02.6 Group Tectonics Study — Kingston School of Art

Skin — A Tectonics Study

Group module — a tower defined by its skin, where spaced metallic panels wrap a timber frame and let light slip between surface and structure.

Model of a tower wrapped in spaced metallic panels over a timber frame, lit on a black background — Finished model — tower wrapped in spaced metallic panels

A tower defined by its skin

As part of a group tectonics module, the brief was to design the structure of a tower with an emphasis on the “skin” that wraps it — given only basic dimensions. A key precedent in the design was Herzog & de Meuron’s Ricola warehouse, with its panels decorating the façade.

To set the proposal apart from that reference, the group reworked the material, aesthetic and scale entirely. Where Ricola uses concrete-like slabs, here the panels are a shiny metallic card — reading as folded sheet metal at scale. The spacing between each panel lets light enter the interior and allows the internal timber structure to be glimpsed from outside.

Ornament & aperture

Several moments operate as deliberate ornament: a large circular window on the front face, an aperture at the top floor, and an extended triple-height overhang at the lower floors. Together with the panel spacing, they give the otherwise quiet skin its rhythm and its punctuation.

i. The precedent

Starting from Ricola

The brief began with a single reference: Herzog & de Meuron’s Ricola warehouse in Mulhouse. Concrete-like panels, hung in a regular grid behind a row of vertical beams — an architecture whose entire reading lives in its skin.

The group’s task wasn’t to copy it. It was to set itself apart from it — in material, in aesthetic, in the way the skin met the structure beneath.

Black-and-white photograph of Herzog and de Meuron's Ricola warehouse, showing the layered concrete panel facade with vertical fins — The precedent — Ricola warehouse, Herzog & de Meuron

ii. The method

Makers, drawers, designers

The group split itself into three roles — makers, drawers, designers — each of us choosing the territory we felt best suited to. A designer would develop a concept, pass it to a drawer to be measured and resolved, and on to a maker to put into physical form. It meant the team could iterate dozens of concepts fast, systematically discarding what didn’t work and combining what did.

More personally, being part of the makers, my task was to craft maquettes to scale so we could understand what the designers had sketched. Where the design couldn’t physically work, or another approach felt better, we’d alter it.

iii. Early studies

Pattern, joint, structure

Much of the early time went into how the exterior skin could attach to the structure. I made several sketch models of timber joints — mortise & tenon, housing, lap joints — testing how panels might rest, hang or interlock with a frame.

Alongside those, the group sketched how the tower should set itself apart from Ricola, both aesthetically and constructionally.

Hand sketch annotated 'Ricola' showing layered horizontal panels above a grid of vertical brick-like panels — early pattern study — Pattern study — reading Ricola in section & elevation

Hand sketch comparing the Ricola structure (left, 'Original') with the group's proposal (right, 'With our structure'), showing extended horizontal beams that carry the panels — Original vs. ours — extending the horizontals out

iv. The breakthrough

Elongated horizontal beams

Ricola hangs its skin off vertical beams. We did the opposite: mounted ours to a cube-gridded frame, then extended the horizontal beams outwards so the panels could rest on top of them. The façade became light, minimal, almost layered — like overlapping tiles or scales rather than fixed slabs.

After playing around with the idea, I drew an overhang at the bottom of one of the sketch models — inspired by a different part of the Ricola building. From the same source, but reading completely differently. Ridwan picked it up and developed it into the curved canopy that ended up as the most distinctive moment of the final proposal.

Card sketch model of a section of the tower, showing four levels of grey panels resting on top of extended horizontal beams — Sketch model — panels resting on the horizontals

The same sketch model in side view, showing how the panels overlap and the horizontal beams cantilever out from the frame — The same model in side view — the layered façade emerging

v. The structural problem

Cross bracing — minimum for maximum

Later in the project our tutors flagged that the structure would need cross bracing to actually stand up. We worked through several iterations — in sketches first, then in the model — and landed on the lightest scheme we could defend: a double panel of cross bracing on the rear of the building, and a single panel on the corner of each thinner façade.

The minimum amount of bracing for the maximum support. Crucially, it sat clear of the elongated horizontal beams, so the skin-carrying logic of the structure was never disturbed.

Photograph of the bamboo timber tower frame, showing the cross-bracing pattern: an X-braced rear panel beside the unbraced fronts — The frame — double-bracing on the rear, single elsewhere

vi. Joinery

No glue, in theory

In parallel with the structural studies, we tested ways to build without glue — traditional wood joints, wire-ties, anything that kept the tectonics honest. The wire-ties looked promising on paper but were too unstable and untidy in practice.

Regretably, the final structure was glued. At the scale of the finished piece, joinery alone would have been too finicky and slow. At a larger scale, with more time, we would have stuck more truly to the tectonics of the design.

Close-up of a timber corner joint, showing how the vertical post, horizontal beams and cross-bracing meet at a single node — The corner joint — where every member meets

Close-up of a cross-bracing joint, showing two diagonal timbers intersecting a horizontal beam, fixed by small pegs — The bracing joint — pegged where the diagonals cross

vii. Building it

From skeleton to skin

The last weeks were spent building the final piece — the internal structure first, the skin last. The team worked shoulder-to-shoulder, with whichever roles were needed on any given day.

The timber frame under construction on a green cutting mat, showing the cube-gridded structure taking shape — The frame, on the mat — cube-grid taking shape

Close-up of hands using a glue bottle to fix a timber joint in the model — Glue — bonding a joint by hand

Close-up of a hand spraying paint onto the timber frame to seal it — Spray — sealing the frame before the skin goes on

viii. The finished model

Skin meets structure

With the panels on, the tower reads as two systems held in balance — the spaced metallic skin in front, the timber frame just visible behind it. The cross bracing on the upper level, exposed where there’s no panel, gives the building a strong presence at its top edge.

On the lower face, the curved overhang catches the light and reads almost like a sail — the single moment where the skin departs from its grid.

Finished tower model on a black background — three storeys of overlapping grey panels, a circular window cut through the lower half, and the canopy curving outwards at the base — Finished model — the front, with the canopy curling out

ix. Details

A frame glimpsed through a skin

The most rewarding views are the ones that catch both systems at once. Looking up beneath the canopy you see the timber cross-bracing exposed against the underside of the curved skin — the engineering and the architecture coming together in a single moment.

Photograph looking up inside the model, the curved metallic skin sweeping overhead and the bamboo cross-braced frame extending out into the space — Beneath the canopy — skin and structure in one frame

Looking up inside the model, the curved metallic skin visible above the slender timber frame — Inside — the skin from beneath

Atmospheric close-up of the timber frame inside the model, lit in warm tones — Inside — the timber frame in warm light

Top-down view of the model's canopy roof — a grid of cross-bracing covering the top of the tower — The canopy roof — cross-bracing as ornament

Close-up detail of the model's circular window, framed by the curving metallic panels of the skin set against a dark void — The circular window — punched through the skin

x. Disassembly

Peeling the skin back

Model of a tower wrapped in spaced metallic panels over a timber frame — The metallic panels peel back to reveal the timber frame — a short study in how the skin and the structure are read separately.