Public Space is a place for community as well as a topic for discourse between designers and patrons. This duality may be seen in our most recent entrance wall installation, a parametric sculpture inspired by conceptual harmonies between two- and three-dimensional media and reflecting the tension between an evolving community and a static installation in its midst.
The SWA San Francisco office regularly curates the entrance wall in the new office space, occasionally rotating installations by teams or individuals. I created this structural, yet fluid, design, the 3-D elements of which are constructed simply by hand folding paper, using methods informed by origami and fashion design. Paper was selected as the representative material because it’s the equivalent of designer’s vernacular: It provides the means for communicating with each other; it’s how we wrestle without plotters.
Origami’s “Glide Reflection of Symmetrical Repeats” technique yields a tessellated curved shape formed from a plane. As one of the most flexible techniques, it has been reinterpreted and utilized by fashion designers with a special interest in geometry, such as Issey Miyake, Alexandra Verschueren, and Yuichi Ozaki.
Unique to this installation is the scale of the handfolding, which required a new process and extra-large (80”x80”) sheets of paper. The installation’s constructed form is modified by how gravity affects each panel, which is anchored individually. Softer interactions like touch, drafts, humidity, and light will also change the shape of this installation over time. A temporal expression of communication and perfected craft, my sculpture will reveal new identities as it transforms.
