As an urban intervention at the Masthouse Terrace Pier on the Isle of Dogs in London, the project has been developed as an inhabitable surface capable of creating spatial, structural and environmental effects in response environmental and programmatic stimulation. The continuous surface is realized as a composite material system through the use of wood and textiles. The design process negotiates the relationship between defined performance targets, spaces required, and environmental conditions to be controlled.
The proposed system is a composition of plywood frames, steel cylindrical joints and fabric membranes. Flat plywood strips are combined to form diagrid layers and assembled together through the steel rods. Membranes are used to lock the frame into its final state so as to introduce variations in relation to structural and environmental conditions. A property of this grid system is its movement and deployability due to the rotation allowed by the joints.
