Technical & Practice
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Construction technology
2000-2009: the decade in detail, by Felix Mara
Perspective view of Eden
Project geodesic node
1 1
4 geodesic domes is integrated
3 with its envelope: although its
5 slender. There is a high level of
0 100mm
To the casual observer, it might
seem that architects concentrated
on the bigger picture in their
design work over the past decade.
Intoxicated by ambitious briefs
and liberated by advances in
parametric computer modelling,
practices perhaps paid more
attention to massing and
large-scale facade compositions
than to detailed design.
In reality, the details played
vital supporting roles and,
in many cases, elevated some
schemes, such as Grimshaw’s
Eden Project in Cornwall, to
the level of architecture of
AJ 17.12.09
2 tetrafluoroethylene), had yet to
1
1 7 5 4
the highest quality.
Changes in technology,
performance objectives, legisla-
tion and the organisation of
the construction industry had a
big impact on detailed design.
So did ecology: architects tackled
cold bridging more effectively
and specified higher thermal
insulation values, lower infiltra-
tion rates and renewable
materials. Manufacturers
improved existing technology,
developed new materials and
introduced higher standards of
quality control.
Changes in building procure-
ETFE
3
Some architects took the
challenging route of prototyping
4 – exploring the potential of
materials that were new or, as
5 in the case of ETFE (ethylene
be used to their full potential.
Grimshaw’s Eden Project
(2001) in St Austell, Cornwall
takes advantage of the low
weight of ETFE foil cushions
1 1
to provide large areas of
transparent envelope. This
maximises the amount of
daylight entering the building
6 6 to encourage the plants inside
to grow.
The structure of Grimshaw’s
connections and bracing
members are articulated (left),
they become part of the overall
pattern because they are so
craftsmanship, particularly in the
pre-fabricated components.
3
ment also influenced detailing. 1. Paired 10mm cushion
Architects spent a lot of time stainless steel 4. Restraint
snow cables mounted to steel
discussing buildability and safety with forked upstand
and joked about using ‘skyhooks’ connectors to 5. 193.7mm
cast node diameter CHS
as a substitute for stable construc- 2. 75mm diameter 6. Paired 2mm
tion. We’ve moved on. galvinised steel stainless steel
As the projects on the pin for access anti-bird wire on
scaffold, raised brackets
following pages illustrate, some connected to 7. Cast galvanised
practices emphasised craftsman- cast node with steel node
ship, skilful workmanship and M16 bolt
3. Extruded Note: foil cushions
sound construction, whereas aluminium omitted for clarity
others pursued finesse, refinement restraint for foil
and delicacy. For others, ecology
was paramount. Many designers
combined these three approaches
or explored each of them in
turn. >> continued on page 41
37
 Technical & Practice
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Fractal geometry
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in
London’s Hyde Park (2002), by
Toyo Ito & Associates and Arup,
also integrates its envelope with
a delicate structural framework,
which is lost in the pattern of
alternating panels and voids.
Structural engineer Cecil
Balmond’s interest in fractals,
irregular patterns that are
Mesh screens
In a decade that paid so
much attention to external
appearances, the screen was
a widespread device.
Heatherwick Studio’s facade for
the old boiler room at Guy’s and
St Thomas’ Hospital in London
(2007), known as the Boiler Suit,
comprises frames assembled
from s-shaped sections, with
woven stainless steel mesh infill.
EdMuNd SuMNER
38
waRwiCk SwEENEy
ulRiCH RoSSMaN
Gridshell
beyond the realm of Euclidean Ecology has influenced detailed Estate, is one of the many
geometry, is manifest in the design on many levels, from the recent projects with a timber
configuration of the panels, specification of materials with a gridshell roof. The continuous
generated by computer- low-carbon rating to the soffits of the larch structure
processed algorithms. widespread use of renewable form contour lines, which
Although temporary, the products, in particular timber. express the undulating form
pavilion was built to exacting Glenn Howells Architects’ of the roof but, at the detailed
tolerances, with precise, Savill Building, the entrance level, the intersections of
narrow joints between panels pavilion to Windsor Great Park the structural members are
and structure. (2006), for the Crown visually unresolved.
Cladding panel part elevation scale Cladding panel plan scale
100mm
0
0 600mm
Cladding panel part plan 1 1. annealed Far left
grade 316 Paraboloid
stainless steel
panels combine
braid woven
through slots to form an
in 20 x 1.5mm undulating
nominal flats facade
AJ 17.12.09
 Technical & Practice
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Balustrade/concrete floor fixing detail Balustrade fixing detail 1. Painted steel

balustrade
10
2. Metal bolt
3. Grout
1 9 4. Terrazzo floor
5. underfloor
11 4 7 heating
4 2 pipework and
support mesh
in concrete
screed
6. Floor insulation
7. Concrete slab
8. in-situ concrete
3 9. Screw to fix two
5
balustrade
elements
10. welded steel
6 junction
11. Steel bolt to fix
balustrade into
7 concrete slab
12. welded steel
12 balustrade
11

