So I spent a good chunk of my time since the Fall semester ended racking my brain about how to build the monument. I protoyped a fuck ton of cardboard curves to see what worked, and none of them did. They all looked like some sort of garden trellis…. and if one more person tells me to grow plants on the monument….. and the shape just feels very expected and boring somehow? Idk
So I went back to the drawing board and examined the problems I’m trying to solve
- this is a traveling version of the monument to live inside, materials should reflect that
- I want this to be easy to ship and assemble. No massive crates- so it needs to flat pack.
- I want this to be made as non-violently as possible- so no plastic, steel, toxic shit
- I want the space to feel inviting but not claustrophobic, I want the sound to be central to the experience, which means I need to be able to block out other noise (convention center is gonna be loud)
- this is a tool for healing all of the elements need to support that concept and reality
I was bartending that evening and took out some trash at the end of the night- namely a wine box with its bottle dividers…. I pulled that out and watched it collapse flat…. voila. So down the rabbit hole of flat pack packaging design…. I found some inspiration in several spots:
MOLO walls…. drool worthy…. making my own honeycomb walls sound like a major nightmare tho…. I couldn’t find a manufacturer that makes anything similar…. the gluing system would be painstaking and likely would look like a 4 year old made it…. next!
I dug into acoustic design a bit- tiling, foam etc…. I found this as an idea, but I hated the individual shapes and omg those colors, but I was able to take the concept and shift it into something I liked.
The leaning tower of hexes presents a problem though. Obviously it’s thin material and thus not super stable (all of the weight is resting on the thinnest edge possible) so now it’s what type of material, what kind of channel or CNC’d base to lock each hex into place… the angles of the interlocking hexes change when the work is curved, shifted, expanded or contracted…. so what’s the best solution to support them while I dig through all of my ideas…..
First day back for the semester and I have so many things I want to do. Had a great chat w Shona this AM about materiality and prototyping. I think the base is going to be a super important element to get right so the piece is structurally sound. She mentioned just doing one side….. I’m not sure if I’m sold on that concept- it seems far less intimate and private…. There’s something about being held, gently surrounded, enveloped in care that feels really important here. I think one side might feel really exposed…. and I don’t want ppl distracted by other things going on in the space (it will be a very busy space), and want them to feel like its speaking directly TO THEM.
I went to the materials library today and found some interesting things. Several different types of felt. I have remnant samples (hopefully free) coming from Filzfelt (near Buffalo, NY) and I also reached out to an industrial felt company in Wooooooonsocket and asked about remnants as well.
Filzfelt has 3mm, 5mm, 8mm, and 10mm thicknesses. Will be testing 5-10 to see what works. 5mm is the only option with colors, otherwise it’s a dark charcoal which I like but might become a dark monolith……
I also re-examined the idea of tambours…. flexible wood walls that are typically backed with fabric. Have also been thinking about molo walls as an option. They’d be a nightmare to make on my own… and haven’t found a manufacturer of honeycomb paper on such a scale…. but it’s gotta exist, right?
I think the shape of the piece will have to change now that I’m building it modularly. A cantilever will likely not work with system, unless Stephen and I somehow get crafty…
It’s going modular bc I want it to flat pack as an indoor representation of the ethos of the exterior monument…. different iterations, different looks I’m sure, but similar concept.
I also am still thinking about parametric design and how that might work. I mean, what if I just ground/slat 1x3s or something of that scale (probably more like strips of 1/4” plywood) into a base, and then for the cantilever use cross ribs along the top? They could be angled for privacy and trimmed to maintain the shape of the original monument. This would flat pack as well…. though I’m concerned about the base in any of these iterations. Maybe like 1/4” slats at 30-45 degree angles so ppl can only see a sliver inside as they walk around….. just so hard to know what that feels like on the inside. It’s all tests at this point.
Felt tests in flat pack hexs
plywood tests as angled lenticular strands
plywood flat pack hexs
Maybe tambors?
Elongated cardboard Hexes