A Building Tale
The Story of Two Constructions, One Old Robot, and Bountiful Emerald Bugs.
by HANNAH
2020 Architectural League Prize Exhibition
A Building Tale: The Story of Two Constructions, One Old Robot, and Bountiful Emerald Bugs is a virtual exhibition that portrays the two-year creation of HANNAH’s Ashen Cabin. Born from an unlikely joint effort between robotic routines and herculean manual labor, the exhibition outlines the cabin’s two main construction processes which result in the production of a corbelled 3D printed concrete structure and a naturally undulating ash wood envelope. Through the collective pairing of visuals and of peculiar stories narrated by the team, collaborators, and the cabin’s visitors, the exhibition reveals highly idiosyncratic modes of making and unfamiliar design explorations. A Building Tale collects anecdotes and imaginative contemplations on the nature of construction, the fluffiness of spray foam, the ominous hum of an old robot, site making, wood bacon, ornamental concrete sausages, forest creatures, and the disastrous reign of the tiny Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). And so it begins:
“Somewhere, neither near nor far, and a time, neither now nor then, there was a curious forest with horizontal trees, full of stories, seducing all travelers to wander and explore …”
“IN SEARCH OF CONTEXT”
“A FOREST CREATURE”
“RISING HIGH”
“APPLIED PHYSICS AND ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENT”
“WRESTLING COLUMNS”
“A SEEDLING OF HOPE”
“CARRY-MOUNT-SCAN-SCRIPT-UPLOAD-CUT”
“MACHINE QUIRKS”
“ASSEMBLY PUZZLE”
“SLOW BURN”
“WHEN IT POURS, IT RAINS”
“THE ICONIC IMAGE”
“PRIOR TO FALL CREEK HOUSE”
“THE JOY OF LOG-ISTICS”
“CONSTRUCTION (IN)EFFICIENCY”
“THE FIRST CORNER”
“UNDER THE BLUE TARP”
“ALL HANDS ON FRAME!”
“FAN OF DRONES”
“WOOD BACON”
“FLUFFY FOAM SANDWICHES”
"PILGRIMAGE HUT”
“A VIKING PARTY: A POST-OCCUPANCY REPORT, OF SORTS”
“A SEALED FATE”
A Building Tale
The Story of Two Constructions, One Old Robot, and Bountiful Emerald Bugs.
2020
Curated by: Leslie Lok & Sasa Zivkovic
With guest contributions by: Jimenez Lai, Kyle Miller, Andrea Simitch, Peter Smallidge, Val Warke, Sofía von Ellrichshausen, John Zissovici
With HANNAH team contributions by: Byungchan Ahn, Christopher Battaglia, Jeremy Bilotti, Elie Boutros, Reuben Chen, Freddo Daneshvaran, Ethan Davis, Ramses Gonzalez, Eleanor Krause, Brian Havener, Justin Hazelwood, Alexander Kobald, Iris Ma, Alexandre Mecattaf, Alexander Terry, Gloria Yan, Jingxin Yang
Exhibition webdesign: HANNAH
Ashen Cabin
Ithaca, NY. 2017 & 2019.
HANNAH project leadership: Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic (Principals) / HANNAH project team concrete: Christopher Battaglia, Jeremy Bilotti, Elie Boutros, Reuben Chen, Justin Hazelwood, Mitchie Qiao / HANNAH assembly and documentation team concrete: Alexandre Mecattaf, Ethan Davis, Russell Southard, Dax Simitch Warke, Ramses Gonzales, Wangda Zhu / HANNAH project team wood fabrication and design: Byungchan Ahn, Alexander Terry / HANNAH wood studies: Xiaoxue Ma, Alexandre Mecattaf / HANNAH assembly and documentation team wood: Freddo Daneshvaran, Ramses Gonzalez, Jiaying Wei, Jiayi Xing, Xiaohang Yan, Sarah Elizabeth Bujnowski, Eleanor Jane Krause, Todd Petrie, Isabel Lucia Branas Jarque, Xiaoxue Ma / HANNAH representation team: Byungchan Ahn, Kun Bi, Brian Havener, Lingzhe Lu
Project realized with scientific support from the Cornell Robotic Construction Laboratory (RCL) / Sponsors: AAP College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; AAP Department of Architecture; HY-Flex Corporation; Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell Arnot Teaching and Research Forest
Special thanks to: Andrea Simitch and Val Warke.
Photography: Andy Chen, Reuben Chen, & HANNAH
