This spring I had the opportunity to co-teach one of the studios with my colleague Ken Tracy, a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis and partner at Yogiaman Tracy Design. Ken has a high level of expertise with all things CNC, and we decided to structure the workshop as an intensive exploration of the school’s (relatively new) CNC router. The workshop proposed an approach to architecture predicated on the notion of nested scales of form, assembly, and texture. Students designed and prototyped a porous architectural surface conceived at three scales: the scale of overall building form, the scale of the building components, and the scale of the surface textures. The prototypes were fabricated from both planar frame elements and surface-milled components produced using the CNC router. Pattern, porosity, texture, and other attributes were tested and controlled using parametric design software. Students constructed both scale models of their proposed systems and 1:1 prototypes milled from solid maple hardwood. I was quite impressed with what the students were able to accomplish in only four days; below are some images of their work.

Students: J. Anton, R. Elenkiwich, G. Jameson, M. Silvestrini

Students: H. Brierly, B. Newby, D. Raznick, M. Stephens

Students: A. Breton, P. Bussey, S. Hahn, K. Snyder, S. Vahaji

Students: J. Larson, M. Meyer, M. Wingard, C. Wingate

From HINT.FM, a terrific mapping of wind patterns (almost in real-time) across the entire country.