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Pavilion, Detmold

Students turn beer crates into complex geometry.

DETMOLD (DE) - Many universities organise modules in which students are supposed to actually do architecture themselves - by getting their hands dirty, building, creating and researching alternative building materials, and so on. These exercises are precious learning moments for the students, but only few are worth sharing with a broader audience.

The experimental pavilion, BOXEL, comprised of more than 2000 old beer crates, however, is one of those happy exceptions. The students from the University of Applied Sciences in Detmold, who attended a course in digital design lead by Prof. Marco Hemmerling (see also Acrylic Prism), held an internal competition at the end of the summer semester. Student Henri Schweynoch won with an expressive flowing roof on three pillars. Like a giant thornback without thorns, the structure hovers over the parking space in front of the university. The students constructed the temporary pavilion in less than a week, which then served as a scenic background for the international summer school and their end-of-semester party. (Hannah Schubert)

BOXEL was designed and realized by students of the architecture department during the last summer semester on the campus of the University of Applied Sciences in Detmold. The expressive design by student Henri Schweynoch, the winner of an internal competition, creates generous spatial scenery for presentations, concerts, events and gatherings on the campus.

Within the digital design course, led by Prof. Marco Hemmerling, the students were not only asked to design a summer pavilion but also to construct and realize the design as a mock-up in 1:1 scale using digital design and fabrication tools. Against this background the digital workflow, including parameters of production, construction and material, became key issues of the further process.

The building shape is based on a minimal surface and consists of more than 2000 beer cases that are organized along the free form geometry. The temporary construction was designed using parametric software to control the position of the boxes in relation to the overall geometry and to analyze the structural performance.

In order to define the construction concept and the detailing of the connection, several static load tests were made to understand the structural behaviour of the unusual building material, especially since the empty beer cases were not piled up but freely organized next to each other. In parallel to a series of shearing and bending tests in the university’s laboratory of material research, the structural concept was simulated and optimized by using FEM-software.

Finally, a simple system of slats and screws was chosen for the assembly of the pavilion, which allowed a flexible and invisible connection. Additional bracings were placed in the upper part of the cases to generate the required stiffness of the modules. The structural load transfer was realized by concrete-lined boxes at the three base points that serve as foundation for the pavilion. The beer cases were supplied by a local brewery, after ten years of being in use, and will be recycled when the pavilion is disassembled.

A second pavilion design that is based on moveable wooden frames, designed by Lisa Hagemann, was also selected during the competition phase and will probably be realized during the next summer semester in 2011.