Design Build | Pollinator Pavilion Process Work

POLLINATOR PAVILION

Hanna Hissa ARCH 509 Keith Van de Riet Fall 2022

MEET THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS DESIGNBUILD FALL 2022 CREW:

PROFESSOR AND PROJECT MANAGER: Keith Van de Riet

TEACHING ASSISTANT: Suzan Hampton

ARCH 509 STUDENT TEAM:

Ashlyn Caldwell Cameron Ernst Cole Erlemeier

David Tauser

Emily Flachs

Emme Schatz Hanna Hissa Katie Drummond

Landon Dinkel Sophey Shutt Tiyani Han Yuchuan Shi

PROJECT LOCATION AND CLIENT: Kansas Children’s Discovery Center 4400 SW 10th Ave, Topeka, KS

4 | RESEARCH 12 | COLLABORATIVE DESIGN 22 | FABRICATION TOURS 28 | SCHEMATIC INTEGRATION 36 | TECHNICAL ADJUSTMENTS 40 | PLANNING CONSTRUCTION 44 | ON-SITE PREPARATION 50 | FABRICATION 54 | FINALIZATION 62 | OPENING

RESEARCH

Phase 1 | Exploring Options

PRAIRIE EXPLORATION

Janine Antoni | Studio 509 | Spencer Museum

Early in the semester, my studio worked with renowned sculptural artist Janine Antoni to help her lay out a grid in a local prairieground for her largest installation yet. As a team, we were immersed in the landscape and directly confronted by the very envrionment we were studying.

Janine sought to walk a labyrinth into the prairie in the shape of an ear. In doing so, she strived to create a reflective journey that compelled those walking to reflect on their connectedness with their own bodies. The ear was chosen for its meandering, maze-like construction.

After laying out the grid, we came back to walk the path she had marked off and help compress the walkway into the landscape. This experience allowed us to derive direct inspiration from the prairie and local wildlife to incorporate into our designs.

The unique element of this design is that it is only as permanent as people want it to be. The fewer people that interact with this walkway, the more likely it is to become overgrown and vanish. Not only is it an exercise in connectedness, but also in permanence.

Studio 509 students walking the ear-shaped path into the landscape.

NATURE PRECEDENTS

The two sources I originally chose to explore for design inspiration were prairie fires and bluestem prairie grass and how it behaves in its environment.

Prairie fires can be split into three zonesburnt, actively burning, and untouched landscape.

The flow of the prairie in the wind

The variation in size of the bluestem stalks

The diffusing of light through the bluestem stalks

The sound of the bluestem in the wind

ARCHITECTURAL PRECEDENTS

Additionally, I looked at existing architecture and sculptural pieces that could offer a new glimpse into form and materiality.

Precedent 1: Public Farm 1 designed by WORK Architecture Company for MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program in New York

Major takeaways: Joinery of cylindrical shapes, each group having a unique purpose, overall silhouette, community engagement

Precedent 2: Dewitt Godfrey’s sculptures in Venice, Italy and Western New York Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo New York

Major takeaways: Sculptural element, joinery of cylindrical steel shapes in compelling manners, organizing them to fit the context of the envionment

Dewitt Godfrey in:

Venice, Italy

Western New York Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Section View of Tubes

-Different height tubes

different color Central patterned roof plan

Closed Traffic Light Open Air

These diagrams show the idea of using steel pipe to generate a cast of color. They also use the original study of the prairie’s flow and burn patterns.

versatile varies

-Roof shape subject to change -Pattern & shape of tubing is versatile -Connection to ground column style varies

The most programmable area comes from the several patterns of lenses that could be generated by the tubes above.

Secondary

-PS1 tube inspiration

-Central light pattern

-Focuses more on wind pattern and “natural flow”

Colored shadows cast on the ground

-Different height tubes hiding different color lenses Central patterned roof plan

Section

Preliminary sketch ideas

Closed Traffic light Open Closed Traffic light Open

Roof Plan

COLLABORATIVE DESIGN

Phase 2 | Merging Ideas

BUTTERFLY PAVILION | GROUP 1 OF 3

Emily Flachs | Tiyani Han | Sophey Shutt | Hanna Hissa

After grouping everyone’s individual models by thematic similarities with others, we broke into three groups to work on merging our themes into one new design.

By deconstructing one prairie creature, the monarch, we derived a new roof shape that combined several themes from our individual projects.

As a result, there were several other variations in interpretation such as spider webs and bird wings hidden in our design.

We also took into consideration the existing museum and pulled inspiration from the architecture.

The center peice of the iterations that featured it was to be made of the existing traffic lights we had on hand in order to cast a light pattern on the ground.

The different roof shapes lended themselves to different connections to the ground in order to cast the shadow in the right location.

