A FICTION IN WOOD AND CONCRETE

Transcription

1 A FICTION IN WOOD AND CONCRETE Exploration of Material as a Protagonist in Architecture Master Thesis project Kristina Barniskyte studio#5 supervisors: Ulrika Karlsson Einar Rodhe Stockholm 2016

2 The School of Architecture building, designed by Tham and Videgård Arkitekter, was finished in Round concrete cores were cast and pinewood cladding was nailed board by board on partition walls. The building was still empty and materials reigned inside. Sand grains in concrete were anxiously bubbling, mixing with cement powder and water, while wood fibers were shaking nervously, trying to grow higher and poke through the ceiling. There was a granular logic underlying in concrete. The granules whirled and turned into round structures, attaching one to another, growing so big, that they rotated through the walls, filling the rooms. There was a fibrous logic concealed in pinewood. The fibers grew into elongated structures, protruding the floors and extending through the walls from room to room. Formations of fibers turned into volumes, starting on one level, and continuing to the other. Fibers determined the outline of the volumes and the openings in them, as well as their surface. The fibrous logic began to transfer to concrete as well, defining the outline of solid concrete volumes, as well as voids in them and their surfaces. Structures and volumes interlaced, as both were growing quickly, filling the building with new forms. (the narrative)

3 SECTION DRAWING 1:5 A FICTION IN WOOD AND CONCRETE a section through the narrative and through the School of Architecture building

4 SECTION DRAWING EXCERPT WOOD LOGICS SECTION DRAWING EXCERPT CONCRETE LOGICS

5 -- thesis question -- In architectural discourse, form is usually designed first, then a material is chosen to build the volume with. In Aristotle s concept of hylomorphism, hyle (matter) is given shape by morphē (form). How can this relationship be looked at differently - can materials surfaces at microscale become generators of form and structure?

6 RITSAL A501 room A524 MILJÖSTN. A528 KARTONG 370 L PAPPER PASSAGE A529 GROVSOP 660 L MILJÖSTN. A532 SÄKER FLYKTPLATS TRAPPHUS A STÄD A533 TR A2 RITSAL A501 INFO - MONITOR GRUPPRUM A534 CPU A536 E+N+LB A524 DATA 3 A535 E+N+LB WC A513 STÄD A510 FÖRRUM DAM A514 FÖRRUM HERR A507 RWC A505 MÖTESRUM A515 WC A512 WC A509 WC A506 E+N+LB WC A511 WC A508 KAFFE BRYGG MILJÖSTN. MÖTESRUM A504 PAUSRUM/ PENTRY M A516 M M M M KAFFE BRYGG M KYL KYL M E+N+LB GROVSOP 660 L INFO - MONITOR PASSAGE A503 TRAPPHUS A TR A1 MILJÖSTN. A517 HISS A1 SCANNER KOPIERING A502 ELRUM A520 PASSAGE A L PAPPER PLOTTER A1 SKRIVARE KARTONG 240 L MILJÖSTN. A L DP RUM A523 PASSAGE A522 RITSAL A L HISS A2 EL A531 E+D 190 LIT PASSAGE A526 MODELLRUM A L PLOTTER A1 SCANNER KOPIERING A527 SKRIVARE RITSAL A501 --the context-- The context the School of Architecture building is the driving force for the narrative: the two dominant interior materials - wood and concrete generate the new volumes and structures, that are brought back to the context after a series of translations the new forms interact with and transform the existing built structure. In room A524, a full scale installation is built in wood and concrete, as a part of the narrative, depicted in the section drawing through the School of Architecture building.

7 INSTALLATION IN THE ROOM A FICTION IN WOOD AND CONCRETE INSTALLATION VIEW THROUGH THE WINDOW A FICTION IN WOOD AND CONCRETE

8 -- the full scale installation -- This installation, built in wood and concrete, explores the possibilities of matter to inform architecture: surface of materials is captured and translated into form and structure, following the underlying material logic. The built installation itself becomes an interface between fiction and reality: the narrative, revealed in the section drawing, empowers the design of the physical installation and the narrative becomes tangible through the built structure. -- the fiction -- Jeffrey Kipnis writes that [architecture] operates as a representational practice on a spectrum from realism to abstraction, later in the text opening a discussion whether there can exist fiction in architecture 1. This architectural fiction abstracts the qualities of materials, but the built installation brings the fiction back to the physical reality.

