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| | PRACTICE WICKED DETAILS
| Detailing is a fundamental, very complex part of architecture. Clare Newton outlines the shifting context of design documentation, and associated detailing strategies and issues. |
In every field there are problems that are so complex
that you need to be well informed just to be
undecided about them. Such problems have
innumerable potential solutions and each problem is
a symptom of another problem. Rittel and Webber
call them wicked problems, while Donald Schön
calls them messy problem sets. Architectural design
and detailing can be like this. Complex judgments
by a variety of stakeholders are required. Iteration
through trial and error and reflective practice result
in one solution being built. The built solution can
obviously fail in a range of ways, but no objective set
of criteria will ever fully measure its degree of
success. Within this uncertain framework, architects
make detailing decisions every day, all with cost,
environmental and social implications. This article
outlines a range of strategies and issues that may be
considered by architects during detailing.
I write with admiration for the many architects
who achieve high quality buildings in the face of
extraordinary difficulties. Architects are often
critical of the profession, of architectural education,
of their own abilities as construction leaders, and of
their ability to keep abreast of changing technology.
And while many architects express concern that the
profession is in disarray, their work consistently
demonstrates expertise in higher order thinking and
abstract problem solving skills. The complexity of
the architectural task may be underappreciated and
underestimated within the wider community but it
should not be dismissed by architects themselves.
As “creativity” takes over from “innovation” as the
preferred buzzword of the workplace, architects can
rightly claim expertise.
Detailing is not a prosaic exercise best left to the
backroom boys who know their nuts and bolts.
While I was researching for this article, even the
architects who are known for their detailing finesse
expressed the agony of giving birth to the refined
detail. The illustrated conversation between John
Wardle and his joiner is redolent of architects’
commitment to detailing decisions being integral to
the designed outcome. Excellent detailing resolves
issues beyond simply satisfying cost and functional
considerations.
There are many ways to approach detailing,
many factors which affect what is viable in a
particular project, and many relevant sources of
information. Rather than always working from first
principles, one well-accepted strategy is to adapt
precedent details from earlier projects, or from work
done by other architects. One difficulty in Australia
is the lack of local and current details in
publication. Not since the 1980s have there been
books dedicated to Australian details, although UME
does often contain local exemplars. Over the last
decade, the German publisher Birkhäuser has
released a range of texts on architectural details, but
while the examples within these publications may
be interesting they are often not directly applicable to
the Australian situation because of the different
climates, budgets and regulatory constraints, different
available trade skills, materials and products, and
different building procurement methods. Experience
is still the best way to develop sufficient knowledge
of the Australian construction industry in order to
know how to best adapt details from precedent.
Suppliers are another source of detailing
information and many architects are skilled in taking
everyday products and techniques and transforming
them in unexpected ways. It may be the use of form
liners and retarders to impress an image into
concrete or the simple transformation of a
supermarket lighting system into something more
elegant. Architects may also borrow manufacturing
and craft skills from other industries.
The constraints of the construction industry and
clients’ budgets also affect detailing strategies. For
example, when the budget is tight, one method is to
concentrate effort and money into the more
significant parts of a building. More generous
budgets mean that refined, crafted details can
permeate the building, and also allow the use of
exposed structures that require small tolerances.
Building procurement methods also influence
the level of detailing possible. For example, with
design and construct contracts, robust detailing
decisions need to be made with the knowledge that
costs are often cut towards the end of the project.
Awareness of how procurement methods facilitate or
limit detailing possibilities helps ensure the success
of the built outcome.
New products, particularly composite materials,
are also shifting the way buildings are designed and
detailed. Materials such as ETFE film, polycarbonate
cellular panels, optical fibre fabrics, woven metals,
large format digital printing and even translucent
concrete open up new opportunities.
With an increased palette of materials and
products available it is easy to dismiss traditional
details. Nonetheless, lessons can still be learnt from
traditional details and the materials and methods
used to make them. Details developed over time get
refined and resolved. Traditional details respond well
to their locality, aligning with climate, local materials
and skill levels. They are likely to age well and not
leak. For example, facade engineer Ric Bonaldi notes
that the traditional double-hung window accidentally
uses a pressure equalization chamber to exclude
water, even though the knowledge of rain screens
and pressure equalization was only developed in the
second half of the twentieth century.
Functional requirements for detailing need to be
understood whether details are developed from first
principles or adapted from precedent. Edward
Allen’s Architectural Detailing is still the best
resource for tracking the key functional principles.
This book lists methods that architects may use
either instinctively or overtly, along with more subtle
considerations such as designing for ageing, ease of
construction, efficient use of resources and aesthetic
considerations. This book, while comprehensive, is
not detailed and so other references are required for
issues such as environmentally sensitive detailing,
rain screen systems for excluding water, assessment
of prefabrication and in situ construction, and the
impact of the building procurement method and
changing computer technology on detailing
decisions. The case study included is less relevant
for Australian conditions. This illustrates the fact
that architects must understand the construction
environment they are detailing for. Architects
working globally must avoid carrying assumptions
about construction into a foreign construction
industry. Likewise care needs to be taken by the
larger firms considering subcontracting
documentation into overseas labour markets to
save costs.
A holistic approach to detailing – the whole
within the part – can also be very productive. In
systems theory the concept of the holon has been
taken from biology. Systems are understood as
interacting layers of holons, with a holon defined as
a process that is both whole and a part. This is also
a useful way to think of detailing. In any layer, the
holons are at a similar level of definition or
precision. Emergent properties appear in much the
same way that an assembled bike becomes a device
for transport even though the unassembled parts do
not demonstrate these properties. These emergent
properties are why the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts. Functional properties appear when all
parts of a system work together to achieve a set of
objectives. Sometimes failures occur due to
unforeseen interrelationships between components
or between a component and the user. In contrast,
when the parts work in concert with each other and
aspects of the whole are contained within the part,
the best architecture may be created. A simple
example might be the use of negative detailing at all
scales from the urban down to the detail.
