A Time-warp Triumph

How to reinvent 19^th century religious architecture in the context of 21^st century design and manufacturing methodologies? That was the challenge Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects gave itself in creating an addition for its office in a renovated 1890 Norwegian church. With the unique freedom of being his own client, Dean Marchetto combined the traditional shape of an apse with innovative modern materials and techniques. Working with the progressive graduate program at the Project-Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology, they created a pre-constructed Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) bent steel tubular skeletal frame which was clad in innovative CNC laser-cut zinc shingles and steel-and-glass curtain wall systems. The structure takes advantage of advanced parametric information modeling systems enabling the complex geometric form of the abstracted apse to be constructed with the modest budget of a traditional urban addition.