I generated an AutoCAD file to assist with physical model building and to test possible placements for the upper beams and their relationship to the traffic lights we had opted to include. I also generated a version without them as a possibility for the museum director to consider.

These files helped my team develop their graphics as well as proportionize the structure correctly.

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

beams 1' extended outside of frame

circles without circles

beams 1' extended beyond

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended beyond

outside of frame

sheet metal with circles

2" beams 1' extended beyond frame 6" beams 1' extended beyond

beams 1' extended beyond with circles beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

sheet metal without circles

beams 1' extended outside of frame sheet metal with circles sheet metal without circles

beams 1' extended outside of frame sheet metal with circles

beams 1' extended outside of frame sheet metal with circles sheet metal without circles

beams 1' extended beyond

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended

2" beams 1' extended beyond beams 1' extended beyond

beams 1' extended beyond without circles

2" beams 1' extended beyond frame 6" beams 1' extended beyond frame

beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

beams 1' extended beyond with circles

sheet metal without circles

beams 1' extended beyond with circles beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended beyond without circles

beams 1' extended beyond

beams 1' extended beyond

2" beams 1' extended

2" beams 1' extended beyond frame 6" beams 1' extended beyond frame

beams 1' extended beyond

2" beams 1' extended beyond

2" beams 1' extended beyond

GRAPHIC EXPLANATION

Once we agreed on a form, we worked on representing our derivation graphically to explain where it came from and how it would interact with the existing architecture.

Graphic by Sophey Shutt.

Nature

1.Roof Plane

2.Create “butterfly roof”

1. Roof Plane 2. Create “butterfly roof” 3. Rotate ends upward - represents the shape of the butterfly wings in flight and reflects the museum’s structure

3.Rotate ends upward - represents the shape of butterfly wings in flight and reflect the museum’s structure

4.

4.Comparison to butterfly in flight - represents flight pattern 15°

Derive the vaults from the flight path of the butterfly

museum’s own statement-piece pitch. Graphic by Tiyani Han. Discovery Center Precedent

MATERIAL EXPLORATION & PLACEMENT STUDY

My next task was figuring out what our mesh would be made of by taking cost, shading, and availability into account. In addition, I ran solar studies to solidify the pavilion’s location on site.

Perforated Sheet Metal

Perforated Sheet Metal

Expanded Sheet Metal

Expanded Sheet Metal

● $374.40/sheet (8’x4’)

Perforated Metal:

● $374.40/sheet (8’x4’)

○ 20 GA (.036) 1/4 holes

○ 20 GA (.036) 1/4 holes

● Cleaner look

● Cleaner look

- More expensive

● No need to layer

● No need to layer

- Multiple perforation sizes available

- Cleaner look

Metal Options

Metal Options

- No need to layer

Alternate Detailing

Alternate Detailing

Colored Light Options

Alternate Detailing

● $150.49/sheet (8’x4’)

Expanded Sheet Metal:

○ 1/2" x #13 Flattened

● $150.49/sheet (8’x4’) ○ 1/2" x #13 Flattened

● Recycled material

- Less expensive

● Recycled material

- Multiple spacings available

● Layer to create optimal shade

● Layer to create optimal shade

- Can be recycled material

- Needs layering for optimal shade

A large goal for my group was to incorporate the glass traffic lights we already had on hand. This study was to test different patterns with the color options we had on hand.

Inner Margin

Plan view graphic by Sophey Shutt

Site/ Roof Plan & Butterfly Comparison

9 A.M. 12 P.M. 3 P.M.

Shadow studies across the main business hours of the museum. Graphics depict summer solstice sun.

Shadow Study

FABRICATION TOURS

Phase 3 | Understanding Materials and Fabrication

COMPANIES

INVOLVED

MCM Concrete KBS Construction

DImensional Innovations Foley Equipment Rentals

Zahner Sheet Metal AZZ Galvanizing A1 Paint, Powder, and Sandblasting HME Inc.

Each company played a part in furthering our understanding of how to design our structure for ease of manufacturing. Some showed us how outlandish ideas could turn into reality with the help of the technology they used in every-day fabrication.

MCM Concrete tought us about how concrete is made, prepared, and transported to the site.

Dimensional Innovations gave us a tour of their office and warehouse to show how their teams achieve largescale and outlandish projects in-house.

Foley Equipment Rentals

let us take some of their equipment for a spin. We had the opportunity to drive around their yard and get comfortable with these machines we would end up using for our own project.

KBS Construction donated a professional welder and demonstrated on one of their sites how to prepare a site for construction.

Zahner Metal Fabrication gave us a tour of their makerspace and showed us how they are constantly creating new material methods as well as how they create such unique metalwork for their clients all over the world.

