Posts Tagged ‘installation’

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c-LITH: Carbon Fiber Architectural Units

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

c-LITH is the reconsideration of the architectural building unit through the exploration of new composite techniques and materials. Our project develops individual components that exploit the strength, lightness, and variability possible with carbon fiber filaments when paired with computation, digital fabrication, and hand assembly.

Traditionally, architectural units made of brick or concrete are small and multiple, heavy, difficult to vary, and are much better in compression than tension. Using carbon fiber filaments to create variable units allows for larger individual units that can vary in both shape and structural performance as needed. Our units, pound for pound, have higher capacities in both compression and tension and therefore impact the design in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Most importantly, however, our units address the use of carbon fiber at the scale of architectural production.

The images below are of the project installed @ the Taubman College Liberty Annex Gallery as part of the Research Through Making Exhibit, March 12 – April 20, 2014.

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PROJECT TEAM
DESIGN: Glenn Wilcox and Anca Trandafirescu
FABRICATION AND ASSEMBLY: Glenn Wilcox, Anca Trandafirescu, Megha Chandrasekhar, Troy Hillman, Secil Taskoparan, Rebecca Braun, Ryan Mason, Sam Seeger, Peter Choi, Chris Pine and John Larmor
FUNDING: Grant from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan

LUMANOTUS | Double Torus Geometry

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Below is a sequence of slides showing how we constructed the double torus geometry in the LUMANOTUS project. The form actually starts as an ellipsoid. Much manually tweaking was done to the lines after they were derived from the surface form. The final geometry needed to be developable (i.e. having the ability to roll flat and be cut from flat stock) so the final curved sections are constructed through ‘pulling’ straight lines along curved paths. We used the same technique in the Falling Sky lights project.

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LUMANOTUS | Parting Shots

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

A few final shots of the Lumanotus project by Mike Trandafirescu. The complete photo roll can be viewed here.

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(Photos: Mike Trandafirescu)

LUMANOTUS | Opening Night

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

The weather was cool – but the wind held off to make the opening night of LUMANOTUS a success. Tonight Anca and I give a talk on the project and our work at the Center for Design Innovation in Winston Salem, NC.

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(photos: area.architecture)

LUMANOTUS | on site run-through

Monday, November 12th, 2012

We are on site with the team in Winston Salem setting up the project in Winston Square Park. Below are a few images from the initial run-through last night. Images and lights are sequenced and animated. There are 4 separate light shows from 4 designers. Another run-through this evening if the weather cooperates and then the installation opens to the public from November 13 – 17, 7pm-10pm.

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(photos: area.architecture)

LUMATNOTUS | test inflation

Friday, November 9th, 2012

On Wednesday and Thursday this week we test inflated the DOUBLE TORUS and TOWER in the courtyard of TCAUP. Below are some images of the results. We still have some tweaking to do on inflation pressures and need to finish the anchoring – but in general it was a success! Thanks to the crew for all your hard work over this past month. Principals: Glenn Wilcox and Anca Trandafirescu; Assembly Crew: Secil Taskoparan, Joshua Kehl, Erika Lindsay, Jeremy Luebker, Rebecca Braun, Le Nguyen, Jake Newsum.

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(Photos: Jeremy Luebker)
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(Photo: Joshua Kehl)
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(Photos: Jeremy Luebker)
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(Photos: Secil Taskoparan)

LUMANOTUS | Drawings – Gallery Show

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Drawings and models for the LUMANOTUS project are on display at the Swift Wade Gallery in Winston-Salem, NC, from November 2 – 17. The full scale inflatable constructions and lighting project will be installed in Winston Square Park in Winston-Salem from November 13 – 17. The project will be lit and open to the public from 7pm – 10pm. The project is made possible with generous public support, funding from UNCSA and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.

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LUMANOTUS | Models

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Two study models that are 1/8th of the scale of the final constructions. That puts the tower figure at about 30′. We are working on a system in which we imbed the anchoring lines (required of inflatables this size) into the seams of the construction.

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LUMANOTUS | Workshop

Friday, September 28th, 2012

In mid-September we traveled to Winston-Salem, NC to conduct a workshop with the Director of Lighting Design Prof. Norman Coates’s lighting design class at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in constructing inflatable structures. We are collaborating with this group on the project LUMANOTUS – this years Winston-Salem Lightning Project. The project will be comprised of large scale, inhabitable, inflatable structures installed for 6 days in a public park in downtown Winston-Salem. The students, under Prof Coates’s direction, will design lighting and image projection schemes that will animate the structures through choreographed performances. The event will be open and free to the public – however we are accepting donations for the project through this site. There will also be a public lecture on our work and exhibition of the design material for the project during the mounting of the pieces in mid-November. Below are a few images of a small test inflatable that we built while in NC – shown both in the lighting studio and the site.

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HOT AIR | Recognized with ACSA Award

Thursday, February 24th, 2011
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Anca Trandafirescu, with the assistance of Glenn Wilcox and Le Nguyen, was recognized for HOT AIR by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) with the Faculty Design Honorable Mention.

HOT AIR is the temporary installation of a large inflatable, inhabitable monument in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the overthrow of the Romanian government. The project’s name refers to both the unusually warm temperatures in Romania during that week in December 1989, which helped to bring citizens out into the streets to rally against the government; and also to the large amount of rhetoric surrounding these events.

ACSA annually honors faculty who have demonstrated excellence by providing a venue for work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching by recognizing and encouraging outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a theoretical endeavor.

HOT AIR was exhibited Nov. 3-7, 2009, in Timisoara, Romania, and was also on display in Ann Arbor in spring 2010 as part of TedX.

Trandafirescu and Wilcox will accept the Faculty Design Honorable Mention at the 99th ACSA Annual Meeting, March 3-6, 2011, in Montréal, Québec.

ACSA awarded three top prizes and six honorable mentions this year. HOT AIR, along with the other award-winning projects, will be published in the digital 2011 Architectural Education Awards Book.

To read more about HOT AIR—and to view photos and video—visit the 2009 news post.