Charity Seyer | 2012 Portfolio

concept The first part of the project was focused on the partial destruction of Paul Rudolph’s 1954 Umbrella House by re-inventing its canopy. We were to design and prototype a replacement canopy that responded to various site conditions such as landscape, program, solar mitigation, and regional identity. Because Paul Rudolph’s original canopy was treated in a very uniform way with only a change in regularity directly above the pool, climatic analysis in Ecotect was the first step taken in designing a new canopy. Our canopy needed to be flexible enough to allow for direct sunlight and air flow in some areas, but deflect it in others to reduce solar heat gain.

Along with climatic analysis, our group worked to develop a prototype that was structural and would allow for flexibility. Paper models were initially built using three techniques: folding, laminating, and expanding. We concluded that a combination of folding and expanding was most beneficial because it gave us more structural stability and variability with the individual unit. In our final prototype, the more porous the unit is from above, the wider it becomes on its side. The opposite is true when the unit is almost closed from the top, allowing no light or air to pass through and becoming very narrow on its side. Both physical and computer models aided in experiments with irregularity, transitions, and edge control. As we jumped scales, materiality, structure, and details became more apparent. The final canopy was to be built with steel structure and CNC milled white aluminum composite panels which would wrap around concealing the structure within. Tension cables would be attached from each unit to provide more structural stability. A full scale mock-up portion was built of the most extreme situation within the canopy to test these decisions.

Throughout the functional and methodical development of the project, we always continued to think conceptually about the canopy. We approached the columns as not only structural necessity, but a way of defining more intimate spaces through a forest of columns, and more public spaces with the columns spread out, a concept Paul Rudolph used on his initial canopy as well. This organizational method helped create micro climates and different programmatic and spatial qualities throughout. We wanted the canopy, also like the original, to appear lightweight and delicate, making the transition from ground to column, column to canopy very crucial. Most importantly, the goal was to create a canopy that was an extension of the owners domestic habitat.