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Malleable Sculpture
Type: Academic Project | Kinetic Sculpture | Art Installation
Status: Prototype Built
Designer: Javier Villarroel
Instructor: Lyn Godley
Exhibited : International Contemporary Furniture Fair, 2016
Malleable Sculpture is a study in the relationship between interlaced strips that generate a holistic volume and understanding how different materials and interlacing strategies change the resultant geometry. This application pushes to develop a membranous interlaced surface that responds to the displacement of an anchored linear actuator, resulting in a series of “breathing volumes.” This project was exhibited at the 2016 ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) at the Javits Center.
Model developed through grasshopper
Digital Fabrication
The fabrication of each module incorporates digital fabrication and manual assembly of the pieces. The bulk of the volume is made of acrylic sheets that were laser cut into specified pieces generated through grasshopper. The end caps are composed of 3D printed PLA, which are in the shape of a decagon in order to facilitate the organizing and layering of the 60 pieces in each module. Manual assembly is done in order to compile interlaced modules, which evidently generates the 3d volume; as irregularly shaped pieces are composed in two alternating directions radially the volume takes on the shape desired and allows for deformation with effective shape recovery. An initial test was done as a proof of concept with a total of 20 acrylic sheets and requiring instead a pentagon for the end cap. Although very rough this prototype proved successful and allowed for the 60 piece modules to be built.
3D Printed End Caps for the modules are flattened sheets of decagons that not only sandwich the plexi glass strips into organized layers, but also serve as a main anchoring point for the linear actuators concealed inside. Underneath the module one sees the strips travel inwards towards the center of the volume by its layering and individual shape, also making the actuator increasingly less visible. In addition to this, slim bars travel from within the volume outwards to interlock with the base of the actuator, forcing the displacement to be independent from a base anchor
separate from the modules.
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