Seed Cathedral

Case study – Seed Cathedral

Zixing YangMsc. DDIBE 2014/2015

Registration No: 140214741

Instructor: Dr. Chengzhi Peng

1 [ARCH6813 CHALLENGE OF IBE CASE STUDY & DIGITAL DESIGN AGENDA]

Figure II. Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of UK pavilion

Project Data

Location: Shanghai, ChinaPublic Opening: 1st May 2010Site area: 6000m2Seed Cathedral dimensions: 25m x 25m x 20mSeed Cathedral floor area: 105m2Optic fibres: 60,588Optic fibres length: 7.5mSeeds in Seed Cathedral: 217,300Landscape area: 4490 m2Public park area: 2405 m2Accommodation area: 1525 m2Exhibition area: 1280 m2Lead Designer: Heatherwick Studio Project team: ThomasHeatherwick, Katerina Dionysopoulou, Robert Wilson, PeterAyres, Stuart Wood, Ingrid Hu, Jaroslav Hulin, ChiaraFerrari and Ramona BeckerMain Client: Foreign & Commonwealth OfficeProject Manager: Mace GroupStructural Engineer: Adams Kara TaylorEnvironmental Engineer: Atelier TenFire & Risk engineering: Safe ConsultingExecutive Architect: Architectural Design & ResearchInstitute of Tongji UniversitySupporting Architects: RHWL


Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & SeahWalkway Exhibition Design: TroikaContent Advisory Team: Mark Jones, John Sorrell and DavidAdjayeContent Advisor: Philip DoddContent Coordinator: Adriana PaiceFunding - Sponsors - Public Sector: Foreign &Commonwealth Office UK Trade & Investment British CouncilDepartment for Communities and Local GovernmentDepartment for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs Department for Business,Innovation and Skills, England’s Regional DevelopmentAgencies,Sponsors – Private Sector: AstraZeneca, Barclays, BP,Diageo, GKN

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how the UK Pavilion to bebuilt from the early design stage to the finalconstruction stage. Firstly, the background of thebuilding would be introduces thoroughly. Then, comes intothe IBE session, which will deconstruct the users, eventsand environments in and around the site. After thisfollowing a prototype analysis, which gets a collectionof Thomas, typical ‘Hair’ works through his career life.By contrasting the different stages work, we could get anoverview about how the architects optimal his designideas by practical experiments. The rest part of the casestudy would mainly focus on the structure analysis. Thatwould elaborate in three directions, which are landscapestructure, acrylic structure and geometry structure. Thecutting edge software TopoStruct will be introduced afterthat which is designed by AKT Company. Then, there wouldbe a conclusion about the workflow of Seed Cathedraldesign. Finally, based on what the paper has discussedabove, summarize of the digital design agenda would beproposed in this case. Key words: Digital design; UK Pavilion; TopoStruct


Content

Project Data 2Abstract 3Introduction 5Deconstruct 5 1.1 Background 5 1.2 Location, Site, Spaces and Event 5


Reconstruct 6 2.1 Techniques 2.1.1 Prototype Development 6 2.2 Technologies 2.2.1 Structure Analysis 8 2.3 Implications & Applications 9 2.3.1 Software Use – TopoStruct 10 2.4 Workflow Mapping 10Digital Design Agenda 11List Of Reference 13


IntroductionIn this paper, we will give a brief discussion about theUK Pavilion, which is more widely called as SeedCathedral designed by Tomas Heatherwick studio, 2010Shanghai world Expo. This will begin with a descriptionof the background of the Seed Cathedral. This paper wouldanalysis this particular building by two differentapproaches, which are deconstruct and reconstruct.

DeconstructA general understanding of UK pavilion will be providedin this section.

