Fall 2017
Material History: Critical MassAdvanced Studies Unit. Monash University.
Andrea Pinochet
What did the construction of the Centre Pompidou, or the World Trade Center, teach architects around the world about prefabrication? How did Mies lift the 65x65m long (64.8mx64.8m) roof of the Neue Nationalgallerie? And, why haven’t cracked already the delicate 2,5cm thick marble sheets in Bunshaft’s Rare Book Library?
Setting aside the distinction between the architect and the engineer, this seminar will discuss structure, reflecting on the history of construction and materials properties.
The course departs from the fundamental premise that structure is an integral part of an architectural creation, that architecture and structure are one and the same, and that they march together in all great built works. A structural principle, a detail, can embody and abstract an entire architectural idea. We will then will study structures from their most abstract form to the very physical act of construction —following the evolution of an idea into an image, a construction drawing, its physics, budgets and logistics— learning about building techniques through short exercises and the analysis of several case studies.
Andrea Pinochet
What did the construction of the Centre Pompidou, or the World Trade Center, teach architects around the world about prefabrication? How did Mies lift the 65x65m long (64.8mx64.8m) roof of the Neue Nationalgallerie? And, why haven’t cracked already the delicate 2,5cm thick marble sheets in Bunshaft’s Rare Book Library?
Setting aside the distinction between the architect and the engineer, this seminar will discuss structure, reflecting on the history of construction and materials properties.
The course departs from the fundamental premise that structure is an integral part of an architectural creation, that architecture and structure are one and the same, and that they march together in all great built works. A structural principle, a detail, can embody and abstract an entire architectural idea. We will then will study structures from their most abstract form to the very physical act of construction —following the evolution of an idea into an image, a construction drawing, its physics, budgets and logistics— learning about building techniques through short exercises and the analysis of several case studies.