This introductory intensive six-week design studio was focused on breaking formal expectations and developing both a diagrammatic approach to design as well as a methodological  understanding of and application of material properties.

The first project in this studio required both capturing and creating an armature specific to a complex geometry, which, in this case was a sweet potato.  By fixing the potato in a box with holes on a set grid, the distance of the potato from each aperture allowed for a measurement of its form as an indexed series of points.  From this point, it was possible to not only describe the potato in virtural form, but also to develop a customized housing for the potato could be created as well.

For the second project in this studio, an everyday material was transformed into a base unit for the purposes of assembling a surface condition that could describe continuous double curvature that folds inward, sheaths, and folds again outward.  The native material intelligence and assembly technique were both essential to generating the morphogenic approach.  In this case, the flexible plastic material from milk cartons were explored for their translucency, flexibility, and material memory.  From them, tabs were created in three different shapes. Based on the recombination of these base modules, an infinite variety of forms is capable of being generated.

The final project in this studio explores the abstraction of a grid condition in order to create a differentiated space that registers specific attraction / resistance points as a means to differentiate space in the catalysis of multiple and varied social interactions.  The final composition – intended as an architectural folly in the form of a beach pavilion – emerges as the registration of movement around points within the grid that both push and pull, and ultimately interact with one another.