An essay in the potential of digital design, the new Fleet Library at RISD incorporates furniture such as the circulation desk (in foreground) and a multifunctional study pavilion (in background) made of low-cost materials that are affordably customized by digital fabrication techniques.
Informal "living room" and circulation pavilion, viewed from the reading platform.
Narrow vaults in the mezzanine ceiling were formed using molds created with 3-D router technology.
Drawings show the elements that were assembled to build one side of the study pavilion.
Detailed computer studies of the canopy columns and its overall geometry allowed for components to be made off-site, then shipped and assembled.
Detailed computer studies of the canopy columns and its overall geometry allowed for components to be made off-site, then shipped and assembled.
Not just an armature for the company logo, the canopy incorporates functional elements, such as the payment kiosk (in background), with colored lights directed against the underside to add further visual interest.
This installation by a Georgia Tech student team under the direction of Monica Ponce de Leon consisted of green, thermal-formed polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). The modular pieces had similar dimensions, but surface variations, and were assembled to generate different spatial qualities.
In this concrete installation, Ponce de Leon's studio at Georgia Tech used horizontal and interlocking connections between seven unique modules to challenge traditional logic for a corbelled system. The strategic stacking pattern and connections allowed for drastic extensions of the offset.
The "Immaterial/Ultramaterial" installation of thin-ply panels by Nader Tehrani's students at Harvard explored the link between architecture and textiles. Techniques such as pleating, darting, and tabbing were used to create structural rigidity.
South-facing windows suggest the irregular pattern of the dwelling units inside, while projecting fins indicate the rhythm of the structural trusses that stagger from floor to floor.
Tucked beneath the building is a 150,000-square-foot parking garage .
The shortened height and the texture of the east Dorchester Avenue façade respond to the old residential neighborhood in South Boston. On this side, the window and façade treatment create a more delicate scale.
The pattern of staggered trusses, shown in the structural diagram below, allows for long spans with no columns and hence a variety of studio, one-, and twobedroom apartments.
Units along the sloped roof occupy two or three levels.
Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani Principals, Office dA
