Design assist — Szolyd Concrete

The collaboration

What we bring to the table — before anything is cast

01

Constructibility, early

Material thicknesses, fastening methods, tolerances — resolved with the design team while the concept is still moving, not after the drawings close. On the SFU installation that conversation ran for a year, from first sketch to functional art.

02

The surface is a mold problem

Rubber and fibreglass molds mirror whatever they’re cast against — near-perfect, if that’s the brief. When an artist wanted rough board-formed concrete instead, we lined the molds with cedar and cast an industrial texture into a highly refined material. The finish you imagine is mold-building, and mold-building is our craft.

03

Connection, cast in

Bolts, stainless inserts and fixing hardware are cast integrally into each component, so pieces arrive finished and bolt together on site — no drilling into the work after the fact.

Relief icons and braille cast into a grey Ductal concrete surface, raking light — Texture mats — icons and braille cast into Ductal, SFU

Board-formed UHPC panels of the Substation Pavilion mid-install at the Meccanica development — Board-formed UHPC — Substation Pavilion, Vancouver

A four-panel rendering sheet from Perkins+Will Canada for the 1220 Homer Street staircase — the curved flight seen from above, from below, in elevation and head-on, dark treads behind a curved glass balustrade — What arrives: Perkins+Will’s design intent for the staircase at 1220 Homer Street, Vancouver. A curved flight, treads reading as thin planes, a glass balustrade following the sweep — drawn before anyone had established it could be cast. Our side of the table starts here. What it became →
Rendering: Perkins+Will Canada

Prototyping

How it actually runs — from a ring to a monument

A client wanted a lion’s head cast in white Ductal — and the only source was the ring on their finger. That project is our prototyping pipeline in one story: scan the source, model it, print it small enough to argue about, then mill, mold and cast it at full scale.

The same pipeline — 3D scan, 3D print, CNC-milled positives, rubber molds — runs for benches, panels and one-off components. It’s how an idea gets to concrete without guesswork.

The scan — a ring, sectioned for its optimal profile

01

Scan

Any source — a maquette, an artifact, here a ring — captured digitally and sectioned for the right profile.

02

Model & print

A 3D print puts the piece in the client’s hands before anything expensive happens.

03

Mill & mold

The file is CNC-milled in foam, finished smooth, then captured in a rubber liner with a rigid plaster boot.

04

Cast

Poured in the precast shop — here in white Ductal, with stainless inserts cast in for mounting.

Casebook 01 · an artist’s texture

Substation Pavilion — art you can bolt together

For the Meccanica development in Vancouver, artist Cedric Bomford designed a pavilion in board-formed concrete — and Szolyd joined at the design stage to work out how it could actually be built. UHPC made the panels thin and modular: they average 38 mm thick, the longest piece runs thirteen feet, and every panel left the shop with its bolts already cast in, so the pavilion went together on site like a kit.

The texture came from the mold, not the material: cedar boards lining the forms left this highly refined concrete with the rough, industrial surface the artist wanted.

Project: Substation Pavilion — UHPC public art
Location: Meccanica development, Vancouver BC
Artist: Cedric Bomford
Material: Ductal® UHPC, board-formed
Panels: 38 mm (1½″) average thickness · longest piece 13 ft
Connection: Integral cast-in bolts

Crew installing the Substation Pavilion base panels, rows of cast-in bolts visible along the UHPC edge — Install day — the cast-in bolts doing their job

Cedric Bomford's drawings for the Substation Pavilion — elevations and sections of the panelled form — The artist’s drawings — where the panels start

The board-formed mold built in the shop, timber laid up to give the UHPC its grain — The mold — board-formed for the grain

Ductal being poured into the board-formed mold in the Szolyd shop — The pour

The demolded panel showing the board-formed timber grain picked up in the UHPC face — Demolded — the timber grain came with it

The finished Substation Pavilion standing in the Meccanica development plaza, Vancouver — In place — Meccanica, Vancouver

Casebook 02 · a year of drawings

EcoSoMo — functional art at Simon Fraser University

Designed by Matthew Soules Architecture, EcoSoMo is a family of modular UHPC forms — a seat, a story-telling screen, a rain pool — that recombine to suit their site. Over the year it took the concept to become functional art, Szolyd consulted on material thicknesses, fastening methods, textural mats and tolerances, then fabricated the modules in the shop.

