Folding Phantom

cRITIC

Anthony Gagliardi

TEAM

Chloe Richards, Amber Hu, Qiang Zhang, Phoebe Lam

PROJECT STATEMENT

Folding Phantom started with the idea of creating profiles on each face of a solid box and using those figures to carve into the solid. In dealing with the central concept of the studio, monumentality, Folding Figures is engaging with the monumental in a literal sense by taking up the entire footprint of the boundary. Thus, the massiveness of the structure appears very monumental to the viewer. In a more figurative sense, the project also touches on monumentality in the ways it plays with materiality. The three main building components of Folding Figures, plaster, wood blocks, and wood branches are not quite what they seem. Although designed from simple geometries at each face of the box, the material qualities of these components confuse and intrigue the viewer to give the project another way to assert monumentality.

Firstly, there is the idea of what material is holding up what. It does not always seem possible that the heavy wood is held up by fragile plaster that the wood branches, which serve as centering for the project, are growing and changing throughout the middle of the structure. Secondly, the tin foil illusion on the plaster adds another material effect to Folding Figures. This effect is important because it makes the viewer rethink what the material is. It adds to the confusion of how certain materials are holding each other up. Lastly, the textural differences between the wood and the plaster are also interesting because of their contrasting nature. The viewer is made to consider smooth versus wrinkled, hard versus soft, heavy versus light, natural versus unnatural, and known versus know through interacting with Folding Figures.

Unfolding Elevations

 Sections

Assembly Diagram

Components

Rendered Views