cinark

Festive Vocational Friday

2010-06-19T11:55:00.013+02:00

Friday the 18.th of june: Festive Vocational Friday, on Earth Architecture, by ATYPI

The main content of this friday afternoon was modern earth construction, with examples from Austria and a few fine buildings from Denmark (1930-1950).
To discuss the building technique, presented the building site of Martin Rauch's own house.
The attendees asked a lot of good questions to the technical aspects and had a lot of good input to the project.

Read more about our project on our webpage.

www.atypi.dk

2010-05-01T16:11:00.003+02:00

Seminar on Earth Architecture hosted by Energiinstitut Voralberg

“Energiinstitut Voralberg” resently hosted a seminar on the subject, Earth as building material. The seminar consisted of two parts, a lecture on “Earth construction - architecture” and a practical part “Earth construction – practice”. Martin Rauch was the lecturer and he shared his knowledge and practical experience in building with Earth.

Read the full report on our webpage:

www.atypi.dk

Constraint and connexion - fabric formwork workshop

2010-03-05T12:38:00.003+01:00

PhD students Johannes and Anne-Mette at Cinark are preparing a workshop with fabric formed concrete for 80 students.

The theme of the workshop is constraint and connection - at the same time workshops take place about Wood, Metal and Brickwork. All workshops are part of a major course on building technology for all second semester students.

Read more about this and a last years' workshop here.

Anne-Mette

Study trip

2010-02-08T15:22:00.016+01:00

Ullerød Park (Ullerødparken) is a new housing area north of Copenhagen. It was drafted by 'ONV Architects' and 'FO BYG og BO' as a part of the project 'Cheap Dwelling (Billig bolig), an attempt to build cheap and sustainable dwellings.

This Friday we have visited Ullerød Park, which is chosen for one of the case studies in the CINARK project 'Architecture between New Industrialisation and Sustainability'. Part one of the project analyzed some of the first industrialized dwellings and has been completed. The second part is based on case studies of contemporary industrialized housing in Denmark.

Read more about Architecture between New Industrialisation and Sustainability.

Autarki

2010-01-28T15:35:00.031+01:00

A 1:1 experiment with cross-laminated wood panels (Gluelam)

CINARK has in collaboration with Grontmij / Carl Bro initiated a project, where an improvement of the contemporary construction methods for Gluelam is investigated.

Buildability and energy efficiency
Building with Gluelam is a relatively new construction method, but the material holds notable potentials for use in low-energy construction, due to the simple construction process, very high isolation values and fewer thermal bridges.

"Cross-laminated timber (KLH) is produced from spruce strips that are stacked crosswise on top of each other and glued to each other. The PEFC certificate guarantees that the raw material used comes from ecological, economical and socially responsible forests." Photo: KLH Massivholz GmbH.

With this project it is our objective to develop and test a new construction method, which reduces the types and amounts of materials used, and where climate technical potentials are better utilised. We will investigate the possibilities of creating a comfortable indoor climate without any external energy input, but with solar heating and natural ventilation only.
The erection of an 1:1 experiment, - a small single-space unit for temporary use, will furthermore give us the opportunity of looking at an optimisation of the process, in the planning phase as well as in the construction phase, and study the architectonical potentials of the material.

The pavilion is expected to be erected by June 2010.

Tek 5 - Exhibition

2010-01-18T13:35:00.014+01:00

We are currently showing student works from the Tek5 course BUILDING, PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS.
The course took place earlier this semester and was arranged by CINARK, Institute 2 and 4.

The exhibition is shown in the Gallery at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and is open from 10 am – 5pm. Last day is 22 January 2010.

Pictures from the exhibtion opening:

Ambiguous chairs cast in fabric formwork

2009-10-09T12:47:00.013+02:00

As an architect I believe that in order to generate discussion of the architectural perspectives of a new building method it seems crucial, constantly to expound on aesthetical as well as technological and structural aspects which are balanced in an integrated architectural practice.

Besides these issues, the social notion of concrete can be seen as a barrier for initiating a discussion of the implementation of a new concrete technology: if nobody likes the idea, never mind how clever the technology. Especially with the cultural image of concrete is really challenged in this part of the world.

Anne-Mette in the fabric formed concrete chair.

The following is a summary of my paper I just presented at the Structural Membranes conference in Stuttgart– the session on flexible moulds was small but fun amongst a lot of more heavy engineering papers. My part presented a sort of a social experiment done as part of my thesis work on fabric formwork for concrete.

Detail of fabric with large washers and bolts.
Below is a detail of the concrete surface cast in the fabric above.

Detail of concrete surface cast in fabric.

