Vitreous is a collaborative academic initiative by the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and the Judd Foundation that incorporates the vantage points of the natural landscape, and the technological advancement of digital fabrication and media technologies. The faceted panels disguise and blend the unbounded Marfa landscape with reflective images causing a perceptual distortion between the viewer and the surroundings and between the real and the virtual. More images and the team's description after the break.
The course aims to further investigate, critically examine, and apply both theoretical study and practical design-research into the highly debated idea of ‘delegated fabrication’, within the context of design-fabrication, in the field of architectural design. It has been widely publicized that most of Judd’s work from 1964 onwards was delegated rather than fabricated by the artist himself. Rather than constructing his work personally, Judd had it industrially fabricated—a practice criticized at the time but emulated today by many contemporary artists.
The course ambition is to develop an active prototype, whereby the cluster of fifteen students will work together to design, fabricate, and discuss the potentials of hands-on digital and analogue learning, while undertaking an active role of understanding the current contemporary role of fabrication in architecture, versus the available means of production during the time of Judd. The concept of the course is not to replicate the Minimalist works of Judd, but rather, to further the theoretical and practical understanding infused by the two, and investigates on the potential use of innovative means of delegated fabrication within architecture and design.
Using USA Projects and Kickstarter to fund the final installation, the project is a collaborative feat between fifteen graduate and undergraduate students working towards the goal of a self-funded architectural installation. Vitreous contends to be a visual/spatial experiment that poses a blurred line between the real and the virtual, the subject and the object. It works to deconstruct that separation and guide the subject’s perception toward the third domain in between—the domain of relation.
The interactivity of the LEDs and the interchangeability of the colors will be determined by data-sourced information through an APP (application) developed by the student team. The APP will be available for download online and will be available for both iPhones and Android phones. This APP will be user-interacted and the data-sourced and gathered will interact with the color scheme of the installation itself.
Institution: Gerald D Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston
Faculty Lead: Prof Wendy W Fok
Student Team:
Business: Stephanie Balbin, Hai Luu, Katie Dominguez, David Yao, Megan Hartensteiner, Natalia Sanchez
Design: David Rodriguez, David Regone, Christopher Al-Jumah, Brian Chiu, Ross Rudolph
Technical: Kevin Pham, Tiger Lyon, Philip Bridges, Paul Suttles, Alexander Martin
Video Editing: Alexander Martin
