The art installation “Development”

materials
metal
year of Creation
2021
exhibition
ARCH Moscow 2021
authors
Anton Nadtochiy, Vera Butko, Sergey Nadtochiy, Roman Khorev, Akhmet Khakimov, Elizaveta Kukitts
co-authors
Schuco, Iplana, Craft Interactive

The art installation Development explores new possibilities for the use of technologies and materials in architecture, while raising the question of how architecture may be conceived and produced in the near future.

The installation consists of three parts: an abstract form, a manifesto — both open to individual interpretation — and a video documenting the process of creating the structure, from image to fabrication and construction.

At the first stage, we used a parametric form-generation method and selected, from many variations, the one that could best reveal the aesthetic potential of the material — aluminium profile — in an artistic form, while also responding to the requirements of realisation, including the structure’s weight and dimensions, stability, and assembly process.

Using dedicated software, we optimised the geometry and prepared fabrication data, allowing the profiles to be cut and drilled for assembly by CNC machinery. Our creative team also developed a custom tablet application that made it possible to assemble the structure in augmented reality, entirely without drawings. This technology enabled the realisation of a sculpture made of more than 200 unique elements, each set at a different angle.

Manifesto

Every form develops from simple to complex. This is the result of its effective and functional adaptation to external factors and dominant criteria. At times, this process gives rise to forms remarkable in their diversity and sophistication. Simple elements can generate complex structures in which the whole no longer equals the sum of its parts, but acquires a new quality of its own. This is the essence of development.