SCIA User Contest 2020 Flipping Book

162 ARCHITECT Francis Kere OWNER Serpentine Galleries GENERAL CONTRACTOR Stage One CONSTRUCTION PERIOD 04/2017 - 06/2017 The 2017 Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens was designed by Berlin-based Burkinabe Francis Kéré who took inspiration from the Baobab tree to design a community focused, elliptical shaped, cantilevering steel canopy, clad in timber and polycarbonate. The 5 m high, 300 m² roof projected 6 to 10 m out from the central ‘funnel’ of columns. The engineering challenge of delivering the Pavilion was intensified by the project’s tight 24-week programme from the initial appointment to the opening day. Creating a structural response to the architect’s brief to create a light, exposed structure meant that each material type was engineered down to a minimum with each component carefully aligned and refined to create a neat simplicity that belied the complex elliptical geometry. We developed our own digital parametric model of the canopy structure which linked directly into SCIA Engineer using a bespoke plug-in. This approach allowed the roof structure to be designed from concept to fabrication in 8 weeks by enabling rapid prototyping in response to geometry changes as the model could redefine itself. Isolated buckling analysis allowed us to refine the effective lengths of members, enabling further member size reduction. An interface plug- in to the parametric script allowed for anticipated deflections to be extracted and then pre-set onto the initial geometry for shop fabrication. London, Uni ted Kingdom SERPENTINE PAVILION 2017 ENGINEERING COMPANY AECOM Michael Orr 2 Leman Street, E1 8FA London (UK) www.aecom.com SPECIAL PROJECTS 4