1.1 BackgroundThe British government’s demanded that the pavilionshould not only show the strong economy or splendidindustry but also make it as the top five pavilion designwhen people vote.(Hudson 2013) Same as most other westerncountries, UK has been allocated a football pitch sizesite but half of the budget other countries have, in thisway the design team proposed to do something clarity andpowerful. This follows an idea about striking the projectby just concentrate on the exterior of the pavilion thatmajority of people could see through public medias.Furthermore, the designers want to give the visitor asurprise with its simplicity and absence of technologicaldevices. After considering the Expo slogan ‘better life,better city’ and advertisements needs for UK, the subjectof nature and human relationship topic are put forward.However, these limited budgets provide them anopportunity to situate their just one-fifth of the sitefor pavilion and use rest of the space for publicfacilities and rests. Beneath the paper-folding shapesquare, they also give visitors opportunities to get ontouch with the original UK cultures as well as thefaculty to sit down.

1.2 Location, Site, Spaces and Event


Figure1. Site location and site general layout(Anon 2010)

The site of UK pavilion is located in the west of theExpo scope, near the famous Shanghai Huangpu River, andseveral western pavilions surround it (Figure 1). Theentrance of the UK pavilion is not face directly to thevisitors. Instead, Tomas proposed a round way visitingroute which force the people get start their journey fromthe west corner of the site then heading downstairs toget some rest as well as absorb some British cultures.After all these events, the visitors could get into thefocal object through a mini bridge. This kind of routegives the visitor an overview of the whole building froma general long distance perspective to a detailed closedperspective. Similarly, this gigantic folding paper as aphysical affection provides a seamless space to triggervariety kinds of events happen (Figure 2).

Reconstruct2.1 Techniques2.1.1 Prototype DevelopmentA significant attention is drawn on the pavilion’s formfrom the first sight when people see it, they even giveit a nickname as dandelion. However, from Thomas’s pointof view, the form making of the pavilion is not that kindof necessary, especially while most of the Expo buildingsmight follow this popular trend. Instead, he concentrated on exploring texture. Inspired by the1985 film Witness, which indicates a beautiful kineticsculpture moving in the wind coming off the river, he


decided to make a building façade like this. (Hudson2013)Ten years earlier, Thomas had put forward a primaryproposal for treating a building like the Play-Donplastic figure that grows hair when you squeeze doughthrough his head. Obviously, it totally lost the insidetexture by using this method, but the outward part givespeople an opportunity forming its original shape. Bymagnifying the texture, the texture becomes the formitself. After Thomas firstly proposed this idea, it hasbeen nearly 50 years. During this period of time, he dida lot of research and experiments to develop this kind ofprototype potentials. (Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Event and people mapping

The first generation is Hairy Building, which get theinspirations directly from the Play-Don. The design teamgave an old local shop new texture – six thousand hairswhich soften its sharp corners relatively and at night


tiny light sources could create shimmering shadowsbeneath the façade. (Figure 3.)The second generation is Belsay Sitooterue. This projectgave the studio an opportunity to try out their old ideasas well as explore a new kind of building structure. Thisis the first time Thomas embedded ‘hairs’ in everysurface. The finished work consists of a steel andplywood box, 2.4 meters square with 5,100 holes, with 1meter long, ash wood staves fixed into each one. It seemsthat the most considerable overcome for this project isthat the end of the staves protrude slightly into thebox, giving the interior a dotted texture, some couldeven protrude further into space to support seating.(Figure 4.)After this following the most fabulous work they hadfinished before the Seed Cathedral, Barnards FarmSitooterie. Most of the materials they use until now areeasily assemble and demolish. However in this project,they tried anodized aluminum tubes, which will givesitooterie a permanent structure. In this case, 4,000staves protrude from the central cube acting as 4,000windows. Each one is glazed with orange transparentwindow that allow warm sunshine pass through. An engineercompany, no mechanical fixings, finished the wholeconstruction work and no welding went into theconstruction. Instead, the pieces are bonded togetherwith adhesive. There is also a light bulb hanging at thecentral of the sitooterie, at night, the bulb light couldpass through the aluminum staves and turn the sitooterieinto a low tech display screen. Similarly, they achieve a more complex goal in terms of‘Hair’. 6,000 silvery acrylic hairs, 7.5 meters length,protrude into the six storeys box. Inside of thegeometry, the tips of all hairs contain 250,000 seeds.What is more, the cathedral would light up by natural sunlight by day and tiny light sources embedded inside thehairs by night. As Thomas described in his book ‘Theyappear as thousands of dancing points of light that swayand tingle in the breeze.’ (Hudson 2013)


The diagrams below gives a brief summery of how the‘prototype’ developed through 50 years.

