UNDER MAGNITUDE | MARC FORNES/THEVERYMANY

MARC  FORNES / THEVERYMANY

PERMANENT STRUCTURE IN ORLANDO PUSHES FORWARD MARC FORNES INVENTION OF STRUCTURAL-STRIPES MATERIALS

The latest work from art and architecture studio MARC FORNES /THEVERYMANY is Under Magnitude: a two-story tall permanent structure suspended in the atrium of Orlando's Orange County Convention Center, carving a three-dimensional impact into the vast space. The piece further evolves Fornes' invention of 'Structural Stripes,' as well as the fundamental premise of the studio to unite surface, structure and space in order to create a new kind of experience.

How could Under Magnitude be described to someone who cannot see it? It curves, it branches, splits, joins, re-splits. It is a limit, but not a limit. It has edges yet is edgeless. A provocation in the studio is that if a person is challenged to come up with new ways to describe a space, did they first have to come up with new ways to apprehend the space?

To each passerby beneath the suspended structure, a different kind of personal connection is forged, as the work provokes comparisons to the recognizable world, influenced by individual experiences and associations. A giant, smooth coral? A cloud-like barnacle? A woman's floral swimming cap? Borrowing and mismatching elements from the world, pushing them out of scale and hybridizing them to the realm of the bizarre, the structure achieves a familiar yet mysterious quality, at once friendly and alien. 

SHELL FROM SHELLS

Read as one element from far, Under Magnitude is the sum of many sub-elements: a network of branches unified by a single smooth and continuous white surface. The intricate curvilinear surface is also structure, forming a unified system of both 'columns' and 'beams,' aggregating to create a three-dimensional subspace. The open, tubular branches come together within a Y-shaped plan and reach upwards to form a shape that is both like a vault and a suction cup: a "shell from shells."

It is an example of the studio's invention and ongoing development of innovative 'new minimalist' digital assemblies -- unique constructs that unify skin, structure and spatial experience into a single system. 

INTENSIVE CURVATURE VS. EXTENSIVE CURVATURE

The material thickness of Under Magnitude is just a millimeter, thinner than a credit card, yet the structure is strong enough to walk upon.

The studio builds upon and challenges the heritage of Frei Otto, the notion of 'Extensive Curvature' and the achievement of Otto’s Soap Bubble Model. Otto determined that a bubble, when blown up to the size of a room, is more structurally performant than a box.

The strength of Under Magnitude is achieved by 'Intensive Curvature,' which is the maximization of double curvature across the project while constraining maximum radaii. The result is a structure that has much tighter curvature with constant change of direction, and results in more structurally performance. 'Intensive Curvature' leads to the curly, tubular branching characteristics consistent across the studio's body of work.

THE ORIGIN OF STRIPES

The logistical end of achieving 'Intensive Curvature' has been made possible by Fornes' invention and ongoing pursuit of the last ten years: 'topological-mesh-walking' as a 'Structural Stripe'-based material system.

Cut from flat pieces of aluminum, 'Structural Stripes' describe a construct as a set of precise parts; in the case of Under Magnitude, 4,672. A Stripe is analogous to existing units of building material, such as a brick, but unique in that it is specific to its position, and aware of its neighbors, each of which are also unique. 

Fastened together in assembly, each stripe assumes high degrees of curvature individually and high degrees of double curvature in accumulation -- amounting to extreme structural rigidity throughout the project. 

The studio is continually developing this unique method through projects that have over the last decade grown in scale and complexity. Driving the work is the search for high curvature, optimization of assembly time and the desire to innovate upon architectural effect.

The whiteness of Under Magnitude marks a return to past works such as Labrys Frisae for Miami Art Basel and non Lin / Lin at the Frac Centre in France. The single-tone coloration of the piece means it's gradation depends on the play of light, which, in the large, window-filled atrium, is a copious element. Throughout the day, as light changes, the effect of the piece changes, its edges often falling completely away. 

UNDER MAGNITUDE

4,672 Ultrathin Aluminum Stripes

103,723 Rivets

Dimensions: 25'H x 30'W x 45'D

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.