Calibration Channel and Digital Exchange Exhibition featured in “Affecting Data” article in “Interior Atmospheres” issue of AD. The article, written by Julieanne Preston, describes the increasingly important role of information in driving collaborative exchanges in the design and production process.

A series of data-driven fabrications were installed at strategic locations along the White River to frame multiple layers of meaning. This seminar provided students the opportunity to creatively participate in outlining a trajectory of potential manufacturing advances for the built environment brought on by digital technology. We are entering a new era in design-related disciplines. In addition to deploying digital technology for conception and representation of design ideas, it is now possible to feed data directly into the fabrication process in order to realize a rich and rigorous built work that is relevant to our times. Digital manufacturing, data management, visualization and simulation software were all used in this intensive seminar to facilitate this process.

Streams of knowledge from multiple sources were encouraged by embracing technology and collaboration. Through these methods, the seminar fostered a depth of student understanding of the river and its relations, while introducing students to the inherent interdisciplinary necessity surfacing from creative use of digital tools in a critical exploration from observation, conception, analysis, and fabrication. A process-based approach encouraged exploration through an expanding feedback loop between the environment and technology. Students with a critically trained digital acumen and diverse sources of creative energies are well prepared to lead the industry into promising new channels. The fundamental question raised during our time on the White River: Can digital technology develop in symbiosis with nature?

Streams Studio Team:
Robert Beach, Austin Durbin, Melissa Funkey, Jori Garcia, Robert Horner, Anne Jeffs Cupp, Katie Marinaro, Christopher Peli, Josh Reitz, Chelsea Wait

Faculty:
Kevin Klinger
Director, Institute for Digital Fabrication
Associate Professor of Architecture

A strong dichotomy exists between the factors of fluctuating natural orders apparent in the river, and the striation of the land by human historical and cultural influence. This installation exists as surface of influence between these forces. The form is informed by parameters of light, vista, material and process through a method of digitally folding and perforating sheets of steel to enable a self structuring membrane which rises and falls from the plateau edge. This edge is demarcated by a swath of prairie grasses, rising and falling in their own cycle. A screen of 15 weathering steel sheets stretches for 63’ across the boundary of the human order and the encroaching erosion of the natural realm. From the initial generation of geometry pairings, well “adapted” pairings are spliced from the parent and “bred” with similarly fit geometries. The fit of these pairs is based on the relationships between the form and the desired criteria of reflection, screening and framing.

The patterning ranges are developed by merging images of the river surface with tonal ranges that pair with the desired transparency of the metal surface. Water surface images were chosen for the non-uniform distribution of tone. Light tonal areas create small punches, while dark tonal areas create larger punches. The water composite image is rasterized in a half-tone patterning and converted to fabrication data with RhinoScripts for CNC production. By weaving structure and surface into the ground, acting as a disruption of the terrestrial field, we create an event rather than an object, connecting organically into pre-existing, living dynamic systems at the vestigial intersection of the sky | earth | water. Our installation is sited in the liminal zone between the fluctuating river zone and the cultivated landscape of the arts park—a terrestrial suture merging of event and field.

Site concepts were then applied to the parameters received from the metal fabricators. Four by eight sheets of metal were sheared into two pieces at an angle, creating three asymmetrical plans that were folded into twelve different shapes. The angles from the shear and the break patterns created a variety of ways the shapes could begin to sit together, to produce both lateral and vertical movement within the site. Perforated shapes are placed against the ground plane, the holes filled with native plants. In this way, the installation shapes the vegetation within it, but is also taken over at the edges by the existing plants on the site. The steel employed intentionally weathers to absorb and trace the effects of the conditions around it. Two pieces of mirrored steel were strategically placed into the design to reflect the canopy above, casting the sky against the ground. The final form weaves through the existing site conditions, shaping the terrain as well as being shaped by it.

Perimetric Boundary Team:
Robert Beach, Austin Durbin, Melissa Funkey, Jori Garcia, Robert Horner, Anne Jeffs Cupp, Katie Marinaro, Christopher Peli, Josh Reitz, Chelsea Wait

Faculty:
Kevin Klinger
Director, Institute for Digital Fabrication
Associate Professor of Architecture

The Perimetric Boundary was generously supported by the following Industry Partners:
A. Zahner Metals, SHoP Architects, Indianapolis Arts Center, Minnetrista Center

Partnering Campus Units:
Virginia Ball Center, College of Architecture + Planning

External Support from Industry Partners: $2500 in Materials and Fabrication

A strong dichotomy exists between the factors of fluctuating natural orders apparent in the river, and the striation of the land by human historical and cultural influence. This installation exists as surface of influence between these forces. The form is informed by parameters of light, vista, material and process through a method of digitally folding and perforating sheets of steel to enable a self structuring membrane which rises and falls from the plateau edge. This edge is demarcated by a swath of prairie grasses, rising and falling in their own cycle. A screen of 15 weathering steel sheets stretches for 63’ across the boundary of the human order and the encroaching erosion of the natural realm. From the initial generation of geometry pairings, well “adapted” pairings are spliced from the parent and “bred” with similarly fit geometries. The fit of these pairs is based on the relationships between the form and the desired criteria of reflection, screening and framing. To properly combine these pairings, several mutations occured. The patterning ranges are developed by merging images of the river surface with tonal ranges that pair with the desired transparency of the metal surface. Water surface images were chosen for the non-uniform distribution of tone. Light tonal areas create small punches, while dark tonal areas create larger punches. The water composite image is rasterized in a half-tone patterning and converted to fabrication data with RhinoScripts for CNC production.

By weaving structure and surface into the ground, acting as a disruption of the terrestrial field, we create an event rather than an object, connecting organically into pre-existing, living dynamic systems at the vestigial intersection of the sky | earth | water. Our installation is sited in the liminal zone between the fluctuating river zone and the cultivated landscape of the arts park—a terrestrial suture merging of event and field. Site concepts were then applied to the parameters received from the metal fabricators. Four by eight sheets of metal were sheared into two pieces at an angle, creating three asymmetrical plans that were folded into twelve different shapes. The angles from the shear and the break patterns created a variety of ways the shapes could begin to sit together, to produce both lateral and vertical movement within the site. Perforated shapes are placed against the ground plane, the holes filled with native plants. In this way, the installation shapes the vegetation within it, but is also taken over at the edges by the existing plants on the site. The steel employed intentionally weathers to absorb and trace the effects of the conditions around it. Two pieces of mirrored steel were strategically placed into the design to reflect the canopy above, casting the sky against the ground. The final form weaves through the existing site conditions, shaping the terrain as well as being shaped by it.

Terrestrial Suture Team:
Robert Beach, Austin Durbin, Melissa Funkey, Jori Garcia, Robert Horner, Anne Jeffs Cupp, Katie Marinaro, Christopher Peli, Josh Reitz, Chelsea Wait

Faculty:
Kevin Klinger
Director, Institute for Digital Fabrication
Associate Professor of Architecture

The Terrestrial Suture was generously supported by the following Industry Partners:
A. Zahner Metals, SHoP Architects, Indianapolis Arts Center, Minnetrista Center

Partnering Campus Units:
Virginia Ball Center, College of Architecture + Planning

External Support from Industry Partners: $2500 in Materials and Fabrication

i.M.A.D.E wishes to thank SHoP for their collaboration during the students’ design charrette for the Perimetric Boundary and Terrestrial Suture projects.

i.M.A.D.E wishes to thank A. Zahner Metals for their generous donation of materials and fabrication work for the Perimetric Boundary and Terrestrial Suture projects.