Figure 3. (Above) From left to right: Hairy Building,Belsay Sitooterue, Barnards Farm Sitooterie Figure 4.(Bottom) Interior potential use

2.2 Technologies2.2.1 Structure AnalysisA constructor from Shanghai finished the constructionwork using local materials. The central geometry is madeof red-colored plywood, drilled with 60,000 holes toaccommodate the stick. Because of the reason that eachrod pointed to the central point so each hole has adistinct drilling angle. The most challenging issue ofthis construction is to waterproof it with 6,000 holes.To achieve this, the constructor secured every join withrubber waterproof rings before assemble them with tinylight sources.

Landscape structureThe edge of the ‘giant paper’ rose 4 meters to thepavilion to provide enough space for VIP rooms and staffrooms. Basically, the entire surface is constructed byreinforce concrete and colored artificial grass. Beneaththis, there are several tapering ribs that range from 2meters to 2.5 meters in depth and from 7 meters to 17.4meters in length.(Kara 2010) Furthermore, the cantilever


ribs supported the loads and most of them were evenfilled with soil. The foundation design was by a localcompany, Tongji Institute, which proposed raftfoundations for faster build. In this way, the buildingcould also be easily demolished after the exhibitionfinished.

Acrylic structureThe acrylic structure design is far more complex than thelandscape structure design. With the help of softwaresupport from AKT, the assessment suggest the stability ofthe pavilion would be significantly affected by spikes onsurface which range from 5 meters to 6.1 meters. Speakingof acrylic structure, they are all comprised by twoaluminum sleeves of different length. These strengthenthe sections near their connections to the box as well asproviding the required reinforce near spikes roots. Theacrylic spikes are 20mm x 20mm and the support aluminumsleeve are 30mm x 30mm. (Figure 5.)

Geometry structureAs the total weight of the spikes is 460t, the geometrystructure design should be concisely managed in thiscase. The constructor arranged the position of differentribs carefully to avoid clashes between them. Further,the digital fabrication methods enable to calculate theposition of ribs and holes precisely. Since the huge load


Red Rubber Waterproof

of the spikes, the normal timber floor would not besuitable, instead, 900mm deep steel trusses applicant inboth direction.(Kara 2010)

More detail digital technology applications would bediscussed in the following section.

2.3 Implications & ApplicationsTo accomplish Thomas’s intelligent design target, a lotof cutting edge digital design method get into use. Themost significant case is the Structure Optimization byAdams Kara Taylor (AKT) Company, which worked withproject-specific interactive software. For ThomasHeatherwick’s British Pavilion, AKT created an interfacefor schematic design stage. Which specifically would behow the 6,000 spikes distribute in relation to thestructure behaviors. (Michalatos & Kaijima 2011)

2.3.1 Software Use – TopoStructBased on the theory of topography, TopoStruct could notonly optimal the geometric but also the materialdistributions in relation to the structure. This softwareis possible to get connect to the grasshopper using aplug-in named as ‘Millipede’. In Thomas’s case, he usedRhino Script modeling the pavilion and use cooperativeTopostruct interface to decide how many spikes should beembedded. At the beginning, they started with 100,000spikes, then after the discussion, they reduced the totalnumber to 60,000. People who applicant this system do notneed much engineer knowledge, it is so easy to handlethat every designer could interactive with. (Figure 6.)

