top of page
The Hydra Pier Pavilion
TECHNOLOGY+DESIGN
In the distant 2002, the Hydra Pier Pavilion expressed the impact that technology could have on architectural design as it was woven into the very fabric of its identity. Extensive use of advanced modeling software facilitated complex geometries and cutting-edge technologies enabled designers to push boundaries and explore new possibilities with the integration of advanced construction techniques, sustainable materials, and innovative structural solutions (Octacube,2024). The building’s design is most certainly unique, and the construction methods that went into it were not all conventional. The use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software helped with the actualisation of such a complex design (Evans, et al., 2014) and having the construction team involved in the buildability reviews made what looked like a complex structure to build more straightforward to construct (Bizley, 2008).
An environmental and futuristic design and construction approach along with embodied technology had a significant impact on the design outcome (Asim & Shree, 2018). The pavilion draws its influences from its proximity to Schiphol Airport. The resultant design expressed the meld of the dominant water element with the surrounding Dutch landscape and the strong and formal aspects of aerospace technologies. As a mass of water flows from its roof, the liquid surface enables a dialogue between the reclaimed land , the water and the air masses ( NASA,2024) that lift the planes of the Schiphol Airport . The building’s roof comprises of two wings which are joined by glass walls between them and from the shore’s vantage point, the structure with its two converging roofs forms a floating silhouette (Riccobono, 2013). From the phenomenological point of view of philosophers like Heidegger and Merlau Ponty the Hydra Pier Pavilion stands almost ready to fly defying the laws of physics through architectural design as all the senses are involved in the spatial experience (Lockefeer,2021)
" Within this project Octatube has developed 3 innovations in building technology. After the engineering Octatube also manufactured and installed the aluminium roof, the glass pond and the structural glazing in the facades.
The first innovation was developing the 3D corners of the aluminium panel roof. This was done under supervision of ir. Karel Vollers. An extensive process of computer modeling, testing and the development of (adjustable) moulds was necessary in order to achieve the desired accuracy of the shape. The process of producing the explosion panels with a small TNT ring was very experimental.
The second innovation in the Floriade pavilion is the hanging glass pond that is developed to take on the weight of a depth of 1.41 m water, which is 12 times as much as the average roof or wall load. This has never been done before.
The shape of the pond was ideally designed by Octatube as a composition of fluent 3D shaped glass panels. But, the danger of fractures is always present. In the case of the Municipal Floriade Pavilion, whereas a possible replacement could take up to several months, this would’ve been a disaster. Therefore a simpler solution, namely a polygonal variety, was chosen and realized.
The fluent transformed and chemically pre-stressed laminated structural frameless glass was a bridge too far for the client after all, but a persistent challenge for experimental product developers.
The completely pre-stressed glass is without holes, but kept frameless by elliptical dishes connected by seams. Three problems needed to be overcome in this solution: the deflection under the continuous weight of the water, the waterproofing of the pond and the corrosion of the water on the laminate in the glass panels. High bending stresses occur in the glass.
The third innovation is executed in the south facade. This façade exists of three glass surfaces of approximately 6x6 square meters, each divided in 3x3 panels of maximally 2x2 square meters. Both surfaces on the side are bent with a diameter of 2.5 meters. The three stacked corner panels were manufactured as 12 millimeters thick monolithic thermal pre-stressed glass panels. In addition 2x6 non-orthogonal panels, each 2x2 square meters in laminated completely pre-stressed glass were cold bent on the construction site.
The Hydra Pier is the only pavilion that had got a permanent character and was not disassembled or demolished after the Floriade event in 2002. "
The OCTACUBE desciption regarding its innovation .
The High Line is a work of different kinds of time.There isis the historic time of the old railway,its rise,its abandonement,and re-use,its part in the industrial history of New York.There are the life cycles of the plants and their seasonal changes.There are changes of light and weatherover months and during a day ,and as day turns into night.There are the activities of the people deliberatelydecelerated by the design, to make it a slower place than the nearby jogging and
cycling routesalong the Hudson River.
Most of these things exist without architecture, but built spaces can either suppress them or enhance them.... Of course , all buildings exist in time .The word buildingsuggests an action that is ongoing,rather than a finished thing.We don't talk about builts.
In contrast to the frequent sight overhead of large body airplanes arriving and leaving Schiphol airport, and the endless streams of highway commuters, the HydraPier is sited within an artificially manufactured pastoral landscape. This region lay beneath five meters of seawater and was reclaimed as land 150 years ago. Much of the nineteenth-century engineered dams and pumping stations are still in existance today and are potent symbols of Holland's tenuous relation with the surrounding sea. The HydraPier is an architecture articulating the struggle between land and water, nature and technological artifice.
ARCHITECTEN WERK .NL ( 2007 )
THE EMERGENCE OF INDIVIDUALLY CRAFTED SOLUTIONS
IMAGES OF MATTER
bottom of page