Home Landscape Design CREATING SUSPENSE

designed by mid - century modern architect Paul M. Heffeman, the hangar - like space of the Hinman Research Building, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, was originally built for engineering studies, such as testing helicopter blades and wind loads on mock - ups. In their ingenious renovation, Nader Tehrani and Jack Pyburn have transformed the building into the new home for the universitys College of Architecture, through a series of delicate interventions that amplify the rugged structures soaring strength.
Because the 3,350 - square - metre building sits on a sloping site, visitors enter primarily via the third, top storey and descend to the expansive drafting hall one level below. Light pours in from clerestory windows at the top, letting the spaces materials - brick, concrete, steel, and glass - express themselves clearly and appealingly. "Heffeman was a refined architect and modernist," says Tehrani, "so we refused to introduce radical new materials or forms." The work here, however, is not entirely deferential; Tehrani playfully refers to his approach as "playing judo with the existing building."
The architects were taken with the existing infrastructure of the 15 - metre - high ceiling, namely its arched trusses and a gigantic bridge crane girder. "We wanted to use the roof as the foundation and build down from there," Tehrani says. "This project is all about levity." The massive crane was repurposed as an armature that supports cables from which a new mezzanine level is suspended. Nearly invisible metal mesh wraps around the mezzanine, heightening the floating effect on the platform. Though it is braced laterally for stiffness, the feeling of hanging in space is ever present and thought provoking. One cant help but consider the basics of shelter, support and the body, and yet the forms lightness and beauty keep it from feeling like a pedagogical tool.

CREATING SUSPENSE


Custom fluorescent pendant lights are suspended in a similar way, but they can be lowered to the drafting area or raised high above for screenings and other public events. "Like Miess Crown Hall at HT, it has extreme horizontal flexibility," Tehrani says. He wrapped the lower level in a butter - hued pin - up wall and lockers made of plywood armature clad in Homasote, but otherwise left the brick and concrete walls bare throughout. "Part of our mission was to expose everything in the building in its actuality," he says. "But that also produces effects."
The most dramatic of these is conjured by the slightly off - kilter spiral staircase, at the south end of the vast space, which leads to the third - level offices. Enclosed in the same steel mesh, the stair recalls Tatlins Tower. Tehrani used an off - the - rack spiral staircase and railing, then added a custom platform landing, and another spiral railing to provide a frame for the mesh, which is hung from a truss to make the entire assembly appear to float. "We enjoyed the idea of the figure of the stair as a dialogue between skin and structure," he says.
Custom workstations in the drafting hall are smaller than the traditional large drafting table, but Tehrani provided additional space in overhead bins for storing models, and a rolling cabinet below that also serves as a bench. The workstations low partitions lend privacy to the otherwise entirely open volume.
Twentieth - century modernists loved industrial structures. Tehrani extends and updates that tradition with his highly considered yet light - handed approach, honouringbu t also piggybacking on the existing structure. Smart but not slavish, the school serves as an object lesson for aspiring architects.
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