tonkin liu, architecture, art, landscape

Creative Practice Research Conference

proposals for Shell Lace Structure Research
shell lace structure
Curving a fat sheet increases strength
Corrugation increases structural depth
Distortion in plan locks in stiffness
Perforation maximises lightness
bexhill shelter plasticine model bexhill shelter cutting plan study bexhill shelter paper model study
Shells structure: curvature, corrugation, distortion, lightness Tailoring: fat pieces shaped, cut, and joined to form strong 3-d forms
Curvature Corrugation Distortion
Shells structural principles
Shell Lace Structure
Awards RIBA Research Trust Award
Publications Biomimicry in Architecture;
The Evolution of Shell Lace (Prototyping
Architecture);
Workshops Waseda University; Shi Chien
University; University of Bath; University of
Westminster; London Festival of Architecture
Projects:
Bexhill Shelter (5mm Aluminium);
Lisbon Bridge (8mm Corten Steel);
Regent Street (1.5mm white cardboard);
Kaohsiung Ferry Terminal (12mm mild steel);
Rain Bow Gate (3mm stainless steel);
Disaster Relief Shelter (5mm corrugated card)
Cadogan Cafe (3mm mild steel)
Bluewater Mall Atrium (8mm mild steel)
Shell Lace Structure Research
31 grams of Gold, hammered into a thin sheet, can cover an area as large as 16 square metres.
What if we, as architects, design with every material as if it were extremely valuable and scarce?
Nature always does. Natures evolutionary process has created lightweight structures of astonish-
ing diversity and beauty such as Seashells.
Before we discovered the Shell Lace Structure technique, every one of our projects lead to a dif-
ferent material and technical exploration through our design process Asking Looking Playing
Making. Together with Ed Clark and Alex Reddihough at Arup, when exploring a cost-effective
method of making strong three-dimensional forms for an RIBA competition for Seaside pavilions
at Bexhill, we realized that wed invented something by chance. Subsequent projects using the
Shell Lace Structure have brought together story-telling and technical experiments in a single co-
hesive process. The discovery has given us a new focus to one aspect of our work, one that takes
on a specifcally biomimetic approach.
Shell Lace Structure is a single surface structural technique inspired by the evolution of seashells
and the ancient art of tailoring. The exploration has been made possible through the contem-
porary production techniques of computer-aided design and fabrication. The experiments have
made the most of currently available technology but they have also utilised an intuitive hands-on
approach, using paper and plasticine study models, establishing a new notion of craft through
tailoring and assembling of laser-cut plates. Shell Lace Structure generates ultra-light, single-sur-
face structures. Structural principles learned from Seashells such as curvature, corrugation, and
distortion all lock in strength and stiffness, allowing the plate thickness to be reduced to a mini-
mum. With these principles the tailoring and joining of the tailored cut thin sheets, when joined
together, create incredibly strong and thin structures. Perforations further reduce the deadweight
of the structure, by removing material in areas of low stress. They also help to articulate the thin-
ness of the sheets, catching light as they fow across the surface, adding dynamism and delicacy.
To date the research in practice has used the Shell Lace Structure technique to design 10 pro-
jects in 3 structural typologies that of the vault, the beam, and the column. These range from a
shelter built of 3mm thick stainless steel spanning 7 meters, to a competition entry for a Ferry Ter-
minal with 18 meter tall columns made in 10mm thick steel plates, to a bridge proposal for China
spanning 75 metres using 16mm thick steel plates.
The body of work that has been undertaken through the 4-years of research is available on our
web site as an open source resource and could perhaps be useful to practicing architects, teach-
ers and students in different ways. The technique can be developed and modifed in numerous
ways with numerous different fexible sheet materials. The work can be seen as a vehicle for the
realignment of a practice into an area that brings together a multitude of interests. Shell Lace
Structure has made us look beyond the world of architecture both in the source of inspiration and
in to an exciting feld of collaboration. As teachers we have enjoyed getting involved in the actual
hands-on research ourselves, in the same way we would encourage our students to conduct the
exploration. As practitioners we have gained a renewed sense of purpose and been encouraged
to develop new skills and tools. The research has also brought us in contact with many like-mind-
ed people with a similar interest in structure and nature.
The ongoing research has been disseminated through lectures, seminars and hands on work-
shops in Japan, Taiwan and Britain. The work has appeared in a series of publications and has
been in a number of exhibitions and has also brought the practice a number of awards. We are
currently working toward an exhibition and catalogue of the Shell Lace Structure projects. We
have also just begun conducting an MArch unit at the University of Westminster specifcally to ex-
pand the evolution of the Shell Lace Structure process.
The Shell Lace Structure research has made the most of the digital tools that have become avail-
able to us in the last decade. Digital tools are sometimes blamed for wilfully complex architecture
that do not respond to simple laws of physics and are costly to fabricate. Yet they offer us such
huge potentials, in design. If we liken the iterative design process, made possible by the speed
and power of these digital tools, to the constant evolutionary process in nature, then perhaps we
can come closer to designing pure structures in the lightest, most optimum form.
Our journey has taught us to follow our instinct, looking forward as well as back. Digital methods
and traditional methods need not be contradictory, but can reshape each other. Research is very
important in creating a space and time for experimenting with seemingly unlikely partners, that
of tailoring and seashells and of digital and analogue tools. The evolving holistic approach has
allowed a great deal of architectural expression, as well as responsiveness to site, structural, cli-
matic, and social parameters. Beauty in nature is closely aligned to effectiveness and economy,
to use the least material to make the most effcient form, fulflling the desired ftness for purpose.
Shell Lace Structure may just be one place upon this journey, aided by increasingly sophisticated
tools we hope the technique will lead to a natural marriage of economy with delight.
Exhibition
We will disseminate the lessons learned from the 10 projects, with an exhibition of 10 mod-
els made out of paper, to demonstrate the techniques scales, strength and curvature achieved
through ultra-thin, weak fat sheet materials.
Workshop
Using plasticine, paper, and scissors, We will conduct a workshop with 10-15 participants who will
practice tailoring fat sheet materials and joining them to make strong three-dimensional forms.
The 3-hour session will explore the hands-on principles and potentials of the technique.
Presentation
We will explore the Conference theme of mediators in the relationship between the digital and
the physical, the architects at Tonkin Liu and engineers at ARUP. The mediation exists through-
out the design process, from plasticine and paper models, digital analysis, to digitally-cut plates
and hand welds. This mediation yields a rich quarry for architecture.
Shell Lace Structure Research
Shi Ling Bridge: cardboard model 1:100 Shi Ling Bridge: cutting plan of fat sheets
Bexhill Shelter: cutting plan of fat sheets
Shell Shelter: cutting plan of fat sheets
Rain Bow Gate: cutting plan of fat sheets
Shell Shelter: cardboard model 1:50
Bexhill Shelter: plywood model 1:50
Rain Bow Gate: stainless steel 1:1
Shell Lace Structure Typologies
Shell Lace columns: plasticine model
Shell Lace columns: cutting plan of fat
Shell Lace columns: cardboard prototype
Shell Lace columns: assemblying by hands the laser-cut
Shell Lace columns: digital model
Shell Lace columns: structural analysis
Kaohsiung Ferry Terminal: Shell Lace structural grid
Kaohsiung Ferry Terminal: digital model