The texture work is the part visitors touch: icons, braille and cast lettering pressed into the surface from mats built into the molds — graphic detail cast in, not applied after.

Project: EcoSoMo — UHPC functional art
Location: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC
Designer: Matthew Soules Architecture
Material: Ductal® UHPC, precast modules
Szolyd role: Thicknesses, fastening, texture mats, tolerances · fabrication

Serif lettering about Arthur Erickson cast crisply into two faces of a pale UHPC module — Lettering off the mold — cast, not engraved

The EcoSoMo family drawn out in four types — seat, story teller, rain pool and plant volcano — in plan, section and elevation — The family — seat, story teller, rain pool, plant volcano

Two of the shop crew either side of a full-height EcoSoMo module still in its mold frame — Full height, in the shop

A worker in full protective gear grinding and polishing the lettered face of a finished module — Finishing the cast face by hand

An installed EcoSoMo module on its base at Simon Fraser University, cast text running across the face — Installed — Simon Fraser University, Burnaby

Casebook 03 · a shape nobody could cast

The Sofi bench — a designer’s prototype, cast for real

Cristian Arostegui of Arostegui Studio designed the Sofi bench as a single sweeping form — a seat that reads as one continuous surface, which is easy to draw and hard to cast. Szolyd cast it in Ductal, and it went to Vancouver as a prototype.

It won the Prototype design award at IDS West that year. The award is Arostegui’s, for the design; our part was proving the shape could exist in concrete — and then that it could be made repeatedly, indoors or out, in any colour, in lengths up to eight feet.

Product: The Sofi bench
Designer: Cristian Arostegui · Arostegui Studio
Recognition: Prototype design award, IDS West Vancouver — 2015
Material: Ductal® UHPC · any colour
Lengths: Up to 8 ft
Use: Interior or exterior

A small black 3D-printed model of the Sofi bench held in one hand, its cantilevered seat curving out — The 3D print — small enough to argue about

The full-size mold for the Sofi bench in the shop, its curved cavity ready for the pour — The mold, full size

The finished white Sofi bench, one continuous surface sweeping from seat to leg — Cast — one continuous surface

Cristian Arostegui standing with the Sofi bench at the Prototype exhibit, IDS West Vancouver — Arostegui with the bench — Prototype exhibit, IDS West

Casebook 04 · the durability proof

The Atrium — the facade we point to

When The Atrium opened at Yates and Blanshard in 2010, it carried the first exterior precast UHPC cladding system on any building in North America — long white bands sweeping the block’s curved corner, drawn by D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism in the same material family we cast every day.

Szolyd’s part ran from pre-construction — design assistance on how the system would come together — to the piece you touch on the way in: the entry vestibule, fabricated at our shop. And when someone asks how long this material lasts, this is the building we point to. It has stood on that corner since 2010, with minimal maintenance. Drive past it.

Project: The Atrium — 800 Yates Street, Victoria BC
Architect: D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism
Completed: 2010
Facade: First exterior precast UHPC cladding in North America
Szolyd scope: Design assist · entry vestibule, fabricated in Victoria
Recognition: PCI Design Award, Best Mixed-Use Building — 2011

The Atrium's entry — a crisp white precast vestibule surround framing a wood-lined portal beneath the glass facade — The entry vestibule — the white surround, fabricated at the shop Photography: Jawl Properties

The Atrium at dusk — white UHPC bands sweeping the curved corner of Yates and Blanshard under a glass rooftop — The bands at dusk, sweeping Yates & Blanshard Photography: Jawl Properties

Start

Bring us the piece the spec book can’t cover.

The earlier we see the design, the more the material can do for it — send a sketch, a model, or the ring on your finger.

Start a project

Or write to us directly: trevorh@szolyd.com

Your design needs a material that doesn’t exist yet.