The birth and death of the iWeb (2001 – 2014) in Holland, Netherlands by ONL [Oosterhuis_Lenard]

Article source: ONL [Oosterhuis_Lenard]

The iWeb is a single space building that was originally designed as the pavilion for the province of Noord Holland for the Floriade 2002, the international exhibition of flowers and gardening, held every 10 years in The Netherlands. The iWeb was later redeveloped as laboratory for the Hyperbody Research Group (HRG), Delft University of Technology, faculty of Architecture (TU Delft). The building lost its function after a coffee machine destroyed the faculty of Architecture building in May 2008. In September 2014 ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] (ONL) donated the iWeb building to the public domain by uploading the design and construction datasets to GitHub.

• Architects: ONL [Oosterhuis_Lenard]
• Project: The birth and death of the iWeb (2001 – 2014)
• Location: Web of North Holland 2001-2002 – Floriadeterrein Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands
• Software used: Rhino + AutoCAD and AutoLISP scripts for file2factory production process
• Size: GFA-250 m²
• Materials: Steel structure with a skin of Hylite (aluminium composite panels)
• Building costs: € 500.000
• Exhibition pavillion: Web of North Holland (2001-2002)
• Research laboratory: iWeb 2006-2014 – Delft University of Technology

iWeb: One Building, One Detail 

The Web was designed as a sculpture wrapped around a 250 m² event space in the weightless space of the computer. Gravity was only unleashed as an active force working upon the 3d model in the final stage of the design. The 3d model is manipulated like digital clay using a variety of techniques from 3D digitizer to modelling using surface sculpting tools.
The Web introduced a new structural principle of One Building, One Detail. Using a 3d triangular grid of flat and folded steel plates, each unique in shape and size. Architecture, structure and skin merge into one coherent image. There is no repetition of elements. This approach of non-standard architecture meant a revolution in the building industry in 2002.

Open Source Architecture 

September 2014 marked the end of the physical existence of the iWeb as the demolition crew unleashed their predators on the structure. Battered and bruised the iWeb finally ceased to exist on September 11th. As every end marks the start of a new beginning ONL decided to donate the building to the public domain to ensure its immortality.

When it comes to Open Source Architecture we have decided to put our money where our mouth is. The iWeb was designed to be produced using Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) production facilities. To be able to use mass production techniques several program macros have been developed to convert the 3d models into data that can be used for the CNC production machines. The datasets published on GitHub not only contains the design documentation, but includes the actual production data that was used to manufacture the individual building components. Also included on the GitHub project repository are the program macros / scripts that were used to generate the CNC production data.
https://github.com/ONL-Oosterhuis-Lenard/iWeb

Creative Commons

\”The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The combination of our tools and our users is a vast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law.\” http://creativecommons.org/licenses
The iWeb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] 

ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] is a Rotterdam based design studio founded by architect prof. Kas Oosterhuis and visual artist Ilona Lénárd in 1989. It has developed to one of the leading offices in the implementation of information technology in the design and production process. Unique is its involvement in the realization of their designs by acting as lead designer. Key projects include the A2 Cockpit and Soundbarrier in Utrecht (the Netherlands), Bálna Budapest (Hungary) and the Liwa Tower (Abu Dhabi).

Tags: Holland, Netherlands

Categories: Autocad, Pavilion, Rhino

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2014 at 6:10 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.