A systems approach is useful for detailing
decisions within the triple bottom line criteria of
environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Embodied energy of materials is linked with larger
issues of manufacture and transport. The Green
Building Council’s Green Star rating system
provides a framework for making informed detailing
and construction decisions as well as design
decisions. The RAIA provides a range of support
documents in the Environmental Design Guide and
the database Ecospecifier provides environmental
information on approximately 1000 locally
available products.
There is little research into the gaps between
design, documentation and the final building. One
exception is Edward Ford’s The Details of Modern
Architecture, which explores how the construction
of key modern buildings was often at odds with
descriptions and explanations given by the
architects. He argues that construction styles exist
apart from, and sometimes in conflict with,
architects’ design ambitions and that this reflects
pragmatic constraints. Ford gives the example of
Rietveld’s Schröder House (1924), which has been
described as being constructed in concrete. Rietveld
designed it to be concrete but cost and skills meant
it was constructed as a hybrid of brick, steel and
timber rendered to look like concrete.
So, does it matter if a timber, steel and brick
building appears to be concrete? Rob Di Blasi, a
structural engineer from Winward Structures,
describes a detail on the new Southern Cross Station
by Grimshaw Jackson, currently under construction
in Melbourne. The architect intended a pin joint
where the spine truss met the column arm. The
engineers required the joint to be a fixed moment
connection and yet in appearance it remains a pin
joint. Countless other examples exist where
pragmatic decisions, made during documentation
and construction, have created gaps between the
designed architecture and the built architecture.
In a curious paradox, construction that can be
drawn with few lines is often the most complex to
build. Exposed structures do not contain a hierarchy
of finishes from rough to refined. Shadowlines and
butt joints are more difficult to construct than joints
covered by cornices, architraves and skirtings. As
labour costs increased during the twentieth century
relative to material costs, designs became less
elegant. Steel structures were not pared back to a
minimum but bolted together with haunches at
junctions and concealed behind a skin facade. The
situation is shifting back towards a greater
consideration of material costs, particularly in terms
of the environment. Improved manufacturing and
computer technology are also enabling more
complex details to be built simply.
It can be argued that computer simulation and
modelling are helping to close gaps between design
and construction. The virtual construction of
buildings allows problems to be anticipated and
resolved prior to construction. For example, steel
shop drawings are resolved in three dimensions prior
to being sent for fabrication. Complex junctions
between circular hollow sections are laser-cut using
pipe wrap software.
Facilitated by software such as Graphisoft
ArchiCAD and Autodesk Revit, buildings
increasingly have virtual versions which can be
used as databases for construction and then later for
facility management. Eventually computer models
will support interoperability within the construction
industry with the ability to share information from
project inception through to occupation when data
is required for asset or facility management.
Currently, however, three-dimensional modelling is
not extensively used by architecture firms for detail
resolution, except as providing the base models on
which details are overlaid. As new software is
released, the three-dimensional potential for
detailing is being constantly reassessed by architects.
Computer modelling is changing the way
smaller firms work through the design process and
communicate with clients. The extra time spent at
schematic stage resolving the design as a computer
model seems to allow a smoother transition through
design development and documentation, even
though detailing is still largely undertaken using
more traditional two-dimensional documentation.
The building construction industry lags behind
the aerospace, transport and manufacturing
industries in terms of IT use, testing and
prefabrication. The aerospace industry currently
uses IT that allows the construction of virtual
models that mimic actual models for testing, repairs
and flight simulation. The one-off nature of
architecture means that such processes are more
difficult in the construction industry. However, it
could also be argued that changes would happen
more quickly if architects extended their skills to
think like process engineers, extending the design
act to consider the potential of the assembly line.
Detailing involves complex decisions which are
best understood within the broadest context rather
than simply satisfying cost and function. Architects
make overt or unconscious decisions about how to
detail within the construction environment. Some
architects will push construction expertise to the
limit and achieve outstanding levels of craft or
technology, while others take a more pragmatic
viewpoint and focus their energy on achieving
outcomes that do not rely on refined detailing.
Sometimes architectural design exists in conflict
with the built reality, but invariably details contain
genetic coding for the architectural designer and the
construction industry of the time.
CLARE NEWTON IS A SENIOR LECTURER IN ARCHITECTURE AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE.
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| FURTHER INFORMATION |
Continuing Education
RAIA National Continuing
Education Program
“Devil or the Detail:
Documentation for design
excellence, a case study
approach”.
All capital cities.
T 03 9650 2477
E ce@raia.com.au
W www.architecture.
com.au/CEprograms
Building Smart
Associated with the
International Alliance for
Interoperability, Building
Smart seeks to drive the
industry uptake of improved
collaboration tools such as
building information
modelling.
W www.buildingsmart.org.au/
Building Design Professions
Environment Design Guide
A quarterly subscription-based
resource published by the
RAIA, containing independent
peer reviewed material.
W www.architecture.com.au
Ecospecifier
A membership-based guide to
eco-preferable products and
materials for the construction
industry.
T 1300 66 9997
E info@ecospecifier.org
W www.ecospecifier.org
Green Building Council
of Australia
A not-for-profit organization
that aims to develop a
sustainable property industry
for Australia and to drive the
adoption of green building
practices through
market-based solutions.
T 02 8252 8222
E info@gbcaus.org
W www.gbcaus.org
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