Materials & Assembly: LAMINATRIX (Spring 2011)
Site: CFA Great Hall, Carnegie Mellon University
Collaborators: Matt Adler, Sage Altenhofen, Esra Aras, Christina Chen, Sung Hwang, Ying Lin, Max Park, Rohan Rathod
This full-scale temporary installation was inspired by a catenary. Our only limitations were that the structure had to touch the ground at a minimum of 3 points and it was to be constructed completely out of plywood (with the exception of certain critical joint conditions and their necessary hardware). We decided to take on the challenge of trying to touch the ground at literally only 3 points. We inverted our catenary tests and prototypes and came up with a parabolic arch framework made of long laminated plywood segments. This tri-arch frame was held together by a canopy of unique members with CNC-milled pentagonal and hexagonal sandwich joints, which were bolted to the frame with angled metal butt joints. The result was a freestanding tripod we like to call: The Laminatrix.
