December 03, 2008

Disassembly for Reuse at MoMA

Glass is carefully removed and packed in crates. 

Cellophane House™ was designed for ease of assembly, disassembly and re-assembly. With the conclusion of the Home Delivery show at the Museum of Modern Art on October 26, the next phase of our experiment is beginning. Our intention is to disassemble and rebuild the house on a new location, with the aim of helping to offset the millions of tons of construction and demolition debris generated in the United States each year.

Since the beginning of November, we have successfully lowered all of the chunks to the ground and have been disassembling and organizing the parts from each chunk in preparation for loading onto flatbed trucks. Jason Niebish and Elizabeth Kahley have been on site overseeing the disassembly effort for KieranTimberlake. They have collectively labeled the parts, transferred gussets from cardboard boxes to plastic crates, and palletized parts in preparation for fork lifting to flatbed trucks.

Workers detach components from the aluminum frame.  
Photo © KieranTimberlake 

Says Niebish, “Removing the M17 bolts was a challenge, but nothing can stop a corded Dewalt impact wrench! Sciame, the construction manager, and Cord, the carpenters, worked really well together on the very delicate task of lowering the chunks to the ground.” 
 
On December 2, the first of three flatbed trucks removed the stairs, bathroom pods, major structural beams, pallets of Bosch framing members, and spreader bar from the site. Last week, the trucking company sent out a technician to conduct a site survey and plan the moves required to load the flatbeds. They agreed fork lifting would be the best method for moving the stairs and plan to use a banding machine instead of ratchet straps to secure materials to the pallets.