This proposal considers the complex visual oscillation between two and three dimensional realms leveraging the new potentials of composite materiality. Loopy, spotted patterns flow over manifold surfaces, co-existing with the mass and visually altering its silhouette rather than simply decorating it. Transparent zones allow views of the interior and its network of deep involutions.

Misusing the Stress Map

The loopy pattern language is the result of intersecting a map of structural stresses with a painterly sensibility. The mass is analysed as a composite shell structure in ANSYS, revealing areas of low and high stress. The resultant structural color-gradient map is transferred into a digital paint environment. There, it is broken down into zones requiring material strength (which become gloss-black opaque), but also manipulated to degrade any obvious structural reading. The requisite digital tools are misused—or broken—allowing freedom from simple problem-solving and material expression towards an architecture that cannot be reduced down to a workflow or a set of parameters.

OLED thin-film lighting technology is embedded into the layup of thin composite panels, especially around perimeters of non-structural transparent polycarbonate apertures. At night, the lighting creates mysterious graphic and silhouette effects, heightening the dimensional play of the piece.

Client: City of Anaheim Public Works Director
Type: Installation
Art Consultant: Rebecca O'Leary