This wood burning fire pit was designed with Fu-Tung Cheng for a series of fiber-reinforced concrete videos produced by the Concrete Network. The project plans are for sale online in wet-cast and DFRC versions. The fiber-reinforced piece is hollow on the inside, so the formwork does not need additional bracing and is relatively easy to build. The face-coat is sprayed through a texture hopper, and the backer coat is laid-up by hand. Volcanic rock fills the center and are held in place by two metal grates on either side that provide an air channel. An optional cooking wok can be used to hold the fire wood.
- Date: 2011
- Project Background: Concrete Network was coming in a month to film some videos for an “Outdoor Living” series. In a month I designed this fire pit, a bench, and a seat/stool. The fabricator and I worked together to have forms built and the ‘set’ ready for them to film.
- My Role: I designed this fire pit surround with input from Fu-Tung. It utilizes a fiber reinforced concrete mix called DFRC. Each half of the bench is made from the same form, which is relatively easy to build. Everything was modeled in SketchUp and I created very detailed step-by-step project plans in Layout.
- Metrics: About 40,000 views of the videos online. Instructional drawing sales unknown, but maybe a few hundred. This is definitely one of the first fire pit surrounds using a GFRC mix to be posted online, and it still generates interest in the mix.
Sometimes the reality of the projects I’ve worked on isn’t so rewarding. This thing just sat on a pallet in the parking lot for the longest time until it was sold for pennies on the dollar when the fabrication shop moved locations…