be less striking while emphasizing the blue-and-ginger glowing cathedral.