First conceived as a dynamically torqued pavilion for the Lightbox Gallery in Surrey, UK. Stack is a non-modular construction system cut and assembled from flat sheets that produces ornate detail and lush pattern directly from its logic of assembly and structure.  Stack uses pattern to mediate between two definitions of performance; structural capacity and the production of a theatrical series of effects via porosity, transparency, and color.  The variably contoured poche has the capacity to effortlessly accommodate complex undulations, creating intricate relationships between part and whole, working between modular aggregation and sculpted mass.Stack considers how digital fabrication may redefine typical light wood frame construction systems.  Working with typical 3/4” plywood (1/4” in this mockup) it reduces complex geometry to near rectangular profiles that fold into triangular units with inlaid shear panels.  The units are factory assembled into larger triangular modules which after transport to the site, register measurable alignments for accurate and efficient installation.As and installation, Stacked was produced in conjunction with Mockups, an exhibition of full-scale fabrications by Woodbury University faculty and curated by David Freeland. A form of representation ubiquitous in architectural practice, mockups are typically associated with projects destined for construction, built by contractors in order to verify the architects’ design intention at full scale. Part of a disciplinary model that locates building expertise solely within the realm of the contractor, the status of these pre-construction mockups has been challenged by fabrication technologies that reconnect design and building. Repositioning the mockup as method for exploring the unbuilt and speculating on interfaces between digital and physical opens up the possibility for new tectonic and spatial agendas to develop outside standard modes of representation such as drawings and renderings.

Project Team: Greg Zamora, Juan Lau, Ken Mishima, Rana Ahmadi, Kelsi Goss, Artur Grochowski, Raynald Pelletier