Building Skins

Building Skins

building; noun: something built with a roof and walls, such as a house or factory 

building; verb: to make, construct, or form by joining parts or materials (Collins English Dictionary)

The title ‘building skins’ conventionally refers to the ‘exterior envelope’, which is one of the main building systems according to the modernist notion of segregating building mandates into different sub-sets with isolated functions. However, here the title ‘building skins’ hints at the act of ‘crafting and fabricating skins’ and provokes a more holistic understanding of the capacities of an exterior building layer. This includes load bearing functions, apertures (windows and doors), and enclosed spaces of various sizes for embedding infrastructural and technical components up to inhabitable spaces.

To engage with the topic of crafting skins the studio focussed on the design process and on the integration of parametric tools in physical experiments. The studio worked with laminating and delaminating thin sheet materials in order to compose shell-like components out of paper, wood veneer, plastic sheets and aluminium. Laser cutters, vacuum forming machines, and 3d printers were used to explore different fabrication and model building techniques.

This immediate implementation of experiments in the physical reality sets specific constraints that guides the shaping of components and is based on a growing understanding of material properties and structural behaviour. It challenges the traditional approach of architectural planning stages, where information gets handed over to a separate construction process at the very end with very limited opportunities for feedback into the design decisions. 

PHASE 1: DE-LAMINATION

The main focus in the first phase was put on physical and geometrical experimentation. The studio experimented with the potentials of laminating and de-laminating thin sheet materials in order to shape different geometries. A primary goal was to take advantage of widely acquired digital design and fabrication skills in order to produce series of differentiated yet comparable results.

PHASE 2: PARAMETRIC VARIATION - Articulation of architectural components

In the second phase of the studio the capacities of our physical components were evaluated, categorised, and translated into a catalogue of architectural elements. These elements were adapted to various scales and functions: they were parametrically varied and differentiated in order to meet different criteria of an architectural programme. The catalogues included circulation systems, usable spaces, roofs and walls with perforation systems, and so on. The investigations in physical models were thus be continued with increasing refinement.

PHASE 3: CASE STUDIES - Fabrication hubs in Changi Business Park

The final phase translated the experiments into an architectural project containing the acquired set of components. The site is located at Changi Business Park, directly adjacent to SUTD. It lies on an the intersection between an education and research hub (SUTD, ITE), industrial zones along Changi South Avenue, a large exposition centre, the commercial park itself, and the international transportation hub of Changi Airport. 

The projects proposed fabrication hubs housing small to medium scale industries with different crafts, e.g. carpentry, steel building, electrical and mechanical engineering with mixed-use functions: these include public functions like food courts, leisure and communal activities in order to vitalise this urban area. The programmes allow highly skilled and creative people to find space for the cultivation of craftsmanship and turn it into a vibrant centre of innovation. The combination with public functions provides opportunities of intellectual and creative exchange.

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