AZZ Galvanizing gave us a tour of their facility and their process for dipping steel. We got to see pieces of our structure dipped into the zinc vat.

GRASPING THE PROCESS

In the end, several of these companies contributed to our project whether it be as a supplier or as a donor. By offering us a glance at their workflow, we were able to accomodate their needs to deliver their product properly and avoid any potential problems down the line.

A1 Paint, Powder, and Sandblasting showed us their assembly line for powdercoating a myriad of metal pieces being used for all sorts of projects. Depicted on the left are our roof tiles freshly coated.

HME Inc. showed us the large extent of their company and steel fabrication process. They demonstrated how they work with such large steel pieces to fufill large commercial orders.

SCHEMATIC INTEGRATION

Phase 4 | Moving Forward with One Idea

STRUCTURAL CONNECTIONS

Ashlyn Caldwell | Emily Flachs | Hanna Hissa

After narrowing the choice down to another team’s schematic model, it was then and my new team’s job to explore and model potential structural connections to stabilize and hold it up in a pleasing manner.

connections project idea throughout design

AREAS OF FOCUS

Beam to rafter connection - Blue

Beam to column connection - Yellow

Rafter to column connection - Orange

Column to foundation connection - Green

Wing Group’s model that moved forward

These connections were the most variable. The curve was the initial idea, but fabrication was an issue so we decided to explore more options like straight edges and cutouts. In the end HME offered to plasma cut our steel, which allowed us to use the curved, welded connection. Ashlyn also worked on another variation of this.

Four variations of this connection were presented for the group to deliberate. The most popular version was then mocked up out of wood in 1:1 scale.

BEAM TO COLUMN CONNECTION

The engineers at McClure Engineering played a major hand in decided what this connection would look like due to the shear and wind forces in the weak axis. The final solution was a welded plate, which was not our

The right connection is a bracket and the left is a welded connection.

RAFTER TO COLUMN CONNECTION

To continue the similarity of our bracket idea, I came up with a number of connections that would mirror the beam to column connection in a saddle-like manner.

In the end, a welded knife plate that mimicked our curved knife plates was selected out of aesthetic and

COLUMN TO FOUNDATION CONNECTION

The connection to the base plate originally introduced a steel plate in between the columns in hopes of gaining enough strength to reduce column size or thickness.

In the end, it did not do much for the structure, so the final solution did not include a steel plate.

USING GRASSHOPPER FOR DETAILS

I used grasshopper as a tool for figuring out the spacing between the two wings, angles of each rafter, and cantiliever off the back side of the beam for each of the wings.

This script allowed me to manipulate each rafter individually while also changing the entire profile of the wing by dragging one of three profile edge points. I could then move forward with the structural details after having a tool that allowed us to come to a group consensus or change one detail rather quick.

TECHNICAL ADJUSTMENTS

Phase 5 | Working with the Engineers

COMMUNICATING WITH PROFESSIONALS

I worked with Isaac Cundiff and Celeste Spickert from McClure Engineering to spec out the details of the digital model I was composing for the group to reference.

I started by providing maximum and minimum measurements of our initial design, and handed it off to them to run it through their structural calculations.

From there, any specific questions I had about our connections went through Isaac. He helped us specify which of the connection options we presented would work the best and what size they would need to be in order to stand.

By the end we had designed entirely new foundations and adjusted all the connections accordingly.

UPDATING THE DIGITAL MODEL

Over multiple conversations with Isaac, I implimented his advice into the digital model and continued to alter other details to fit these adjustments I had to make.

Because the digital model was important to other groups, I had to stay on top of the updates to hand off to them. Communication was a large part of this job.

An earlier, less resolved model

Details from the final digital model

PLANNING CONSTRUCTION

Phase 6 | Preparing for the Building Process

SCHEDULING AND BUDGETING

Emily Flachs | Hanna Hissa for the Schedule Yuchuan Shi | Hanna Hissa for the Budget

Emily Flachs and I worked together to plan out a schedule for the studio to use. Of course, there were several delays that made this file nearly obsolete, but it was also made with the intention of demonstrating what needed to happen in what order.

The budget was started by Yuchuan, but when I started getting special notes from the engineer I jumped in and started adding things like hardware, metal type detailing, and designating which components were donations versus part of our expenses. I also made some phone calls to Midway Wholesale about items like sonotube specs and availability that I reflected in the notes of this sheet.

Since HME offered to plasma cut our steel plate pieces, I had to generate an AutoCAD file that included the profiles of every piece we needed cut.

I also organized the pieces onto sheets that would maximize the material usage of the steel plate for HME.

