Infra-Tower
The Infra-Tower is a vertical wooden construction that symbolizes the activities of the Huggenottenhaus art zone and is receptive to further thoughts, ideas, and interventions. The tower was created as a 10-meter-high spatial infrastructure that stands out above a billboard wall, which encloses the art zone and draws attention to it. In addition, the tower serves as a support for further concepts. It can be dismantled and can also be used elsewhere as a "lighthouse" and "idea catcher". The Infra-Tower was completed in June 2022 for the opening of the Huggenottenhaus exhibition “First Aid” and Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany.
The Infra-Tower was designed by students in the winter semester 2021/22, in cooperation with the operators of the Hugenottenhaus and the departments of design and building theory and structural design, at the University of Kassel’s institute for architecture, city, and landscape planning. The complex tower construction was realized in the summer semester 2022 as part of the seminar held for building at a 1:1 scale with Augmented (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) systems. The tower assembly was carried out by seven students, assisted by AR and MR systems, professional carpenters, and foundation installers. This aspect of the Infra-Tower project is an area of ongoing PhD research that was conducted, giving all the actors involved an opportunity to test the experimental digital and analog workflows for fabrication and assembly of complex structures.
Participants:
Dept. EuG Design and Building Theory Prof. Marie-Therese Harnoncourt-Fuchs in cooperation with Dept. TWE Structural Design Prof. Dr. Julian Lienhard / Project Management - M.Arch. Sarah Blahut, M.Sc. Georgia Margariti, M.Sc. Harun Faizi, M.Sc. Jürina Luka, M.Sc. Seyed Mobin Moussavi, WiSe 2021/22 Design Studio - Function and Space: InfraObjects - Andreas Panagiotopoles, Tobias Haase, Christian Hayn, Lea Noll, Luca Kiemen, Marc Stoffels, Mauricio Acosta, Moritz Mühlbauer, Saadet-Serap Üregen, Salar Mohamad Anwar, Sebastian Körner, Sinan Tonguc, Steve Brieden, Vanessa Nadine Fricke, Vicco Agung Saptura / SoSe 2022 Tower Construction - Seminar 1:1 Building with AR - Fynn-Niclas Kammel, Martin Stiehle, Maria Schofer, Niclas Mael Garotti, Sinan Tonguc, Sophie-Charlotte Kau, Vanessa Nadine Fricke
With the kind support of Udo Wendland / Pfeiffer-Stiftung Uni Kassel / Studienkommission Uni Kassel / SPRENGWERK Architektur / HELIX Schraubfundamente GmbH / J.W. & L Jordan GmbH / Mateco GmbH / Brandthaus Uni Kassel, Guido Brinkmann / PERLE Café + Bar, Marén Freyer / Hugenottenhaus, Silvia und Lutz Freyer and the cooperation of HOLZWERK-Energie.
Images and Plans
Technical Description
Mixed reality (MR) systems were developed and used to visualize the tower position, its parts, connections, and complex assembly sequence to assist on-site construction, in a physical context in real-time. This enabled the use of digital and analog tools for material fabrication, preparing connection parts and locations, and other assembly-related tasks, resulting in an assembly time of just over two days. The MR systems tested a 1:1 scale workflow, a remote system setup of a laptop with WiFi, Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, Fologram, HoloLens 2, and the possibility of using personal AR-enabled handheld devices. In addition, AR was used in testing interactive methods of digitizing the resulting physical ‘as-built’ structure after construction.
The design and structural logic are a system of unique and interdependent diagonal supports, connections, and columns that create the vertical truss structure. The tower’s design and aesthetic seek to enable multiple uses and sensibilities within its garden art zone context.
Concerning sustainability, each timber part was treated to allow the entire structure and its components to be disassembled, reused, and rebuilt elsewhere in the future. The completed structure also includes a terraced bench at its base, which takes into account the surrounding context and topography. The students designed and built the seating area using leftover plywood and various materials found on-site, which were further processed through digital and hand fabrication methods.
