NOCMAT DB
Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies Design-Build (NOCMAT DB) grew from my desire as a structural engineer to learn alongside architects; to learn by making and exploring a creative process. The studios brought together architecture and engineering students for a semester to collaboratively design and construct a variety of objects. Students gained experience utilizing digital fabrication techniques and utilized materials they might rarely see in North American practice, such as UHPC, bamboo, and reclaimed materials.
This project would not have been possible without Jen Donnelly, who believed in the idea from day one and co-instructed the first 3 years. As well as Brandon Barber, who always found space, materials, and wisdom we needed to see the projects through. I also give special thanks to principal project mentors and co-signers, Kent Harries and Drew Armstrong.
With a return to in-person learning, we endeavored a return to large, outdoor structures. This ambitious project utilized bamboo and UHPC left over from research projects, which offered us an unique opportunity to work with 2 burgeoning non-conventional materials. Students explored classical and modern form-find techniques for shells before developing connections, fabrication, and construction methods. The final design consisted of identical shells, mirrored in placement with bamboo slat struts and UHPC nodes cast in rubber molds. The aggressive timeline of this project (3.5 months) was impossible to meet with a high-quality product, therefore we elected to construct the four footings and their immediately ascending connections. This is the first course I taught without the great Jen Donnelly!
Jen Donnelly, my friend and co-instructor for this course, was critical to its re-imagining in the face of restrictions of student contact and uncertain levels of student-instructor engagement. This course was split between virtual and in-person instruction for the entire semester. Students were asked to construct a 3 functional objects; a lamp, a stool, and continuation or novel object.
NOCMAT 2020
The 2nd iteration of NOCMAT DB catered to a client, the Pitt Global Hub, with a need for a mobile display for travel brochures. Students began in small groups, developing and presenting their own concepts for forms and pockets to the client. Unfortunately, the form selected by the client was never constructed due to the global pandemic.
The first iteration of the Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies Design-Build (NOCMAT DB) Studio challenged students to develop an inviting public space in the Benedum Hall courtyard using golden bamboo(a local invasive species) and cardboard tubes.
