Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002

There are two ideas, based on structural thinking, one for a floor that swelled up to support a flat roof; the    other for a flat roof composed exclusively of random cross lines and supported only by the line of the exterior  walls, in all forming an absolute box. They went for the second idea, where Cecil Balmond found a simple  algorithm for getting the seemingly chaotic pattern of lines. “Propose an algorithm: half to a third of adjacent  sides of the

square. The 1/2 to 1/3 rule traces four lines in the original square that do not meet. (Choose the half point  instead of each side, the trace 1/2 to 1/2 closes back on itself like a billiard ball bouncing perfectly around a  square enclosure.) The half to a third rule forces one to go out of the original square to create a new square so  that the rule, the algorithm, may continue. Continue for six cycles and a primary structure is obtained. Then if  these lines are all extended, a pattern of many crossings results. Some are primary for load bearing, some will  serve as bracings to secondary and the rest will be
a binding motif of the random across the surface of the box typology.” (Balmond 2006)
That approach based on algorithms offers greater freedom, but it is also a tool for thoughts since it is very hard to imagine randomness on your own. Algorithms enables you to create unpredictable complexity and hybrid situations, which are still calculable and manageable.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*


2 + one =


*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>