Description of Project

Shell Dwellings: The Method

The intent of this venture is to produce curvilinear surfaces with the greatest economy of means and without the computer-assisted technologies. The following materials will be used to build durable membrane-generated shells suitable for housing:

Chicken wire or plastic netting supported by structural frames will create a membrane which will give shape to a dwelling enclosed with one continuous surface, frames and cables controlling the membrane's behavior. The membrane then will be used as a guide in laying honeycomb tiles made of foil, paper, or fiberglass, four layers of tiles (two applied to each side) forming a shell estimated to be up to 10 inches thick. On the shell's inside the cells of the exposed honeycomb will be filled & finished with plaster, and on the shell's outside, with concrete & a coating of stucco. All high points will be protected with a whether-proof material. To preserve the integrity of the landscape the dwellings will be painted in bands of colors that echo the strata formations of cliffs in the region.

Three modestly scaled shell dwellings will be built to address different problems inherent to membrane-generated forms. In the main house, a shallow roof is broken up into smaller & steeper arches to make it self-supporting; in the guest house, shells and conventional building methods are integrated; and in the kitchen, the unusable low peripheries of membranes in-the-round are raised by laminated arches, which house a vertical door and window as well.

Site & Models

1) Main House 2) Guest House 3) Kitchen

The forms developed in stretch nylon fabric are now replicated in plastic netting. Hardly any tension was applied to the bands--their arrangement produced the desired curvature--the membrane creating no significant load concentration on points of the framework. Any readily available netting or mesh is apt to behave in like manner.
Membrane Application Process

GuestHouse