PARTS + PRODUCTION 2017 | Pavillion roof detail study | Eindhoven , The Netherlands | 2017 | w/ Anna Kulawik, Ivo Batista, Adam Gill
The building that we have analyzed is the De Pont museum extension in Tilburg. The museum is situated in an old wool mill, which was repurposed to the museum function in the years 1990-1992. The extension, designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects who also led the original repurposing, opened its doors in 2016 and consists of a new wing, a restaurant and additional storage/service areas. The extension does not appear to strive towards any particular tectonic clarity but rather to remain light and airy, and instead uses the façade of the original building as a visual attraction. It is used as a sort of backdrop, framed by openings in the white walls of the restaurant, and can also be seen through the high windows of the western wall. The windows and their position can be seen as a reference to the tradition of industrial architecture, wherein windows are placed as high up as possible, and ideally spanning the entire length of the room. The structure follows a rational and regular layout, consisting of a rectangular frame supported by a row of five columns on either long side, totaling approximately 5,5 meters in height. The spacing of the columns is approximately 6 meters, with a total length of approximately 28 meters on the long side. The short side, approximately 10 meters long, has no columns and cantilevers out from the outermost columns of the long side. The frame is stiffened by a series of lateral steel beams, of which the exact dimensions and spacing remain unclear after studying the available drawings. We have made the model from as real materials as possible. Loadbearing structure is made from MDF plates, sanded and painted in metalic paint. On the primary loadbearing structure we have put aditional IPE beam which contributes to lateral stability and supports the celing. After adding insulation on the celing plates corniche and water gutter was assembled and put in place. Since the supplier couldn’t provide original window and frame, we decided to make it from bended aluminium and that was the most challenging part of the model. It is now quite clear why architectural drawings and details ( and buildings also) sometimes differ so much.
