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Chopstick
Chopstick
4000, Michigan Road, Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Other Projects by visiondivision
Chopstick
4000, Michigan Road, Indianapolis, IN, United States
Visiondivision was commissioned by the
Indianapolis Museum of Art to create an innovative concession stand for the 100
Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.
The design is based on the universal notion that
you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product
is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car,
a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or
another. Our project is about trying to harvest something as gently as possible
so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and
respectful way—respectful to both the source itself and to everyone visiting
the building. The raw material we selected is a 100-foot
yellow poplar tree, the state tree of Indiana, known for its beauty,
respectable size, and good properties as hardwood. We found a great specimen
standing in a patch of forest outside of Anderson, Indiana. Our goal was to
make the best out of this specific poplar tree, from taking it down and through
the whole process of transforming it into a useful building that is now part of
one of the finest art parks in the United States. As the project proceeded, we
continued to be surprised by all of the marvelous features that where revealed
in refining a tree into a building; both in the level of craftsmanship and
knowledge of woodworkers and arborists, and also of the tree itself.
The tree was then transported to the park site, where it
became the suspended horizontal beam of this new structure, which is almost
entirely made out of the tree itself. The tree’s bark was removed to prevent it
from falling on bystanders, a process that occurs naturally as the moisture
content in the wood drops, causing the tree to shrink and the bark to lose its
grip. Craftsmen loosen entire cylinders of bark from the trunk that are then
flattened and cut into a standard shingle length. The shingles was carefully
stacked and placed under pressure to avoid curling. The stacks was then kiln
dried to the proper moisture content, sterilized, and kept
in climate-controlled storage until they where ready for use. Bark
shingles are very durable, long lasting (up to 80 years), and maintenance free.
After debarking, pieces of wood are extracted from the suspended tree and used
for each of the components of the concession stand; structural support of the
construction, pillars and studs for the kiosk, swings under the tree for kids,
chairs and tables to be placed under the tree’s crown, from which special
fixtures made out of bark pieces will hang. Many school children visit 100
Acres, and we had those kids in mind when we decided to hang swings from the
tree. On a smaller scale, we explored ways to use other parts of the tree in
the concession stand, including pressed leaves and flowers that were taken from
the tree and that became ornaments in the front glass of the kiosk.
We also made Yellow Poplar syrup that was extracted from the bark of the tree
and that will be sold in the kiosk, thus meaning that you could actually eat a
part of the building.
The delicate balance act of the risk of weakening the
hovering tree with taking cuts from it versus having to have a certain amount
of wood to stabilize and construct the kiosk and carrying the load from the
tree itself was very challenging.
Many days was spent with the structural engineer
trying different types of cuts in a computer model to optimize the structure.
To be able to fit all pieces that needed to be taken from the tree into the
actual cuts we needed to make drawings for every single piece taken from the
tree. We also needed to optimize the kiosk both in size and in its
constructions since it would take a lot of weight from the hovering trunk. The
kiosk got a truss frame construction with two larger pieces of wood that are
right under the tree. Using the schematics from our engineers force diagram
program, we concluded that the wall closer to the end of the tree was taking
more load, thus we sized up the two larger pieces of wood in that specific
wall. All these alterations really just made the project more beautiful since
the design became more refined in terms of more balanced proportions.
Indianapolis Museum of Art to create an innovative concession stand for the 100
Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.
The design is based on the universal notion that
you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product
is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car,
a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or
another. Our project is about trying to harvest something as gently as possible
so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and
respectful way—respectful to both the source itself and to everyone visiting
the building. The raw material we selected is a 100-foot
yellow poplar tree, the state tree of Indiana, known for its beauty,
respectable size, and good properties as hardwood. We found a great specimen
standing in a patch of forest outside of Anderson, Indiana. Our goal was to
make the best out of this specific poplar tree, from taking it down and through
the whole process of transforming it into a useful building that is now part of
one of the finest art parks in the United States. As the project proceeded, we
continued to be surprised by all of the marvelous features that where revealed
in refining a tree into a building; both in the level of craftsmanship and
knowledge of woodworkers and arborists, and also of the tree itself.
The tree was then transported to the park site, where it
became the suspended horizontal beam of this new structure, which is almost
entirely made out of the tree itself. The tree’s bark was removed to prevent it
from falling on bystanders, a process that occurs naturally as the moisture
content in the wood drops, causing the tree to shrink and the bark to lose its
grip. Craftsmen loosen entire cylinders of bark from the trunk that are then
flattened and cut into a standard shingle length. The shingles was carefully
stacked and placed under pressure to avoid curling. The stacks was then kiln
dried to the proper moisture content, sterilized, and kept
in climate-controlled storage until they where ready for use. Bark
shingles are very durable, long lasting (up to 80 years), and maintenance free.
After debarking, pieces of wood are extracted from the suspended tree and used
for each of the components of the concession stand; structural support of the
construction, pillars and studs for the kiosk, swings under the tree for kids,
chairs and tables to be placed under the tree’s crown, from which special
fixtures made out of bark pieces will hang. Many school children visit 100
Acres, and we had those kids in mind when we decided to hang swings from the
tree. On a smaller scale, we explored ways to use other parts of the tree in
the concession stand, including pressed leaves and flowers that were taken from
the tree and that became ornaments in the front glass of the kiosk.
We also made Yellow Poplar syrup that was extracted from the bark of the tree
and that will be sold in the kiosk, thus meaning that you could actually eat a
part of the building.
The delicate balance act of the risk of weakening the
hovering tree with taking cuts from it versus having to have a certain amount
of wood to stabilize and construct the kiosk and carrying the load from the
tree itself was very challenging.
Many days was spent with the structural engineer
trying different types of cuts in a computer model to optimize the structure.
To be able to fit all pieces that needed to be taken from the tree into the
actual cuts we needed to make drawings for every single piece taken from the
tree. We also needed to optimize the kiosk both in size and in its
constructions since it would take a lot of weight from the hovering trunk. The
kiosk got a truss frame construction with two larger pieces of wood that are
right under the tree. Using the schematics from our engineers force diagram
program, we concluded that the wall closer to the end of the tree was taking
more load, thus we sized up the two larger pieces of wood in that specific
wall. All these alterations really just made the project more beautiful since
the design became more refined in terms of more balanced proportions.
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