Booklet: Thicket (2010)

How would it be to li ve i n a so f t sp ac e Met t e Rams g a r d T h omse n & K a r in Be c h CITA: C e nt r e fo r IT an d A r ch ite ctur e Ro ya l D a n i s h A c ade my of F in e A r ts, Sc hool of Arc hit ec t u re

http:/ / cita .ka r ch.dk

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

In the sping of 2010 we were invited to participate in the Lisbon Architecture Triennale at the Berado Museum . Under the theme “Lets Talk About Houses� we were asked to reflect on how the house and the privacy of dwelling suggests the idea of the societal and through this the city. We were inspired by this suggestion of connectivity between the private and the public, the inner and the out, the intimate and the shared.

The invitation asked us to consider: Architecture is seen from the point of view of its social and collective hubs, starting from the principle that it is not only an essential component in the construction of citizenship and the enriching of collective life, but also that this deeper insight is possible only on the basis of a creative and poetic understanding of the discipline. In architecture, form and aesthetics are poetically linked to the real, the experiential space, and the construction of new and better ways of collectively experiencing the city.

For this reason, the theme of the house is, at the same time, a bridge connecting us to our first and formative experience of space, as well as a powerful metaphor for inhabiting the world that lies at the centre of the relationship between intimacy and community.

Lisbon Triennale 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

How would it be to live in a soft space...

The project is made of three parts: the installation, the table and the drawing. Each of the three parts reflects upon the making of a soft space in which the materials and the structures are moving.

The project asks how architecture could be imagined through an idea of the soft and the pliable. Engaging material through computation the works define soft on a series of parallel levels that twine in and amongst each other. Soft is a tectonic inquiry into the adaptable, the crafted and the motile as well as a cultural question into what a home could be.

As a conversation between the tent as a primary construction of shelter and the tapestry as a highly encultured tradition of understanding inhabitation the project shown here ask how textiles can be seen as a media for a transformative architecture. In Thicket the installation asks how textile principles of weaving and pleating can define a flexible and breathing architecture destabilising the relationship between subject and space. In the table the surface of the domestic, the wallpaper and tablecloth, embeds the poetics of the afar allowing us as inhabitants to playfully encounter that which is other than here.

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

5

a soft tech tonic Thicket investigates how to use textile concepts of friction and tension for tectonic structures of architectural scale. As a wall membrane, Thicket explores the making of a pleated structure.

Thicket is made of ash slats braced together by steel joints. As a friction based structure each slat is bent into shape pressing against each other and creating an internal friction. In Thicket each single member is inherently weak. The load forces move through a field

of friction based interconnectivity by which the overall structure becomes stiff. This integral weakness allows the structure to retain a measure of pliability or softness allowing it to adjust to changes in its environment or in load.

Thicket makes use of the material performance of wood. Cutting the slats from ash timber we make use of the particular straightness of ash grain which in turn allows us work with a minimal thickness and therefore

a high degree of pliability. In Thicket we examine the idea of soft tectonics through an adaptable structural system. By continually adjusting the tensions wires that run through the structure, Thicket is animated. The tension wire are connected to a simple pulley system that alternately tightens and relaxes the wire creating an internal rhythm of expansion and contracting, inhaling and exhaling in resonance with its inherent material performance.

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

a d om estic landscap e o f t h e af ar

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

Superstudios The Continuous Monument, An Architectural Model For Total Urbanisation (1969)

a n architectural uto p i a

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

The Split: The structural weave

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

100

Tim

esca

le

A:

55

°41,

23

.93”

N

12

°36,

46

.02

E

Trajectory for centrifugal carving.

Centripetal lines

Tim

esc

ale

B: 47

°41

,28.94

”N

13°42

,48.02

E

50

Local laced environment

10

0

1:200 @ 80x80cm

HL

Adaptive Construct B

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

55

°4

1,23

.93”

N

12

°3

6,46

.02

E

50

Trajectory for centrifugal landscape phenomena.

Ob 0

1:200 @ 80x80cm

10

Where The Construct lives

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

100

Centripetal lines Local laced environment

HL

le

A:

55

°41,

23

.93”

N

12

°36,

46

.02

E

50

40

30

20

10

0

Adaptive Construct C

1:200 @ 80x80cm

esca Tim

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

Time sequence: X: 40940 Y: 61957 Z: 66812 Target 0.0/0.0/0.0

Frame shot: Lens 50mm Location X: 345 Y: 4117 Z: 432 Target distance 7519 Target location X: 5221 Y: 1550 Z: -364

The Split: the textile manifold

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

The Split: adaptive construct B

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

0

10

50

100

1:200 @ 80x80cm

Adaptive Construct section

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

the mak ing

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

Flex

Controlpoint trajectories

Principle for slats movement

Electrical motor

Tension string

“Skin”

Module elevation 1:10 @ 800mm x 800mm

Steel joint

206 mm

Ash wood slats

377 mm

Foundation

250 mm

250 mm

Section of “Thicket”, elevation 1:20 @ 800mm x 800mm

Module plan view 1:10 @ 800mm x 800mm

Digital strategy for structural laths

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

d i g ital design and fabr ic at ion

TEXTILE LOGIC FOR A SOFT SPACE, september 2010

15mm

1:1 @ 800mm x 800mm

Joint Bespoke 3mm lasercut steel joint holding Ă˜ 1mm tension string.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

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18

19

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Wood lath profile 37mm x 3mm ash wood lath

3 mm

37 mm

Digital fabrication

128.41

TEXTILE LOGIC FOR A SOFT SPACE, september 2010

d e s ig ning for material pe r for m ance

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

Informing the Dynamic Simulation Model By measuring and correlating the material behaviour of controlled real life set ups with that of the digital realm, a relatively correct and plausible behaviour can be predicted. The digital model is in this case tuned by balancing out three primary parameters: 1) Bend Resistance: Specifies the amount a member resists bending across edges when under strain. A high bend resistance makes the mesh stiff, while a low bend resistance allows the mesh to act like a cloth.

2) Bend Angle Dropoff: Specifies how Bend Resistance changes with the angle of the mesh's bend. A high Bend Angle Dropoff causes the mesh to resist bending at higher angles more than at lower angles (such as when an mesh is nearly flat).

3) Mesh Resolution: Specifies the number of times the mesh is subdivided in the length direction of the member. Higher subdivisions add more detail to the solution at the cost of longer simulation times, therefore one is looking for a trade-off which will satisfy a required level of detail.

Simulation Settings: Bend Resistance Bend Angle Dropoff Mesh Resolution

= = =

200 0,3 8-18

Targets: Measured deflection under self load of real life set up.

0 cm (initial state = both members)

4 cm (dissipated state, 84,5 cm member)

13 cm (dissipated state,129 cm member)

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

HOW WOULD IT BE TO LIVE IN A SOFT SPACE..., september 2010

for further information and projects please see http://cita.karch.dk Contact: MetteRamsgard.Thomsen@karch.dk or karin.bech@karch.dk