Flying Carpets – Foster’s Concrete Canopies

A good while back I had the great opportunity to visit the Kingdom of Jordan and  dear friends of mine.
Beyond visiting the out of this world amazing Petra, a few Biblical sites, beduin and desert castles  – well, the Concretely highlight was the new international airport to Ammann. Queen Alia International Airport designed by Sir Norman Foster and finished in 2013.

A nice opportunity to search into the construction of the airport came when asked to lecture about concrete as an architectural material at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture.

[Great light, grand spaces, and nice temperature - but was this really prefab or cast on site? Image by Yours Concretely]

[The modular design of tessellated roof canopies allows for a planned expansion of the airport, canopy by canopy. Image via]

[Detail of the column head. Really tight and great surfaces. Image by Yours Concretely]

[The large outdoor area - in the poor image taken with my mobile phone, the tessellated canopies appear to continue. Image by Yours Concretely]

[Images of Queen Alia Intl Airport. Photos by Anne-Mette Manelius, Yours Concretely]

Cast in place or prefab elements?
The search was initiated from my wonder - how were the gigantic canopy-like vaulted ceilings actually made? It was puzzling because the structure appeared, at the same time, to be cast in place and cast as prefabricated concrete elements. The details and connections as well as the finish of the concrete is of much higher quality than anything else I had seen in Jordan. – furthermore,  there are clearly defined connections between structural elements. All indicating the use of prefabricated concrete.

Structurally, on the other hand, such large-spanning vaults are traditionally constructed as cast in place. Also – were these huge structure made from elements, - the cranes and trucks to deliver them would have had to be enormous. Furthermore, the price of human labor – a crucial ingredient in concrete, Adrian Forty reminds us – would be fairly low in Jordan.

A visit to the airport’s Wikipedia-page added weight to my ponder as it stated how the airport is composed of 127 concrete domes, each weighing up to 600 metric tonnes”

[Detail of the ceiling with acoustic elements mounted on the concrete - oh concrete bliss. Photo by Yours Concretely]

Cast in place AND as prefab
The beauty of concrete is that it comes in many forms and properties - and the revelation is that the structure is cast as prefab as well as cast on sight. High performance fiber-reinforced concrete (HPC) was used to make the  stay-in-place formwork elements. They were thin double-curved concrete shells cast in molds made in a factory in Greece. Here shipbuilding skills were used to develop the curves.

The challenge for these elements comes down to this: at the end, the hardened concrete structure of each canopy will function as one. Yet the most challenging loads impact the elements during construction as well as transportation from abroad. The construction of the airport using prefabricated concrete molds was possible with the development of high performance concrete.

[Images from the engineering of the high performance fiber-reinforced (HPC) concrete shells. Images above are via Greek consultants Cubus Hellas]

Behind the scenes
I enjoy the construction of architecture, so I always enjoy the process more than the final result. With impressive works such as this one, I want to see the "making of" images. The British Concrete Quarterly ran a nice article on the project with lots of facts that you can open here – yet no images from construction. Below is a collection of images that I have found on web sites of contributors
to the project.

[Image of Queen Alia Airport under construction. Via 'High Contrast' Wikimedia]

[Montage of hollow fibre-reinforced concrete elements. Via Joannou & Paraskevaides]

[Images from the engineering of the high performance fiber-reinforced (HPC) concrete shells. Image via Greek consultants Cubus Hellas]

Project: Queen Alia International New Airport (2005-2012)

Client: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Ministry of Transport 

Architect: Foster + Partners

Structural and MEP engineer: Buro Happold

Contractor: Joannou & Paraskevaides 

Ensamble Studio's concrete sticks and bones

The Spanish architectural office Ensamble Studio uses concrete as a tectonic ensemble of elements or as a poured mass of liquid stone. Sticks and stones, in other words. -- enjoy a few videos of constructing the projects further down in this post.

Constructing solid space
For a while I was only familiar with their quirky project the Truffle. I like the conceptual approach to constructing space and structure. Bales of hay is used to construct the solid space, so to speak, and then concrete is poured all over it. - the main quirky part is the use of a neighbor's calf to feed off the hay and thus excavating the interior space over the summer. The cow grows as does the space.

[Image above by Ensamble Studio, 2010]

[Film about the cow Paulina and the project, YouTube link]

[This way of constructing space can be compared with the Bruder Klaus Kapel by Peter Zumthor. Here the space is constructed by wooded laths, cast in what appears to be a pisé technique - and finally the space is revealed by a fire burning away the wood.]

According to a lecture with an Ensamble Studio architect, the Truffle House was a prototype for another and much larger project to be cast in place and in which the different functions were conceived as spatial blocks connected by concrete pour. The studio did not win this competition but it would be great to see a scaled up version of this conceptual approach to casting, which is so bound to the process of construction and of very small projects.

Radical Sticks

Other projects use prefabricated and huge concrete elements, tectonic use of concrete sticks. - the Hemeroscopium House (2005) is pretty radical in its use of elements laying off eachother. And that's it - no cold bridges dealt with - and looots of concrete. I have seen images of livable spaces of the house. Images of the web site are more structural.

