Project courtesy Salamatina Gallery. Please contact the gallery for more information on the project.

Description: The latest in a series of projects exploring cellular morphologies, Chrysalis (III) investigates the self-organization of barnacle-like cells across an underlying substrate surface. The cells shift and slide across the surface as they attempt to find a more balanced packed state through the use of a relaxed spring network constrained to the surface. Each cell is composed of two parts: a cone-like outer surface made from cherry veneer and a non-planer inner plate made from poplar veneer that stresses the outer cone into shape. Each of the 1000 cell components are unfolded flat in the digital model, digitally fabricated, and hand assembled.

For more information about the exhibition, please download the Multiversites Creatives press releases in English or French.

Credits: Andrew Kudless (Design), Jason Vereschak and Emily Kirwan (Fabrication Support), Maciej Fiszer (for the lending of assembly space in Paris), and the Pompidou Centre Industrial Prospectives Department (Valerie Guillaume, Hélène Ducate, Dominique Kalabane, and Marguerite Reverchon)

Orthographic Drawings

Diagram of Plate Formation

Still frames of 2D animation of cell relaxation from pure voronoi network to relaxed voronoi network (vorlax)

Assembly Diagram showing the various stages over 5 days in different colors

Vorlax in 2D from Andrew Kudless on Vimeo.

Vorlax on Surface from Andrew Kudless on Vimeo.

Description: This project was the result of a 4-day workshop taught with Marc Swackhamer at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture in March 2012. The workshop explored the design and fabrication of shell structures. Inspired by the work of designers such as Guadi, Otto, and Isler, the workshop explored how digital tools could be used in the design, simulation, and fabrication of a contemporary thin-shell structure. The workshop was structured in the following way:

• Day 1: Parametric Modeling Tutorials and Lecture on Thin-Shell Structures
• Day 2: Design Competition among student teams
• Day 3: Fabrication
• Day 4: Assembly

Credits: The project could not have happened without the amazingly talented and dedicated students at the University of Minnesota who designed and built the structure using the tools that I provided them at the beginning of the workshop. Thanks to all of them:
Namdi Alexander, Daniel Aversa, Tia Bell, Alex Berger, Amy Ennen, Andrew Gardner, John Greene, Kelly Greiner, Artemis Hansen, David Horner, Jonathon Jacobs, Hwan Kim, Jenn McGinnity, Shona Mosites, Kristen Salkas, Stuart Shrimpton, Paul Treml, Katie Umenthum, Pablo Villamil.

Catalyst Hexshell from Andrew Kudless on Vimeo.

Construction drawing used by the team to divide the larger shell into smaller assemblies.

Catalyst Catenary Simulation from Andrew Kudless on Vimeo.

Catalyst Catenary Construction Time Lapse from Andrew Kudless on Vimeo.

Seed in the studio

Description: The process of weathering is often intentionally resisted (if not completely forgotten) in most contemporary design. This is a legacy of Modernism and its fascination with minimal, timeless, and antiseptic materials. David Leatherbarrow and Mohsen Mostafavi have done an excellent job of mining this ground through architectural history in their book On Weathering (1993). They reveal in this book a long tradition in the design world of working with the act of weathering in a way that enhances the design concept over time. Rather than design in a way that presents the Sisyphean task of negating the influence of time on a project, they document other strategies architects have taken to accept that their buildings will have a life of their own after the drawing board.

This concept has been hovering in the background during the evolution of P_Wall (2006 / 2009) over the last 3 years. When people see the wall, they seem to have an inherent desire to touch it. The hint of softness, the evocative forms, the fabric textures all draw people in, seducing them to feel its rounded curves and deep creases. After each time it has been exhibited, a certain patina can be seen on the pieces: fingerprints here and there, scuffs from handling, etc.

This projects explores the potential weathering of P_Wall. Beyond the simple marks of humans in a gallery environment, the wall is located outside, open to the elements. The undulating forms would collect dust, pollen, soot over time. Moss would take root in the subtle groves of the fabric texture. Birds and other creatures would make the holes their homes.