9 SURFACE DETAILS OF THE VOLUMES CNC-MILLED

10 --the method-- Two material samples (size 4x4 cm) with a significant surface are prepared for capturing the qualities of materials: wood and concrete. Both analogue and digital techniques are employed for translations: surface of broken material samples are 2D scanned and traced by hand, offsetted and laser-cut, put together as models, turning them into tridimensional structures, following the underlying logic of the material. The same samples are also 3D scanned, transformed digitally, cutting them in layers, generating outlines, openings and voids, and CNC-milled, thus resulting in new volumes. The input for scanning is physical (the material samples of wood and concrete), but the information that is captured (the point cloud matrix and the traced lines) is digital and the transformations that are carried out (cut, offset, extrude, mirror) are also classical digital operations. The transformed geometries are turned physical again by fabricating them as solid volumes in wood and concrete, while the structures are fabricated to be physical, but not possesing any material qualities black tridimensional lines. The new structures and volumes inherit the different characters of the two materials: elongated, fibrous geometries stem from wood and round, whirling, granular geometries stem from concrete.

11 electron micrograph scan of wood electron micrograph scan of concrete source: source: Particle Atlas of World Trade Center Dust by Heather A. Lowers and Gregory P. Meeker --material logics-- when transforming the scanned samples, a certain logic of materials is kept in mind: fibrous logic of wood and granular logic of concrete. the electron micrograph scans illustrate and confirm this material logic.

12 40 mm 40 mm 40 mm 40 mm 2D scanned image 2D scanned image traced outlines traced outlines tridimensional structures in model tridimensional structures in model 2D scanning + tracing >>> STRUCTURES --method--

13 3D scanned mesh 450 mm 450 mm 10 mm 10 mm 3D scanned mesh 400 mm 150 mm 20mm transformed volume transformed volume CNC milled model CNC milled model 3D scanning >>> VOLUMES --method-- 20mm

14 -- method -- STRUCTURES -- method -- VOLUMES 2D scan trace offset laser cut build a physical model 3D scan cut offset extrude mirror CNC-mill

15 --the qualities and effects-- These new forms represent the qualities of wood and concrete, but they are alienated by transformation. They have characteristics of both material and artificial, both figurative and abstract, similar to Chinese scholar rocks, that Herzog and de Meuron are inspired by: yet it remains unknown to what extent the natural shapes of these stones have been manipulated, an artificiality enhanced by the wood or stone pedestals created for them 2. Jeffrey Kipnis writes about the Miller House: [The house is] transforming its owners and visitors alike into characters and transporting them away from a strongly grounded sense of being in the here and now into a world of pretense and imagination 3. A fictive atmosphere, the sense of transporting us elsewhere is created in the room, as the scale of a material surface is now a scale of a volume or a structure, cutting through the building. The new form is juxtaposed with a traditional architectural structure, the new volumes and structures cutting through the slabs and walls, thus creating new spaces inside and around themselves. What is closer to reality in the section drawing of this architectural fiction the concrete slabs that are now cut through and fragmented, or the volumes and structures, overtaking the building?

16 --references-- Herzog and De Meuron SCHAULAGER the gravel material excavated on site was used to construct the walls, but it also determined the forms and surface structures of other parts of the building, inside and outside. Adam Fure/SIFT studio ROCKS texture can transform from surface to massing

17 --references-- 1 Jefrey Kipnis Mulling the Miller. Et in suburbia ego: José Oubrerie's Miller House. Columbus, Ohio: Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, [2013]. 2 Herzog & de Meuron Natural History edited by Philip Ursprung. Canadian Centre for Architecture, [2002]. 3 Jefrey Kipnis Mulling the Miller. Et in suburbia ego: José Oubrerie's Miller House. Columbus, Ohio: Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, [2013]. 4 (ibid.)