22.05.2012

Porcupine or scaffold?

Spotted by a reader visiting Cuba recently, a wooden freeform scaffold that looks quite prickly.

Proper wooden scaffold pops up from time to time, particularly in Germany, where contractors tend to look after their kit so that it lasts for ever.

However this free style circular scaffold is something else… it looks amazingly complex and one wonders if it is safe. The material certainly looks a lot more robust than some of the bamboo systems we see in the east, and the skinny steel tube you often see in the Americas.
Please register to see all images

A circular wooden cage scaffold in Cuba

As you might expect with this sort of structure - which is probably quite similar to that used to build most of Europe’s medieval churches and cathedrals – the platforms are basic with little attention to any niceties such as toeboards etc…

And ladders look to be far and few between, but there are some nice inclined steps here and there – splinters would of course be an additional hazard… but a Death Wish? Well… probably not? You are not going to fall off of this scaffold, as the whole structure works like a cage…it all depends on how sturdy it is, and how good the lashings are - something we cannot tell from the photo.

A nice one though.