Studio: “Diverse Skins: Heterogeneous Monolith”

This studio explores alternative approaches to the high-rise typology in Addis Ababa, responding to the city’s rapid vertical growth and its spatial, social, and climatic consequences. Rather than designing an extruded tower, students will work collectively to develop a monolithic urban volume—a structure that emerges from careful site analysis, urban vistas, and contextual responsiveness.

At the heart of the course lies the design of adaptive façade systems. Each student group will focus on one surface of the collective monolith, developing a façade strategy that responds to specific conditions such as solar exposure, street noise, wind, and views. Using computational tools for analysis and parametric control, students will explore how environmental, visual, and structural parameters can generate variation within a coherent architectural system.

The project progresses from site research and collaborative massing design, to individual façade articulation, culminating in the digital and physical fabrication of a large-scale sectional model. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between part and whole, and how responsive surfaces can define the architectural, structural, and environmental identity of high-rise buildings in evolving urban contexts.

Design studio: “Diverse Skins: Heterogeneous Monolith”
Led by Visiting Lecturer Juergen Benson-Strohmayer and Prof. Petra Gruber
Winter Semester 2015-16

All content by Master of Advanced Architectural Design / Chair of Architecture and Building Science / Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development (EiABC)