Vision – “The Veil and the Vault”
“The Veil and the Vault” by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS + R) is the phrase used to describe the concept of the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles – one of the most high profile projects to hit Los Angeles since Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. The veil is a honeycomb-like concrete shell that encloses the vault and provides much needed diffused natural light for the museum. It also supports the roof, allowing for column-free exhibit space. All of the veil ports are angled and shaped, so no direct sunlight enters the building.
The veil is lifted at one corner, opening the building to the street – an inviting gesture that welcomes visitors and commemorates a sense of arrival, as if the building captures the inhabitants. The museum’s main conference room is displayed on the outside, through the veil’s reshaping into what Elizabeth Diller calls “The Dimple,” allowing an unobstructed view of the outside.
The proposed Veil construction was unprecedented in that the monolithic, compound-shaped perforated panels were made from structural precast concrete. When put together, the panels load-bear the building’s entire roof; this required a very high level of technology and precision to execute.
CTC was selected as a team of companies contracted for production engineering and prototype fabrication, which would define how the museum’s veil would be built in precast concrete. The engineering and testing eventually resulted in a new production method for geometrically complex structural panels made of precast concrete.
CTC worked closely with the team, using CATIA software. While Diller Scofidio + Renfro were rationalizing the panels’ geometry to accommodate structural engineering requirements, CTC, in tandem, developed a new, highly complex production technology to bring their veil creation to fruition.