ABSTRACT

The pallets create a tight constraint for formal expression, but also operate as political agents, in an iconic expression of alternative building techniques. Through their visually obvious reuse, shipping pallets can assist in articulating a public argument for alternative material uses. Digital Project uses geometric, organizational relationships to calculate components for complex surfaces out of custom building systems and skins, as used by many designers. The designers used a process of sphere-mapping to create twisted shapes, constrained by the fixed-width of the pallets. Sphere-mapping uses spherical intersections to triangulate relationships of fixed dimensions across the surface. Triangulating fixed-sized objects across the surface allows designers to trace any other set of geometry across the entire surface. The fourth corner of a polygonal object is linked to the others and typically floats off the surface within a geometric limit. The geometry for this design is based on an orderly sequence of components defined by one another's relative position.