12

0 150mm 0 300mm

Balustrade

Some practices have continued,

and, in the case of Caruso St
John Architects, transcended,
traditions in architectural
craftsmanship.
The new entrance pavilion
(2006) for the Victoria and
Albert Museum of Childhood in
Bethnal Green, London,
demonstrates the practice’s
interest in assembling materials
to create patterns. Inside, for
the bespoke balustrade, deep
steel flats form a screen that
can only be seen through at
certain angles.
This unique design, the
opposite of a minimal structure,
HélèNE BiNET

is incredibly rigid and provides a

level of safety that is appropriate
to the building’s use.

AJ 17.12.09 39
 Technical & Practice
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1
1 2
Brise soleil

There was a wealth of brise 2

1000mm
soleils, usually comprising 3
horizontal aluminium or timber 3
members. Some provided
significant improvements to 4
environmental performance.
Allies and Morrison Architect’s
Charles Street multi-storey car
park (2008) in Sheffield, for CTP
5
St James, uses folded aluminium
panels to conceal precast
concrete columns and floor 6
slabs. The panels, cut to an
angle on two sides and hung 7
in four different directions, to
form a homogeneous surface,
provide natural ventilation.
8

1 2 3

1. anodized 4. Cleaning cradle

aluminium coping rail
2. anodised 5. Precast concrete
aluminium and beam
paint-finished 6. air gap between
dENNiS GilBERT

timber interior cladding panels

cladding panel 7. Precast concrete
3. Paint-finished T-beam
aluminium 8. Stainless steel
cladding rail guard rail

Rain screen cladding

Rain screen cladding liberated

2 the design of facades. Cladding
panels could be slid into place,
with no need for wide
1 construction joints with fixings
grinning through. Similarly, the
RuRal dESiGN

structures behind these surfaces

were freed from the tyranny of
visual scrutiny and vapour
8 barriers could form continuous
7 vertical planes.
4
5 Architects could choose from
6 a wide variety of finishes. Timber,
3 with its ecological credentials,
was a popular choice. Rural
1. Timber frame wall 4. outer layer of vertical battens
2. 200mm rockwool 150 x 25mm 7. Sheathing ply
Design’s private house (2009)
0 1000mm
insulation to untreated 8. Cavities provided at Fiskavaig on the Isle of Skye,
achieve minimum native-grown with cavity clad in untreated larch,
u-value of larch sawn barriers at all with an internal finish of OSB
0.16w/m2k. boards corners,
3. inner layer of 75 5. 50 x 50mm openings and
(oriented strand board), has a
x 25mm sawn battens at the head of refreshing sobriety.
boards 6. 50 x 25mm all walls.

40 AJ 17.12.09
 Technical & Practice
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1. EPdM gasket 6. 250mm radius 0 100mm

Curved glass panel 2. Structural glass
silicone bond 7. 30 x 100mm
3. Silicone gasket anodised
Standards of workmanship 4. Natural anodised aluminium grid
in factory production have aluminium
improved dramatically and, extrusion
especially where large budgets 5. Spacer tape
have been available, the results
have been astonishing.
Foster + Partners’ 4 More
London Riverside (2007), for
More London Development,
features every quantity
surveyor’s worst nightmare –
curved glass panels, bent to
a 250mm radius, forming
an acute corner in the building
envelope. With precise
junctions to framing members,
they provide visual continuity
in the massing of the
building’s envelope, with
NiGEl youNG/FoSTER + PaRTNERS

extraordinary finesse.

3
2
5
4
6 1 1

The emphasis on finesse over the
past decade goes hand in hand
with the profession’s preoccupa-
tion with the macrocosm. We see
fewer 20mm-wide shadow gaps
between metal cladding panels
now they are often replaced by
snap-in metal strips. We are less
tolerant of wide joints gobbed up
RiCHaRd daviES
MAXXI museum in Rome
(AJ 19.11.09), the detailed
language – because it is intended
to reinforce the principal forms
and not to detract from them –
is understated.
Details that, as we used to say,
‘celebrate the joint’, can now
seem overwrought, as in the case
gutsy language will emerge in
the next decade, inspired by, for
example, the precast concrete
panels of Caruso St John
Architects’ Nottingham
Contemporary (AJ 12.11.09).
Practices considering whether
to dust down their stainless steel
fixings catalogues may wish to

with mastic. Even in the case of of the diagrid roof of Hopkins’ dwell on the advice of Alexander
projects that some regard as Portcullis House (2000) in Pope: ‘Be not the first by whom
excessively flamboyant, for Westminster, London (left). But the new are tried, Nor yet the
example Zaha Hadid Architects’ tastes change. Perhaps a more last to lay the old aside.’ ■

AJ 17.12.09 41