OnGreening is a new web-based platform devoted to the research of green building technologies. The organisation required a pavilion and lecture theatre that would make them stand out from the crowd at the world’s largest event for sustainable design, EcoBuild 2014 at the ExCel centre in London.
The look of the structure is intended to echo Ongreening’s goal of capturing and filtering the world’s knowledge of green data.
The pavilion concept was developed with MultiEnergy Engineering and conceived by Alfonso Senatore. The role of Atelier2 was to support the team of Politecnico di Milano, led by prof. Marco Imperadori. It is a wooden pavilion, realized through parametric design. The result is a sort of nest that hold the communicative functions of the Ongreening platform.
The pavilion’s anemone-like geometry was generated using form-finding techniques pioneered on previous RCD projects. The structure itself is unique in that it uses thin 6.5mm birch plywood timber laths which are bent into shape, creating a so-called ‘bending active’ structure which is incredibly stiff and acts like a monocoque, enabling the shell to carry most of the stresses.
The timber laths are aligned along geodesic lines between pre-seeded generation points set out using a parametric model. The primary geodesic members are restrained by secondary laths of the same narrow and thin profile of plywood with a simple bolted connection. This method allowed the use of straight and short length pieces of timber, making it more practical to purchase and build compared with other similar looking structures.
2014
ACTIVITY: Support the team of Politecnico di Milano, led by Prof. marco Imperadori
CUSTOMER: Ongreening
ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT: Alfonso Senatore – MultiEnergy Engineering
ENGINEERING: Ramboll Computational Design – London
POLITECNICO DI MILANO TEAMWORK: Prof. Marco Imperadori (team leader), Andrea Vanossi, Matteo Pedrana