Tetra – City / House

The house of the future is a tetrahedron. In fact, it is a set of tetra- shaped rooms forming a little city of tetra-spaces that form a tetra-shaped house. Fractal in geometry, the ideal house can be applied as ideal city on a different scale. Recursive in time, a partial realization anticipates the future expansion.

Mathematically, the tetrahedron is the simplest platonic body next to the sphere. It yields a maximum of volume per envelope. It is made of four regular triangles, the simples planar geometries next to circles containing the maximum surface per outline. The tetrahedron has four point symmetries, three linear symmetries, two rotational symmetries. My architectural obsession with tetrahedrons is more than a play on descriptive geometry. Tetra is the search for a new iconic diagram, an update of Le Corbusier’s Maison Dom-in-o. Corbu’s proposition was barely a project for a building (maison). It exhibited three floors slabs cast in reinforced concrete, held in space by and array of square columns. Naked steps indicated the possibility of a vertical movement. Remarkably, his propagandistic five points to architecture directly derived from this diagram: The continuous landscaped ground, the free floor plan, the pilotis, the elongated window facade & the roof garden. Dom-in-o was the cast for all of Corbu’s later projects. 

Tetra is tipped over its center of gravity so that it rests on one corner. This minimizes the footprint and all structure cantilevers from there. At the same time the internal floor planes level. The four faces of Tetra are never perpendicular to each other. Instead, two faces form an angle and brace space in horizontal or vertical direction. Tetra neither stratifies space horizontally (free plan) nor vertically (free section) alone, but in all three dimensions at the same time. The structure is plan and piloti in one. The result is free space. 

Author: Aurel von Richthofen

Place: Berlin, Germany / world
Year: 2009–11
Size: –
Type: Self-Initiated
Client: –

Tetra City in Berlin
Tetra House Prototype
Tetra Skyscraper
Tetra Skyscraper - model
Nested tetra spaces / CNC fuse deposit model
Fuse deposition model
Cantilever structure
Tetra Study
Fuse deposition model against the sky
related: 

Urban Village Shenzhen

Having grown to several million inhabitants in less than a decade the special economic zone of Shenzhen experiments on urbanism after urbanization. Urban Village, Shenzhen represents the reversal of the classic rural setting.

New Bouwkunde

New Bouwkunde is a radical design for a new school of architecture at Technical University of Delft. The program called for more than 2000 spaces. These were organized algorithmically and optimized for spatial efficiency. Study, project and research within a school of architecture are normally shaped by an intimate relationship of scholars and students within a tight educational community. Not at Delft where the sheer number of more than 5000 students of architecture outgrow any sense of personal scale.

Compact City Oman

Compact city is a design for a sustainable neighborhood in Al Khoudh within the larger Muscat Capital Area based on cultural, climatic and economic criteria of sustainability. This model – both a research method to evaluate, interpret and integrate specific criteria of sustainability as well as a design proposal for a sustainable neighborhood - exemplifies an integrated approach to urbanism adapted to the local Omani conditions.

Dubai Tensegrity Tower

Tensegrity Tower is a design for an iconic monument of 170 meters height in Dubai. Tensegrity Tower is the pure exhibition of structure. Calling for an iconic tower devoid of program the elevator company sponsored competition merely indicated a desired height of 170 meters.

BAK Pavillion 2010

The design concept for the German Architects Chamber pavilion is composed of a complex distribution of regular polyhedral elements. Octahedrons and tetrahedrons interlock spatially like 3 dimensional tiles following a non-Carthesian grid.

Digital Design & Representation

Digital Design and Representation stand at the core of the education of architects and urban designers. Due to the proliferation of computers, the increasing computer literacy amongst incoming students and the fundamental shift in the profession towards the digital, digital design and representation needs to be re-assessed all together.