This MATERIAL COMPUTATION exercise served as a precursor to the EKFM Radio Studio project. Over the course of 3 months, PennDesign graduate students constructed a number of small tile vault prototypes to become familiar with the construction technique, begin to understand the material, and its formal limits.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/835292b949e730342208afef58a052c601abfa13c0fe56396a268a2042f2546c/Cargo_PennVaults3.jpg)
Our techniques for design and construction were primarily intuititve. We used the shapes of hanging chains to design edge conditions on our vaults and basic materials such as thick-guage wire and string as our formwork/form guides.
Vault Prototype - Philadelphia from Empowering Mfangano on Vimeo.
By Kordae Henry
Funding:
E. Lewis Dales Fellowship, PennDesign - 1st Prize, $3500
Tile Vaulting Experiments at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design
Philadelphia, PA
2013
Construction Team: Jonathan Dessi-Olive (Project Captain), Kelly Berger, Kordae Henry, Erik Leach, Sam Rosen, Alyssa Olson, Moira Nadal, Ryan Koella, Bobby Lu
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f9690d1ecdf73fa153000dad3e2814f9af108e10f4e6cda88602aca19be1cbf0/Cargo_PennVaults.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd7032e890073c4dc11d11f222580a9e58405664b128e754ddc5ea436d6761d2/Cargo_PennVaults2.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ddae320ed7a90ff48460a08423e2b97579ab68ca818f1527b0239295a06d4db6/Cargo_PennVaults4.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/772cc11d12c7152aac3dc54012bef641a4cee34e0461523dba0eb74da4202d24/Cargo_PennVaults5.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2cf933e4fac6612c2eb75889313049f1a6f6e1f338c153cfdf34be79b91a8636/Cargo_PennVaults6.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3212fd8c7bd8f2b008c4e7dee76f159b727936123e447cecb4481e4800e368b/Cargo_PennVaults7.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e78151ccf0602c0c0b746da2aaa41394f218c6a9f7461f7c8cefb73e4ea70162/Cargo_PennVaults8.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31a2f2f068bcf5c5e33a8c4ab766f0f931ceb284d347f071a717270c7587d099/Cargo_PennVaults9.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/17178d19d7e80814c5591ebceb75d961cfc4cb9bddcff71286a97bd067b431b4/Cargo_PennVaults10.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f4f83724bdf96dd9e0bae73c79ebd7a24e32dbb95d3a55c30d3c738d663a6dfb/Cargo_PennVaults11.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ebd1bdf10ba9109e325c5bd8049b4d89444d627374823bef4a3036601fa05f71/Cargo_PennVaults12.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/351c155640c80e1c60dba50d96df00ba4c5720a1f6696b5dc025380c5b15008d/Cargo_PennVaults13.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88f99295a07489f67671b9779529545a4e95742d67cc5e4b32e82a2f3eb0e1cd/Cargo_PennVaults14.jpg)
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