2.4 Workflow Mapping


Figure 5. Structure Analysis

All in all, the workflow is design within a varietyconstrains which may sometimes from the local policy andsometimes from the technology achievement. To enableThomas’ concept to be realized, the whole process issupported by experts in both engineering and constructionfield. From the first beginning of the prototype design,Thomas tested his ideas step by step. By changing thematerials of the spikes and main cubes, the ‘Hair façade’gradually changed into three-dimensional surfaces, whichalso turn its own texture into form. This process alsogives us a good example of how to develop our prior

concepts. In terms of structure design and detail design,Thomas studio procedure several digital design tools tosupport their design flow. People from differentdepartment worked seamlessly and efficiently. There wasalso a very successful cooperation with the local designteam, such as Institute of Tongji University.

Figure 6. TopoStruct Shanghai Expo Pavilion materialdistribution analysis

Digital Design Agenda


After all the analysis done with Seed Cathedral, there isa basically awareness about how the computational designconduct in the practical applying. In my point of view,there would be four basic stages, which are: early designstage, design development stage, consulting stage andconstruction stage.

Early design stageIn the early stage of design, the modeling tool would bemainly used as a digital sketching. From a computationaldesign of view, the first thing that the digital designerneed to begin with is translating their idea intoparametric models. The model could be a roughly prototypemodel, it dose not need to be perfect, otherwise, itcould be rebuilt during the whole design and consultperiod. For the parametric model, there would be severalrequirements need to be followed: 1. Specify thealternative component 2. Identify how different decisionsaffect various problems. By using the compatiblesoftware, the designer could get an initial understandingof what are the potential problems that may exist as wellas helping the architects find proper solutions of them.(Kaijima 2012)

Design Development stageAt this stage, technically, the engineering side would beable to use the parametric model the designer built atthe last stage to develop a basic solution to thestructure clash problems. Similarly as what the AKT haddone in cooperating with the UK Pavilion design team. Themodel that is built with Rhino script could bemanipulated in TopoStruct – a parametric structure tool.There is a relevant statement Michael explain therelationship between the software and specific project inhis book Interactive architecture, “In many cases, to satisfyclient goals, projects become very specialized, and itbecomes increasingly difficult to reuse components ofthese projects for other projects that necessitategeneralized adaptive behaviors.”(Kemp 2009) That is tosay, since sometimes we need to create an interface orsoftware for particular project, the time and money would


spend more than the conventional design method, whichstay on the same working platform always.

Consulting StageWhen architects consult with people form otherdepartments, the statistics from the early design stagewill help architects negotiates between their designconcept and the suggestions from engineers. Furthermore,the parametric software optimal solutions and also allowwhole design team develop their design interactively.

Construction StageThe core rule for construction stage is the efficiency ofthe information transfer. Weather it is the material thearchitects selected, weather the waterproof should bedone in this way, sometimes the finished work can not geta desirable texture the architects or the engineers wantat the early stages. These all due to the necessaryinformation cannot be informed to people. Hence there isno doubt the project timeline always cannot be reduced.Sometimes, the uninformed information also results inredesign and construction delay. So, keep the model‘live’ during the construction process is necessary forpeople finish their work seamlessly. (Garber 2009)


The diagram below show how is the typically digitaldesign workflow and the software normally used. (Figure

7.)

Figure 7. Digital design Workflow


List of Reference

Anon, 2010. Construction Plans of Expo 2010. Available at: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/worldexpo/construction.htm.

Garber, R., 2009. Closing the gap : information models incontemporary design practice.

Hudson, T.&, 2013. Thomas Heatherwick Making, Thames & HudsonLtd.

Kaijima, S., 2012. Computer Simulation for Intuitive Structuring. , (Turkle 2009), pp.369–378.

Kara, H., 2010. Structural engineering AKT’s role in Heatherwick Studio’s Shanghai Expo pavilion.pdf.

Kemp, M.F. and M., 2009. Interactive Archtecture, New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Michalatos, P. & Kaijima, S., 2011. Intuitive material distributions. Architectural Design, 81, pp.66–69.


Seed Cathedral

Documents

Transcript of Seed Cathedral