Slipstream: An Exploration of Spatial Turbulence; Inspired by the drawings of Lebbeus Woods and Leonardo Da Vinci

2011-06-07T14:00:00-04:00

Slipstream is compelling pavilion whose form emerged from an exploration of both spatial phenomena and digital design methodologies. A Slipstream, in essence, is a type of turbulence generated by a body moving rapidly within a larger body. As stated by Lebbeus Woods, “The slipstream is a highly dynamic space active with forces that impel a direction and that itself moves, together with the moving body continuously creating it...” This became the design intention: to express such a phenomenon experientially, to explore the implications of slipstreaming as a spatial construct.

Captain Concept - Archinect Interviews Michael Jantzen

2009-09-04T14:50:34-04:00

The artist and designer Michael Jantzen has added another structure to the surreal panorama made of his alternative-energy social and living spaces. This latest addition —Sun Rays Pavilion — is an oblique gathering area made of 12 precast concrete columns towering 150 feet tall. The Pavilion’s flat roof, as it were, faces south. Glazed with photovoltaic film, the structure generates its own electricity, with some to spare — providing the local power grid with surplus energy. Large glass sections and doors keep the space ventilated.

As it is with such projects, there are no production plans. Not yet, anyway. Nevertheless, in the fantastical landscape where many of Jantzen’s concepts reside, Sun Rays Pavilion serves its purpose: it is a gathering space, after all, visited in no small part by bloggers and magazine readers; it further broaches exactly those questions and concerns Jantzen hoped it would. Besides, as Jantzen tells me, the fate of a realized structure may be even harde...

Archinect - Features

Slipstream: An Exploration of Spatial Turbulence; Inspired by the drawings of Lebbeus Woods and Leonardo Da Vinci

Captain Concept - Archinect Interviews Michael Jantzen