[Hemeroscopium House (2005) with the 'G point' rock on top. Via]

The office describes how: "It took us a year to engineer but only seven days to build the structure, thanks to a total prefabrication of the different elements and a perfectly coordinated rhythm of assembly. All of our effort oriented to develop the technique that would allow creating a very specific space. And thus, a new astonishing language is invented, where form disappears giving way to the naked space. Hemeroscopium house materializes the peak of its equilibrium with what in Ensamble Studio we ironically call the “G point”, a twenty ton granite stone, expression of the force of gravity and a physical counterweight to the whole structure."via

[Hemeroscopium House (2005) with the prestressed 'swimming pool profile' element. Via]

[4 minute movie of the construction, YouTube link]

Transformation of space and program

Reader's House is my favorite project and is the transformation of an old market hall to a cultural purpose. Here, long pre-streesed U-shaped elements, introduces a different orientation of the space, as well as the opportunity of a variety of programs on these bridge-like slabs. The slabs span the entire space in a simple and remarkable way.

[Images of the Reader's House, via]

"The Reader’s House project is the result of a competition that took place in 2006, in which Ensamble Studio won the first prize. The purpose of the competition was to restore the warehouses 13, 14, 17b and 17c of the Old Slaughterhouse to incorporate a new educational program.

The proposal made by Ensamble Studio maintains and enhances the original character of the industrial complex, by imposing a new order to the one of the pre-existent buildings. The confluence and relationship of the new system and the existing one forms a new space.

Two physical, perceptual and activity levels are defined forming a mutable scenario. The upper level, constructed with precast concrete beams of 40 Tons each, is a space for research and study. These beams are bridges, aerial streets, vectors of activity. In opposition to the basilica-like structure of the warehouses, longitudinal, light and metallic; the new structures are inserted through the windows and sew the space transversally, giving unity to the complex formed by the warehouses 13 and 14, which were previously independent buildings. The lower level participates, without losing its essence, of the rhythm marked by the upper level. Dynamic and mutable, this level will host the educational and cultural diffusion activities, enabling their future redefinition."From the Ensamble Studio website 

[Building the Reader's House, Youtube link]

Watch this video of the construction process - It's hard to explain and hard to believe the simplicity of the construction process, really - the accompanying music plays on this in Buster Keaton type way, I guess... I mean, Keaton and Ensamble do have some high precision planning in common if you think of this famous movie clip.

Prototyping Architecture - exhibition and conference

[Image of the fabric-formed concrete column by yours concretely in the exhibition space for Prototyping Architecture. Photo by Agnese Sanvito]

I am looking forward to presenting a paper at the Prototyping Architecture conference in London.  The conference is organized in connection with an exhibition of the same name, which is a collection of a broad variety of architectural 'prototypes' ranging from a 3d printed violin that I am not so certain of how to categorize architecturally, to a 1:1 mock-up of the Loblolly House by Kieran Timberlake, to a number of research objects testing new manufacturing techniques and materials. The field of fabric forming is based on prototyping in the sense that every new experiment is the prototype of material and process.

The first exhibition venue was at the University of Nottingham. I contributed to the exhibition there with the design and production of a prefabricated fabric mold, which I then brought to the site (the prototyping hall at the school of architecture) in a bag , unfolded it there and arranged a concrete pour. In lack of a better name, I refer to the column as the PA Column (PA as in Prototyping Architecture)

[the formwork hanging over the fabric-formed column at the exhibition venue at the University of Nottingham. Photo by Victoria Gaskell]

Here follows the text that accompanies the exhibited object: Fabric formwork is a new construction method for concrete structures that utilizes sheets of fabric as flexible, lightweight moulds. Based on a recently completed PhD project about the architectural potentials of fabric formwork for concrete, the fabric-formed column designed and constructed especially for the Prototyping Architecture exhibitions is the investigation and material prototyping of a lightweight, prefabricated fabric mould, which unfolds to be cast on site. The three-legged concrete column is form-optimized for stability and constructed with minimal means.

The principles of tensioning the fabric, of restraining it, and placing concrete have a direct formal consequence as a material dialogue between relaxation and control; thus the technique encourages an architectural understanding of concrete as material and as process. Essentially the exhibited prototype must then be understood as the formwork, the process, and the concrete object, and the contribution discusses the future of industrialized concrete architecture by emphasizing the prefabrication of intelligent, and lightweight moulds as an alternative to ‘dumb’ and heavy concrete elements.

With the high ceiling of the exhibition venue at the Prototyping Hall of University of Nottingham the mould was exhibited, hung next to the concrete object and details of the sculptural concrete object could be compared with its two-dimensional textile origin. In London, the ceiling is much lower and there was no room for the formwork, which is really a shame for the understanding of the piece as a prototype.

[The homemade flight bag containing the entire formwork structure: wooden braces/form ties, metal clamps, tools, everything besides the concrete mix]

[yours concretely hand-filling the formwork aided by the great student workers in Nottingham]

[Detail of the PA Column after it was moved to the Building Centre in London]

The title of my presentation is Fabric Formwork - Prototyping concrete as material and process - and I better get back to finishing it.

