UCLA’s “Undulating Gills” Team Wins First Place Architecture Design Challenge

UCLA’s “Undulating Gills” Team Wins First Place Architecture Design Challenge

UCLA Architecture & Urban Design SUPRASTUDIO is a research platform in architecture education that advances experimentation and cross-discipline collaboration among professors, students, and industry collaborators to expand the boundaries of architectural practice. The ACMA asked architectural students working in teams of 2-4 to consider the development of a composite architectural/ building component or assembly.  The teams are encouraged to explore and invent new and sometimes radical architectural designs.

Students from the UCLA Department of Architecture & Urban Design (A.UD) have won first place in the American Composites Manufacturers Association’s (ACMA) first ever Composites in Architecture Design Challenge, sponsored by Ashland Performance Materials. The winning design is on display in ACMA’s Composites Pavilion at the American Institute of Architects’ 2016 Convention in Philadelphia. As a top three finisher, UCLA’s team will also receive a cash prize.
 
For the challenge, ACMA’s Architectural Division asked students to work in teams to develop an innovative composite architectural/building component or assembly. The teams were encouraged to explore and invent new, and sometimes radical, architectural designs.
 
UCLA’s winning “Undulating Gills” entry was created by UCLA architecture students Anna Kudashkina, Yifan Wu, Yuekan Yu, Shahr Razi, Simi Shenoy, and Marcelo Marcos, who worked on the project under the direction of SUPRASTUDIO lecturer Julia Koerner within a technology seminar known as Animated Fibers. The team’s project incorporated composite fabrication of “mega-panels” while integrating robotic technology to fabricate panels without a mold. The result was a twisting structure that creates a “parametric relationship between a series of panels to allow for lighting control on a facade.”
 
Koerner says the students drew inspiration for the design from a number of architectural precedents, including the composite façade for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) designed by Snøhetta and fabricated by Kreysler & Associates. — Barbara Sadowy, May 20, 2016
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Read more in the American Composites Manufacturers Association press release.