The Floating Hide - Live Project

Co-design and co-construction of a floating platform pavilion from the conception, briefing and making in collaboration with WebbYates Engineers and Nicholas Alexander and as part of the Projects Platform/Live Design Practice introducing innovative ways of working collaboratively across sectors, leveraging our multidisciplinary skills within academia for real interventions for the benefit of communities.

The structure sits on reclaimed pontoons and is constructed from cedar timber with modular light-weight hessian panels treated with gypsum and acrylic resin that have been prefabricated using the principle developed by the engineer Heinz Isler using flexible textiles. Allowing the fabric to hang downward under gravity, results in shapes, which are naturally efficient as the hanging structure because it is in pure tension under gravity and did not resist any bending.

Exploring new techniques based on manipulating materials their innate properties and environmental properties were understood to develop an architecture that embodies the fluidity of the world, where borders are not rigid divisions but dynamic, responsive membranes. Leveraging gravity creates forms that are in pure tension, naturally efficient and structurally sound.