MATERIALS

Materials and Design

Metal Architecture
 Shuhei Endo
Using metal characteristics: flexibility
Springtecture H
•Long strips of corrugated steel are seen to be Endo’s signature material
giving his buildings a very recognisable style. Although steel is not
uncommon his designs never fail to be unique
•Corrugated steel is a rather unusual material to use on this site but even
though it is not a very interesting setting Endo has managed to curve the
steel in a way that helps the shape of the structure blend into the grassy
hillside rather than the appearance (Richardson, 2001).
“Floors become walls, interior becomes exterior…”
Springtecture B (private house)
Tsunami Center Disaster Centre
 Is it possible to create a structure that can withstand
the awesome power of a tsunami?

Endo Shuhei Architect Institute have created this cylindrical building to stand up to the
pressure of an approaching tsunami. The building houses the tsunami disaster
preventive control center for the Osaka region, so its ability to work and provide valuable
data and intel during a tsunami is dependant on whether it can withstand the initial
impact.
•Raised up in parts on small stilts to allow waves to pass underneath, and circular in
shape to aid in effectively withstanding a direct tsunami impact, it is hoped that in the
event of another catastrophic tsunami hitting Japan, Looptecture F will be capable of
surviving.
•Aesthetically, the buildings rusted outer surface pays homage to the bays rich maritime
history.
Jim Jennings, SOMA House
 •The heightened grittiness of the neighborhood – ceaseless graffiti – has necessitated a
complete material transformation of the façade of the 4,500 sf courtyard house. A screen of
stainless-steel panels is replacing the original Cor-ten steel in a move to adapt to the new
urban condition rather than fight it. Remaining is the four-panel translucent-glass building wall.
Behind the perforated steel is another translucent glass wall, with which the small holes act as
a camera obscura, projecting inside the abstracted kinetic energy of the street. In contrast
with this element of visual complexity, the interior spaces are voluminous and serene: an
introverted environment of light and calm.
Daniel Libeskind, The Jewish Museum, Berlin (1989-2001)
The Jewish Museum Berlin, which opened to the public in 2001, exhibits the social, political and cultural history of
the Jews in Germany from the fourth century to the present, explicitly presenting and integrating, for the first
time in postwar Germany, the repercussions of the Holocaust. The new building is housed next to the site of
the original Prussian Court of Justice building which was completed in 1735 now serves as the entrance to
the new building.
Conceptually, Libeskind wanted to express feelings of absence, emptiness, and invisibility –
expressions of disappearance of the Jewish Culture. It was the act of using architecture as a
means of narrative and emotion providing visitors with an experience of the effects of the
Holocaust on both the Jewish culture and the city of Berlin.
The visitor enters the Baroque Kollegienhaus
and then descends by stairway through the
dramatic Entry Void, into the
underground. The existing building is tied to
the new extension, through the
underground, thus preserving the
contradictory autonomy of both the old and
new structures on the surface.

The descent leads to three underground axial

routes, each of which tells a different story.

The first leads to a dead end – the Holocaust

Tower…
The second leads out of the building and into the Garden of Exile and Emigration, remembering
those who were forced to leave Berlin
The third and longest, traces a path leading
to the Stair of Continuity, then up to the
exhibition spaces of the museum,
emphasizing the continuum of history.
The building is cladded in zinc, with cuts and lines that form a pattern overlapping the building
and give a very dramatic aspect
Frank Gehry, The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1991-1997)
Although the metallic form of the exterior looks almost floral from above, from the ground the
building more closely resembles a boat, evoking the past industrial life of the port of
Bilbao. Constructed of titanium, limestone, and glass, the seemingly random curves of the
exterior are designed to catch the light and react to the sun and the weather. (Archdaily)
Fixing clips make a shallow central dent in each of the .38mm titanium tiles, making the
surface appear to ripple in the changing light and giving an extraordinary iridescence
to the overall composition (Archdaily)
House in Japan, Mount Fuji Architects
This live-work building is
located in one of the most
densely populated and more
expensive areas of Tokyo.
The presence of perforated
stainless steel panels is
reminiscent of Mies Van Der
Rohe’s work, the architects
say.
Because these elements filter
light like leaves would do in a
natural setting like
Farnsworth House, thanks to
the floral shaped pattern of
the holes.
Also a quote of the cherry
blossom period, a deeply felt
holiday season in Japan
Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos , San Telmo museum extension – San Sebastiàn
“The direct and radical gesture which defines out proposal implies paradoxically its
practical dissolution in the landscape of Monte Urgull. We will limit ourselves to
building a new green wall, deep and light, which is defined by the existing
topography, and which hides in its interior two pavilions which will house the new
programme”
“Rather an expression of the relation natural/artificial which runs throughout our
proposal, the new building/screen will be defined by a perforated metal skin
enveloped in moss, lichen and other plant species which finally will come to
surround the whole building”
 “The new extension of the San Telmo Museum will modify its appearance with the
passing of the seasons: it will fade on occasions and blend with the vegetation on
the hill, and will reappear on other occasions evoking a long and curving unfinished
wall”
 •DIESEL DENIM GALLERY ,
TOKYO (by Sinato)

•Japanese designer Chikara Ohno of

Sinato has installed coils of aluminium
sheeting at the Diesel Denim Gallery
Aoyama in Tokyo.
•The ends of the rolls have been draped
from the ceiling and the middles of some
pushed upwards, while glass surfaces on
top of the rolls can be used to display
merchandise.
 •The characteristic of aluminium, the
material used fro the installation, is its
softness and thinness, yet harder than
cloth or paper.
•Its possession of both soft and hard
qualities makes it easy to be bent by
hands.
•By winding and sometimesextending this
single long strip of aluminium from the
entrance to the back-end of the store, it
creates a beautiful waving form, changing
its function and features as the material
strength changes.
•This flexible quality of the material
represents a gentle connection between
the softness of clothes and hardness of
architecture.