So – since fabric formwork already has ambiguity within the term I decided to create a piece of furniture with the same ambiguity. The specific experiment is the design and production of two fabric formed chairs. The exploration includes presenting to the observer physical objects of a familiar function and scale, but containing ambiguities of the materiality, construction and affordance.

The mentioned ambiguities concern optical appearance vs. the haptic perception and information which comes when touching the object and from the act of sitting down. Using fabrics for furniture and thus getting some associations right that come with the function of a chair: Fabric, patterned surface structure and a bulging surface are all associated with the notion of an upholstered chair such as the Chesterfield.

It seemed a natural choice to use upholstery fabrics for casting a chair in fabric formed concrete. Architecture students at University of Edinburgh have studied the aesthetic surfaces of concrete cast in a number of conventional fabrics bought at the local fabrics store, including both very thin and cheap materials and more sturdy fabrics for upholstery. It was the intention of using upholstery fabric that the pattern from the fabric would transfer to the concrete surface making the appearance of the chair even more ambiguous to the observer.

Detail of concrete surface cast in fabric.

An observer remarked: “I looked at the chair and in my head I knew it was concrete and couldn’t understand that it wasn’t fabric. Then when I sat on it, in my head I knew it was concrete and would be hard but I was still surprised to find that the chair wasn’t as soft as it looked.”

MCPC2009 - Conference on Mass Customization

2009-10-07T13:45:00.004+02:00

CINARK - represented by PhD-student Kasper Sánchez Vibæk participated this week at the biannual International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalisation in Helsinki (MCPC2009).

Kasper presented the paper 'User Involvement as a Configurable Integrated Product Delivery'

For more information on the event visit http://www.mcpc2009.com/

Abstract of the paper:

Integrated product deliveries as known from the product industry are beginning to emerge in construction. These are normally considered as physical systems that can be configured and customised for a specific delivery to form part of a unique construction project and help to reduce the complexity of the total construction project. However tools for handling the equally complex processes that leads to the final result are also required. This paper uses a specific software tool recently developed for user involvement in construction processes as a setoff for discussing the process focus as an equally relevant field for development of customisable integrated product deliveries in construction. This development and its causes challenge the traditional role of the architect as the centre point in the creation of physical wholes or entireties. If user involvement, as argued, can be considered as a configurable integrated product delivery then the architect can – using slightly provocatively a term from the production industry – be seen a configuration manager of processes shaping our physical surroundings. Products focusing on standardisation and mass customisation of the building process rather than physical systems could however become architecturally intriguing by leaving more open the solution space of the final result.

Studytrip to Austria, studying the work of Martin Rauch.

2009-10-01T11:07:00.015+02:00

Martin Rauch’s experimental work with clay building techniques is very unique. His work is inbetween art and architecture. With his company, “LEHM TON ERDE” he works in cooperation with architects and artists. His knowledge of what this material is capable of, bring character to the projects.

We went to Austria to study his work in details. We had an appointment with him. He showed us his home, his studio and the concrete plant where he makes his prefabricated elements of rammed earth. Afterwards we consulted him about our project, and he suggested development potentials in making the project more honest considering the rammed earth.

In his own house he uses the clay in various techniques. The surfaces complement each other very fine

His studio is a experimental playground in all different clay techniques, from pisé to ceramics.

The concrete plant where he makes his prefabricated elements of rammed earth

Fabric formwork in Vermont

2009-09-22T15:06:00.016+02:00

August 2009
Industrial PhD student Anne-Mette Manelius has just returned from two weeks in Vermont, USA. Here she took part of a fabric formwork workshop initiated by two leading capacities within the field of research and building fabric formed concrete structures.

Within a weeks time a number of principles were developed and tested in a full scale L-shaped wall; part of a future cabin with two beds for the institution (‘højskole’) which hosted the workshop.

Woven noncolored polypropylene was used as the formwork. The transparent plastic fabric made it very easy to construct, mark and place washers and impacters and the rebar grid – of course you could see the concrete during the pour as well.

The remaining concrete components for the cabin is the focus for another two workshops: A combined column-beam structure, and a prefabricated GFR-shotcrete shell structure for the roof.

Besides heavy hand-on experience, Anne-Mette also visited two built projects with fabric formed walls, columns and decks. Interesting aspects of these structures included the post treatment of the concrete surfaces with lime wash and acid etching.

Anne-Mette also lectured at the nearby architecture school at Norwich University. The theme of the lecture was New Concrete Technologies in Architecture.

During pour.

After-pour

Anne-Mette Manelius after pour

The-day-after-pour

Detail-of-concrete

Detail Sandys House lime washed concrete

Transparent Fabric-formwork

2009-09-10T15:47:00.003+02:00

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