National Exhibition Challenges Designers and Masonry
Industry
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Two AAC sculpted
pieces make up the installation by BAC craftworker/IMI
Regional Training Director Robert Mion, Jr. and architect
Winka Dubbeldam. The pieces were constructed by BAC
craftworkers at the National Training Center in Fort Ritchie and the Regional
Training Center in Long Island City, NY. |
BAC and IMI believe that masonry’s time-honored
qualities of durability, beauty, scale, texture, flexibility
and color have even more to offer,” says IMI President
Joan B. Calambokidis. Inspiring the masonry industry to
look to its design future and challenging designers to
think of new applications are the goals of a new exhibition
at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
“Masonry Variations,” sponsored by BAC and
IMI, has two important points to make. The first is to
push masonry
design into the future. The second is to highlight the
value of collaboration between those who design with
masonry and those who make those designs a reality. Far
from an academic
exercise, the exhibition is expected to create a new
excitement about masonry, one that will translate into
increased use
of the materials and work opportunities for BAC members.
The
message of collaboration underscores the critical advantage
of using skilled BAC craftworkers who are true
partners
in the construction process. Architect Brian Burke,
who worked on the Brick installation, says he considered
it an honor to work with someone as dedicated as BAC
bricklayer/IMI
Regional Training Director Keith Behrens. “He
is the guy who made it happen, and there was no hurdle
that
he could not overcome. BAC craftsmanship is unsurpassed.”
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| Post tensioned brick
piers formed rotating squares to demonstrate the lightness
of the material. Lead BAC bricklayer/IMI Regional Training
Director Keith Behrens and architect Carlos Jimenez
included a brick floor of various different profiles
to form a constellation of light. |
The
exhibition spotlights three masonry classics – stone,
brick and terrazzo – plus a new one, Aerated
Autoclaved Concrete, or AAC block. Guest curated by
Stanley Tigerman,
FAIA, of Tigerman McCurry Architects, the teams consisted
of four renowned architects and four expert BAC/IMI
instructors, with big assists from other BAC craftworkers
and BAC/IMI
instructors from New York, Houston, and the National
Training Center.
The Terrazzo team of Los Angeles architect
Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg Architecture and
BAC terrazzo mechanic/IMI
Terrazzo Instructor Mike Menegazzi took raw shards
of slate tiles and transformed them into terrazzo-in-motion,
flowing
from highly polished smoothness to an increasingly
rugged
texture. A universal reaction to the twisting wall
and floor of terrazzo was, “I didn’t know
you could do that!”
 |
| Over 600 unique
3/8" thick pieces of marble make up the self-supporting
stone curtain that hangs in tension by BAC stonemason/IMI
Special Projects Coordinator Matt Redabaugh and architect
Jeanne Gang. |
The Brick team of Houston
architect Carlos Jiménez
of Carlos Jimenez Studio and BAC bricklayer/IMI Regional
Training Director Keith Behrens took a 180-degree turn
from the material’s traditional method – compression – by
creating interlaced and moveable armatures joined together
in tension. The goal was to take the perceived desire
to be an arch, and push it further, into a full ring, “I
wondered if our brick wanted to be freed, if only temporarily,
from its innate obedience to gravity and stability,” says
Jimenez. The result was a three-ring brick gyroscope
floating and pivoting through air.
A radical switch
from compression to tension also defined the Stone
installation, created by Chicago architect
Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects and BAC stonemason/IMI
Special Projects Coordinator Matthew
Redabaugh. They took classic marble and created a new,
translucent
blend
of stone, woven glass fiber, and resin, to wind up
with a marble curtain of 600 interlocking pieces hanging
in tension from
the gallery’s vaulted ceiling.
For AAC block,
New York architect Winka Dubbeldam of Architectonics
and BAC Craftworker/IMI Regional Training
Director Robert
Mion, Jr. sculpted the new material, which is one-third
the density and weight of traditional concrete block,
based on the graphic patterns of sound waves. Ironically,
while
the AAC installation was considered by many to be the
most futuristic, the AAC material used was basically
in its
everyday form. “BAC visitors were surprised and
astounded by the way we were able to shape and form
it,” says
Mion. “They are still talking about it at Regional
meetings.”
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| The lead terrazzo
team of BAC terazzo mechanic/IMI Terrazzo Instructor
Mike Menegazzi and architect Julie Eizenberg used slate
to demonstrate the terrazzo process by starting vertically
with raw materials and ending in a finished terrazzo
horizontal surface. |
Rounding out the installations, and
underscoring the contribution that BAC and IMI have
made to architecture
and building,
are exhibit panels on the history of masonry techniques,
changing methods of production, and possibilities for
future uses.
Since BAC and IMI have jointly taken a
lead in the research and development of masonry techniques,
applications,
and materials, the exhibition is a natural step in
promoting
masonry.
“This exhibit demonstrates to the world how much
has been accomplished, and shows that BAC and IMI are ready
to lead into the future,” says BAC President and IMI Co-Chair
John J. Flynn.
IMI will offer lectures and hands-on
design seminars during the run of the exhibition, which ends April
4, 2004.
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