Case studies

Micro practice case study

8.2.4 Tonkin Liu
London, United Kingdom

Practice structure

Located in Clerkenwell in central London, Tonkin Liu is a 13 strong practice led

by directors Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu. The practice's research agenda builds
on Tonkin's previous practice experience in Hong Kong where he employed
research as a process methodology in his architectural work. This proved
successful not only with clients but also with the professional bodies who
presented the practice with multiple awards. The driving force behind their
method is a determination to innovate; to nd and create something new.
such, research forms part of the design process throughout the practice and for
all members of the team and is explored through model making.
For Tonkin Liu, model making forms a critically important part of the research
process that also includes multi-disciplinary methodologies and historic social,
cultural and built environment precedents. Their resolve to translate their ideas
models is evident in their small studio space which accommodates conceptual,
developmental and final models that have been created for all the practice's projects.
Research projects form the starting point and are integral to each project whether
they are exploratory, research only, or lead to a completed architectural design.

Research focus

On returning to the UK and forming Tonkin Liu, their entry in the RIBA Directory
stated the practice ambition to do "something we've never done before" and
this is reflected in the diversity of the design and research projects which ranges
from domestic renovations and extensions to bridges, urban redevelopments
and pavilions. While their sectors may be diverse, their innovation in structure
as architecture is a common theme.
This is most clearly recognisable in the practice's Shell Lace structure, their
single surface structural technology, that has evolved to include a cruise ship
terminal in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, their proposal for the Shi Ling Bridge in the
Chinese city of Yunnan, the Rain Bow Gate in Burnley and most recently its appli-
cation as a medical stent, although this hasn't prevented them from building in
more established materials such as timber and steel

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The benefits of research and its influence on design

The practice has identified three benefits to their research. First, the practice is
certain that, reflecting on conversations with examiners and jurors, their research
has played a significant role in helping them win competitions. Second, it carves
out time to think and investigate new ways of reasoning, focussing the mind on
a series of issues that may not be on the drawing board in the practice but can be
applied to future projects if the fit is right. Finally, it has provided opportunities
to work on completely different projects in different fields, fostering additional
research, which has, in turn, encouraged the team to be even more open-minded
to the bene ts and processes of working in different ways that encourages
to approach their commissioned projects from a different perspective.

Funding and client commissions

Although the practice was a recipient of the 2013 RIBA Research Trust Fund and
an Innovate UK grant for the development of their Shell Lace Stent, most of
Tonkin Liu's funding, and design commissions, have come through competi-
tions. Identifying funding for the research component of the work is not always
straight forward and, like many other practices, they have yet to receive a direct
client commission for research. However, as they consider research to be an
integral part of the design methodology, this is not a serious concern for
practice.

Collaborations

The practice has worked regularly with structural engineers, including Arup
and Jane Wernick Associates, in developing several of the Shell Lace projects.
Both directors teach at the Architectural Association and the University of Bath,
where Mike Tonkin is undertaking a PhD, and both are external examiners at the
Bartlett School of Architecture. The practice is part of a four-way collaboration
between the universities of Cambridge and Bath with Foster + Partners and
Tonkin Liu as the practice partnership. Although for this project, as with most of
their academic engagement, they contribute their research services to a collabo-
rative process on a pro bono basis.

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Publishing and disseminating work

The practice has participated in 28 exhibitions and their models have appeared
at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition several times including the
model for Sun Rain Room, the extension to their own home and office, shown
in 2016, the Tower of Light in 2018, and the Paddington Willow Pavilion and
Opening Bridge to Crystal Palace Dinosaur Islands models in 2019. These most
recent models were awarded the BKI Architecture and Materials Prize and the
opportunity to present the work at the Royal Academy. Following their
Trust Award, the Institute hosted an exhibition in 2014, The Evolution of Shell
Lace Structure, which included two presentations with a self-published book
following this work.
Their first practice publication covered their story-led projects based on work
in Hong Kong (Tonkin Liu, 1999). Their second details the Shell Lace structure
from conception to final structure. They are considering a third that would move
through the evolution of their process and beyond Shell Lace through different
materials, techniques and approaches, to their cross-over into the medical world
with the tracheal stent.

Tonkin Liu - Project profiles

The evolution of Shell Lace and beyond

The Shell Lace structure, for which Tonkin Liu is best known, launched their
structural agenda and was first developed as their submission for a design
competition for a wind shelter on the beachfront at Bexhill-on-Sea. Inspired by
the structure of a shell, they developed the shelter's shape using paper models.
Although the proposal did not win the commission, it established a pattern of
working through ideas using hand-built models and taking inspiration for an
integrated structure and form from nature.
The practice has evolved this thinking and process through several projects,
each further evolving their research and refining their designs. These include a
disaster shelter that, by efficiencies in component design and cutting, produced
zero waste, the 75 m Shi Ling Bridge, the perforated Corten steel Solar Lace
Bridge designed to span a motorway in Lisbon offering three separate routes for
walking, cycling, and running, and the Rain Bow Gate.

