HK Palace Museum Parametric Ceiling
Hong Kong 2020
Professional Work
Project Pitch
Front is hired by the subcontractor to redesign and provide fabrication data for the interior feature ceiling of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Expertise including Systems Design, Technical Drawings, Geometric Analysis, Building Information Modeling, Data Management and Automation, are required in this project to execute the parametric design with a total design-to-production approach.
A flagship project of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) development. As a new center for Chinese art and antiquities in Hong Kong, the building will be home to more than 900 objects from the Beijing Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. The building is conceived as a civic hub and new landmark for Hong Kong, as well as a platform to connect new generations with China’s cultural history.
Space exploration through sequential courtyards in the Beijing Palace Museum
HKPM stacks three atria that draw visitors up through the building
Building Information Modeling is necessary in the execution of such a project, for the management of data as well as the parametrically modeled geometries based on CAD detail design.
Data Management & Extraction
Geometries are strictly named and all important fabrication data are baked into the geometry with grasshopper. They can be extracted for communication with different departments, such as shop drawings for submission, Revit model for BIM coordination, and Bill of Materials (BOM) for stock material orderings.
Thousands of annotated drawings with fabrication data are automatically generated using grasshopper workflow. Identical parts are also labeled to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Programming Protocols
+ Divided Referenced Input: The ceiling is divided into zones using the same code for two reasons. First, to account for the orientation differences, and second, to be able to compute with limited CPU memory.
+ No Manual Input: All geometries and data are modeled strictly with grasshopper. No manual input is used to avoid errors.
+ One Way Wire: The code goes only one direction, from left to right. No data goes backwards for readability and to avoid errors. Data chimneys should be used when there is crisscrossing of data.
+ Elefront Bake: All geometries are baked with elefront attributes and designated bakenames, so they can be referenced and sorted easily in the next stage.
Credits and Data
Architect: Rocco Design Architects
Subcontractor: SEL constructions
Front Member:
Jason Bond
Jasmy Chieh-Hsuan Chen
Images courtesy of Front, Rocco Design Architects, ArchDaily, and Construction Plus.
jasmy.cch 