The Folded Geometry of Luuwit Park Shelter

by Paul Deffenbaugh | June 1, 2020 12:00 am

At the intersection of those lines sits a sculpture-like shelter of folded triangles covered in perforated, galvanized plates. The structure was designed by Skylab Architecture, Portland, with firm principal Jeff Kovel, AIA, as the design lead, and Jamin Aasum, AIA, serving as project director.

“Portland just doesn’t have a lot of new public parks,” says Aasum. “This one is in a greatly underserved area out by the airport. It’s a highly diverse region of the city. The property where the park is sited was farmland but there are no iconographic predispositions to draw on. No little huts with gable roofs.”

That meant the shelter’s design could be a blank slate, and the inspiration came from the surrounding peaks and the indigenous people. “You have an openness in that kind of environment, and with that population you want to create something that is open to everybody,” Aasum says.

Making the challenge more difficult was the shape and location of the park itself. It’s surrounded by houses and has a grade school on one side. The park comprises two pieces of property shaped in a rough figure eight, and access to the park comes from lots at either end of the loops.

Landscape architecture firm 2.Ink, Portland, designed the 16-acre park and took in hundreds of suggestions for what should be included. As a result, the park is widely inclusive and features a soccer field, skate park, nature trail, playground with sand castle making station, misting poles, dog walk, community garden and the shelter, which also serves as an amphitheater.

When the Skylab team first met with 2.ink, Aasum brought cardboard and while the discussion went along, he fashioned models from the cardboard. “They were little matchbook-sized models of different ways to the do the shelter,” he says. “There were three options all based on triangles, kind of like origami. It was pretty geometric. Skylab has a way of approaching design. Triangles and diagonals figure prominently as well as a kind of informality and asymmetry. All of that played into the idea of making this shelter that had some pieces that came down and would rest lightly on the ground.”

The final concept used two roof triangles with three triangles serving as the support legs. All of the triangles are equilateral and the sides use perforated galvanized plate that is attached with a hidden fastener system. “The sides create some shelter from the wind,” says Aasum, “and still keep the interior open for security. Police need to be able to see inside the shelter at night.” The perforations are 5/8-inch on 1-inch centers.

The infrastructure is 6-inch tubular galvanized steel. Originally, the intent was to keep the framing in its natural color, but welding marks spoiled the appearance, and the design team decided to paint it bright yellow. “It was kind of a happy accident,” says Aasum, preferring the yellow to the original idea.

Galvanized returns along the edges create a sharp knife-edge, enhancing the geometry of shelter, which may have been blunted by seeing the tubular steel running along the edge of the roof and sides. Lights are also tucked up under the plating along the frame.

The effect is a shelter that appears to be quite simple but is anything but. “It feels like such an easy geometry,” says Aasum. “What could possibly go wrong?” In truth, the design team, structural engineer and metal fabricators all struggled to figure out measurements. Even putting the design into a simple CAD program was a challenge.

Eventually, an intern used the Grasshopper plug-in, which does algorithmic modeling, to map each point on the design so the measurements would be accurate. That allowed the team to pull or push certain points to make the geometry line up correctly.

The galvanized coating matches a nearby bathroom facility that has a butterfly roof and simple design. They are the only two significant structures in the park. Around the shelter rises terraced seating that arcs in a semicircle with the shelter at the center. Portlanders can lay out their blankets and listen to music with the shelter serving as the stage.

Among the many challenges the design team faced was the necessity of meeting ADA requirements. Because the sides of the shelter come down at an angle, blind people would easily bang their heads on the edge. The base of each side is a raised concrete platform that the shelter sits on. The platforms extend out so that they form cane detection pieces.

On a small rounded rise nearby, artist Mauricio Robalino placed a sculpture called “Bird.” It picks up on the sharp angles of the shelter and reinforces the idea of geometry that Skylab Architecture established. The park itself, though, is not angular. These elements— shelter, bathrooms and sculpture—are placed in a site that is very organic and rounded. The contrast between the natural curves and the sharp angles of galvanized steel create a tension in the design. That tension is enhanced by the two datum lines that sit at a right angle and reference Mount St. Helens and Mt. Hood.

The park has become a center of activity for the neighborhood, offering so many options for so many people. “It’s packed,” says Aasum. “On a weekend, especially, but even during the weekdays there are a lot of parents and kids there.”

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/the-folded-geometry-of-luuwit-park-shelter/

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