SCI-Arc’s Blobwall
These ninjas over at SCI-Arc are not to be trifled with when it comes to their installations, as we’ve shown before. This time, however, they’ve stepped up their game and gotten Greg Lynn involved – designing a new installation that will open on May 30th entitled Blobwall Pavilion. The project is a collaboration between Greg Lynn FORM, Machinous [who manufactured the 'bricks'] and Panelite [who supplied the material] – it aims to redefine the brick as a building unit, transforming it into a lightweight object made of colorful plastic and reinterpreted into modular elements’.
The Blobwall Pavilion is a contemporary wall system that recovers the voluptuous shapes, chiaroscuro and grotto-like textures of Baroque and Renaissance architecture in pixilated gradients of vivid color. On three walls of the installation, custom fabricated acrylic Bubble Cabinets will be installed to display small objects.
Though Blobwall Pavilion is designed in stock shapes totaling over 500 individual bricks in ten different colors, it can also be configured to custom shapes and color combinations. The varied yellow hues composing the body of the installation in the SCI-Arc Gallery celebrate the material qualities and colors of the roto-molded plastic and are arrayed as if bathed in a warm light so the highlights are not white, but instead crimson, plum and pink [via SCI-Arc].

Interesting stuff. I’m not sure what you do with these new ‘bricks’ other than build installations + pavilions at design schools – but it’s still cool to look at. I have to admit that I’m kind-of a ‘hater’, and that curvilinear computer-generated forms don’t necessarily excite me. This idea that the computer frees us from some lack of imagination or design/construction ability seems somewhat like BS – forms like these weren’t created because they’re expensive + difficult to manufacture, not necessarily only because we ‘couldn’t do it’. That, and just because we can do something now doesn’t mean that we should…
My general negativity towards ‘blob architecture’ aside, the installation itself looks pretty siiick, and fun – definitely something I’d suggest my left-coast ninjas check out.
In September 2008 the Blobwall Pavilion will leave SCI-Arc and travel to the Venice Biennale as part of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition – Out There: Architecture Beyond Building.
For more, check out SCI-Arc’s exhibitions page and the Blobwall Pavilion blog.
::AMNP thanks to our ninja Oliver, grad-student over at SCI-Arc, for hitting us up about this installation::
::Also – if you’re a student, don’t hesitate to drop us an email about interesting architectural ridiculousness that’s going on at your school and should be featured on AMNP::
Related posts:
- The Prada Transformer
- The Voussoir Cloud
- Jetson Green: Artek Pavilion
- Quote of the Day
- The Brick Accumulator
Posted: May 5th, 2008
at 1:02pm by orangemenace
Categories: architecture, featured ninjas, installation, interiors, my ninja, please, student, tech
Comments: 2 comments
2 Responses to 'SCI-Arc’s Blobwall'
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Wow, I’m with you, I really don’t get the whole blob scene. I tend to equate it to the Hello Kitty phenomenon. The architecture is ‘cute’ but it serves no larger purpose. Hey, I dare you to buy a piece of furniture and put it in that space and not be pissed you can’t find the right ‘feng shui’…
I guess I’m a ‘hater’ too.
P.S. Do ninja’s hate kittens?
Sri (University of Michigan 06')
5 May 08 at 5:46 pm
um…why would ninjas hate kittens man? they may well be ninjas themselves – cats don’t take any shit from anybody man…
orangemenace
5 May 08 at 8:53 pm