Image courtesy American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)
Mile Zero, a steel shade structure intended for the trailhead of the Razorback Greenway in Northwest Arkansas, has taken the top award in the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC) 2024 Forge Prize.
The Forge Prize, established by AISC in 2018, recognizes visionary emerging architects, architecture educators, and graduate students for design concepts which embrace innovations in steel as a primary structural component.
The Mile Zero design team’s concept uses an innovative Spin-Valence space frame system to cut, pull, and fasten uncoated weathering steel sheets into a modular system with structural depth. Mile Zero is a collaboration between Emily Baker, Vincent Edwards, and Edmund Harriss of the University of Arkansas; Princeton University’s Isabel Moreira de Oliveira; West Virginia University’s Eduardo Sosa; and Fayetteville, Ark.-based artist Reilly Dickens-Hoffman.
Baker developed the Spin-Valence system when she was in graduate school. It’s based on the Japanese art of kirigami, which uses folding and cutting to create 3D objects out of a flat material.
Baker and her collaborators intend to bring the design to fruition to replace the simple bollard that currently marks the beginning of a multi-use trail. They envision the structure, with its interplay of light and shadow, as a welcoming space for people to enjoy the outdoors together, or a backdrop for a group photo to commemorate a long bike ride on the Greenway.
In the second phase of the Forge Prize competition, the design team partnered with Tony Diebold, PE, chief structural engineer at Hillsdale Fabricators, based in St. Louis, Mo., to further develop their idea.
“Once [Baker] described the whole Spin-Valence concept to me, I thought it was pretty innovative and seems like it could be a really interesting structural piece–but also architectural,” Diebold says.
The design presented a different challenge than Diebold is used to. “Being an engineer, I like straight lines, and everything was cattywampus!”
