Looking Outwards 02

As digital fabrication tools get more and more sophisticated, there’s been calls for the field of architecture to keep up with the technology. Digital fabrication tools and computer algorithms come hand in hand, not only do computer algorithms help the tools realize the physical objects, the algorithms can also help designers and architects visualize and imagine previously impossible geometries. Michael Hansmeyer, a classically trained, architect, walks at the forefront of this endeavor. In is installation Digital Grotesque I, Hansmeyer explore the the expressive formal potentials of digital technologies, the forms, generated by a series of algorithms consists of 260 million geometric facets, an impossible feat via regular explicit modelling. What’s interesting about this is that, the algorithm, other than interpreting classical architectural forms, adds another layer of detail and complexity to it by exploring, ideas such as permutations and infinite scales. The artist demonstrates this on his website with a 3d model of the actual installation, where the piece itself can be zoom in infinitely. An exploration of fractals and endless permutations. Although the idea of infinite is limited by reality and our fabrication abilities and resolution, it is still without a doubt an interesting concept to explore at an architectural scale, that has been thought over by generations of architects. Although it is now, just a slight bit closer to reality, Hansmeyer’s piece can still only capped at a certain resolution. There is still much to discover through the lens of generative design.

http://www.michael-hansmeyer.com/digital-grotesque-I