

First, since I knew that quality of crafting wasn’t a requirement for the project, I conceptualized it as a sort of community-driven, community-executed volunteer project that involved maximizing utility within the constraints of a limited budget, limited materials, and perhaps limited craftsmanship (due to civilian participation).
I wanted to do use a different design than the one I used for the Wall Assignment, but I wanted to adhere to the same fundamental principles: minimalism and proportions of three. I wanted to fulfill the program demand – to produce a roof with a space for trees – while letting in ample light and creating a structure that was both functional and structural. I also wanted to incorporate changes based off of the critiques I received for the Wall Assignment, so I really tried to get all of the elements within a single proportional framework. I ended up creating a system of planes and then supporting them with a truss-like system made of tetrahedron-shapes.
The beams in the truss are meant to create an overhead open-ceiling space where the bare structure is visible – I like the minimalist aesthetic that makes structural aspects attractive. The hole in the third panel is very simple but practical and highlights the trees while minimizing room space that is exposed to weather.
cameron
Here are some pictures of mine and Ari’s roof exercise. The gap in the ceiling is where the trees are meant to come out of. Our original inspiration was the Sverre Fehn model: we both found the grid idea for the roof very attractive. But then we started thinking more loosely about how it would be interesting if each square in the grid was actually a tile. Finally we began thinking about how it would be interesting if these tiles hung from the beams at the top at different heights and overlapped a little.
We used Balsa wood dowels for the beams and hung our panels off of these with paper clips. Our initial challenge was that in plan view, the panels didn’t really want to hang in perpendicular or parallel fashion (they were all hanging at weird angels to each other). Eventually we fixed this by super gluing the paper clips in place. In elevation view they hang at strange angles sometimes but we liked this effect and decided it shouldn’t be “fixed.”
-Ari and Arbel