Project:
an alternative methodology whereby material
building envelope and abundant in the built
and process constraints are integrated into
environment, glass is an ever-present and
the design process through experimental
easily overlooked aspect of our surroundings.
and computational techniques, developing
Glass Cast, and its most recent iteration as
a feedback loop between design intent and
Specimen, is a research project that seeks to
materialized formal attributes. The project
characterize and advance the formal capabili-
represents a multimodal approach to design
ties of this ubiquitous material through the
research, encompassing the latent material-
investigation of two methods of working—
ity of glass as an amorphous solid, overlaid
traditional glass blowing and digitally con-
with an explicitly controlled, empirically
trolled glass slumping. The project challenges
verified process which seeks to advance the
existing modes of working with glass across a
performative capabilities of the material both
range of applications and scales, interrogat-
spatially and visually.
Catie Newell Wes McGee
Research Through Making
Specified as a component within nearly every
ing the connections between craft and the explicit control offered by custom developed
Two Angles of Attack
manufacturing processes and tooling.
After extensive research dedicated to the forming and shaping of glass, experiments
The Setting
were carried out through two distinct
This research began by questioning the de
methods:
facto application of glass as flat pane that reinforces the ubiquity of sheet materials
Distort Windows
throughout contemporary building tectonic
Part of a larger body of work on explicitly
systems. Such ubiquity remains a reflection
controlled doubly curved façade systems, the
of the industrialization of architectural
work conducted as Distort Windows utilizes
products, whereby traditional materials
the performance of a digitally controlled,
have been modified and compressed into
reconfigurable pin-mold embedded into a
standard sheet goods and then fabricated
kiln. Articulated with 99 pins and hexagonal
using subtractive technologies. Arguably this
tiles, the kiln facilitates the formal alteration
has both driven—and been driven by—a lack
of flat sheet stock into geometrically defined
of feedback between material properties and
curvatures. Developed and integrated with
the design process. Glass Cast demonstrates
a parametric modeling plug-in to provide
McGee | Newell
Faculty:
113
Glass Cast + Specimen