Final Undergraduate Portfolio

Tri-Con As freshman, The University at Buffalo has students create a full-scale build during their Spring Semester. For our class, we were given a material, and tasked with spanning the studio room (approx. 28 ft) while having the space to house at least eight people.

We also were told we had to create our form by casting the space of the room and to be able to build/store/ destroy our structure only with the eight members of the group.

Our team was given the material of concrete. From there we realized quickly that within our studio space, there were not many things to cast that would be structural, other than where the edge of walls met the ground. We preformed many test pours, in order to perfect the thin casting technique, while reducing the weight as much as possible, to allow us to lift it.

To lighten the load of the build, we sifted the concrete mixes, removing all medium and large aggregate.

We then replaced this aggregate by taking foam for insulation, cutting it into small pieces, and then blending it into a puree. This reduced the total weight of the build by 60% while maintaining its structural integrity.

There were eight pieces in total, one for each member of the group, forming four completed arches. Each piece was infused with a 1/2� steel cable spine and a chicken wire mesh layer for stability.

ARC 403 Fall 2014 Faculty: E. Ozay Buffalo, NY