ABSTRACT
Building upon five-plus years of research into the hygroscopic behaviors of wood, the Institute for Computational Design, was commissioned to construct an installation at the Centre-Pompidou in Paris. The intent of the installation was to create a dynamic sculpture capable of expressing the responsiveness of the material in a controlled condition. The installation was composed of more than 4000 unique parts made from maple veneer and synthetic composites. The different part shapes and their arrangement were intended to create different patterns based upon the relative humidity inside of the installation. Five different variables were used to control the movement and compositions; the fiber direction, the layout of the natural and synthetic composite, the length-width-thickness ratio, the shape of the element, the humidity control. Changes in the humidity of the installation environment were intended to create local behaviors in the movement which were unpredictable and emergent based on climatic events.
