Hessing Cockpit in Acoustic Barrier

The architectural-urban planning project Hessing Cockpit in Acoustic Barrier is innovative in several separate fields: 1. Urban planning innovation: the design integrates a building volume in an Acoustic Barrier. The building is designed with the speed of a car passing at 120km/h. The integrated building volume is stretched in the direction of the flow of cars according to the formula: length: height = 10:1. In the preliminary design a surface is stretched between the elastic top and bottom lines and following the folding lines . 2. Architectural innovation: the design is a pure example of Non-Standard Architecture realised on a big scale. Basic principle for the NSA is that all compiled components are in principle different. The exception is the rule. But all exceptions take place in a rigidly defined parametric design system. The adagium 'one building, one detail' applies here. NSA is based on the new industrial production method of mass customisation. Repetition of similar elements is no longer an economic advantage and it is not a valid argument for the aesthetics of the repetition. The beauty of the NSA principle is now in the shaping of the control of series of thousands of different elements. 3. Technical design innovations: the engineering of the geometry was developed in-house at ONL. For this purpose ONL has programmed an effective File to Factory process through the writing of project specific scripts. The scripts describe the geometry exactly and the data is registered in a database. This data is read by the software controlling the production machinery. There is a direct link between the 3d model of the architect and the production machines of the manufacturer.

4. Technical construction innovation: ONL and Meijers Staalbouw have developed a system of a point cloud of nodes and connection beams. Two different variants are developed for the Acoustic Barrier and the Hessing Cockpit, due to the different conditions for both constructions. Both constructions have in common that the complexity is completely integrated in the nodes so that the connection beams are maximally simple. The triangles are also produced as flat surfaces. Double curved glass are not only more expensive, but wouldn t enforce the overall image.

5. Building costs innovation: Meijers Staalbouw has offered the whole Acoustic Barrier as a product with a fixed price in close collaboration with ONL. There has been no extra labour. Also for the Hessing Cockpit Meijers Staalbouw offered the whole shell [steel construction + concrete floors + glass facades + aluminium facades] for a fixed price without mentionable extra work required. The knowledge of the production and the manner of communication between the architect and the manufacturer needs to be processed in the preliminary stage of the design. This cannot be postponed till the tendering. The Hessing Cockpit building and the Acoustic Barrier would be twice as expensive if they would be tendered on the market as a traditional bidding. The shell of the Hessing Cockpit as well as the whole Acoustic Barrier have been realised within the budget agreed upon.