the chrysalis ampitheater | MARC FORNES/theverymany

MARC  FORNES / THEVERYMANY

Photographs by Jeffrey Totaro

ONE  STAGE BECOMES MANY AS THE CHRYSALIS RECONCEPTUALIZES THE LIFE OF AN AMPHITHEATER

95% of the time, the new Chrysalis Amphitheater in Merriweather Park of Columbia, Maryland is not programmed. Rather than waiting for official events, architecture studio MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY maximized the potential of the project brief with a design that provides an experience around the clock.

“We want to provide not just a destination, but an experience for the morning jogger, the Sunday walker, the afternoon stroller, as well as anyone who is actually there for a show,” Architecte DPLG Marc Fornes says of the project. “It is an amphitheater, yet it is first a pavilion in the park, an architectural structure, a

tree house and a public artwork, ready to be engaged and activated at any given moment.”

EVERY ARCH A FUNCTION

What emerged as the major design opportunity of the project was to create an emblematic and experiential design while satisfying the standard box dimensions required by a theater typology. The answer was developed as a collection of cascading arches that vary not only in size but function, and also

provide a structural system.

The largest arch frames Stage Alpha, dimensioned and structured for official events, including the performances of musicians and the requirements of their equipment and lighting rigs. Immediately adjacent to the main stage is Stage Beta, a venue for smaller and more community-based events, and

which still provides a platform, equipment/lighting rigs, and seating area, yet is more appropriate for less of a crowd. The engineered terrain ascending to Stage Beta provides an architectural topography on which park visitors can sit, stand and play, and which can be activated itself as a more casual “Speakers Corners” stage set-up.

Wrapping around the back of the structure, further arches are locations for a truck loading dock, a grand staircase entrance, and balconies with views beyond, which during performances serve as the artist

backstage area.

LIGHT ON ITS FEET

To achieve a light and organic effect that suits the context of a dense wooded park, the studio took a structurally-oriented approach, building upon over a decade of research and development of lightweight structural shells that unify form, support and experience into a cohesive system. In particular, The Chrysalis further develops principles explored in its “little brother” precedent, Pleated Inflation , completed by the studio in Argeles, France in 2015.

The Chrysalis is similarly generated from a process in which a digital mesh is drawn flat, and all of its segments are transformed into a series of differentiated spring systems, then inflated. Constraints for pleating are added to the inflation protocol to provide extra structural depth.

Layered within the pleated shell, MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY sits an exoskeleton of steel tubing to support the heavy loads for performances inside, such as lights and other rigging. Engineered by Arup, 70 point loads within can each sustain 2,000 lbs.

FABRICATION BY ZAHNER

In between its aluminum shingles and steel exoskeleton , the project utilized ZEPPS, a patented interface developed by Zahner, and who also fabricated the 7,700 shingles from rolls of aluminum. Each shingle is painted one of four shades of green that is taken from nature and pushed to the point of artificiality.

Together they amount to a subtle green gradient that renders The Chrysalis an iconic signal at the same time that it is camouflaged into its natural surroundings.

LIVE AT THE CHRYSALIS

At night The Chrysalis takes on a new life as a glowing concert venue with the structural capacity and flexibility to support the most significant of musical performances. The park boasts a rich musical heritage, having hosted acts from Led Zeppelin to Janis Joplin. The original venue within the park is the

Merriweather Post Pavilion, an early work from Frank Gehry.

Material: Aluminum Shingles,

ZEPPS Profiled Panel Systems,

Galvanized Steel Substructure

Dimensions: 64'H x 120'W x 82'D

Surface Area: 12,000 sq ft

7,700 Shingles; 45,000 Rivets

Designed by: MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY

Commissioned by: Inner Arbor Trust

Engineer / Theatrical / Lighting: ARUP

Architect of Records: Living Design Lab

Specialty Fabrication: Zahner

Landscape Architect: Mahan Rykiel Associates

Civil Engineer: Gutschick, Little & Weber, P.A.

MARC FORNES, registered and practicing Architect DPLG, leads THEVERYMANY, a New York-based studio specializing in large-scale, site-specific structures that unify skin, support, form, and experience into a single system. Over the last ten years, Marc has designed and built a number of organic, thin-shell constructions that push the limits of form, structure, and space. This body of work is situated between the fields of art and architecture, with particular focus in the realm of public art. Each public artwork aims to provide a unique spatial experience for its visitors, while also contributing to the visual identity of a place and catalyzing community engagement.

This practice is propelled by Marc’s expertise in computational design. THEVERYMANY represents a body of research that continues to advance new parametric outcomes and implement complex techniques in architecture and beyond. Each project evolves previous inquiries, and further investigates design though codes and computational protocols, addressing new ways to describe complex curvilinear self-supported surfaces into series of flat elements for efficient fabrication.

Some of these prototypical architectures have acquired and displayed by institutions and galleries including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), where Y/STRUC/SURF is part of the permanent collection, the FRAC Centre (Orleans, FR), and the Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York). Marc has also exhibited at the Guggenheim, GGG Art Basel Miami, Art Paris and sold at auction at Phillips De Pury.

Marc has shared his research as a TED fellow, in public lectures and through academic appointments, artist residencies and workshops. With Francois Roche, he co-founded “(n)Certainties,” a graduate studio at Columbia University with visiting semesters at the University of Southern California and at Die Angewandte in Vienna. He has taught at University of Michigan, Princeton and Harvard GSD with Patrik Schumacher.

In 2007 Marc designed and launched www.scriptedbypurpose.net, the first exhibition exclusively focusing on scripted processes within design, curated for the European section at the 2008 Architecture Biennale in Beijing.

Marc’s professional experience in the UK, US and France include SOM, Ross Lovegrove and ZAHA HADID Architects. At ZHA, Marc was project architect for an experimental Mediatheque in Pau, France. He directed extensive material research and geometrical development for what would have been the largest self-supported carbon fiber shell to date.