A Plastic Fabrication of The Contingent refers to an architectural design solution conceived through a rigorous study of structural hierarchy. The design is for an athletic center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is situated strategically underneath highway 485. The building is conceived as a blanket that undergoes tugs and slices as it responds to its site and programmatic conditions. The main influence in the blankets fluctuation is the weight of the highway bridge, as it bears down on the blanket and causes a central flex. Most of the program is placed underneath the blanket, and serves as an athletic facility.
Architectural Designer
4 months
2 Architectural Designers (Ben Simmons, Lucas Gillie)
Design critic (Peter Wong)
Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino 3D, Revit, V-Ray
The program is defined as an athletic center, although it is typical to sub-divide the required spaces in using full partitions, this structural system encourages free flowing circulation using partial separations.
Through an extensive precedent study, the floor plan took much inspiration from SANAA's Toledo Glass Museum. Studying the circulation as a continuous loop and journey was an informative portion of our case study and large contributor to the final design of the overall layout.
With the roof blanket being the central structural focus, we chose to combine the vertical circulation with the blankets support system.
The roof blanket is fabricated with cross-laminated timber in a waffle-like structure, allowing for subtle and drastic fluctuation in the blankets form. The structure is pulled at specific points of stress down to meet the ground, and because of its tectonic nature, allows for ramps, stairs, skylights, and extra support to become intertwined.
Below is a structural model showcasing the inner workings of the blanket, and how it interacts with the ground.
A Plastic Fabrication of The Contingent challenges the types of connections that happen between a building and its context. Throughout the project we focused on the users experience and how the user would move throughout the building.
Throughout the project we learned about how a structural system could influence the flow and navigation of a building. While it is typical in architecture school to begin with a concept, this project began with a structural system that informed the concept.
