Swimming Complex

Thought this was interesting, it is a swimming complex in Germany that is from the early 1990's. It uses triangular texlon panels to create a transparent (but light!) cladding over a timber gridshell frame. The spans of the gridshel are amazing! The used glulams for the gridshell that are coated in polyurethane to be resistant to corrosion. The picture is linked to the project description.














I just wanted to include this picture, because we aren't the only ones! This guy won a award for his timber gridshell. He's also a civil engineering student.
Watch out for the architecture students dude!

Downland Gridshell

This article did an excellent job in articulating the process from design to completion of a gridshell structure. My understanding of gridshells was greatly expanded after reading this article, despite the repetition of elements and concepts within the writing.
I was impressed with the innovations that developed as a result of the project and also saw a strong connection between this article and McCullough's article on craft. I also liked the connection to what is done by the museum (reconstruction/craft) and the craft and skill that was taken for the gridshell structure, not only did the Downland Gridshell employ craft techniques, but it also demonstrated craft and technique upon its construction and completion.
It's curious that while these gridshells are strctures that offer many aspects of sustainability, yet they are extremely under-utilized. (Only 5 built) Gridshells offer low use of materials, efficient structures (especially for large open-space buildings), and fast, cost effective construction. I think that these aspects are fully supported by following the process of the Downland Gridshell, which, much to my amazement ranked between medium and low proportion of costs compared to typical buildings, with only six weeks for construction of the gridshell.
Those professionals and skilled craftsmen involved all deserve a high hand for the collaboration that ensued for this project to work. By having such a large design team with many disciplines involved, I think the level of knowledge gain exceeded most projects.
I think that is great to see that both computer and physical models were used for form-finding in this project. I also see a large benefit (and connection to our projects) in their method of using physical models to determine the boundary conditions for the computer form-finding model. Yet, it seems crazy that a specially written computer program was necessary to do this form-finding. Are the innovations endless?
While I could continue to write forever, I would like to end on the level of sensitivity to the site, the environment, the materials, the structural performance, and to those involved in the labor. It is amazing, and I think that overall, gridshells (in the right project) have such a light touch.

Abstracting Craft

I love the way McCullough portrays hands and how they are LIFE in the form of KNOWLEDGE. It is life in the form of physical knowledge and experience, but in a sense of skill. I saw a strong connection to McCullough's quote of "skill is learned by doing," and Aristotle's quote, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
I also found that McCullough made a great point in his example of a pianist, and how it's difficult to simultaneously apply and study a skill. How many of us can use a table saw and think about how well we are doing it without cutting a finger off? I think this is a very strong point of the article. McCullough also discusses form giving as a two-way process, beauty and usefulness. Craft used to mean that these two things can occur simultaneously, but now through industry, it has become a choice of beauty OR usefulness.
The last comment I can remember from discussion is based on the second chapter of the reading. McCullough makes a great point when he says that, "As a result of technological change, architecture emerged as a distinct profession."
I end with, DOES SPEED ALWAYS LEAD TO EFFICIENCY, QUALITY, AND CRAFT?