Structural and Material Development

To introduce this post, I would like to mention that the previous reviews have been posted on this blog so if you need a refresher on what point I had left from our previous discussions they are accessible.  The main emphasis that has now been given to this project is how it will work materially and structurally, as well as its …size… upon the surrounding area and this finished effect on the individual person, maintaining the intended purpose of emanating a sign of God’s presence.  One of the previous criticisms I would like to address is that it seemed I really did not understand or know how my ‘structure’ (which really was a sculpture masquerading as a structure) worked.  I have a much better grasp of how this building can stand, and more importantly how it can have its previous aesthetic and still be justified as a structurally sound and efficient system.

Previously I had devised a geometry defined by a skin and believed that this skin could be supported by a concrete structural framing system that I had crafted into an interesting pattern based on my original drawing (see approaches Board of Final Exam Posters).  I had said that this skin would be an ubiquitous kalwall covering that could insulate but still let a translucent light in for the interior.  First problem, the skin needed its own structural system to support the kalwall and I did not know how that would work.  Having a structural system for the kalwall not based on the original concrete structure I had planned made the original structure obsolete and nothing more than ornament (and a massively expensive one at that).  It is not to say that these concrete frames could not work, but as they were, they were not carrying their weight in the design.  So I went back to the drawing board with a different approach.

I would no longer worry about making a skin per se as a separate element of the structure, instead I would focus on finishing the concrete structure (with some steal elements), making the original stand and how to connect the separate trusses together so as to form an interesting frame, keeping an eye out for empty places between structural elements in this frame that needed to be closed off but also those areas that could  lend their forms for interesting skin materials.  Maybe it could be kalwall but maybe it could be a good position for a stained glass window, an opaque wall, different colored glass, or even something radical.  The important factor in deciding these materials and their locations would be their contribution to spiritual affect of the entire building.  But before I could start drawing and thinking on an aesthetic level, I needed to know the facts of the structure I had and if reality would get in the way of my plans.

First stage: Structural analysis of current frame and geometry.

I realized that I needed to create more framing elements around the geometry that I had called a skin.  In a way, I thought of this practically as the way houses with pitched roofs are framed and the geometry it creates; pyramids, triangles, intersecting angled places, etc.  There is a peak and and valleys in a pitched roof, in the peak there is a ridge beam to connect and support the rafters that form the planes of the roof.  At the valleys, there is normally a structural wall carrying the load from the rafters down to the foundation.  My project relates to this principle but on a much grander scale.  The triangular pitches I have formed are very similar to the valleys and peaks one would see in residential construction.  The structural elements would be steel in mine but similar in that they must take on a similar frame.  Next I analysed the frame I had already designed to see if there were any major problems it had for the plane in which it was to carry forces (that was another problem with the previous model is that I did not know how or where to connect the frames together to keep them from failing laterally). 

 

The results:

Shear

Axial Load

Moment

Deflection

  

 

The shear, moment, and axial load forces were where I expected them, but I was a little surprised by where the deflection would occur and to what degree.   The top level bowed in very badly.  Something to take into account in designing additions to the frame.  The loading also made me realize that I will need to make some very strong/wide foundation piers where the inner columns meet the soft College Station soil.  Also to realize that they may need to be thicker. 

 

Second Stage:  Create a section and material concept with the new data.

Exterior Concept: Original Drawing 1/32"-1'

Section Concept

 As I was drawing I was trying to solve structural problems but I was mostly concerned with keeping the original feeling of the building, refining it to a tighter detail.  In the end there is much more interconnected and pragmatic framing, but this opened up wonderful opportunities to create 50 foot high stained or painted glass murals, or play with the borders of the actual framing with visual framing in the form of opaque glass or translucent Kalwall.  Most importantly, it has allowed me to create deeper intricacies in the building to that can expand upon this spiritual aesthetic I have developed.

 

Third Stage:  Redevelop a 3d model with the new framing and start to add materials to see if it can work as I have drawn the concept.

 

This stage is still a work in progress and I have given some screenshots of where I am in the model.

Exterior Geometry and structure (in progress)

Structure

Interior view with original geomtry (white) and snew structure (blue).

Interior view of nave looking upward.

 

 

Same interior view as the first but with transluceny to show new framing elements.

Translucency view looking at nave ceiling

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