LAYER UPON LAYER

from CHEN_WANYU_PORTFOLIO

by Wendy Chen

RELIEF PACKAGE

Academic work_SCI-Arc

2021 Fall

Instructor: Randy Jefferson, Dwayne Oyler

Partner: Sizhe Lu, Yiyu Zhou, Arjun Bharat

Software: Rhino

Tectonics, as “ the science of the art of construction,” is a study of the use and artistic design. This project is a study about combining two different façade systems by conducting precedent research, analysis, and precedent transformation.

Solar Carve was the precedent that we studied. The goal for this project is not only about adding the exterior facade system from our precedent but also about bringing some exciting changes to our previous design.

Façade Deformation

For the process of our façade deformation, we focused on adding additional material to this plain glass overlap, which is cohesive and furthers the façade shading system. The concept is driven by the façade system employed in the King Fahad National Library, Saudi Arabia. The facade consists of a similar repeating three-dimensional pattern system of stretched membrane fabric as the Solar Carve has. The fabric is made of a PES (Polyester) material that allows it to be stretched to a high degree along two axes and gives rise to a shading system that can be easily customized to the desired angle. This shading system is an extension that could be added to the existing façade, making it ideal to be incorporated into our building.

The membrane is an irregular symmetrical hexagon. Those six points on the membrane will attach to the point on the 6” steel tube. To saddle the tension cable for the tensegrity structure, the tensegrity structure is applied to stabilize all the 6” Steel Tubes on the facade. And the bracket slotted connection for those tubes is on the same level as the floor (or they have a mullion close to it). For those tubes that are not, they are connected by saddle tension cable. The saddle tension cable system could be divided into outer and inner ones. The outer one is constructed in a diamond shape. And the inner one is crossed in the back of the membrane fabric sheet, held by fabric connectors and cable connectors. This will double-secure the stability of the entire structure.