Detail in Process

The proliferation of new materials and technologies now driving the design process requires architects and engineers to work together as equals and is rapidly expanding the areas of common ground between them. -Christine Killory, ed. Edited by Christine Killory and Rene Davids (Princeton Architectural Press - 2008) Review by Laura Kozak, re:place magazine Detail in Process, a follow-up to 2007’s Details in Contemporary Architecture, looks at how the changing relationship between architects and engineers is manifest in new work from 23 international firms. Asserting that changes to design media, construction technology and building materials have drastically changed the architectural workflow and our expectations for building performance, we are shown projects ranging in scale from a 900 square-foot Library for Manuscripts to the 740-foot 7 World Trade Centre tower. The commonality between these works is in the details: each displays innovations that result from collaboration between architects and engineers. The second volume in AsBuilt, Detail in Process provides luscious colour photographs of projects, supplemented with plans, sections and best of all, small-scale details.  AsBuilt is Princeton Architectural Press’s ongoing series of collections of new architectural works, which looks particularly at design, technology and materiality. The series – and this book – are truly aimed at the design community, using language and drawings likely outside the general public’s interest. The specificity of audience is much appreciated: precise metrics and technical information take this series outside the realm of coffee-table book and aim to provide a valuable resource to practicing designers and engineers. Consulting with project architects and engineers in the writing of the text, we are given both the technical and anecdotal story behind the building, rather than just a marketing pitch. San Francisco’s newly reconstructed de Young Museum is a featured project of Switzerland’s Herzog & de Meuron, San Francisco’s Fong & Chan Architects and A. Zahner, a Kansas-based engineering and fabrication firm. The three-level, 293 000 square foot museum in Golden Gate Park is encased in an iconic perforated copper façade, which will develop a turquoise patina as it’s exposed to air and salt water over the next decade. The façade design, by Herzog and de Meuron, uses a pattern of bumps and perforations to abstract the pattern of a canopy of trees. Detail in Process takes us through a complicated and innovative fabrication process for this facade, for which Zahner fabricated custom punches, made a 30 x 40’ full-scale sectional building mockup (with complete details and actual materials) for stress tests, and developed custom software to automate the manufacturing process. Extensive collaboration and insight into each other’s field of expertise between architects and engineers is fundamental to the direction of this project, and the 22 others featured in this book. Though seemingly a given, this type of integrated workflow is relatively new, and is made possible by rapid advances in design technology. Use of modeling software and rapid prototyping allows architects to understand structural information in the early, conceptual stages of a project, while engineers are making rapid strides in techniques, tools and materials to make the aesthetics of a building perform. Detail in Process and the AsBuilt series is a great resource for architects, fabricators, engineers and nerdy designers. Exposing us to some of the most recent and technologically advanced architectural projects around the globe, editors Christine Killory and Rene Davids  strike a great balance between the technical and the visual. ** Laura Kozak is a cartographic enthusiast, bibliophile and buddy of the Helen Pitt gallery. She has a BFA from Emily Carr, studied Environmental Design at UBC and maintains an independent design practice at studio CAMP.