About This Project

Mode Variant: and the assemblage of monsters

SCI-Arc Thesis

Advisor// Marcelyn Gow

Robot Lab// Jake Newsum

Mode Variant proposes a design method derived from that which we cannot see. A system of simulation tools is created to represent acoustical conditions as they collide with a surface. The initial point of contact between sound and the exterior of a surface defines the volume of the interior, whereas the interior sounds reverberate to further articulate the interior space and to add more inflections to the exterior. The amplitude of sound determines the area of the deformation, the frequency, its depth. The simulated forms that emerge are streamed to a robotic arm, pushing material into space using a single-point incremental forming technique. The materials into which simulated abstraction of actual conditions are inscribed, like all media, impose physical constraints on the abstractions represented through them. The extent of these constraints can be calculated through the simulated behavior of the surface. The unseen is made physical through a process that links simulation and material study, which can be applied to all scales of architectural design.