Investigations
Using gravity as a tool I created analogue models that would respond to it's effects. Gravity is a known mechanism which describes the ideal formwork for a tensile structure. Acting in pure tension, it's resulting shape when reversed reveals the ideal form for a purely compressive structure.
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Analogue Moment Model
By using simple materials, one can quickly map the most complex forces which exist in structural systems. For a common continuous floor, a three-dimensional moment diagram can be made with the use of string, and fabric. The shapes created describe the exact shape the reinforcing will need to be to be efficient in that structural system. Simple materials which say a lot. -
Hanging Structure : Clothing
In working with a structure which very willingly submits to the effects of gravity, one can learn more about the relationships of the intended structural form of the designer and what is actually being shaped by its own weight. To explore this further I used structures designed for very specific forms, the human body. By dipping these tensile structures in plaster and hanging them I was able to observe what the effects of gravity had on the shape of a structure intended to be held up in another shape all together. The forms were a result of the conversation between the material and an improvised exploration of structural form. -
Hanging Structure : Modeling
These models were made to help me explore the idea of fabric as structure. What exactly is it that makes fabric act in a dynamic way, how does it deflect (or fold) and how does that deflection affect the rest of the structure as a whole? These two models explore fabric able to move/deflect in a two dimensional structure and also fabric able to deflect in a three dimensional one. Both models have the same shape when laid flat on their side, but once hung and subject to the effects of gravity, their allowances cause the structure to settle in very different ways. Both structures shaped in different ways by the effects of gravity. -
Fabric Reinforced Beams
In my preliminary explorations with the use of fabric as reinforcing in concrete I created these two models which explored different ways of introducing fabric as a reinforcement material. Needing to be pulled in complete tension in order to have a useful shape, the fabric proved useful with some methods and less so with others. -
Fabric Formwork
Working from my installation for the National building Museum, I explored various ways in which one could use fabric formwork create multiple building components at the same time. These experiments described the dramatic differences between varying materials and their reaction to acting as a formwork for a liquid material. The results show how some materials created a more predictable form and others began to take on a life of their own. -
Fabric Formed Panels
By using fabric, and two wood panels I explored the fabrication of various complex and simple forms in panel form. Though the degrees of complexity vary greatly with the panels, the efforts to make them were exactly the same. By using a material to respond to the liquid state of the construction material, we encourage a dialogue which already exists with these materials to become more vocal. When encouraged they describe elaborate complexities we rarely ever see, yet always exist.