http://www.projectione.com/exotique/

EXOtique is a quick design through fabrication installation at Ball State’s College of Architecture. The Institute for Digital Fabrication invited us to lead the workshop/installation with student help, following three main constraints:

*Timeline- 5 Days: One day devoted to design, one day of modeling in Rhino / Grasshopper and materials testing, and three shared days of fabrication, assembly, and installation.

*Budget- $500 materials budget: white acrylic, white polystyrene, and 55 cord sockets and bulbs.

*Site- Ceiling above the foyer at the west entrance of the architecture building.

Through the use of computational tools (both software and hardware) the design through fabrication process can be drastically condensed. However the use of digital tools and design thinking for the purposes of fabrication rather than representation is not always at the forefront of designer’s minds. This project was aimed at using tools purely as generators for fabrication without the need for representation. As designers and creative thinkers, we do not have to lean on these tools for the purposes of imagery; imagination can act as renderer, and understanding of materiality acts as logic in the physical world. Yet, in order to create the complex and infinitely different component systems, we are dependent on, and benefit from these digital processes.