This is not an exercise in Romanticism. The goal is not to produce a picturesque image of the wall. Rather, there is something about the wall that craves to be touched, to be made unclean, to be used, worn, soiled. Throughout the fabrication of the tiles, spiders would constantly be found making the holes their traps. A fine layer of soot, plaster and saw dust seemed to be constantly attached to the forms. This project accepts these intrusions on the “pure” form and makes them apart of the design. No more resistance, P_Wall accepts the life of the world and changes with it.

The opening reception at SFMoMA is on the evening of Thursday, August 6 and the exhibition is open from the following day until November 8th. Here’s the press release from SFMoMA on the larger show: Sensate: Bodies and Design.

Overview of garden

Garden section

Day 001 of the garden installation: Mounds are hydroseeded

Day 365: The seed mounds have bloomed

Garden Plan

Construction Sequence

Year: 2008
Location: Jardins de Metis, Canada

Description: Resonant Field is a self-organizing incubator for local ecologies, and a super soil generator. The Field celebrates the life of the garden and it’s ecological context, seen and unseen, by appealing to all of the senses. It will evolve and change through time, providing a visceral panorama of experience. The Field embodies and celebrates the natural cycles of life and death, growth and decomposition.

The Field will be composed of the gardens pure constituent parts: soil, sand, manure, organic debris, etc. Each material constituent will be randomly piled in the allotted space, approximately 10m by 30m, varying in height from 1m to 3m. The field of material cones will then be hydro-seeded with a mix of native seeds, selected from the many ecologies that surround the site: woodland, meadow, grassland, and ripairian.

A sequence of varied compost core-areas will be established within the field of material piles, which will receive constant material generated by the Redford Garden campus and beyond. A gravel pathway system will connect the composting cores. Native species will become established, through a process of facilitated succession, and will express themselves according to the varied slopes and exposures of the Resonant Field. The field will become a generator of biomass and a seed bank. Fauna will feast on the nectar, seeds, and nuts which will be spread to revegetate the local ecologies with native species. Upon the projects completion, plant materials can be harvested and redistributed, and the entire garden will be mixed and piled to provide fertile substrate for future gardens and ecologies, extending it’s life in the form of future fruits and flowers.

Credits: Joint submission by Andrew Kudless (Matsys) and David Fletcher (Fletcher Studio)

Site for Sykada V1, the Banvard Gallery at OSU

Diagram for V1 site (by Ronnie Parsons)

Jitter Interface for Sykada V1

Jitter Interface for Sykada V1

Site for Sykada V2

V2 site diagram (by Ronnie Parsons)

Site diagram (by Ronnie Parsons)

Jitter Interface for V2

Jitter Interface for V2

Description: This project was originally conceived as an interactive audio environment for the Cell exhibition at OSU. Specifically, it was designed as a partner to the P_Wall (2006) wall installation. The goal of the project was to create an anxious atmosphere informed by the movement of the gallery visitors as well as the ambient sounds of the gallery. As the soft, sagging, undulating forms of P_Wall draw visitors into the space, Sykada begins to interact with visitor. A motion tracking system records the distance between the wall and the visitor and modifies a constantly updated audio feed from the space itself according to this distance. When the space is vacant, Sykada hums to itself, however human movement and sounds can cause it to enter a violent feedback cycle.

Credits: Andrew Kudless (concept), Ronnie Parsons and Brandon Zeeb (design, programming, and fabrication)

Audio Samples:
Note: V1 audio files are much louder, rougher, and violent than V2. These files are actual files recorded in the space. The site for V1 was a large concrete box and V2′s site was a small, metal shipping container. As the audio was based on the actual ambient recordings within the space, the space had a huge effect on the audio.
V1: Very Angry
V1: Calm
V2: Awake
V2: Awakening
V2: Dormant