[des]dobrar Installation: Lecture and Opening at UP

On May 16, 2012, at 10:00 AM, we, Atelier UM+D, will have a conference and the opening of our newest interactive installation [des]dobrar, at the Architecture building of the Universidade Positivo campus in Curitiba.

Parametric design and digital fabrication techniques, and electronic systems of sensors and servos controlled with Arduino boards were used in the design and fabrication of this installation that will offer a dynamic and reflexive experience in a circulation space on the university campus. In the lecture, Atelier UM+D’s owners will address these topics in the context of research in the design process, as well as its theoretical basis, on which we are also producing a publication that will see the light soon.

They will present, among other things, a video of an analysis I did for visualizing the reflection rays originated form a person passing thru and triggering the installation movement of reflective pieces. I’m very proud of it and looking forward to share it here.

Update: Besides Parametricismo, we are on the media: Universidade em Curitiba recebe instalação inspirada no movimento.

Ligações Urbanas Installation in Curitiba

Permanent installation commissioned to Atelier UM+D by the department of tourism of the City of Curitiba, for the information service center at Rua 24 Horas, completed in November 2011. To cite our release:

The urban depth emerges physically and sensitively in different manners, in an arrange specific to the user and to the multiple relations made possible by the city, inside a connectivity between the parts and the whole. Distinct components link forming an interlocked arrangement structurally specific to the site.

It was an excellent opportunity to investigate generative systems of lightweight structures and complex connections. We start from a Delaunay triangulation of a pseudo-random network differentially extruded following a set of attractor curves and we extend the connecting nodes’ geometry to stabilize the structural parts in the direction perpendicular thereto. This extension changed the secondary status of the connectors, turning them the main pieces. The whole parametric process consists of five Grasshopper definitions and one RhinoScript separated in stages to allow team work. As a result, 540 unique pieces of polystyrene were CNC cut and assembled with screws.

Author: Atelier UM+D
Team: Gustavo Utrabo, Juliano Monteiro, Pedro Duschenes, Ernesto Bueno, Lucas Issey and Marcela Furtado.
Year: 2011.
Location: Rua 24 Horas, Curitiba, Brazil.
Status: Built.

More images on the Atelier UM+D website.

Radiolarian walls at Beyond Media 2009