For the Rosenstein pavilion made of gradient concrete, load-bearing tissues from nature served as a model. "The structure of the human bone dynamically adapts to external demands over the course of a lifetime," Kovaleva explains. The body forms more bone mass where it is subjected to higher loads. In places where the bone has to bear less, it saves material and weight. The young architect's goal was to apply these construction principles to her experimental building and to use fewer resources by distributing materials according to the load. As in nature, the form, structure and material of an object should not be considered separately, but should be seen as a unit, says the 31-year-old. Because architects and civil engineers traditionally work closely together at ILEK, the pavilion was developed as part of an integrated planning process in which the team linked architectural, structural and manufacturing requirements at a very early design stage.
In her planning, Kovaleva also drew on research into functionally graded structures that the team at ILEK led by Prof. Werner Sobek has been conducting since the 1990s. The researchers optimize the internal structure of building elements while leaving the external geometry unchanged in order to use less material. In the case of so-called gradient concrete, for example, different concrete mixtures are selectively introduced into the corresponding areas of the component, depending on the respective static or structural-physical requirements.
Institut für Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren Universität Stuttgart
Pfaffenwaldring 14
70569 Stuttgart
T +49 711 685 637 66
daria.kovaleva@ilek.uni-stuttgart.de
www.uni-stuttgart.de/ilek