TECTONIC RESISTANCE
Type: Cultural
Location: Mahwah, New Jersey
Status: Academic
Year: 2021
Granite rocks carefully balanced on top of each other and cearns are scattered around Stag Hill, a Ramapo Lenape historic ground. These feats prove their lineage to the land thousands of years ago and resist their erasure. “Tectonic resistance”, the Ramapo museum attempts to continue the material legacy through new granite structures that are situated within the landscape. These new structures are unreinforced compression only tiled granite shells that are built without having the need for any mortar or concrete, much like the cearns that the visitor will encounter while hiking the site.
The solstice was designed for the annual celebrations that happen during the sunsets on the day of the Winter and Summer solstice. As the sun sets, it aligns perfectly with the entrance to shine the center of the shell, marking the start of the solstice rituals.
224 unique tiles make up the shell, numbered based on their corresponding edges. Each tile has positive and negative joints that slot in together without needing any mortar, adhesives or concrete. The compression only shell is self supported by its geometry, and by relying on its strength through computational geometry, the thickness of the shell can be reduced to 1/3 of what is normally needed to achieve that span. This means that less material is needed which aids in reducing the embodied carbon of the building.
The open space is designed to be flexible to be used as a performative space, or to exhibit physical artifacts. From there a transitional space invites viewers to the underground to reveal the submerged space that is permanent exhibition of physical artifacts, the spaces become more intimate with slits from above.