Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
Archivision Base to Module 13
Preferred Title:
15th Venice Architecture Biennale (2016): Arsenale Exhibit (ETH Zurich)
Alternate Title:
Beyond Bending
Image View:
View of the rough-cut, unfinished underside surface
Creator:
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zurich) (Swiss university, founded 1854)
Location:
exhibition: Venice, Veneto, Italy
Location Note:
Giardini della Biennale; Arsenale
GPS:
45.429167 12.356944
Date:
2016 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Swiss
Style Period:
Twenty-first century
Work Type 1:
compound vault
Work Type 2:
traveling exhibition
Classification:
Architecture and City Planning
Material:
limestone, steel base
Technique:
construction (assembling)
Measurements:
16 m (length, main span)
Subjects:
architecture; contemporary (1960 to present); engineering and industrial design; manufacturing; structural engineering; Armadillo Vault
Description:
ETH Zurich's Block Research Group worked with engineering firm Ochsendorf DeJong & Block and masonry specialist The Escobedo Group to create the Armadillo Vault, a canopy using 399 slabs of limestone, showcasing a "milestone for stone engineering". The curving canopy features structural spans of up to 16 meters, but is supported entirely through compression rather than with the use of adhesives or fixings. The main span is only five centimeters thick where it touches on top. This means it is an extremely thin shell; compared to an eggshell, it is half the thickness proportionately. The project was developed using RhinoVAULT, a digital design plugin that is licensed by ETH Zurich and has over 16,000 users. It demonstrates that, with detailed knowledge of how compressive forces affect architectural structures, buildings can be constructed more efficiently using sustainable materials rather than steel. Block's team chose to work with limestone, one of the most difficult materials to use structurally. The Beyond Bending exhibition also included four "vaulted" floor prototypes (slabs that use less material) and a series of graphical force diagrams. (Source: Dezeen [website]; https://www.dezeen.c om/)
Image Description:
By leaving the underside rough and unfinished, a block required 45 minutes to cut and shape, rather than hours.
Collection:
Archivision Addition Module Twelve
Identifier:
1A2-I-VE-VB16-49-A10
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

15th Venice Architecture Biennale (2016): Arsenale Exhibit (ETH Zurich)