2013 Honor Award, AIA Minnesota

The Centennial Chromagraph is a life-size representation of the history of the University of Minnesota School of Architecture. The project is an exercise in data spatialization: using computational design tools to generate formal and spatial constructions with large quantities of data—in this case, information collected over the 100-year history of UMN’s architecture school. The installation consists of 100 robotically-routed plywood ribs, joined together with 8,080 colored #2 pencils. The curvature of the ribs expresses major historical eras and periods of the School—the tenures of its leadership, the buildings it has occupied, the colleges it has belonged to—while the color of the pencils reflects the changing composition of the School's degree programs over the past century. The piece will be on display through fall 2013 in the central courtyard of Ralph Rapson Hall at the University of Minnesota.

Project page: http://www.variableprojects.com/#/centennial-chromagraph/