Welcome back to our blog on the Dragon Spine Water-Lift project at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden! The following week has given us the opportunity have a meeting with the Garden’s education coordinator, Susan Ma. The following blog provides further information relating to the Garden, project specifications agreed upon during the meeting, and initial strategies to achieve the project goals.

The Organization: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
Vancouver’s Chinese Garden was built in 1985-1986 using the time honored principles and techniques of the original Ming dynasty garden. The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden is very passionate about promoting traditional Chinese culture and aims to provide an authentic experience into a journey back in time to 15th Century China. The goal of the garden is to provide a “window to another world” to truly enhance the learning experience and strengthen the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. Following the garden’s truism of how “life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away,” the project team is glad to be a contributing part of this wonderful organization.

The Big Three: Project Scope, Budget, and Schedule
The dragon spine water-lift was a milestone among ancient Chinese machinery and was invented around 200 C.E. during the Three Kingdoms Period. The high working performance of this agricultural irrigation device made it widely used throughout Asia, only being replaced by the introduction of mechanical pumps during the 20th century. This project is aimed to provide an active learning experience for children, with its main purpose being to demonstrate how the dragon spine water-lift operates and to captivate their interest for older Chinese inventions. The scale model of the water-lift will be fully functional and powered through the use of a hand crank. The scale of the project is set to be approximately ½ foot by 2½ feet so it may be easily showcased on a regular sized table. Another main objective is to make the model compact and easily storable due to space constraints at the garden.

Authenticity is key to this project, so the scale model will be constructed of materials that were originally used for the traditional water-lifts, using wood and bamboo to create an aesthetically pleasing replica. As we would like to make a long lasting asset for the garden, we are considering using teak or white oak as the main building material due to their aesthetic appeal and high resistance to water. The work location and methods used to construct the water-lift are left up to the project team due to the limited space at the garden.

The initial scheduling for the design and construction phases of the project has been planned out to ensure a successful and timely project completion. Design schematics and sketches have been started so they will be completed and showcased in the next blog update. Construction is set to take place during late February/early March after reviewing the final design with Susan Ma. The construction process is estimated to take 2 weeks, and we aim to have it fully constructed by mid March.

In terms of project costing, the budget for the project agreed upon is $200. Reimbursement for construction materials will be accompanied with their respective receipts. A cost analysis of the design will be conducted to provide estimates and make sure the project is well within the outlined budget. At present, the project team sees no issues keeping the project under budget.

Initial Strategy: A Running Start
After the brief meeting with Susan Ma, our group parted to individually research and conduct a design analysis of the water-lift. Later in the week, the group will meet as a whole to decide which aspects of each design is most suitable and synthesize ideas to create a workable design. The designs will be assessed based on functionality, ease of storage, economic feasibility, and aesthetics. After finishing the design process, we will have a detailed breakdown for each part of the water-lift, and access how much time needed to construct each part. A time schedule for construction will then be created to keep the group on track with the intention of finishing the project two weeks before the due date. This will provide sufficient time to conduct a trials of the water-lift and manage any problems that may require us to make adjustments to the design. We will also be updating the progress of our project with Susan Ma often to make sure the project is progressing as intended.

Dragon Spine Water-Lift

Source: http://www.chinasanitarywares.net/Museum/Dragon-Bone-Water-Lift.htm