Storrs Lecture Hall Podium Wrap

This installation was programmatically defined as a wrap to conceal the University regulated podium in the lecture hall at the School of Architecture at UNCC. The design is intended to be a study of methods for folding flat sheet material cut with a 3-axis CNC router. Di-bond (manufactured by the Alcan Corporation), a material made of two sheets of .012” aluminum sandwiched around a solid polyethylene core could be kerf cut (a cut which is only partially through a material) leaving a thin layer of aluminum capable of, essentially, becoming a hinge within the material.The manipulation of Di-bond through kerf cutting led us to study how tessellated strips of this material could be used as a skinning system.The flexibility of the material and the subsequent geometric logic, provided the necessary twisting and bending to give the installation a facetted aesthetic. The logic of the material and its integration with the structural system provided a bi- directional relationship with the information we needed to fully grasp a complete understanding of the material’s behavior and its relationship to the techniques of fabrication.