SUTD LIBRARY GRIDSHELL PAVILION BY CITY FORM LAB

The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) library pavilion is located on a sloping lawn on the temporary Dover Campus.

Accommodating three mature trees and forming a noise barrier toward the Ayer Raja Expressway in the north, the gridshell structure of the pavilion harnesses the site constraints and activates an outdoor space behind the existing library building.

During the day, it offers a shaded open-air place to relax, work, and mingle for students and staff of the university. At night it becomes a place for informal gatherings, evening lectures and SUTD community events.

Work desks, mobile bookshelves and wireless internet transform it into a “third space” between the dormitory and the classroom where intellectual and social exchange occurs in a casual atmosphere.

Design & Construction Process:

Building upon a long tradition of catenary structures that use little material to achieve considerable spans, the canopy forms a lightweight timber shell with no columns, beams, or vertical walls.

A numeric hanging-chain model was used to determine an efficient double-curvature shape that follows the lines of thrust in compression.

Using computational design and computer-controlled fabrication allowed the pavilion’s complex three-dimensional form to be achieved with readily available materials and a streamlined assembly process at minimal cost.

Unlike steel gridshells, it has no complex three-dimensional structural joints – all of its elements were prefabricated from strictly flat plywood and galvanized steel sheets on CNC machines in Singapore.

The site work thus comprised an orderly assembly of 3,000 unique plywood and 600 unique sheet-metal tiles based on only one drawing – the numeric map of a three-dimensional puzzle indicating which pieces fit next to which other pieces.

ID numbers were engraved in the cutting process on each plywood and cladding element, which remain visible in the finished structure as ornament. First year SUTD students assisted with the pre-assembly of the pieces and the contractor erected the structure on site. The pavilion is designed to be dismantled and recycled after two years.

Location:Dover Rd, Singapore

Architects:City FormLab

Project Team: Andres Sevtsuk, Raul Kalvo

Engineering:ARUP (Russel Cole, Mike King, Benjamin Sitler)

Construction:Arina International Hogan (AIH) and SUTD students

Sponsors:Arina International Hogan (AIH), ARUP, Autodesk

Area:200m² / 2,153ft² (covered), 300m² / 3,229ft² (deck)

Year:2013

Photographs:Raul Kalvo, Courtesy of City Form Lab

EXBURY EGG BY STEPHEN TURNER

Exbury Egg is a floating off-grid workspace and home, installed on the shore of the Beaulieu River, UK. The Exbury Egg will be a temporary, energy efficient self-sustaining work space for artist Stephen Turnerin the estuary of the River Beaulieu.

It is a place to stay and a laboratory for studying the life of a tidal creek, a collecting and collating centre with integral storage & display areas. It will take on the patina of 730 daily tides below the water line, and 365 days of weathering by wind, rain and bleaching by the sun above.

The Egg will be ‘tethered’ like a boat and will rise and fall with the tide. The light touch and basic nature of the 'Exbury Egg' aims to re-appraise the way we live; to properly consider sustainably and future use of natural resources. Stephen Turner is interested in exploring a more empathic relationship with nature which reveals the precious and transcendent in everyday life.

The artwork created will stem from Stephen’s occupation, developing through direct experience an understanding of local natural cycles and processes and the relationship of the environment to the narratives of human activity in the unending calendar of seasonal life.

To quote Stephen, ‘Climate change is already creating new shorelines and habitats. Established salt marsh is being eroded by a combination of rising sea levels and falling landmass and the entire littoral environment is in a state of flux.

The implications for wildlife and for the flora as well as for people are challenging. Raising awareness of the past and the unfolding present of a very special location will be the task, whist living in an ethical relationship with nature and treading as lightly as possible upon the land.’

The ‘Exbury Egg’ adopts the two key premises of “Lean, Green and Clean” and “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”. The potential energy requirements during occupation were determined through exploring Stephen’s anticipated daily routines, including a consideration of the variations that would result from seasonal differences.

Stephen’s requirements for electricity use including electricity for charging items such as a laptop, digital camera and mobile phone will be met using solar. This is not a romantic anti-modern back to nature project, where technology is rejected or spurned. Rather it is about demanding the best and most efficient of the new to combine with the tried and tested.

There will be an extensive education programme covering primary age students through to university. Schools will be able to engage with the Egg project throughout its programme, including the construction period, on science, art, ecology and engineering topics.

Opportunities for community participation with people of all ages will be offered through a series of events, seminars and workshops once the Egg is in place at the end of May 2013.

 

 

BEYOND THE WALL BY DANIEL LIBESKIND

DanielLibeskind  presenta l’istallazione “Beyond the Wall” nel seicentesco Cortile d’Onore dell’ Università Statale nell’ambito della mostra Hybrid/Metissage Architecture & Design Exhibition promossa da INTERNI durante il FuoriSalone 2013 a Milano.

La mostra è dedicata al tema del métissage nel progetto d’architettura e di design, ed ispirata dalle osservazioni del sociologo francese Michel Wieviorka, “L’incontro tra diverse culture talvolta scatena processi d’influenza reciproca e di cambiamenti che creano forme culturali originali. Il métissage, lo scambio culturale, autorizza la produzione della differenza nell’ottica dell’incontro e della relazione tra i singoli individui, i quali vivono nell’ambivalenza dell’appartenenza a molteplici identità”.

Una mostra che rappresenta anche una occasione d’incontro tra progettisti e aziende all’avanguardia nel campo dei materiali, della tecnologia e della sostenibilità ambientale che si materializzata attraverso la realizzazione di progetti di micro-padiglioni o macro-oggetti sperimentando nuove modalità e interconnessioni relative alle incognite e ai problemi del mondo contemporaneo.

Nato da una collaborazione con il Gruppo Cosentino, specializzato nella produzione di superfici innovative per l’architettura, “Beyond the Wall” vuole rappresentare una spirale policentrica che si apre a molteplici direzioni e traiettorie

L’installazione è una struttura unica realizzata in Silestone®,  una superficie in quarzo con una finitura opaca Suede, con un motivo che dissolve la forza dei piani che, torcendosi, tendono verso l’alto come un frattale che si moltiplica assumendo forme diverse articolate.

Alla mostra hanno partecipato alla mostra altri progettisti come: Sefer Caglar, Michele Cazzani, Mario Cucinella, Michele De Lucchi, AkihisaHirata, Steven Holl, Simone Micheli, Chritophe Pillet, Luca Scacchetti, Dean Skira e SergeiTchoban e Sergey Kuznetsovcon Marco Bravura.