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Auxiliary Architectures

Part 2 Project 2011
Joakim Hoen
Rikard Jaucis
Oslo School of Architecture and Design Oslo | Norway
The studio sought to develop an auxiliary architecture through a material system to improve an existing situation.
The initial intention was to create a less hostile atmosphere surrounding the American Embassy in Oslo, Norway. We planned to create a situation which redifined the fence and redused it to merly embrace the
building designed by Eero Saarinen in the fifties. An inhabitible wall which provided security yet at the same time brought light to the embassadors, secured sightlines and offered a pleasent new urban furniture
for the inhabitants of Oslo. The structure would house and incorporate a parking garage which served a function both of buffering and to secure vehicles. The transformation would partly belong to the public
and partly to the embassy, offering something back to the community it has been robbing for years.
We wanted to incorporate the qualities of expanded steel mesh and study how we could improve a material system with the help of generative software. Through the project we redefined the use of analytic software to include the development and finding of architectural form.
We used ANSYS, a software typically used to test steel structures and find weaknesses and deformations under given forces. We wanted to use software in a generative manner rather than analyzing finished form.
The semester therefor became a study of new ways to use software to drive architecture onto a different path. By simulating the deformation of perforated steel plates under tension we could test different cut
patterns and achieve interesting without complex scripting or algorithms. A manual way to use a digital tool.
Lastly we gathered physical data from site, e.g. sun exposure, wind and sightlines which then generated the cutpatterns of our structure. We conducted physical testing of cut steel plates to confirm the results
from our digital simulations and to make sure that we got the structure to secure the intended architectural qualities.
The architecture provides a new vertical park, improves the negative non physical aspect of the site, and at the same time serves the important function of security. You dont need to project fear to be secure.


Tutor(s)
Michael Hensel
2011
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