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Figure 8.22: Elevated view of Rain Bow Gate. © Greg Storrar

Located in Burnley in the north of England outside a higher education college

(See Figure 8.22), the Rain Bow Gate references the industrial heritage of
the
region and stands as a reminder that the city enjoys the heaviest rainfall in
UK,
the central to mill operations in the nineteenth century. "It's all about the rain"

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noted Tonkin. The piercings in the three steel arches are filled with glass prisms,
projecting rainbows onto the ground when hit by sunlight.
The interaction between sunlight and the Shell Lace structure is replicated
in the Solar Gate, constructed on the site in Hull, where King Charles I was
denied entry to the city in 1642 (see Figure 8.23). Designed as a sundial,
apertures across the ten-meter tall structure align with the sun's position

Figure 8.23: The Solar Gate showing the larger apertures which function as a sundial. © Alex Peacock

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Bigure 8.24: The sundial function of the Solar Gate illuminating key dates in Hull's history. O
George

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Figure 8.25: Construction of the Solar Gate. © Tonkin Liu

on key dates in the city's history and commemorating individuals, including

the date of William Wilberforce's bill calling for the abolition of slavery, the
posthumous release of musician Mick Ronson's album Heaven and Hull,
and completion of The Old Dock, creating beams of light that land on 16
metal plates on the ground (see Figure 8.24). The lace structure, pierced to
reduce wind load, was fabricated by Hull-based specialist metal fabricator
Pearlgreen Engineering from 4 mm thick laser.cut stainless steel sheets
(see Figure 8.25) and installed in 2017 to mark Hull's status as UK City of

Completed in 2020, their 40 m tall Tower of Light' structure adjacent 1

Manchester's Piccadilly Station, again designed to the shell Lace structure,
provides a shield for the stainless steel fumes of the Vital Energi combined
heat and power energy centre, providing power to the Council Building and
Manchester City Council, behind. Following the initial commission, the
scheme

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Figure 8.26: Render of the Tower of Light. © Tonkin Liu

was expanded to include a pavilion at the base of the tower, the Wall of Energy,
clad in 1,300 handmade white ceramic tiles to re ect the sky (see Figure
Their ongoing partnership with ARUP has evolved further, refining the structure
with the laser-cut sheets reduced to 3-8 mm thick. The structure's lacework
allows sunlight to land on internal polished re ectors that move with
wind, creating light that dances across the structure during the day and LEDs
assuming this role at night.

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While the stories attached to their designs have been well received particu-
larly in competitions, convincing the jury of the structural stability of their
proposals has proved a significant and persistent challenge. Despite their
ongoing collaboration with ARUP on almost all structural projects, judges and
external observers regularly question the structural integrity of the designs
and the research that underpins their work, refusing to believe or trust
delicate structures are stable. This has led to an increase in the depth of
structural components which in turn has increased material, fabrication and
installation costs.
Restricting costs to provide design at as low a cost as possible is
to Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu for their Shell Lace Stent. This time adapting
the Shell Lace structure with inspiration taken from the petals of the arum lily
and applying elastica, Leonard Euler's 1744 theory of the mechanics of solid
materials that allows for very large scale elastic de ections of structures.
final design is c-shaped, made from silicon, and inserted into a patient's trachea
in the inverted position before unfurling, much like a lily petal (see Figures 8.27
and 8.28). Expected to be used to treat collapsed airways following surgery for
throat cancer or other trauma, the lace-like perforated stent should allow for
a better fit without the need for future readjustments and more effective drug
delivery to the affected areas. The practice has filed for patents in the United
States and Europe for the stent which has been shortlisted for the RIBA London
Awards (RIBA], 2020).

push oul

Relaxed
Inverted Loaded Deployed

Figure 8.27: Illustration of the Shell Lace Stent. © Tonkin Liu

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--•-•-• Pinholes in Collars

Hold tucked-in collars in place
and release them after surgery

-•---- Collar Geometry

Outward tilt facilitates grippage

- Three Collars
Folded and tucked in during surgery

Suturing of transplanted
trachea to nealtv trachea-

_.-- Perforations
Facilitate porosity, material
strength, drug delivery

----- Longitudinal Undulations

Facilitate grippage

n ends

i Suturing

Figure 8.28: Detailed illustration of the Shell Lace Stent. © Tonkin Lil

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