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Some information about Bosjes Chapel
Bosjes Chapel was designed by architect Coetzee Steyn, who was born in South Africa but lives and works in Steyn Studio based in London. Groundnut plantation in a vineyard setting in South Africa's Western Cape. Its shape mimics the silhouette of the surrounding mountains, historic Cape Dutch gables dotting the region's rural landscape.
Constructed from a thin cast concrete shell, the undulating roof forms six load-bearing peaks at the four lowest points where the roof touches the ground. Beneath the roof, extensive glass panels are framed with wood to create the appearance of crosses. The six-meter-tall building is conceived as a lightweight, dynamic structure that appears to float in the valley. valley, an effect emphasized by an adjacent reflecting pond.
Problems in the process of calculating Bosjes Chapel structures
To allow for thermal movement, the roof and floor structures are completely separated by a channel around the perimeter at the point where the glass meets the floor, and underneath there is also a basement for storage and cleaning system. All formwork is purpose-built, and designed as a prefabricated truss system with a curved plywood layer. It took nearly five months to construct the formwork on site.
A complex FDM structural model is constructed to create a surface with the smallest and most evenly spread surface possible. The structure was designed by Henry Fagan The connection details hidden inside, even the power transmission point and drainage system to the floor, are carefully calculated so that the structure is like a thin shell floating above the water surface.
To ensure uniformity during construction, an installation module is deployed repeatedly 8 times to create the roof system.
Constructing the thin shell architecture of Bosjes Chapel is a challenge
The complex roof of the Bojes Chapel is 20 meters long, 12 meters wide and 6 meters high at the top. The professional and project team chose shotcrete as the project construction material. Due to the complexity of the roof form, 3D CAD models were used to calculate the volume of materials required. The shell consists of 74 cubic meters of concrete and 8175 kg of high-strength steel reinforcement. It is supported by four hidden reinforced concrete platforms, each with a vertical load of nearly 50 tons.
Due to the unusual shape of the shell, each rebar (top and bottom) had to be individually cut and bent by hand to fit. Concrete is poured as shotcrete – launched with compressed air at high velocity through a hose. This had to be done from mobile platforms and was frequently delayed by strong winds and rain, taking six weeks instead of the two initially calculated.
Learn how to 3D render Bosjes Chapel
With a curved and complex roof form, using modern software to balance architectural proportions and calculate structures is really important. Flexiiform introduces a very useful video describing the process of creating ideas using Rhino Grasshopper software from Parametric house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kpYPLuoBa0&list=RDCMUCjLDKM9EzNdASaNdjBhTqug&start_radio=1&rv=7kpYPLuoBa0&t=69
Flexiiform Consulting
Tensile fabric can be completely shaped according to the shape of the Bosjes Chapel roof
In addition to thin shell concrete materials, stretched canvas roof is also a bright choice for complex forms with high shaping requirements. A project with a curvy shape similar to the form of Bosjes Chapel must include the design of world-famous female architect Zaha Hadid at the project. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery in 2013.
