"Generative Fabrication shows extraordinary work inspired by the physical and biological world, which takes advantage of new production techniques enabled by computation," said Makai Smith, SIGGRAPH 2009 Curated Art Chair from Bentley Systems. "The innovative structures, sculpture installations, and complex forms in the gallery show how the computer has unlocked a new field of inquiry in art, architecture, and design."
The curated installations will present design ideas from two main themes:
- Generative design – algorithm and process, explorations of phase space and path dependent emergent phenomena, form-finding (versus form-making), and iterative design through simulation, analysis, and optimization.
- Digital fabrication – the interplay between digital representation and the crafting of physical objects; formation of structures by aggregation, weaving, and layered manufacturing; and exploitation of organic and composite material properties.
Highlights of SIGGRAPH 2009 Curated Generative Fabrication Gallery Include:
Monumental Nets
Janet Echelman, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
Ian Keough, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers PC, New York, New York, USA
Janet Echelman and Buro Happold have developed a sculptural technique which synthesizes traditional fabrication methods with digital form-finding and rationalization processes to create monumental, massive public sculptures.
Schiara Lantern
Greg Lynn/FORM, Venice, California, USA
Bill Kreysler, Kreysler & Associates, American Canyon, California, USA
An approximately six-foot diameter lantern consisting of a single hollow volume constructed from multiple translucent molded composite parts with numerous apertures at multiple orientations.
Complex Form in Timber
Fabien Scheurer, designproduction, Stuttgart, Germany
The combination of parametric CAD systems and computer-controlled fabrication tools makes timber the perfect material for free-form architecture. The advent of digital fabrication technologies has opened the doors to ever more complex shapes in architecture. Computer controlled mills, drills, and cutters are used to transfer the principles of mass customization to the building industry. Those computer numerical controlled (CNC) tools are able to produce thousands of individual components almost at the cost of mass production, allowing the construction of complex curved shapes within reasonable budgets.
Rules of Six
Chris Lasch, Aranda/Lasch, New York, New York, USA
A large-scale commission by the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind, Rules of Six is an experiment in growth. The design explores issues of self-assembly, where top-down methods for determining form are replaced by bottom-up rules of formation. The structures presented are not carved or composed in a traditional sense; they are grown through simple interactions (hexagonal in nature) that are similar to the ones molecules follow in the lab.
MyLight.MGX
Naomi Kaempfer, Materialise.MGX, Leuven, Belgium
This piece demonstrates how an electric commercial lamp can be different for each customer due to a manufacturing method (SLS) that allows for the production of an object without using a mold - they are simply "printed" three-dimensionally.
Holy Ghost
Lionel Theodore Dean, Artist/Designer, FutureFactories
In Holy Ghost, digitally generated modifications are made to Philippe Starck's iconic Louis Ghost chair. A computer script runs in real time determining the number, position, size, and shape of elements that make up the form. Real world chairs are "printed" directly from digital data - each one a unique solution.
Ground Substance
Jenny E. Sabin, CabinStudio, Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Ground Substance presents work from LabStudio, a hybrid architectural biological design unit founded by Jenny Sabin and Peter Lloyd Jones at the University of Pennsylvania. Their mission is to produce new modes of thinking in design and biomedicine through the modeling of multi-dimensional biological systems with experiments in fabrication and material construction.
Pluripotent Structures
Ferda Kolatan, su11 architecture+design, New York, New York, USA
Pluripotent Structures is an investigation into adaptive and variable
formal and structural organizations that have more than one possible
outcome while maintaining an overall coherence.
