Form Follows Material Modulus Matrix / Biblioteca Gabriel Garcia Marquez expression material order use
Rafael Gomez-Moriana
In the search for sustainable building materials, wood has come again to the fore. It is a natural material that is renewable (as long as the forests from which it is sourced are well-managed), that sequesters carbon dioxide (as long as buildings constructed of it are long-lasting), and has relatively recently become available in the form of much stronger and much more fire-resistant mass-timber products such as cross- laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (GLT), allowing more sustainable wood to be used instead of less sustainable concrete and steel. Historically, architecture has undergone its greatest transformations whenever a new material or a new construction technique was discovered. The Gothic arch was an improvement of the Romanesque arch because it reduced the amount of buttressing needed, permitting more fenestration. In the nineteenth century, iron frame construction enabled greater structural capabilities and yet more fenestration, and early in the twentieth century reinforced concrete led to unprecedented plasticity. With new materials come innovative new forms, new building types and new expressions. What innovations, then, are emerging out of the growing use of mass-timber? Two recently constructed buildings in Barcelona are illustrative in this regard. One is a sculptural, highly singular library by Suma Arquitectura; the other is a social housing block by Peris+Toral. Both of these constructions employ structural mass-timber. In the library this material was adapted to an architectural form, while in the housing block the material actively contributed to the outcome of the architectural form. Material follows form in one, whereas form follows material in the other, making for a compelling comparative analysis. Now, guess which project has led to an architectural innovation —
unless noted, all images: Rafael Gomez-Moriana
The library is a mass-timber structure over a concrete basement foundation. Exterior cladding is sheet metal and wood-plastic composite. Ground floor entrance lobby and front deck with users lining up before opening time. The library’s mass-timber structure is visible throughout its interior.
28 on site review 48 :: building materials
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