As a Brooklyn native, I wasn’t too excited to see the Barclays center since it is a place I know all too well. However, listening to the SHoP architects talk about the materiality and assembly really interested me, particularly the part about how everything was digitally arranged and pre fabricated. The program they talked about was able to calculate the exact bend of a material and how a particular bend angle could stretch or compress a material, utilizing this feature, SHoP architects were able to digitally create every single unique piece and then with a simple “unfold” command, they had their water cut file that could be sent to the people in Illinois. Using todays modern technology, they were also able to add barcodes identifying every single piece and could have all the information they needed about the assembly process at their disposal. For SHoP architects to encompass all these resources in order to attach such a complicated facade and simplistically assemble it in roughly a month is so beautiful to me. I was also impressed by their ability to age the steel to look like its been oxidizing for 8 years in just 3 months.

 

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