MATERIALITY OF DIFFERENCE

In looking at the manifestation of structural elements in different stages of permanence, I will be looking at the following elements.
- structural frame (columns, girders, trusses)
- bearing walls (exterior & interior)
- nonbearing walls and partitions (exterior & interior)
- floor construction (support beams, joists)
- roof construction
- foundations

Shigeru Ban has become the leading architect working to master the architectural transition between the temporary and the permanent. What is most interesting about his work is that while he has spanned varying levels of permanence, he does so with variations and additions to primarily the same material. He has primarily worked with paper tubes for the walls and roof structure. What has varied is the materials used for foundations and thus flooring.

As a wall structure, the paper tubes have been used in both temporary and permanent buildings as both walls, roofs, and columns. In more impermanent structures, the foundations have ranged from beer crates held together with zip ties to wood planks. Floor structures have ranged from typical wood joists with plywood covers to indigenous mud floors over plywood. While most structures have an open floor plan, curtains and storage units have been used as interior partitions in some examples. While the paper tube roof structure has been the same at the first two levels, the covering ranges from a tarp to layered plastic and woven matting to corrugated plastic. 

While more permanent structures still use paper tubes as walls, roofs, and columns, they are reinforced with rebar, plasteer of paris, and concrete pedestals of foundations. The key to permanence seems to lie in the types of footings used. For temporary buildings built on concrete slabs and foundations, Ban has examples of them being used for the foundation of later permanent buildings.

In looking at some of Ban's other work, it provides some interesting examples of how structure can organize layout. He had two that I would like to test and develop further. One was seen in his curtain wall house. The permanent structure was further within the layout. The edges, which could be open, can also be enclosed in a non-load bearing structure. The Hayek Center used a similar strategy but moved from permanent enclosures within the larger structure of the building beginning at the top, leaving the bottom to become increasingly more open with the potential to be filled in later.