Foam Follies Methodology Report

FOAM FOLLIES: CAST FOAM-CORK BLOCKS Student Names: Instructor: Course Title: Semester:

Meg Bunke, Wellington Chew, Lauren Drew, Jennifer Pranskevich, Xiwen Wei Juan Jofre-Lora Fortlandia: An Outdoor Exhibit at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Summer 2018

Foam-Cork Blocks Curing in Molds

Assembled and Disassembled Foam-Cork Blocks

Project Description Foam Follies explores digital fabrication techniques and the innovative use of readily-available materials to produce an installation for the Fortlandia exhibition at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The exhibition, held September 29, 2018 through February 24, 2019, promoted exploration of the outdoors, providing educational and interpretive opportunities for visitors to engage a series of constructed landscape in new and imaginative ways. Foam Follies prioritizes the interactive nature of fort building, creating a series of modules with pieces that can be arranged and ordered as desired - made possible with the use of light, soft and resilient materials such as foam and cork.

Materials

Sourcing

Programs

Flex-Foam-iT III - Kit: Part A + Part B (Smooth-On) Oomoo 30 (Smooth-On) UVO UV-Resistant Dye (Smooth-On) Cork - Fine 10/20 (Maryland Cork Company LLC) Cork - Coarse 3/8 (Maryland Cork Company LLC) XPS Blue Foam

Smooth-On - Reynolds Advanced Materials Dallas, TX www.reynoldsam.com/dallas/ Cork - Maryland Cork Company LLC Elkton, MD www.marylandcork.com/

Rhino

Material Methodology Report: Foam Follies

Tools CNC Router Electric Mixer

Material Determinants The project team determined that they wanted to create an interactive installation. The resulting fort is based on a geometric and modular logic, but encourages assembly and disassembly in an almost infinite number of configurations.

This requires the individual fort pieces to be composed of materials that are light, soft and resilient so different configurations can easily and safely be built. Rather than clad each object in a soft material, the project team was interested in the process of carving and casting a solid material. This accommodates formal geometric ambitions like complex curvature and more non-traditional shapes while retaining a monolithic appearance for each fort piece. The project team decided on a combination of foam mixed with cork for each of the fort pieces. This material solution remains lightweight at a large scale, allows for the casting of complex forms, and is soft and safely interactive for all participants.

Procedure 1. Create form negatives with blue foam and CNC Router 2. Build rigid cover to clamp over molds with “release” holes for expanding/overflowing foam 3. Coat form negatives in a release agent such as Oomoo 30.

Material Amounts (Weight) 4. Calculate the volume of form (cubic inches) (ex. 1000 cubic inches) 5. Total cork: 0.008 oz/cubic inch (Fine:Coarse = 1:2 by weight) (8 oz total, 2.667oz fine + 5.333oz coarse) 6. Total Flex-Foam iT III: 0.060 oz/cubic inch (57.5A:100B by weight) (60oz total, 21.905 oz Part A + 38.095 oz Part B) Casting procedure 7. Weigh out cork – set aside 8. In bucket: weigh out Part B (shake container before pouring) 9. Mix with electric mixer: 30 seconds 10. If using color add dye (amounts varied by color, ~10-40 drops for 60oz)+ mix for 5-10 seconds (until distributed).

Must work QUICKLY for remaining steps!

11. Add Part A directly to pre-mixed Part B (shake container before pouring) 12. Mix Part B + Part A with electric mixer: 30 seconds 13. Add cork and mix with electric mixer: 20 seconds + scrape down sides with spatula and briefly stir to get everything at end 14. Quickly pour into mold (as fast as possible!!), cover + apply back pressure 15. Let cure in form for at least 2 hours

Innovations Initial explorations involved utilizing materials like cork bonded together with an adhesive. While this achieved many of the formal goals for the fort pieces, the adhesive added a significant amount of weight to each block. The innovation for this project was effectively creating a new type of material which retained cork as an added aggregate but utilized a different bonding agent, foam, which was lightweight and soft. While the blocks appear solid and heavy, with a surface texture similar to that of concrete, they are actually quite lightweight and soft to the touch an interesting and unexpected contrast.

Challenges • • •

The ratios for foam to cork were calculated for prototype pieces at a smaller scale. The full scale pieces required an adjustment to this ratio.

The blue foam mold negatives were initially clad in chipboard which was then covered in a silicone release agent.

The chipboard started to break down after multiple castings and it was decided thereafter to apply the release agent directly to the foam negatives.

The project team tested cutting the cast blocks in half to reveal the interior strata of the cork and foam. During the casting process, a protective film formed at the exterior of each piece; the structural integrity was undermined by cutting the blocks.

Report prepared by Materials Lab Researcher Alex St. Angelo, Fall 2018 Material Methodology Report: Foam Follies