Assignment 2: PAVILION Design

Instructor: Judith K. Mussel
Fall 2010- California College of the Arts
Tuesday 07:15PM - 10:15PM, Main SF Bldg, Room LAB C

Image: Thomas Heatherwick British Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010


"Architecture, as a material practice, attains social, cultural, and ecological relevance through the articulation of material arrangements and structures. Thus the way we conceptualize these material interventions – and particularly the technology that enables their construction - presents a fundamental aspect in how we (re)think architecture…."
Achim Menges

Synthetic Tectonics focuses on the relationship between “physical” Tectonics and advanced “digital” design.
Designing “Synthetic Tectonics” means to integrate parameters of material and construction/fabrication constrains in computational design. Working in an N-dimensional space rather than a 3d dimensional design is the goal of this seminar. Until now most computer programs focus on the 3d; that is why we are working parallel in physical and digital models to integrate physical properties in our design efforts.


Project 2 asks the students to design a pavilion on the empty lot next to California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The school is in urgent need for a temporary exhibition/event space. The pavilion’s design should empathize on the dialogue between top-down (form driven/macro) and bottom up (unit-driven/micro) approach. The dialogue should result in a pavilion design whose form harmonizes with the design of the unit system. The single units have to be designed so they adapt to the different exposure to sun and wind as well as different structural load transfer.

Instructions:
First draw a site plan and make a general outline where your pavilion is going to be located. Notice the orientation towards the sun and wind. After you have done an initial approach to the design of the shape create a diagram of the structural load, wind and sun exposure of the pavilion as a basis for your unit design.
Your system design has to withstand several tests:
1. Precedence Test: Can you learn from your natural or artificial system precedence and incorporate unit behavior into your pavilion design (form) shape? How does your design contribute the discourse?
2. Geometry/Form Test: which types of shapes/form are suitable to your unit?
3. Material Test: How is your material supporting your design? How would the material fail? Incorporate the results of your material test you have conducted on Tuesday, October 12th. Name three limits of the material and show how you incorporate them into the design. For example three parameters could be:
a. Size limitation
b. Grain direction (for wood)
c. Constrains of unit connections (can only rotate 5 degrees)

4. Structural Test: Is your unit system carrying structural load or is your system an enclosure system? (If your unit is an enclosure system, who si carrying the structural load? What kind of structural advantage or disadvantage is created through the shape/form of the pavilion? Could your unit adapt to different structural load?

5. System Test: How are your units attached to each other? How are they attached to the main frame or are they structural?
6. Orientation: How does the sun path impact the design of your unit?
7. Wind: How can you take advantage from the wind direction on site?