Prefabrication experiments - 174 - Geometries - 05 - Inhabitating polyhedra

Using geometry to redefine and reform traditional architectural compositions was one of modernism’s defining attributes. Simple white prisms or ascetic steel skeletons informed by strict modular rationalities came to express architectural modernism in the early twentieth century. From LeCorbusier to Mies van der Rohe, a union of classical geometry with industrial principles underpinned most modernist grids. 

Geometry also informed a later modernism based not on aesthetic ideals but on principles for improving construction and structural efficiency. R. Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and Felix Candela employed geometry to optimize structural form for spanning large areas with the least amount of material. Still another vector for geometry in architecture was developing formal archetypes and shapes that are non-traditional and originate simply from experimenting with geometric arrangements. The architecture of Zvi Hecker undeniably falls into this category. 

Developing shapes inspired by a type of crystalline modularity, his work with the firm of Neuman, Hecker and Sharon is especially noteworthy in this regard. Juxtaposing regular polygons into patterns made the geometric assemblies. The firm designed a series of temporary shelters based on geometric patterns. The projects were undertaken in the early 1960s, the first at Ahziv and the second at Michmoret. Both proposals sought to reinvent the modern tent. The systems were to be lightweight and easy to assemble. The basic unit was a site assembled hexagonal panel framed in light timber and filled with reeds wired and pressed together in a linear pattern. The reed mat within a hexagon edge produced panels, which became the faces of varying polyhedra. The edge segments were either joined together or left open for access, light or ventilation. The micro dwellings were large enough for two or three people. The 6-foot diameter panels joined together produced a truncated octahedron. The formal expression of each cabin was completely foreign to traditional housing typologies but the lightweight reed surfaces integrated local vernacular.

This geometric regionalism is synonymous with Hecker’s work. His many experiments with polyhedra endeavoured to make complex geometric forms socially acceptable. However, Hecker’s singular objective was to express an original architecture beyond regular right-angle volumes.

First project at Ahziv