Skeletal Archiporn

April 5, 2011 2:15 PM

Scaffoldage. If you like construction, with particular reference to terrifyingly lashed-together metal or bamboo rods reaching dizzyingly up into the sky, then you've come to the right thread.
posted by The Discredited Ape (23 comments total)

I can't say it enough: GODDAMN I love the internet.
posted by marxchivist at 2:40 PM on April 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Seriously. [this is good!]
posted by shoepal at 2:53 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. I began this little site a few weeks back simply as a respite of sorts from my main project and as such--and given the subject matter--didn't expect very much in the way of a response, let alone a positive one. So, it's great and surprising to see it mentioned here. Thanks.

Just bear with me; it's young.

Cheers.
posted by Usher at 2:57 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Skeletal Archiporn

I'm trying to imagine what Rule 34 might look like for this. It's either very good, or very scary.
posted by quin at 2:59 PM on April 5, 2011

It's either very good, or very scary

It's both
posted by The Discredited Ape at 3:02 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

The bones of man's collosi revealed in all their glory! Thank you!

Drakengard had you fight giants with scaffolding still on them. That caused some consternation.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 3:20 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love scaffolding. This is awesome. Thanks for the link.

Whenever I see scaffolding I think of a trip I took with my family to Rome in my senior year of high school. There was a lot of renovation going on, and half of the old buildings we saw were covered in scaffolding, including St Peter's. It was actually pretty cool, but my dad and I started a running joke that when we got home we'd have to create a "De-scaffoldize" filter for Photoshop.
posted by brundlefly at 3:26 PM on April 5, 2011

I was walking across some scaffolding and one of the boards see-sawed on me and I shot down a level or two... pretty scary stuff if you're not careful... thankfully it wasn't anything massive like this stuff is. Neat site.
posted by glip at 3:33 PM on April 5, 2011

@usher Have you seen these? http://pruned.blogspot.com/2011/04/scaffoldings.html
posted by shoepal at 3:38 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Walking home from work today, I stopped to watch guys putting up scaffolding on a tower going up along the way. No crane or anything; they just stand one guy on each existing level, one immediately above another, and pass pieces up level by level until the pieces get to the guys on top, who fix the pieces into place until there's another level to stand on.
posted by pracowity at 3:40 PM on April 5, 2011

anybody know where the picture of the Statue of Liberty in scaffolding behind some old timey buildings (the first one as of right now) is from/who it is taken by? the link goes to a .gov portal for pictures but i don't know in which collection to look.
posted by wayofthedodo at 3:45 PM on April 5, 2011

Wow, the FPP link and shoepal's link are terrific. Does anyone know how much rental/purchase of modern, piped metal scaffolding like we see in these pictures costs? There's a lot of construction happening around campus right now, so it's been something I've been wondering about.
posted by codacorolla at 3:53 PM on April 5, 2011

A long time ago, I helped paint a church steeple six stories tall in Hamamatsu, Japan using a truly terrifying scaffolding made of bamboo and bailing wire. Both it and portions of this FPP do not meet the 29 CFR Subpart L Standards for Scaffolds. But I'm older now and so I now worry less about Steel Erection and worry more about Fall Protection.
posted by Standeck at 4:06 PM on April 5, 2011

I remember being in Beijing quite a few years ago and seeing the construction workers there taking down the bamboo scaffolding around some large, shiny new building. They'd closed off the street, and were simply un-lashing the bamboo from the top of the scaffold and dropping it.

The scaffolding was about 7 storeys high ... bamboo either makes a really cool bwoing-wabba-ratta-tatta-addle-addle-addle-clack sound or a sort of crunchy crack-thunk when it hits the ground from that high.
posted by nonspecialist at 4:28 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Don't underestimate bamboo or wood and rope/wire as scaffold building material
posted by klarck at 5:51 PM on April 5, 2011

This is excellent, thanks!
posted by carter at 5:53 PM on April 5, 2011

That guy painting the blue house has more courage than sense.
posted by francesca too at 6:42 PM on April 5, 2011

Whoa. Check out the huuuuuge lambda-frame ladders (ON CARTS!) being used to build zeppelins.

Just looking at that gives me vertigo, and that uneasy shaking feeling you get when you climb to the top of a lambda-frame.
posted by schmod at 7:04 PM on April 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

Whoa. Check out the huuuuuge lambda-frame ladders

Jesus christ
posted by Catfry at 7:38 PM on April 5, 2011

I love scaffolding.

I didn't realize I love scaffolding until I saw this post. This was one of my favorite Matchbox cars, it had little yellow plastic scaffolding you could put together. Then there was the houses under construction you could buy for your train sets. They had cool scaffolding too.
posted by marxchivist at 8:05 PM on April 5, 2011

Stash one of these pictures at the bottom of the list, just for fun. Well, maybe not so much fun. There's been a lot of creepy bug stuff on Meta lately. I need a drink
posted by Redhush at 8:18 PM on April 5, 2011

Wow. I thought I was the only person who loved scaffolds. I have not the slightest idea why I am fascinated by it, except the desire to climb that vastly exceeds my ability (having gotten old and all). But I also love photographing scaffolding.

What I've wanted to know for quite awhile is simply this: where and at what price can I buy the materials to create a bed from scaffolding?
posted by Goofyy at 5:08 AM on April 6, 2011

Awesome!
posted by safetyfork at 10:21 AM on April 6, 2011