Hourglass Tower at Oppikoppi festival

Following on from the Belgian music festival last week, Oppikoppi is the largest music festival in South Africa, held annually on Northam Farm.

1st Northam built this tower for the 2014 festival, and the five minute time lapse by Donald van der Westhuizen shows how it was built. The tower was put up by building it completely on the ground (method 1 according to this post) by this team:

Pioneering at Pukkelpop festival

image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

This pioneered structure at Pukkelpop 2014 in Belgium was seen by thousands of people during the annual music festival. Designed by Jakob Ghisjebrechts, it was built with the help of Gouw Limberg, a regional Scouting organization in Belgium

design model. Image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

The pavilion was designed as part of the first year architecture programme at Universiteit Hasselt, and was the winning entry by student Jakob Ghijsebrechts. The pavilion was home to Salon Fou, a hair salon for people at Pukkelpop to get a festival haircut. You can listen to an interview with Jakob (in Flemish) on Youtube here.

image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

(I've already told you that speaking Dutch or Flemish is good for your pioneering skills)

Bamboo Scaffolding- government guidelines for pioneered structures in Hong Kong

Photo courtesy David Boté Estrada

Bamboo has been used for centuries to build scaffolding in East Asia, and is still in use today- everyday pioneering visible in every city. Where there are industries, there are standards, and the Hong Kong government publishes the document Guidelines on the Design and Construction of Bamboo Scaffolds, which regulates every details of how bamboo should be used in scaffolding there.

Figure 1 from Guidelines on the Design and Construction of Bamboo Scaffolds

Amongst other things, this regulation controls:
The type of bamboo-

The commonly used bamboo types are Kao Jue and Mao Jue. They should be 3 to 5 years old and air-dried in vertical positions under indoor condition for at least 3 months before use. The nominal length of both Kao Jue and Mao Jue is 6 m. 

Shear lashings for joining poles-

the distance between two knottings on the overlapping portion of the bamboo members should not be greater than 300 mm, and the tail of one bamboo member should be connected to the head of the other. Diagram 9 illustrates the proper connection of bamboo members for bracings/rakers, ledgers, posts/standards used in a bamboo scaffold.

And even inspection for quality control- 

Bamboo is a natural material and it expands and contracts as the moisture content changes. Proper workmanship, close supervision and frequent inspection are required to ensure the structural integrity of the bamboo scaffolds.

 While these regulations might not apply in your country (and might even allow for structures that are illegal/not suitable for Scouts in your country) they are an interesting read if you are looking at building large pioneered structures. 

WASP - West Australia Scout Pioneering

West Australia Scout Pioneering is part of Scouts Australia's West Australia Adventurous Activities team. The team runs a pioneering course aimed at Venturers, Rovers and Scouters, and also offers their services putting structures up at community events. I have featured the pioneering course before, with some photographs of an hourglass tower built by them, but the video below of the Perth Royal Show shows the bridge they have built here for the last few years (around 2:50)

WASP are active in Western Australia, Ploeg Technieken teach pioneering in Belgium- are there any specialist pioneering training teams active in your part of the world? Tell us about them in the comments