The Crack rethinks the cast concrete masonry unit in architecture. Sited in the Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, it was designed digitally with associative modelling and prototyped by means of 3D printing. The design features 70+ concrete blocks that interlock geometrically to form a structural whole. All blocks are unique and were cast in moulds made from EPS foam. The moulds were fabricated off site with the aid of a computer controlled hot-wire foam cutter. Masonry units were cast using self-compacting concrete, eliminating the need to vibrate moulds during curing. The units were numbered, trucked to the site, and assembled, with zero tolerance, in a day with the aid of a crane.

The masonry units were designed so that a larger, non-repeating pattern of seams and reliefs emerges when assembled. The seams in-between the blocks open and close to form narrow cracks. These cracks reveal the interior when the kiosk is lit from the inside at night. Two larger openings, one door and one window, were formed with the aid of interlocked blocks that cantilever. The concrete gained its dark colour from black pigment, which turned the kiosk into a mysteriously shadowy figure in the Botanical Garden.

The Crack was designed in conjunction with the Chalmers design studio Material and detail and has received international recognition. ArchDaily presents The Crack under the headline The Best Student Work Worldwide. Additionally, the popular digital design magazine designboom wrote an article about the kiosk. See links below.

www.archdaily.com
www.designboom.com