Concept sketch by Greg Woods

Leonardo da Vinci - Study of Storm Clouds (c1500)

The building's two main space are each developed as distinct territories separated by a public zone which remains open to the university at-large. A faceted ground plane contains a number of testing and prototyping facilities, a courtyard and workshop, while a raised volume contains labs, study spaces and a 'design studio' environment.

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We wanted to exploit an ambiguity in their formal articulation to give students an opportunity to form their own image of the new engineering program as they would come to use it. The triangulation - as a tessellated surface - provided a means of visually connecting the two territories while rendering them abstractly. "The Cloud" and "The Rock" became nicknames, each offering a unique formal syntax with a common set of terms.

What follows is primarily the development of the cloud.

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The facade with upwards of 80% repetition in three basic triangles.

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A further articulation of the three basic panels into clusters which were either glazed, back-painted glass, dichroic and metallic paints where given a surface inflection to pick up on the sun exposure at the site. Together with the overall curving shape, a dynamic sky plays out on the facade's contoured surface.