The Capacity of Discrete Parts to Form Continuous Assemblages

Watney is a design-build, mobile installation composed of an assemblage of discrete parts. Each parthas its own logic and properties and each combines to form a whole that both affects and is affected by the parts. The project represents a new type of machine; it is a continuous assemblage in which formal continuity is the constraint that ties otherwise independent parts into a collective as opposed to an aggregation of self-similar units or a hierarchically bound composite in which the whole is somehow greater than the parts. The project as a whole engages the site through formal and cultural relations that are both familiar and unfamiliar to the place, eliciting new revelations of both site and object. Watney is one local manifestation of a fully parametric digital model which includes other potential manifestations. A particular iteration was selected based on its ability to be fabricated using CNC processes, the effect of each part’s properties on the whole, and the constraints imposed by the whole on each part in order to achieve a continuous assemblage. The selection process was guided by the relationship between parts and whole and by contextual cues that promoted some versions over others. Watney also provides a new take on the waffle ribstructure system. By treating each part as an independent, self-structuring, uniquely formal object, Watney disentangles the parts from a top-down structural scheme. The resultant assembly of multi directional waffles contained by the surface of each part produces a whole that is much stronger than one created using a conventional rib system. Furthermore, the manifestation of each part’s particular structural solution is, like the object itself, guided by an internal logic that relates to other properties of the part in which it is contained. Each part is guided by conditions imposed by the whole and by contextual cues, such as occupation, view, and environmental and cultural responsiveness.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.2016.33

Volume Editors
Alfredo Andia, Dana Cupkova, Macarena Cortes, Umberto Bonomo & Vera Parlac

ISBN
978-1-944214-10-4