During Truman’s Brewery's heyday, 400,000 barrels of beer were produced a day. The Cooperage building is the premises where the making of the barrels occurs. The workers are called the Coopers. To become a Cooper, they must train as an apprentice, and when deemed ready, the initiation begins - ‘Trussing the Cooper’.

The picturesque ceremony begins with being trussed into the barrel, then covered in sawdust, water, and the residue left. The apprentice is thrown in the air and rolled around the factory while being cheered by their comrades. The ritual of humiliation ends with a glass of the factory’s brew and Cooper’s title.

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A ‘Firkin’ cask was obtained and deconstructed the elements - 16 staves, two heads, four iron hoops (with rivet joints), and one cork plug to truly understand coopers’ craft.  From the catalog of elements, the staves would be the most crucial for building a new language for both the craft of a cooper and a proposal of a new barrel-vaulted ceiling. On initial exploration, the staves were thought to be identical. However, they are just as unique as a fingerprint.

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The project aims to deliver a new dimension to crafts and preserve their heritage in the modern-day. The site installation reminds us that crafts are fragile and be forgotten when they are no longer a mainstream manufacturing process but shows how their crafts can still be sustainable today and, more importantly, remembered.