• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

BURST*008 - MoMA

• New York, NY
• Complete
• 1,500 Square Feet
• Project commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling; Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Curators
• Selected Media: Material Evidence; TATLIN Magazine; Closing the Gap: AD vol.79; GreenHouse; Log15; Costriure; Domus: Special Green Ways; a+u: Architectural Transformation via BIM; Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling; Time Magazine; Modern Painters; Vanity Fair; Hauser; Dwell; The Flint Journal; TreeHugger; ARTnews, Art Forum; Architectural Record; Newsweek; Architectural Review; The Guardian; The New York Times; The New York Sun; Fast Company; The Financial Times; The Wall Street Journal; The New York Review of Books
• Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston
• Henry Grosman, Michela Chiavi, Kristina Kesler, Rob Baker, Franz Daniel, Maryana Grinshpun, Rebecca Hora, Malvin Hwee, Jung Min Kim, Edward Kim-Yujoong, Charles Kwan, Philip Lee, Brian Osborne, Vicente Quiroga, Seth Roye, Troy Thierren, Design Team
• Kevin Field, Scott Nicholl, Tania Amodio, Lourd Galvez, Paul Hasty, Fidelma Hawney, Glen Ho, Mathew Kilivris, Alfie Koetter, Brian Manning-Spindt, Margaret Mockbee, Christian Prasch, Megan Pryor, Perry Randazzo, Craig Rosman, William Tucker, Bretaigne Walliser, Student Fabrication Team
• Buro Happold, Engineers
• Clark Johnson Lighting Studio, Lighting Design
• Sponsors: City College School of Architecture; Alan Costa, Stewart Title Insurance; Louis Dubin, The Athena Group; Carla Emil & Rich Silverstien; Jim Friedman, Ryan Associates; Rosalie Genevro, The Architectural League of New York; Helyn MacLean and Asher Waldfogel; New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture FABLAB; Daisy and Ross Newman; Anthony Rossello, Certain Pictures; Rotasa Foundation on behalf of Susan Cummins; Stewart and Lydia Stern, David and Marcie Tannenbaum, Jonathan and Catherine Bell, Rosemarie Halligan and Peter Van Alstyne, Stern Tannenbaum Bell LLP
• Material Sponsors: AF Supply Corporation; All-Boro Building Supply; Aluma Craft Products; Aspen Supply Corp.; Benjamin Moore Paints; Chilewich/Sultan LLC; Crate and Barrel; Designer Epoxy Finishes Inc.; F. W. Honerkamp Co. Inc.; LED Waves, Inc.; Lightolier; Leviton; Qantas Airways; Tremco Inc.
• Fabricators and Suppliers: Associated Fabrication LLC; Blaine Window Hardware Inc.; McMaster-Carr; Millenium Steel, The Murus Company, Inc.; P. C. Steck, Inc
• Ryan Associates, Inc. Vincent Flegar, Greg Koch, Paul Moore, Craig Nadeau, Kyle Peed, Mike Schweitzberger, Ashley Simone, Molly Thorkelson, General Contractors
• Sciame Construction Company, Site General Contractors • Budco Enterprises, Inc, Rigging
• Certain Pictures. Anthony Rossello, Video

BURST*008 was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art and built there for the exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. Built in 10 weeks, 4 off-site and 6 on-site, the Home Delivery project demanded an evolution of the award winning project, BURST*003. At MoMA, the BURST* name took on more than its original semantic origin, derived from the surface-applied “sunburst” flower graphic, to become a skylight and, more significantly, to become a means of delivery in which the structural ribs literally burst open on site before being lowered onto the structural moment frames that connect the house to the ground. Additional project evolutions in BURST*008 include a prefabricated structural insulated panel (SIP) skin system that provides a highly insulated architectural structure.
BURST* is a prefabricated system of housing that uses sophisticated digital design tools to create a highly customizable, simple-to-assemble, environmentally conscious house. The system is adaptable and responsive to various sites, climates, owners, and programs using an algorithm to generate the form based on specific conditions like angle of summer sun and number of inhabitants. An alternative to mass-produced versions of domestic life that reduce prefab houses to differing arrangements of boxes, each BURST* has the potential for unique spaces, expanding the range of architectural form for domestic and inexpensive construction. The system functions like a kit of parts to produce homes that use small building pieces to achieve individually tailored spaces.
Made of plywood, steel and glass, the house is raised off the ground and uses strategically placed vents and overhangs in order to maximize natural heating and cooling systems and minimize environmental impact, using only passive means to maintain temperature comfort levels. The flexibility of the house derives from literally weaving two sections together- the natural ground plane and an artificial, manipulated plane. These two planes travel vertically and horizontally to comprise the ground, the floor and the walls. Depending on specific conditions for an individual house, the weave can open, close and reshape in order to allow or prevent warming sun and cooling breezes into the house.
The house’s structural system is a tensile structure, similar to a kite or an airplane wing. The interweaving ribs and SIPs are locked into place, and thus made structural, by the skin pieces. This tension system is both high-strength and lightweight, making transport to the site low impact and assembly easy to follow as the pieces pop into each other. Because the bulk of the construction process is achieved digitally, sizing and fitting issues are resolved before being cut and numbered and bursting onto site, helping to ensure less than 5% waste.

All content © 2011 GAuthier Architect P.C.