ARCH_435F Seminar: ‘Precast Concrete Enclosures’

The primary goal of this fabrication seminar was the design and construction of full-scale concrete prototypes that function as performative components of building envelopes. Intended as a hands-on course, students designed, documented, and planned to make segments of building enclosures out of different types of high-performance concrete—precast concrete assemblies, in particular. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, students were not able to fabricate the pieces as originally planned. However, they advanced their designs through thorough construction documentation for mold making, including representing concrete pieces with detail drawings and images of the proposed building and intended design.

The course was taught in partnership with Gate Precast, a leader in the precast concrete industry, and was supported by a grant from the PCI Foundation to offset fabrication costs for the precast mockups.