Digital design and fabrication methods can generate otherwise unimaginable forms. But what will be missing if human minds and hands are expelled from the process? We ask Heatherwick Studio in Cubes 87. Here’s a preview of the article!
August 5th, 2017
What criteria should we use when we judge emerging design and fabrication methods? What are the qualities of our material realm that we deem most valuable and worthy of preservation as we enter a new digitally enhanced era of design and coordinated machine craft? Will we continue to uphold the shepherding influence that the human mind and hand have always had in shaping our world?
I was intrigued when I heard that Heatherwick Studio’s New York project named Vessel was conceived, developed and documented with a heavy reliance on new visual scripting software. In fact, as the studio’s Group Leader Stuart Wood describes, “The project was only conceivable through the use of a computer.” Heatherwick Studio is a bastion of craft-driven design and forms tailored to the human body’s proportions. So what would a digital design process mean for the experience of the project?
Vessel, which is currently under construction at Hudson Yards, will be an extraordinary public landmark as well as a piece of infrastructure – a complex three-dimensional lattice of 2,400 steps and 80 landings in a cup-like shape reaching over 45 metres in height. It was conceived as a means of attracting and gathering people.
“It’s such a complex form that even numbering and sequencing the components would have been impossible without digital data,” he says. “But ultimately we’re interested in the real material. The digital is fascinating, but the point at which the steel is cut and the welds are created – that’s when it becomes real. That’s when you need to deploy your sensibilities of look and feel, touch and quality,” says Wood. “A computer can’t give you emotion, feel, representation.”
That’s why Wood and his team are on the factory floor making critical decisions about joints, finishes and more. “It’s been an amazing odyssey of the philosophical, the conceptual, the digital and the physical,” he says.
Read the full story in Cubes issue 87 Aug/Sept, on sale now!
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Marylou Cafaro’s first trendjournal sparked a powerful, decades-long movement in joinery designs and finishes which eventually saw Australian design develop its independence and characteristic style. Now, polytec offers all-new insights into the future of Australian design.
Savage Design’s approach to understanding the relationship between design concepts and user experience, particularly with metalwork, transcends traditional boundaries, blending timeless craftsmanship with digital innovation to create enduring elegance in objects, furnishings, and door furniture.
Sub-Zero and Wolf’s prestigious Kitchen Design Contest (KDC) has celebrated the very best in kitchen innovation and aesthetics for three decades now. Recognising premier kitchen design professionals from around the globe, the KDC facilitates innovation, style and functionality that pushes boundaries.
Indesign Media has announced a significant milestone with the consolidation of multiple platforms into a single regional go-to source for design professionals and enthusiasts.
Hard maple is an abundant species from the American hardwood forest which is widely underused. The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) are endeavouring to recognise hard maple’s true potential in design, particularly as a link between the home and the natural world.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
In the pursuit of an uplifting synergy between the inner world and the surrounding environment, internationally acclaimed Interior Architect and Designer Lorena Gaxiola transform the vibration of the auspicious number ‘8’ into mesmerising artistry alongside the Feltex design team, brought to you by GH Commercial.
Adaptive reuse is all the rage across the design industry, and rightly so. Here, we present a selection of articles on this most effective approach to sustainability.