The Nature of Place: Two Shell Stories

摘要

These Two shell structures tell two particular stories about two particular places. Collaboration and integration in the conceptual design process have informed cutting-edge technical explorations, with a story-telling design methodology that reconnects architecture to nature. The Rain Room and the Solar Gate have many things in common though they fulfill completely different functions. One is a roof and the other is an artwork, one accentuating the experience of rain, and the other, experience of the sun. The two structures are approximately the same size, engineered for maximum lightness using strength-forming techniques found in nature. Both join two surfaces to form integral shells, constructed using minimal material, one of stacked plywood sheets, one of undulating perforate steel sheets. Both projects are work in progress, led by the dynamic and poetic experience of nature, grown out of the nature of place.