Arup is presenting two pavilions at the upcoming International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) exhibition in Amsterdam. Over 25 experimental structural objects will be displayed in the 'Muziekgebouw aan het IJ' concert hall in Amsterdam during July and August.
Organised by the IASS as part of a symposium on the future of structural design, the exhibition showcases structural objects designed by researchers, artists and students from all over the world, who will also be vying for the two prizes awarded to the most innovative and challenging structures.
Arup’s two pavilions include the Leslie Pavilion, which explores a new application of the spatial audio effect pioneered by Donald Leslie in the 1930s; and the foldKITE Pavilion that explores structural folding at a building scale to get more insight.
Leslie Pavilion
Based on Donald Leslie’s spatial audio effect created with his signature Hammond organ amplifier featuring rotating speakers, Arup’s installation consists of two hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars) inside which people can play a keyboard and hear a spatialised rotational effect from a moving speaker. This shifts the audio image based on the speaker axis relative to the architectural shape. Each hypar shape focusses and scatters sound in different axes; however, when the hypars are rotated away from each other, the installation focuses all the reflected sound from the loudspeaker and directs it in the centre of the pavilion. This installation will also be presented at the Amsterdam Dance Event, which will be held in October this year.
foldKITE Pavilion
The outcome of a joint research collaboration between Arup and the Chair of Structural Design at ETH in Zurich, the foldKITE Pavilion explores a way to get more insight into the potentials and constraints of the implementation of the design method for structural folding at a building scale. A customised design toolkit was developed to allow designers to interactively modify the geometry of the ultra-lightweight folded structure while giving direct feedback on the distribution of tensile and compressive internal forces. In this way, formal and structural questions could be simultaneously addressed during the design process.
The winner of the contest will be announced during the IASS symposium 'Future Visions', which is running 17th – 20th August at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
Image: The use of folding in design allows for the production of efficient structures capable to resist the external applied loads by form rather than through an accumulation of material.
