Sticks and Stones and: An Atlas of Heterogeneous Constructions

A Research Project by Aaron Forrest and Yasmin Vobis of Ultramoderne, with structural engineer Brett Schneider. On View at RISD through October 15, 2021.

Sticks and Stones and is the culmination of a year-long research project conducted by Aaron Forrest (RISD) and Yasmin Vobis (Harvard GSD) of Providence-based architecture and design firm Ultramoderne, and structural engineer Brett Schneider (RISD) of Guy Nordenson and Associates. In their study, Forrest, Vobis, and Schneider examine historical and modern construction techniques around the world that, instead of prioritizing single-material construction, employ multiple, complementary materials in both structural and aesthetic roles.

Explains Vobis, “We had noticed that most modern Western construction emphasizes an ideal of material purity—all wood, all steel, or all concrete, for example—even though the reality is that most constructions are made up of many layers of different materials. We felt that we were missing the potential for those layers to work together in more profound ways, and started looking to vernacular and industrial examples where that way of working is much more common.”

Project Details:
The Atlas of Heterogeneous Constructions, 2021
Materials: Paper, Ink
Column 1, 2021
Materials: Concrete Pavers, Plywood, Glulam, Clay Tile, Steel Tension Rod
Column 2, 2021
Materials: EMT Conduit, CNC-Milled Expanded Polystyrene Insulating Foam, Plastic Zip Ties,
Velcro Straps
Wall 1, 2021
Materials: Concrete Pavers, Wood, Textile Straps

Project Credits:
Project Leads: Aaron Forrest (RISD), Brett Schneider (RISD), Yasmin Vobis (Harvard GSD)
Research + Design Team: Evelyn Ehgotz (RISD), Zak Leazer (Harvard GSD), Diandra Rendradjaja (Harvard GSD), Jordan Voogt (RISD), Wendy Zhuo (RISD)
Graphic Design: Andrew LeClair
Photography: Naho Kubota
Fabrication Support: David Dilks, James Dean, Rachel Stefania, Jon Gregurick

This project was generously supported by RISD Architecture Design Research Seed Fund and the Harvard GSD Faculty Research Fund.

To begin, the team assembled a photographic atlas cataloguing over 92 historical and contemporary examples of material innovation into 6 categories: stacks, sandwiches, wraps, fills, collages, and scaffolds. This unique classification system challenges the traditional convention of the categorization of buildings by shifting the focus from materials themselves to the relationships between materials. No longer preferencing the singular construction material, the atlas highlights specific forms of construction heterogeneity dating from 600 BCE to present-day. These buildings range from ordinary structures such as yurts made of leather, textile and wood; and silos constructed out of iron and wood; to modern architectural marvels such as Lina Bo Bardis Teatro Oficina (brick, iron, wood), and Frank Gehry’s Spiller House (iron, wood).

“One thing that fascinated us in studying these buildings was how in many of the examples there was no clear structural or tectonic hierarchy between different materials within a particular building element. So in many of the northern Indian examples, you see wood and stone being stacked together into what looks like a single masonry wall, or in early industrial buildings you see steel and brick working together in ways that can’t be clearly distinguished from one another. Within a contemporary construction environment, there is an opportunity to allow the relationships between materials to drive questions about both structure and design,” says Forrest.

For structural engineer Schneider, “the atlas reveals a wider palette of materials with possible interdependence, cultural significance, and a greater range of performance—all which indicate the viability for a more diverse approach to construction.”

Alongside the atlas, which is pinned-up on the gallery walls, are a series of 36 full-color analytical drawings of twelve exemplary buildings which highlight a selection of projects across a wide range of epochs and global cultures; and a trio of experimental building prototypes that bring lessons from the research into dialogue with contemporary construction methods. “The prototypes we built,” says Vobis, “drew on our observations; and we asked ourselves how our locally available materials (from the nearby hardware store) could contribute to building elements where functions between materials are less discrete and more ambiguous, and how the attitude of combination may have something to offer aesthetically as well functionally.”

In the gallery exhibition, these three prototypes are represented by large-scale four-by-five-foot digital prints on aluminum composite panels photographed by Naho Kubota, while the physical prototypes remain in a workshop space at Ultramoderne’s office. Kubota captured the prototypes in full detail against industrial backdrops and the working atmosphere of the studio, so that they can be read as artifacts. Remarks Vorbis, “In that sense, she makes evident the labor and the materials that go into constructions, which are the parts that are typically rendered invisible when a building is completed. Of course we are at a point in time where these issues have to be confronted.”

Meanwhile, at Ultramoderne’s office on the west side of Providence, the prototypes hover around 10-feet tall, somewhere between construction mockup and 1:1 scale model, a size that is both performative and decorative. They suggest a trajectory for how designers might rethink basic industrial building components.

For Ultramoderne, these prototypes begin to uncover and develop heterogeneous materials and ways of working that could be applicable in a building at multiple scales: of the building element, demonstrated in the prototypes, or beyond to the whole building. Says Forrest, “The project represents a deeper inquiry into a set of questions that were latent in many of our projects, where we have been trying to tease out new and unconventional relationships between standard construction materials and their impacts on the space as a whole. The research has both broadened and deepened this line of inquiry, and opens up many new areas of exploration at the building scale. More so, the lens of heterogeneity offers opportunities to reconsider the way we build, how we source materials, and for making use of the local and the found in a more meaningful way.”