Courtesy of AIA – Gernot Riether

Every year, the AIA stages a competition for an intervention that best relates to the architectural and cultural environment of its host city. Hosted by New Orleans this year, the institute selected a scheme by Gernot Riether that proposed a series of glowing spherical enclosures sited within the hidden courtyards of the city’s distinctive French Quarter.

Courtesy of AIA – Gernot Riether

The pavilion not only demonstrates the work of the digital design build studio that Riether leads at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, but also uses glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG). This material can either be produced from recycled plastic, or more pertinent to this location, from sugar cane: a plant that has been an integral part of the culture of Louisiana for over 200 years.

Courtesy of AIA – Gernot Riether

Situated in the courtyard of a local gallery owned by Arthur Ross, close to North Rampart at 1025 Orleans Street, the 18m² pavilion comprises 320 different PETG cells. The modules were prefabricated and assembled into six larger components, designed to stack and fit into a small truck, and to be installed in less than two days by Riether and eight students. The pavilion cost $2,500 (£1,500) to build.

Courtesy of AIA – Gernot Riether

Keen to underline material as well as the formal innovations, Riether makes special mention of the structure’s carbon footprint, quoting manufacturer Dow’s claim that every 0.5kg of plastic produced represents a total gain of almost 1kg of CO² removed from the atmosphere. ‘Since the AIA pavilion used 123kg of material, the production of the pavilion would remove 246kg of CO² from the atmosphere,’ he states. ‘This demonstrates that producing PETG from sugar cane has tremendous environmental benefits that might make plastic the building material of the 21st century.’

Courtesy of AIA – Gernot Riether

Courtesy of Projectione

The project looks to make these spaces welcoming and attractive to encourage people to use and visit them. That is in line with Indy’s culture enhancing projects such as; First Friday events, the Cultural Trail, and urban renewal plans.

Courtesy of Projectione

The project consists of an architectural light fixture that adds light and mood to these in-between areas. It uses parametric design and CNC fabrication techniques allowing it to be built offset and transported in pieces to the location and assembled on site.

By Danya Hakky

Courtesy of Projectione

 Courtesy of Steven Holl

These massive hunks of stone which defy classification in singular terms, are Steven Holl’s Inversion. What began as a watercolour painting, was interpreted by the architect/artist to be milled from limestone using a 5-axis CNC mill. Originally quarried at Lecce, Italy, the six stone solids went on display at Milan’s Designweek 2013 and will eventually end their journey in Princeton, New Jersey, installed at the new Steven Holl designed Performing Arts Center at Princeton University.

Courtesy of Steven Holl

Measuring 1.2 meters in height and each weighing in at 1133 kg, the volumes appear as snapshots in time. Movement has been caught and distilled in solid rock. But then again, maybe that isn’t it. There is a definite sectional quality to the six volumes. Perhaps it isn’t that movement has been caught, but that stasis has been solidified and revealed. The internal relationships between that which is concrete and that which is absent are revealed through a cut seemingly too perfect for stone. At night, these voids are illuminated, giving the pale coloured limestone a warm, living glow.

Courtesy of Steven Holl

The volumes cease to be one homogenous material and the relationship of bounding to bound- once difficult to discern, becomes stark and clear; shadow against light, it is beautiful.

By Matt Davis

Courtesy of Steven Holl

By Danya Hakky

Courtesy of  HWCD’s Sculptural Office Furniture – photographer T+E

Courtesy of  HWCD’s Sculptural Office Furniture – photographer T+E

Courtesy of : Scenario Interior Architects

From this the architects and designers drew inspiration for the shop. The floors are covered with ice and tables are made of happy dancing penguins. The columns were disguised as the straws through which the flavors escape the ground and blast onto the ceiling. Perhaps one of my favorite things about the shop is that the counter is designed to child height so that they don’t feel overpowered or unimportant. A cute design, perhaps the column could have been designed in a way to better convey the movement and connection.

Courtesy of : Scenario Interior Architects

Courtesy of : Scenario Interior Architects

Courtesy of ICD-ITKE

But we’ve since plateaued. Mankind is finding fewer and fewer new ways of using the materials we know, and more and more tried and tested methods. Now it’s probable that if one were to poll contractors, they would say this is great news. But humans strive for innovation and as such, the paradigm of ‘more and more tried-and-tested’ is one that quickly grows stale in our mouths. We are slowly slipping into the paradigm of figuring out how to make our materials to make the things we want. The difference is astounding. No longer will the statement go, ‘yeah, we could probably make that work in steel- it’s gonna need a lot of trussing though’. Instead we are looking at responses more akin to, ‘Yeah, our Poly-_____-ilate will handle that no problem… Unless it’s in a northern climate. In that case, you’re gonna want to use Iso-________-icate.’ We approach an age of making the things we want both directly, in making our materials; and secondary, in making this with those materials.

