The Institute of Environmental Abstraction, Unmasking Catenary Architectural Abstraction

The project investigates abstraction as a tool between technology and the more-than-human world. This term refers to our understanding of the processes that make up our ecological environment. Through developing methods of reflection and projection, the program explores optics and catenary simulation as abstracted wonders of the physical world. 

The Institute of Environmental Abstraction is sited at the Porte de Ninove in Brussels. The transitory site is inhabited by cob walls that meander around leaping Catalan Vaults. A piazza invites the public to observe solar apparatus while openings encourage families to discover the processes that take place within subterranean photographic facilities. The weekly projected events in the auditorium are exaggerated by a double dome structure that is designed for sky and digital image superimposition. 

Lighting serves a critical role between space and research as an associative relationship is developed. The auditorium performances are influenced by worker perception as cloud-based projections lead to a red-lit laboratory. Here, technological ecology is entangled with scientific discovery to accentuate nature as a co-conspirator.

Abstracted Catenary Double Dome

Two separate meshes are scanned to inform the building. The subdivision of the mesh encodes an abstracted position of each Catalan Vault tile.

Site Projection Testing Ground

A rig assembled to work between abstracted and static environments; this piece enables dialogues between abstracted geometry and projection.

General Site Plan

The institute is arranged using bespoke drawing instruments that depict the associative wall logic and vaulting strategy.

Cloud Synthesis

The performative process of cyanotype printing translates the sky into a material response.

Cloud Simulation

Digital tools enable precise cloud simulation; a lens bridges perception between pixel and water droplet.