Learning Through Making
PHOTOS OF “NEW HARMONY CAVE OF THE NEW BEING” BY JULIE PIZZO WOOD.
by Andrew Vrana
Not since the Bauhaus has design education undergone a paradigmatic shift such as that seen with the predominance of digital fabrication. Today, CNC processes coupled with powerful design software enable students to engage in manufacturing — actually producing building components and consumer objects. In 2007, under the supervision of Joe Mashburn, FAIA, and Dean Patricia B. Oliver, FAIA, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture established the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center as a state-ofthe-art fabrication lab. The faculty has leveraged the potential of the Keeland facility by including industry partners in the Houston area, allowing students to communicate directly with fabricators and material suppliers. The innovative projects have resulted in real-world applications as well as international recognition for the University.
assisted production line to mill the complex forms. The semester culminated with a live concert in the atrium with professional musicians playing the guitars to a rapt audience. The opportunity to build at full scale has also been explored in studios led by Joe Meppelink, Ben Nicholson, and Andrew Vrana. The “New Harmony Cave of the New Being” is a reinterpretation of a design that avant-garde architect Frederick Kiesler had completed for Jane Blaffer Owen. The project was to be built in the utopian town of New Harmony, Ind., next to Philip Johnson’s Roofless Church, but it was never realized. Fifty years later, the UH studio took up the process of conceiving the Cave as a unique space using contemporary design tools and sensibilities.
The original drawings, 3-D scans of the models sculpted by Kiesler, and a trip to New Harmony all informed the design process. Students were able to experience and survey Kiesler’s intended location and to interview Mrs. Owen about her vision for the project. Rather than preserving the design, students focused on a creative interpretation of it. The final proposal adapted the Cave as an open cellular structure appropriate for the Houston climate. It is now sited adjacent to the College of Architecture, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1986. The Keeland Center served as the prototyping facility for the project. The various CNC tools were used to quickly translate iterative digital studies into building components. When the decision was made to establish the Cave as a permanent stainless steel fixture on the UH campus, the studio turned to professional sheet metal fabricators who employed water-jet machines typically used for applications in the oil and gas industry. The parts arrived as flat profiles and were formed into precise 3-D shapes and assembled inside the
Jane Blaffer Owen’s vision of a shaded topiary structure now merges the past and the future into one expression. Keeland Center. This “ship in a bottle” was then divided into five sub-assemblies that were installed onsite, where final structural welding took place. Mrs. Owen’s vision of a shaded topiary structure now merges the past and the Above The
“New Harmony Cave of the New Being” allowed students to explore designing at full scale. The installation was erected outside the College of Architecture on the UH campus. Right Sheet metal was transformed into precise shapes and divided into five large assembled sections. These sections were then welded together onsite.
by Professor Mark Kimbrough in the Industrial Design program, design students partnered with master craftsmen at Collings Guitars in Austin to produce an exquisite series of custom-made electric guitars. The ambitious group of students initiated an exchange of sketches and expertise with the experienced luthiers. The students completed prototypes of their designs at the Keeland facility and created 3-D models to guide the fabrication phase, which Collings managed using its CNCIn a project directed
3/4 2014
Texas Architect 15