ABSTRACT
Kenneth Snelson, in the 1960s, explored the possibilities of creating floating rigid members hung in a web of tensile cables, called Tensegrities. His most vivid example is that of The Needle Tower, which is held together with a single stainless steel cable. The fact that the compression members do not touch one another allows the tower to appear to float.3 These constructs, installed as sculptural pieces, evoked a complex balance of structure and material in their assembly and design.4 CHROMAtex.me by SOFTlab is a site-specific installation constructed simply of ink jet printer paper held in place by binder clips, suspended from the gallery ceiling. The form of the installation responds to both the form of the gallery. The shapes of the tabs attached to each sheet are the precise depth of the binder clip. Each sheet was preprinted and laser-cut to its precise shape.
The Periscope Tower, constructed in 2010 by Matter Design, also uses a set of cables in tension, in this case to compress foam into a rigid tower. The form of the tower is an exploration into the use of a hot-wire cutter attached to a 6-axis robotic arm. The arm is able to make broad sweeping strokes across large sections of foam, resulting in a truly unique aesthetic. The Tower is both a measure of efficiency and formal logic, cut and constructed of 100% recyclable foam. The MoMA P.S.1 Canopy installation by nArchitects is constructed of various thicknesses of green bamboo. The designers studied the resistive forces of bent bamboo in varying thicknesses, and used their measurements to define the formal logic of the installation. The elastic bending moment of the bent bamboo creates a structurally resistant form.5
