CCA News
Aortic Arc Installation Permanently Graces CCA's San Francisco Campus
Posted on Friday, August 13, 2010, by Lindsey Westbrook
CCA's San Francisco campus is home to a beautiful new permanent installation that canopies the atrium space near the Helzel Boardroom. Aortic Arc, as it has been named by its creators, just received a merit award in the 2010 AIACC Awards Program in the Small Projects Category.
Hanging within the double-height space, the piece functions as a light scope, spatial definer, and viewing portal. The title comes from its formal resemblance to a portion of the human heart and the fact that it leaps over an existing structural beam. The 546 unique HDPE panels are linked together by more than 4,000 pop rivets and suspended from three upper stainless-steel rings (two circular, one elliptical) that hold each other in tension. A singular large parabolic ring functions as a "hoop skirt" below.
The panelized system was developed using the software program Generative Components and a customized Rhino script that turned raw data into a drawing file to drive a CNC milling machine that generated all the parts. HDPE plastic, the same material used to make milk jugs, was selected for the panels due to its low cost, resistance to solar degradation, recyclability, low embodied energy, and high tensile capability.
The technical and artistic challenges posed by the project were unique and did not allow for a conventional approach. Collaborating closely with the designers, the engineers employed nonlinear analysis tools and parametric BIM technology to model and predict the final minimum energy form of the piece, which behaves structurally as a hybrid between a cable-net and a membrane.
Many individuals, including CCA faculty member Mark L. Donohue and four alumni, helped realize the piece:
Architect: Visible Research Office
Mark L. Donohue, AIA: Principal (and CCA associate professor of Architecture)
Americo A. Diaz-Obregon: Project Architect (and CCA BArch 2006 alum)
Charles Lee: Project Designer, Renderings (and CCA MArch 2008 alum)
Chris Chalmers: Component Design and Scripting (and CCA MArch 2009 alum)
Jason Chang: Component Design and Scripting
(and CCA MArch 2009 alum)
Structural Engineer: Buro Happold
Greg Otto: Principal
Gary Lau: Associate Principal
Tom Reiner: Project Engineer, Nonlinear Analysis
Ian Carter: Project Engineer, Nonlinear Analysis
Ron Elad: Project Coordinator
Yukie Hirashima: Complex Geometry Modeling
Krista Flascha: Technical Designer
(Many thanks to Americo A. Diaz-Obregon for this story and photos)