New Orders In search of a new point-block diagram for Hong Kong

Abstract

A series of alternative structures for housing are
proposed through a design-research prototyping process. Nine
proto-structures are developed through the conception and
realization of columns cast in concrete. The series explores
specific structural principles at 1to1 scale, which are further
architecturally tested as speculative towers for urban living at
1to100 scale.
At 1 to 1 scale, concrete as process rather than just concrete as
material sets the main methodology for the design-research. Trial
and error experiments, closely related to the properties of the
material (liquid to solid formation), seek to put forward new
techniques of formwork design and construction procedures that
are more flexible and more sustainable than past and current
systems.
Design analysis, informed by the work of the early ‘structural
rationalists’ (F. Candela, P.L. Nervi, H. Isler, R. Maillard, E.
Dieste, et al.), considers the transformation of structural
languages in an attempt to revive an architecture for vertical
living (point-block).