Courtesy of ICD-ITKE

This is a project recently completed by ITKE – Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design, and their partners at the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart. Below is a brief explanation of the project,

The project demonstrates the latest developments of an integrative computational approach to architectural design, biomimetic engineering and robotic manufacturing. It is the world’s first architecture built entirely by robotic carbon- and glassfibre winding. The research pavilion is entirely constructed from more than 30 kilometers of carbon- and glass fibre with no need for any other supporting building elements. The 4 millimeter thin shell achieves a span of more than 8 meters and in total weighs less than 320 kg… The focus is on bio mimetic design strategies for performative morphology in architecture. Specifically, the structural morphology of natural fibre-composites as found in the exoskeletal cuticula of arthropods, are transferred into a carbon-fibre and glass-fiber reinforced composite lay-up through a custom robotic filament placement process. The project will be located on the University’s campus in the city centre of Stuttgart and is scheduled to be opened at the end of August 2012. The robotic filament placement will happen on-site in a custom fabrication setup, which was developed as part of this project.

Courtesy of ICD-ITKE

A steel starburst-like scaffold was used for the above mentioned robotic assembly to wrap around. The precision used is quite unbelievable. The pavilion and robot would rotate and revolve, acting cumulatively, and even with the slight shuttering of the whole apparatus as the piece stopped spinning, the robot found just the right slot to lay the fibers in. It is technologies like this, and 3D printing which will define construction of the future.

Courtesy of ICD-ITKE

Courtesy of Alexander White

PRODUCTION :
CNC router, 9mm MDF. All components being identical, they can be economically laid out on a sheet of 8by4 MDF producing minimal waste. After being cut out each component is fed onto a metal pole that runs through the width of the chair, then splayed and fixed in place in order to achieve the desired aesthetic and comfort. Then the whole chair is primed and lacquered.

Courtesy of Alexander White

RESEARCH ABSTRACT:
Marilyn was always in the back of my mind when designing this chair but my main aim was to produce a chair made from one component. I started with a fairly simple idea that I sketched and play around with it in my sketchbook until I was convinced that it’s is worth developing. I then took the basic drawn shape to the computer and started producing more refined shapes for the main component. Several models then followed perfecting the aesthetics and apparent comfort of the chair. It’s only once a full size prototype was made that I could fully understand the boundaries and balances between it’s style and comfort and therefore decide on final detailing.

Courtesy of Alexander White

CHALLENGE:
Trying to get the correct shape for the main component was a challenge. As the repeated component for this design performs many tasks; the front end of it being both the armrest and the front leg and the back end of it being the back rest and the back leg. This meant a balance between the functions of the component had to be found. Its shape had to be just right.

Courtesy of Alexander White

Courtesy of LAVA

Although the exterior lines are a put hard and straight edged, the interior is carved to be a lot softer, creating surfaces for sitting and sleeping.

Courtesy of LAVA

Courtesy of Matthijs la Roi & Carlo Maria Morsiani

The use of contemporary digital devices, capable of generating parametrically related geometrical objects, gave birth to more that 60 plans, by eight designers, in only two days. Those mediums are able, today, to provide the author with more and more freedom, giving the ability to sculpt complex configurations guided mainly by intuition. A digital algorithm ensured that for every possible composition all the production drawings where automatically unfolded. In this way a design proposal was able to be fully detailed in just a matter of seconds. The precondition for the designer to work with such methodologies is that he or her not only can define the “brick” but also the complete construction system that goes along with it, monitoring, therefore, every working steps.

Courtesy of Matthijs la Roi & Carlo Maria Morsiani

However, in the current time of open-source communities, the central role of the architect as an autonomous personality, is permanently disrupted. The author, its tool, and the result cannot be detected as three independent bodies anymore, but they rather must be seen as an open network where every one is actively influencing each others as never before, consequently ensuring, a constant evolution. Candelabrum 2.0 was a logic and not a design, a possibility and not a solution, a process without a clear outcome. It was a project in which each personality could influence the product. A joint system of non linear development based on a traversal method that tested minor changes in comparison to the overall composition. Candelabrum 2.0, finally, was a fascination for the beauty of imperfection.

Project:
Matthijs la Roi and Carlo Maria Morsiani
Team:
John Juhyung Chun, David Gillles, Xin Dogterom, Niels van Dijk, Carlotta Speranza, Niccolo Marini
Sponsor
www.iablu.it
Host:
Azienda Agricola Roli
Location
Castelvetro di Modena, IT

Courtesy of Matthijs la Roi & Carlo Maria Morsiani

Courtesy of Takao Shiotsuka

Courtesy of Takao Shiotsuka