NUBLOCK
- ROLE: DESIGNER
- STATUS: COMPLETED
- COLLABORATORS: ERIN HUNT
- AWARD: 2021 PETER RICE PRIZE
NuBlock brings a modern and aesthetic update to an architectural and structural elementary unit—brick. Using innovative water-soluble formwork, this project can create lighter concrete bricks through a gradient of variable porosities with intricate geometries and infinite customizability.
Design Report
Thanks to its customizability, NuBlock’s porosity can directly relate to its location’s structural need. In areas where greater structural stiffness is required the block is denser and vice versa. To minimize the concrete used while improving structural performance, a program was developed in Grasshopper to generate NuBlocks with different porosities and map them to an optimized structure of the desired geometry and load conditions.
As a basic architectural unit, NuBlock is extremely versatile and can be deployed on to many different types of structures. In this project, we mapped 10 different types of NuBlocks onto a stair core and a Catalan shell according to the stiffness result from FEA optimization.
Immersive Rendering
Fabrication