The Performance of Tectonics

Abstract

TA D 7 : 1 This issue’s call for papers invited authors to revisit and reshape a decades-long debate given emerging contemporary concerns like the climate crisis, social change, supply dynamics, and the value of digital fabrication. Such topics cast the ongoing discourse around architectural form in a new light. One that considers disciplinary motivations and references, and looks at a broad set of economic, societal, and environmental inputs to inform how architecture is devised, constructed, and critiqued. Indeed, the urgency of these external considerations is present in much more than just the form itself. It informs the internal structure, organization, and content of built work. Within that context, many of the articles in this issue of TAD offer an agenda largely driven by the performative nature of physical and societal constraints. This connection is evident in the contribution by Mahan Motalebi and Marcus Shaffer, studying the symbiotic exchange in traditional pigeon tower construction to propose a process of salt-induced decay in earthen blocks. The authors develop a workflow that embraces the chemical limitations of the material to envision a new syntax of temporal tectonics. A related interest in the tectonics of environmental drivers is present in Iman Fayyad’s research into structural surfaces formed from rectangular sheets of flexible material. Motivated by the objective of eliminating by-product waste, the author develops a set of incision and folding operations to create self-supporting surfaces that utilize entire material sheets. This process is demonstrated on a shading structure that simultaneously promotes both material economy and expressive tectonics. Performance as an aesthetic design driver is the focus of the contribution by Niloufar Emami. The author proposes a workflow that utilizes topology optimization, not to resolve a design problem with predefined boundary conditions, but to generate a series of possible design directions with an application domain to fabricate precast concrete tiles. The outcome is at once characterized by a clear structural logic and guided by the visual exuberance of the resulting patterns. Another paper in this issue is “Synergistic Optimization of Timber Structures and Space” by Johannes van der Wielen and Hans-Christian Wilhelm. The authors use the concept to discuss how to synergize structural material efficiency and design for circularity at the initial design phases. The research examines the material reduction ability of linear, large-scale, and mixed-use structural timber buildings. The study shows that computational tectonics can promote more meaningful and precise comparisons between design decisions and solutions, thus helping various parties involved in the process to make informed decisions. UNLOG, a term used to describe a lightweight and simply deployable timber framing technique, is the focus of the research by Leslie Lok, Sasa Zivkovic, and Lawson Spencer. The study explores robotic kerfing methods to produce materially efficient leaf-spring components. The study concludes that UNLOG can generate an ever-transforming structure that can be easily dismantled and reassembled, thereby promoting an easily movable, deployable, circular, and waste-limiting construction technique. Charlie O’Geen and Catherine Harris discuss fabric-generated unstabilized poured earth: four-dimensional wall systems. The research assesses the early phases of design research that capture drying, shrinkage, and cracking of unstabilized fabric-generated poured earth. The authors studied the work of architect Gauzin-Müller and Fuchs using traditional planar material formwork stabilized with 4% of cement.1 The study notes that fabric formwork enhances the uniform drying of unstabilized poured earth, unlike conventional formwork. The research follows the intrinsic material properties of shrinking materials and moves away from conventionally generated rectilinear forming techniques. TAD’s current issue captures a broad range of relevant areas. From topics like the symbiotic exchange in traditional pigeon tower construction to the tectonics of environmental drivers to performance as an aesthetic design to computational tectonics to UNLOG, and to fabric-generated unstable poured earth, this issue presents a range of different voices and approaches. While the current issue is by no means exhaustive, we believe it will stimulate further discussions and research relating to the role of tectonics in the twenty-first century. Timothy Adekunle, Associate Editor University of Utah