Deep Decoration

from ASSEMBLAGE, MOTIF ET RÉCIPROCITÉ - TERRAIN DE JEU D’UNE ARCHITECTURE ALGORITHMIQUE

Nexorade Hybrid

Photo of the Centre Frans Masereel, in Kasterlee, the reciprocal structure is left visible and gives serenity to the space, an additional set of relief is painted directly on the elements. The structure is aesthetic in its authenticity. 98

f. Deep Decoration These same researchers evoke the link between the tesselations and the elegance that emerges from these structures, they compare them to bird’s nests, made of small pieces of wood, simple and discreet.70 Nexorades develop a close relationship between their structural and aesthetic languages. Like their elements, they evolve reciprocally through a common mathematical expression, which the nexorades would share with certain natural structures. That’s why we would find them beautiful and refined. Nina Rappaport argues that there is currently a transition in architecture where structure is increasingly becoming a form generator. Structural design must form a whole with its cultural and technological environment. The engineer’s work no longer only corresponds to validating the intentions of an architect by minimizing their impact. Designing structures must return to an intuitive and creative art. This structural inventiveness is all the more essential because today they can take forms that are the result of a completely new language. This interest has slowly been manifested by an emerging culture of biomimicry. By trying to copy the relationships between the elements of the same organic body such as a sea sponge or the structure of our bones, structures have demonstrated that they can be an integral part of the bodies they support. At that time, the concept of Deep decoration, which consists in integrating the structure as part of the project where the part and the whole form

an expressive whole. At the same time, it proposes to combine this concept with another one called subtle innovation where structure and project are combined through adapted and tailor-made technology. It brings a touch of originality that offers the project this new vocabulary, giving it the opportunity to express its intentions down to the most subtle details. She gives as an example the pyramid of the Louvre, specifically designed so that the glass tiles that compose it look detached, floating.71

Law of Perception of Geshtalt Theory 99 « In the synthesis of structure and form, structure as deep decoration combined with subtle innovation has evolved from a new culture of technology and design, shaping complex space and resulting in a structurally led design theory. This new structural theory reveals a space that parallels the understanding of the complexity of natural structures, leading to an even more expansive potential for a new structural paradigm and design aesthetic 1»72

The visual attractiveness attached to the nexorades can come from its discreet formal layout, but also from its direct correlation with the tesselations. We can try to understand how aesthetics and satisfaction are linked through Gestalt’s theory of perception. Proximity, grouping and closure demonstrate that the motifs create continuity and visual continuity and interplay of forms. This continuity is particularly different from standard structures because of its lack of hierarchy. The pattern and the surface that contains it grow together like an organism. Reciprocal structures are a form of involuntary biomimicry. But if copying nature often pays off in a study of optimization and functionality, this is not necessarily true for aesthetics. The human eye can instinctively recognize organic forms, but that does not mean that these forms are good structures. Rather, they must be bioinspired, in the very basis of their designs. A bioinspired aesthetic structure therefore does not seek to imitate nature, but to decipher its rules, by means of mathematics.73 This relationship between mathematics, nature and structure is conducive to the development of algorithms that in turn explore the potential of nexorades more and more deeply.

1 «dAns lA synthèse de lA struCture et de lA forme, lA struCture en tAnt que déCorAtion profonde Combinée à une innovAtion subtile A évolué à pArtir d ’ une nouvelle Culture de lA teChnologie et du design, fAçonnAnt un espACe CompleXe et AboutissAnt à une théorie du design struCturellement dirigée. Cette nouvelle théorie struCturelle révèle un espACe pArAllèle à lA Compréhension de lA CompleXité des struCtures nAturelles, ConduisAnt à un potentiel enCore plus lArge pour un nouveAu pArAdigme struCturel et une nouvelle esthétique de ConCeption.»

2.17. The element

Research on the relationship between nexorades and tesselation is booming. But, in order to preserve the discreet and subtle foundation of this non-hierarchical structure, it is essential to consider the issue of connections. A basic classification, proposed by Joel Gustafson, lists them according to their production methods, assemblies and appearances. However, it is important to first list the types of elements before coming to their connections. According to Baverel and Larsen 74, it is possible to denote four of them: bars, rings, blocks and plates. These elements are determined by the way they are linked. These types of structures are called intertwined and function like a textile. Each element is responsible for the support of the others and therefore for its own maintenance, hence the relevance of the reciprocal term.

The bars are the elements in use in most of the examples we have seen before, they are thin and are defined by their eccentricity, engagement length and number of nexors.

Rings, on the other hand, are rarely present, as they are difficult to manufacture on a large scale. They act on the same principle as a chain mail. There are two types of arrangements called Borrome and Hopf. If a ring is removed from the Borrome arrangement, none of the other elements are linked, which is not the case in the Hops arrangement. It is possible to find this type of arrangement in West African tables where the rings are cut together from the same piece of wood to ensure the connection.

It is also possible to obtain reciprocal arrangements using blocks. A block is defined by the fact that it has equivalent dimensions in all three directions. It is more directly related to tesselations, because they are formed by their simple extrusions. They function analogously to a vault although the elements are not just placed one on top of the other, they have a morphology that allows them to constrain each other.

Borrome’s Arrangement Hops’s Arrangement West african table100

Pont Truchet biais, G. Fallacara Universidad San Pablo, Madrid, 2007.101

Furnitures drawn by Warner Blaser102

Each triangle corresponds to an arrangement of nexors.103

Reciprocal plate structure by compression transmission 104

Adaptation of the self-supporting bridge made by da Vinci 105 Adaptation of the self-supporting bridge made by da Vinci - Detail106

There is one last class of elements that is particularly interesting in this research, because it is the one that supports the best integration into digital manufacturing processes. Machines mainly operate in two dimensions in the development of complex designs, the third one is often only used to provide horizontal bearings as in 3D printers. Reciprocal plate-based structures can therefore take advantage of the full potential of algorithmic architecture without using overly advanced technologies. Although the gap between the plates and the bars is sometimes small, they are both strategies and therefore fundamentally different results.

Warner Blaser has developed a series of furniture inspired by reciprocal structures that gives a good overview of the integrative approach that boards provide. He made it a point of honour to take advantage of the surface in the construction of his knots75. Although most of these experiences have an aesthetic vocation, there is a subtle form of integration, albeit from another context.

According to Baverel and Pugnale, it is possible to distinguish three categories of nexorades based on planar elements. The first develops similarly to bar configurations, but takes advantage of its thickness to include a particular joint system. In this category, for example, there are several constructions mentioned above, such as the Serpentine pavillon 2005, Metropol parasol or even the shell nexorade hybrid.

In the second category, connections are grouped into the area of the room. The planar element is then composed of several nexors defined by its edges. There is a last category which is defined by its mismatch with the other two. Baverel offers us two examples, the first where the nexor induces a bending moment, demonstrated in a revisited vision of the self-supporting bridge made by da Vinci and the second where it transmits the compressive forces this time.76

Reciprocal bar structure ( Drawing of Gustafsson ) 107

Reciprocal ring structure ( Drawing of Gustafsson ) 108