Cornell University | November 2014
ARCH 1101: First Year Design Studio I
Professors: Jim Williamson | Lorena Del Rio
TA: Thomas J Esser
Sometimes referred to as “nature’s projectile,” the great white pelican is perfectly adapted to hunt by dive-bombing its prey. Looking at the folding motion of a pelican’s wings during a dive as a time lapse, almost like stop motion videography, produced a succession of different states in the pelican’s diving motion. This analysis led to the exploration of the downward aerodynamic ‘pull’ in multiple states in time as an architectural object.
This seemingly abstract device merged ‘creature’ and ‘mechanism’ into an ‘instrumental creature’ that functioned through mechanisms that evoke traits of the original creature. This instrument is a system of panels that expand and contract by sliding along a dovetailed groove.
Jutting over the edge of the site, the wing panels begin to resemble a kinetic roof or moving canopy over a cantilevered deck that juts out over a cliff face.