Subdivision Constitutional (2007-2008)

A workshop in public, as part of a series of workshops conducted by CITA and Department 7, KADK.

Venue
Danish Architectural Center (DAC)

Support
EN Laser A/S

Subdivision Constitutional explores subdivision surface geometry simultaneously as a formal language capable of integrating texture and ornament and for its potential to relate and divide spatial volumes. Contemporary architecture is revisiting ornament with the assumption that it can have a synthetic relationship to form, structure and pattern. The workshop extends this coincidence to spatial organizations, exploring how topological surfaces can simultaneously divide and link spaces. Pattern, ornament and organization are considered as a synthetic architectural system.

Graphic art and textiles inherently produce a synthetic relationship between pattern, structure and organization. A narrative panel by Chris Ware contains multiple loops and nested hierarchies, while textiles patterns often subdivide a surface into distinct regions while also subsuming those boundaries through repeated motif, or similarities of size and proportion or color. Subdivision Constitutional attempts to translate the same types of complex relationships into 3 dimensional architectural form.

The workshops result have been on display in an exhibition at the Danish Architectural Center.