An Anomalous Column
Houston
Site: American Institute of Arcitects, Houston Chapter
Program: Fabrication
Size: 64 sf
Status: Competition Proposal
Team: Shawn M. Lutz
Columns typically form spatial relationships with their surroundings when exposed to an open area. Upon approaching the structural object, one is confronted with the scale typically by function and abrupt opaque objectivity through its formal character. This project starts with a square plan only to be eradicated by eroding the interior formed by two colliding cylindrical volumes. These two cylindrical extrusions are catalysts to void by continuing the spatial experience to the interior. These cylindrical volumes meet at the same reference point atop the column’s interior, enabling the viewer to take on two incidents from the outside and interior of the column. The exterior balances the voided interior, and the overall reference to the square shape in the plan finds opportunities by oscillating between conical geometry referencing the offset from the interior and planar conditions resolving to the square column typology. This movement along the elevations allows the object to lend curiosity around the column as one finds the interior experience.
Fabrication of this non-structural object comprises extruded polystyrene that can utilize fabrication techniques and weight for the exhibition. This proposal intends to be two inches from the floor and two inches from the ceiling. We are proposing the column project formed from one EPS foam solid block and carving the interior’s two cylindrical shapes using a robotic arm setup with a hot wire cutter and the exterior milling with a robotic arm. The finish would be sanded, spackled, primed, and painted.
_ RV Robot, Greg Lynn, 2012
_ John Maeda, Space Diagrams, 1995
_ Ai Weiwei, China Log, 2005