Here's the link to the program of the conference - I'm very excited to go.

Prototyping fabric formwork

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[Undressing the Composite Column (2010) Concrete, inner formwork boards and fabric formwork jacket, by yours concretely]

Prototype c.1600, from Fr. prototype, from M.L. prototypon, from Gk. prototypon "a first or primitive form," properly neuter singular of prototypos "original, primitive," from protos "first" (see proto-) + typos "impression" (see type). Via

Prototyping Architecture

The architectural prototype is the theme of a exhibition opening at the University of Nottingham in October 2012 and moving to the Building Centre in London in January 2013. The title Prototyping Architecture emphasizes the proces of creating the prototypes and the role of material evidence in the creation of architecture in research and design practices.

”Prototyping Architecture places a particular emphasis on research and experimentation showing how trial assemblies can inform architecture. In post-digital design practice the prototype remains a vital means of design development.” via

 

[The vocabulary of the Composite Column formwork, by yours concretely]

[Detail of the Composite Column]

Concrete as material and process

In fabric formwork the principles of tensioning the fabric, of restraining it, and placing concrete have a direct formal consequence as a material dialogue between relaxation and control; thus the technique highlights an architectural understanding of concrete as material and as process, stereogeneity (a concept coined in my doctoral dissertation).  

Process as prototype

To me the development of formwork principles and the tectonics of the constructed formwork is more the prototype than the final concrete object – but formwork tectonics can obviously only be evaluated as it is filled with concrete.  Essentially the fabric formed prototype must then be understood as the formwork, the process, and the concrete object, and the contribution discusses the future of industrialized concrete architecture by emphasizing the development of prefabricated, intelligent, and lightweight molds as an alternative to heavy and dumb concrete elements.

 [Sketch of the prefabricated formwork principle for the Composite Formwork, 2010 - see more here]

Prefabricated lightweight formwork

The exhibition provides myself with an opportunity to further develop the notion of prefabricated lightweight formwork and I am constructing a fabric formwork for a column/wall element. The aim remains the same as for the Composite Column (2010): to use a minimum of materials which doesn't explicitly add formal or surface qualities to the concrete structure. The specialized bits of the formwork will fit in my suitcase and only a few stabilizing elements are needed on site as well as, of course, the concrete.

 The mold is exhibited, hung next to the concrete object and details of the sculptural concrete object can be compared with its two-dimensional textile origin.

 

[The formwork for thirteen concrete columns fit into three duffle bags, via]

Literally carrying a notion 

The idea of carrying lightweight formwork in a bag has been applied by Mark West on several occasions, for example for Casa Dent in Puerto Rico (2001) designed by the California based Cheng Design. Fabric formwork was in fact also brought to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts by West and his assistant Aynslee Hurdal back in 2007 where they cast three columns. I guess it is somehow appropriate to, literally, bring formwork to a new place.

 

[Three fabric-formed columns cast by CAST for the Creative Systems Exhibition and Seminar, 2007]

I am exhibiting with Cinark –Center of Industrialized Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture

Fabulous Japanese prefab

[Image: Top two floors of Namics Techno Core by Riken Yamamoto/ Photo by Koichi Satake]

Last week Riken Yamamoto won the competition to design a billion-dollar mixed use complex at the Zürich Airport called the Circle. I only recently came across Riken Yamamoto's work when, namely the Namics Techno Core (Oct 2008)- it strikes me for several reasons. First of all the lightness of the organic mushroom like structure which seems to grow from the enclosed ground level. This leads to the second reason: the clear division of functions between the ultra clean lab spaces on ground level and the completely open 2nd and 3rd floors.

 [Image: Employee and visitors' level and roof garden of Namics Techno Core by Riken Yamamoto/ Photo by Koichi Satake]

The last reason is the always astonishing Japanese accuracy in building - The structure was completed in mere 13 months and is made from prefabricated concrete elements by the contracting Taisei Corporation. Arup Japan did the structural engineering. Actually the JA 76 Yearbook 2009 states that it is a steel frame structure in which case the concrete is cladding - and still outstanding. Sigh!
It does, however make sense to work with the structure as a continuous surface - a shell structure with very narrow load bearing points. I've seen renderings from the architect of this structural system as a high rise - which brings a 1954 competition entry by Jørn Utzon to mind, the Langelinie Pavilion in Copenhagen. Where the Yamamoto project stacks clusters of funnels of varying top diameters and needle thin bottoms, really quite similar to Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax Building (1936), Utzon's project is a tower with a core and glass facadea floating down the edges of the stacked plates as one big water fountain.

[Image: Clusters of lily-pad columns outside the Johnson Wax Building by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1936  ]

 

[Image: concept model of the Langelinje pavillion by Jørn Utzon, 1954]

[Image: perspective sketch of the interior of the Langelinje pavillion by Jørn Utzon, 1954. The window detail is close to identical to the solution at Namics]

As is my experience with many Asian architects I have a difficult time to get much from a Google search. So, here's a link to a nice and reflected blog post which refers to a Riken Yamamoto lecture and a few more, nice projects.

And here's a link to the next post with a few more lily-columns and suspended concrete surfaces.