City Rooms

Prototyping Architecture

Translucent Curtain

The polycarbonate wall of the semi-outdoor spine building is suitable for prototyping as it involves the shaping and holding in place of vertical genlty curved as well as flat polycarbonate sheets. This has to my knowledge not been done and experiments with cold curving or drape forming could be made.

Details

The mullions are proposed to be made of Kertu S engineered timber. Kertu is choosen for its rough are ready appearance that suits an industrial shed as well as its structural properties. The initial dimensions of the mullions are 69x200 mm. If the load case demands more structure inspite of the low wind loads in this sheltered central London location the spacing of the mullions will shrink until it copes.

Poroton wall with external finish

It would be useful to investigate the results of painting and rendering poroton or equivalent blocks proposed for the body buildings. A more informed decision about colour and type of finish could be made after full scale investigations.

Interactive facade

In the cityrooms project the proposal, whether inhabited by industrial or other programmes, is considered public. Any building is part of the city but this relationship can be emphasized by designing buildings that “talk” to the public realm. This can be accomplished by normal architectural means but as an additional layer I propose to add a low-tech interactive element to the facade. You will be able to email images to the building.

Holo-pro™ projection screen

This product can be either applied to glass as a film or bought as a glass pane. It enables back projection on a transparent surface at 30°. (image) The images are not intended to be powerfully projected but rather quietly and faintly displayed in select openings. At special events any form of display could take place but for everyday use the images should be changed at building pace, not to fast.

Use

The projections are intended to be selectivly and carefully composed within the facade. It is to be used as signage for the users of the buildings but it should also have a “non selfish” function allowing the public to use the buildings for their own purposes. The levels of curation of the displays can vary from totally open displays to carefully selected art exhibitions.

Technology

There is a working prototype of the facade available. The email addresses map59fit@photos.flickr.com and simple52perhaps@photos.flickr.com controls the “projections” on the mockup facade avaliable here Using cameraphones one could email images from from anywhere at anytime. It is technically not more complicated to display the images on a actual building. I am currently hosting the website on my home computer so it is only available when im not sleeping (to noisy). I decided to use the popular and free flickr.com photo blog service rather than a bespoke program to deliver the images. My isp does not appear to be friendly towards email servers and readymades do have, inspite of their messyness, an appeal.

The Opening

The body buildings are to be constructed in thinly rendered poroton blocks. The architectural effect sought when choosing masonry is the conversation in the facade between strong overall visual structure and varied and changing openings within this structure. A feature observed in existing industrial buildings. The openings will be carried by clearly visible lintels making the relationship between wall, lintel and opening cruicial for the external appearance of the building.

One question is what functions can be incorporated into the lintel as they would be visually rather that structurally determined. The play created in the facade by backprojections, glazing, shading, balconies, doors is of interest in the prototyping.

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