7/8" THICK STEEL PLATE7/8" THICK STEEL PLATE 5/8" THICK STEEL PLATE

7/8 PLATE TYP.

W1

WEST ANGLE COLUMN CAP 5/8 PLATE

WEST WING KNIFE PLATES W2

EAST ANGLE COLUMN CAP 5/8 PLATE

7/8 PLATE TYP.

W1

WEST WING KNIFE PLATES W2

7/8 PLATE TYP.

E1

EAST ANGLE COLUMN CAP 5/8 PLATE

W3

E2

7/8 PLATE TYP.

E1

W4

W3

E3

E2

W5

W4

E4

E3

W6

W5

E5

E4

W7

W6

W7

EAST WING KNIFE PLATES W8

7/8 PLATE

13 16 ANGLE BRACINGS x4

3" 1 3"

7" 3 4

4" 4" 11 2 1916

1 2

6" 3" 112 3"

WEST ANGLE COLUMN CAP 5/8 PLATE 1 4" 7

1 2

E6

E5

ANGLE CUT KNIFE PLATES

E6

EAST WING KNIFE PLATES W8

7/8 PLATE

ANGLE CUT KNIFE PLATES

7/8 PLATE

BEAM PLATES x28

7/8 PLATE

16 ANGLE BRACINGS x4

1

7/8 PLATE

BEAM PLATES x28

WELDED CONNECTION 5/8" PLATE x5 1'-0" 7"

7/8 PLATE

FOUNDATION PLATE x3 1 3 16 TYP. 3"TYP.

7/8 PLATE

WELDED CONNECTION 5/8" PLATE x5 1'-0"

FOUNDATION PLATE x3 3"TYP. 2'-6"

7/8 PLATE

ON-SITE PREPERATION

Phase 7 | Digging Foundations

READYING FOR DIGGING

We started to prepare the site by giving ourselves reference points in the form of batter boards with level strings that would go through the center points of each pier footing.

We also gated off the site to avoid putting any small children in harm’s way.

Securing the perimeter

Setting up batter boards, marking off foundation locations, and digging a perimeter marker for the excavator.

Using a small excavator, we began to dig our footings. They had to be about five and a half feet down and required us to muck out the walls and edges to make clearance for the rebar cages being fabricated at the warehouse.

I also dug up twenty dollars.

After clearing the footing holes, the rebar was brought to the site and we lowered the cages into their respective locations. We then leveled the piers and finalized their positions with the strings and centerpoints.

The first pour of concrete were the slabs of the foundations. These locked the piers in place and prepared the site for sonotubes. Since these had to cure, much of the work after this was done in the warehouse again.

We cut, collared, stabilized, and prepared the sonotubes over the rebar for the second concrete pour. We also tested the column templates over the sonotube openings to be sure our placement at the warehouse was correct.

FABRICATION

Phase 7 | Working with Steel

RAFTER CONSTRUCTION

Since most of the site work was done, I moved back to the warehouse and primarily focused on the fabrication of the rafters. I drilled holes in the top, marked off the knife plate locations, ground the edges, helped assemble them on the beams, and put caps on the ends.

Little wing assembled on beam and knife plates welded in place.

Due to metal shipments and material delays, there was one night where a team of us had to go into the warehouse to finish up the rest of the roof tiles to be sent to AZZ Galvanizing the next morning. I helped in this process by marking and bending the tiles.

At the same time, our main column assemblies were being welded together. I had a hand in grinding the edges and caps once they were in place as well as finalizing the base plate locations.

FINALIZATION

Phase 8 | Applying Finishes and Installing on Site

GALVANIZING & POWDER COATING

Once all our metal was ready, it went to AZZ Galvanizing where we watched some pieces get dipped in their acid baths and zinc baths. We also toured A1 Paint, Powder, and Sandblasting, and another team picked the colored tiles up once they were done.

A small group of us prepared the site while the steel was on its way by spreading out mulch and creating level landings for the boulders that lead into the prairie. Once it arrived we sorted the rafters and started hanging the column assemblies.

The next challenge was the roof tiles. AZZ Galvanizing had left us to do a final quality control since they expedited their process, meaning we had to figure out how to clean up these tiles. Landon and I went to a car wash to try pressure washing them while some of us tried steel brushes, both electric and hand powered. In the end, a group that I was not a part of had to clean them by hand as it gave us the best result.

With both column assemblies up, we began lowering the rafters into place. I helped move them and bolt them to the beam.

We applied grout underneath the steel base plates while another group worked on the final layout for the roof tile pattern. We got approval from the director of the museum and started putting them up.

OPENING

Phase 9 | Making it Available to the Public

CEREMONY

On December 15, 2022 at 12:00 P.M. we completed the build and invited friends, family, partners, and museum workers out to see the final product.