A shell structure or a thin shell structure is an
organizational system that uses its shape or form to optimize its capacity to withstand
external loads. Based on similar principles, the classic arch in building
construction or the egg in nature, distribute material outward throughout their
surfaces in order to counter external loads. The catenary arch as an inversion
of tensile structures toward purely compressive shapes invokes the basic ideas
of form resistant structures: shape or profile opposing load.
Emblematically used by Felix Candela, reinforced
concrete shells’ mathematically informed curvatures harnessed tensile and
compressive stresses as the basis of structural integrity. Reinforced concrete
was the flagship modern material for thin shell construction and helped produce
avant-garde works of art. Although concrete has been employed both on-site and
off-site, the use of polymer composites has entertained the most recognizable
relationship between prefabrication and shell structures. From the Monsanto
experimental plastic house to Arthur Quarmby’s experiments on railroad service
buildings, the thin shell has complemented plastic composites to exemplify
lightness, form resistance and a tangible capacity to be easily manufactured
and assembled on-site exemplifying a type of commodity architecture.
Matti Suuronen is unquestionably the most notorious of
the many architects that have explored the glass reinforced plastic thin shell
structure in regards to its potential industrialization for mass produced
architecture and housing. The composite shell synonymous with this type of
architecture was made up of a glass-fibre reinforcing textile encased in a
hardened polyester resin. Analogous to fiberglass boat hull production, the
interior and exterior glass reinforced layers usually covered a hidden layer of
expanded polyurethane foam insulation, which gives the shell its insulating
properties. These types of shell envelopes have been used in diverse settings
as they are both light and flexible. Suuronen’s UFO house and his Venturo house
are prime examples of thin shell structures applied to mass-produced
architecture. Less monumental then their counterparts in concrete, the plastic
shells are nonetheless prototypical. The Venturo house further explored the
thin shell volume as a plug and play component of community building as its
plastic modular parts and overall shape could be easily assembled to create
multiple housing organisations.
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| A potential combination of three Venturo houses |
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