Voussoir Cloud
Project by: IwamotoScott / Buro Happold
Location: Los Angeles
Photography by Judson Terry
Voussoir Cloud explores the structural paradigm of pure compression coupled with an ultra-light material system. The project is the result of a collaboration between IwamotoScott and the engineering firm, Buro Happold. The design filled the Southern California Institute of Architecture gallery with a system of vaults to be experienced both from within and from above.
Image courtesy of IwamotoScott Architecture
The overall design drew from the work of engineer/architects such as Frei Otto and Antonio Gaudi, who used hanging chain models to find efficient forms. Buro Happold used both computational hanging chain models to refine and adjust the profile lines, initially modeled in Rhino as pure catenaries, and form finding programs to determine the purely compressive vault shapes. In this case, however, the structural and material strategies were intentionally confused.
Each vault was comprised of a Delaunay tessellation that both capitalized on and confounded the structural logics — greater cell density of smaller, more connective modules, or petals, ganged together at the column bases and at the vault edges to form strengthened ribs, while the upper vault shell loosened and gained porosity. At the same time, the petals — our reconstituted “voussoirs”, typically defined as the wedge shaped masonry blocks that make up an arch — were here reconsidered, using thin paper material. The three dimensional petals were formed by folding thin wood laminate along curved seams.
Image courtesy of IwamotoScott Architecture
Image coutesy of IwamotoScott Architecture
*This is an abridged version of an article from a past issue de magazine (Issue 22 Spring 2011). Visit our store to purchase a printed copy of the magazine or order a subscription.
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