Produced for the 9th ArchiLab titled, Naturalizing Architecture, FRAC Centre, Orléans, France. On view through March 30th, 2014.

Material: 3D printed positive molds, plaster negative molds, high fire slip, ceramic cast and glazed components, steel cable, hardware

Weight: 225kg
Dimensions: 213.5 cm x 213.5 cm x 198 cm

Credits:
Architectural Designer and Artist: Jenny E. Sabin
Design and Production Team: Martin Miller, Jillian Blackwell, Jin Tack Lim, Liangjie Wu, Lynda Brody

This project is funded jointly by the Jenny Sabin Studio, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and the PCCW Affinito-Stewart Grant at Cornell University.

Description:
This project showcases revolutionary steps in the integration of complex phenomenon towards the design, production, and digital fabrication of ceramic form in the design arts and architecture. This work includes advances in digital technology, digital fabrication, advanced geometry, and material practices in arts, crafts, and design disciplines. Techniques in parametric and associative environments are incorporated with feedback derived from material constraints as well as performance assessments. The project interrogates the physical interface between networking behavior and fabricated material assemblies in order to address novel applications of non-standard ceramic components towards the production of 3D textured prototypes and systems.

A bespoke script based on networking behavior and recursive properties generates PolyMorph. The density of the network is constrained by material properties inherent to working with clay. In the production of relationships and correspondences, “tools” such as computer scripts are designed and developed to orchestrate the movement between multiple modes of working. Parallel processing, feedback loops, and research are encouraged to provide an environment in which dynamic relationships reveal to the imagination new possibilities of organization at multiple scales.

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• The networking studies used to generate the overall framework for PolyMorph are adjusted and further designed with the integration of a component family. The nodes within the network are spatialized through 3 distinct, but connected components.
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• Component family.
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• Together, the components feature over 1300 different connection combinations. Mathematical scripts are used as a sketch tool to explore experimental geometries that share synthetic relationships with networking models found in nature. Through subtle adjustments of mathematical and geometric parameters designed and organized in a set of simple components, it is possible to simulate and inhabit geometry as nature does, absent of representation and translation, in a constant formation, where geometry and matter are one--taking not one, but many forms and structures.
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• By 3D printing 2-part contra-molds, the resolution and complexity of each digital component is maintained.
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• 3D printed contra-mold.
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• 2-part plaster molds (negatives) cast from the 3D printed contra-molds (positives).
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• The actual clay modules in PolyMorph are directly slip cast from negative plaster molds generated from 3D printed positive molds. Slip casting requires liquid clay or what is commonly called “slip.”
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• Multiple plaster casts are made of the positive 3D prints, allowing for the production of multiple casts of the original 3 parts. Slip casting affords rapid production of multiple parts, but with limited variation. Complexity and variation of each part is governed by the mold.
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• Opening the 2-part plaster molds to reveal the slip-cast positive component.
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• Fired and glazed ceramic components.
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• Part assemblies.
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• Installation in progress; view to Les Turbulences, FRAC Centre.
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• PolyMorph, FRAC Centre; 9th ArchiLab, Naturalizing Architecture. 1400 digitally produced and hand cast ceramic components interwoven to form a large spatial structure.
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• PolyMorph, detail.
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• PolyMorph, detail.