Baroque Wireframe

l’unanime pli - one CONTINUOUS surface, fabric, -scape, or -scope.
Gilles Deleuze in THE FOLD: Leibniz and the Baroque

considerations

These continuous surfaces appeared as ontologically quantified and studied conditions in the 17th and 18th centuries by philosophers and mathematicians such as Leibniz and Descartes (Calculus is a mathematics based on the potential of a continuous fold and topological notions of space and measure). These studies paralleled and influenced the development of Baroque architecture- an architecture responsible to the ability to project within complex surface. The importance of the fold (including conceptual folding and material folds) may have emerged with the Baroque but it has remained an issue in artists (such as Paul Klee), poets (such as Mallarme), and musicians (Berlioz). In the last 20 years folding in architecture has become a common thread in many academic and professional studios. This renaissance of the fold as a key intellectual and technological development in architectural production is chronicled across four texts. In 1988 the philosopher Gilles Deleuze published the book THE FOLD: Leibniz and the Baroque and refocused the importance of the fold in critical thinking and practice. In the same year Avrum Stroll wrote of the notion of geometric descriptions rooted in everyday geometries of surface in his book SURFACES. In 1993, FOLDING IN ARCHITECTURE, a collection of essays edited by Greg Lynn was published. In 1995 Bernard Cache published EARTH MOVES: the Furnishing of Territory, in 2003 Sophia Vyzoviti published FOLDING ARCHITECTURE: Spatial, Structural, and Organizational Diagrams. These five sometimes opaque and difficult texts make up a backbone of teaching through folding.

The exercise returns to wire. We’ll use wire to execute this exercise. You’ll need just over 220 feet of it. You can use the wire you already have on hand. The most successful work overall this semester was done with wire. Reconsider the ways you developed in working with wire and let the metal craft of the project be a major part of your projections.

method

• Take four high resolution digital photographs, using a one strong light, of the existing surface in your sandbox. The light should be evenly dispersed and create intense interior shadows. Print it out and pin these images up each as a 6”x6” black and white print on 8.5 bt 11 inch (letter) white paper on your wall. Put your name and section # on the back of each sheet. Name the .tif photo files “1412_sp08_XXX_ExF_Photo0X.tif” where XXX is your initials and Photo0X is the photo number (1 through 3).
• Study the graphics and database you’ve developed to complete the new 441 point drawing of the sand and hose surface. Discern the dominant inflections and facets described in the drawing. Write this down or sketch it out for your reference.
• Translate the spatial and superficial contents of the 441 drawing into a well crafted 121 by 121 mesh made of wire. This should be a simplified material translation of a full scale model of the sand surface projected in your 441 drawing- nothing else. The strands of wire should be arranged in a 2 inch by 2 inch grid with a perimeter of 20 inches by 20 inches. There should be nothing but mesh- do not make external elements to prop or hold the mesh.

This wire mesh model will become the site for the rest of the semester’s design work. Prepare it well and consider the intersections and specificity of your material design. You will be asked to add cubic and cylindrical elements to this model as we progress.