Case Study #7
TSG Foundation
The overarching design goals were to achieve the vision of merging the science of the Living Building Challenge with spirituality, while successfully incorporating the immediate environment to coexist harmoniously with the natural landscape. There are seven principles of the Living Building Challenge that inspired the architectural design.
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Joy
Freedom
Striving
Service
Righteousness
Goodness
Beauty
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On the exterior, regional and natural materials have been selected to withstand the harsh desert environment and mimic the plants and wildlife native to the area. For example, the diamond-shaped zinc tiles used on exterior walls have a biophilic inspiration from the region’s native rattlesnake. Additionally, these zinc tiles were selected due to being almost completely recyclable, if they ever need to be replaced. Additionally, manufacturing zinc is significantly less harmful to the environment when produced, compared to many other metals used in construction.
Mockup
Detailing edge conditions are extremely important in our construction and no better way to test different connection that to mock them up full scale. The CNC fabricated plywood was utilized to create all different roofing conditions that the project design presented. The plywood knife edge core allowed for a lightweight “cornice” that could be pre-fabricated in sections in our shop. Weather barriers were tested and zinc tiles from Germany were ordered early to create the mock-up.
MODELING
Digital modeling of the knife edge condition was the main focus to figure out the best construction technique to frame the knife edge. Through this digital modeling, we were able to determine that cutting plywood plates with intersecting and locking plywood gussets would allow our substrate framing to be incredibly thin at the roof edge. We machined the components in our shop, assembled and then delivered the mock-up to our zinc installers shop for skinning. Several options for the knife edge were created for the architect to review.
INSTALLATION
Installation was tedious as every tile was interlocked with the adjacent four tiles. Layout was scrutinized so that oblique angle of the sloping soffit was calculated to align with the vertical wall plan panels. Flashings at roof and sill lines were fabricated from zinc sheets to match the zinc tiles. The installation team certainly exceeding expectations especially working on a product above their head at most of the times.
Craftsmanship
As one of our four pillars, Craftsmanship is at our core. When we instill this mindset into our subcontractor base, they take on the challenge to push themselves to the best of their ability. The whole is always made up of the sum of the parts and everyone on the team has a role in making our work the best it can be.
