Metalab has designed the system and authored the parts for this innovative and mobile Photobooth. Our clients at BSP will transport and install this at weddings and other occasions for quick, high quality photos printed on the spot. The casters are integrated into the case with removable handles so the unit can be easily moved onto the thick ballast plate from the dolly. Rhino/Grasshopper was used to generate the perforations on the surface of the Photobooth. The perforation pattern becomes random and dissipates as they move away from the curved region of the surface. The holes relieve the material resistance to bending along the radius defined by the adjacent part. The front panel hinges open to access the printer, camera, CPU and lighting inside.

The goal of this project was to develop the digital and physical groundwork necessary to provide design guidelines for the production of a light screen used to modulate and regulate natural and artificial light. As a result of the conceptual investigation of repetitive systems, an evaluation of woven rope provided a wide variety of typologies for consideration. Issues of dynamic structural integration, oscillating surface geometry, and varying modular density were all present. The digital model generated in response to the woven rope illustrates weaving through the control of the undulating geometry of the pockets and oscillation of the pocket direction. Erwin Hauer’s work on minimal surface geometry provided an invaluable frame of reference for the design process. In particular, the light module is comprised of two identical, “handle-like” pieces, which made the casting process possible. The design of the module geometry functions as a space for distilling and reflecting light from an outside source. Specifically, the geometry of the module and the casting process are utilized to provide an effect of woven strands of light and dark – similar to the originally observed effects of the rope.

The ‘Ultimate Tree House’ was a temporary installation done for the Dallas Arboretum by brad bell studio and HNTB of Dallas. The design sought to provide both a camouflaged and dynamic space for children and adults to explore amongst the picturesque setting of the arboretum. The seven exterior pods and six interior pods are set up in polar arrays allowing for several layers of space to emerge.  The inner ring of pods is further articulated by 300 leaf profiles that were decorated by children from Windsong Elementary School. The children were asked to paint there own stories onto the leaves while the laser cut leaf profiles themselves served as an educational tool for indigenous trees of Texas. The Pods were constructed from ¼” plate steel, strung by ½” pvc conduit, and covered by erosion control fabric.  The installation was intended to become a beacon at night for seasonal events held on the premises.

With the expanding wave of contemporary architecture inspired and informed by biomorphic design and biomimetic processes, the re-evaluation of work of Frederick Kiesler has become immanent. Throughout the mid 20th century he became increasingly interested in the relationship of natural form and structure to architectural space and organization. The Grotto for Meditation proposed in 1963 for New Harmony, Indiana commissioned by Mrs. Jane Blaffer-Owen was the culmination of his life’s work. Though the project was not realized, it embodies all of the influences of his time from surrealism to biology and cybernetic theory. Through our university and the Blaffer Foundation, we engaged in formal research and tectonic resolution of the project employing digital modeling and fabrication technologies at our College and in Houston where Mrs. Owen lives when she is not in New Harmony. We based this project on the full catalog of archival material made available to us with support from the Blaffer and Kielser Foundations. Our exploration also was influenced by discussions with Mrs. Blaffer-Owen who is still very interested in realizing this profoundly interesting and enigmatic project. Our university has opened the door to the opportunity that our reinterpreted Grotto become a permanent fixture on the campus next to a wetland landscape that it is currently under construction. Our research into Kiesler has engaged his esoteric concepts of “co-realism” and “continuous tension” as well as his early use of recursive geometry and biomorphic form in design. From reverse engineering and digital fabrication via 3D scanning to generative structural articulation, we are experimenting with a structural/spatial system that closely aligns with Kiesler’s originally proposed tile patterning dilated into a minimal structure. Our prototypes and the final version will be fabricated by one of the largest commercially for-hire water jet cutter in country and assembled on the site.  The New Harmony Grotto was selected for exhibition at the 2008 ACADIA Skin + Bones Conference in Minneapolis, MN.

IMAGES of Completed Installation

The focus of this 5th year studio was to design a Jury Space within the new Student Services Center in the Architecture Building.  The students have developed a Ceiling Cloud that is proposed to clip on to an modified suspended ceiling grid using lightweight folded aluminum panels that are designed to incrementally change dimension and drape into the space below.  Constraints and variables within the parametric models allowed for the extraction of 150 unique panels that are also perforated with their own individual pattern.  The goal of the variations in the overall ceiling system are to disburse and dissipate sound through refraction and absorption created by the corrugation in the panels and their perforation.  The gradient of holes also are calibrated to allow more light to penetrate in the center of the space away from the walls which will be lit with exhibition wall armature lighting.  The Ceiling Cloud won the first place international design award in the 2009 AAFAB Cluster competition and was recently exhibited at the related exhibition in London.

As part of the inaugural exhibition for the Dallas Museum of Art’s new Center for Creative Connections, the University of Texas School of Architecture was invited to design and fabricate a backdrop for Frank Gehry’s Easy Edge chair.  The seminar chose to examine the capacity for material perception to be transformed as a result of introducing digital fabrication technology.  There was an interest in exploring the way that paper can appear cellular or fibrous as a result of the chosen geometry (voronoi script) and the cutting process (laser cutter). The wall is comprised of 144 different tile shapes due to the fact that the wall changes in both height and footprint. As views step closer to the wall the perception of the texture gives way to the composition of the 4-layer tile.