In 1886 Jaume Escofet founded ESCOFET y FORTUNY, a pavement manufacturing company. Later it became Escofet y Tejero and in 1988 they won the Barcelona World Trade Fair Gold Medal.In 1906 they started producing modernist hydraulic tiles. The tiles manufactured by Escofet in conjunction with renowned architects like Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Alexandre de Riquer. The most outstanding example is Antoni Gaudí’s Hexagonal Tile for the Pedrera building interiors. An adaptation of this model was used 90 years later to pave Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia.

Our design style is based on he typical tiles from Barcelona produced a century ago by the factories that rised in the industrial revolution.

The process started in Rhino, was developed with the help of Grasshopper, set up in RhinoCam and sent to the CNC milling machine. (milling time 2:07h)

After the cast mould was finished, it was treated with sealer and vaseline and concrete was poured in. After taking care that all the air bubbles are out, the concrete was left to dry for about 6 to 7 hours. After the cast was removed from the mould, it was polished and put in place.

——- Ruxandra // Carlos // Novak ——-

The main idea for our joint is to create a tower and manipulate its form in real time in order to achieve several different structures. It is formed by 4 rods in the middle which are the sustain of the tower and allow it to move up and down; then, other 6 on the outside, works as a all to create a structural “skin” or “facade”.

The joint is formed by three parts: The first one is the core which slide up and down using as a path the 4 rods in the middle. Then, because we wanted to have a 360 degrees organic movement of the outer rods, we created two components to allowed us the movement in the XY axis and in the YZ axis, like an increasing and decreasing living tower.

The joint is formed by 13 pieces; the central piece, which is the most important, is the one that allows us to assemble all the elements; then, there are 6 “U” pieces than provides the horizontal movement, that means in the XY axis. Finally, there are 6 “arms” or “legs” pieces that works in vertical movement, the YZ axis; all this configuration provides a movement of expansion and contraction to the entire structure.

The tower raises through the combination of three types of joints which work with friction and blocking strategies. The first type makes possible the connection between the external X pieces, the second one allows the interlocking between the X shaped pieces and the horizontal frame, while the third type joins the vertical crosses with the horizontal frame.