Bi-Polar



college station TEXAS

Texas A&M University

critic: gabriel ESQUIVEL

Team: Matt MILLER, Dale FENTON, Emau VEGA, Aubrie DAMRON, Adrian CORTEZ

Photos: Emau VEGA

Texas A&M University FabLab, Gabriel ESQUIVEL: The project began as a performative wall system that reacted differently to exterior and interior spaces. We realized we had to confront the fact we had two different surface logics, so rather than trying to blend these conditions, we decided to emphasize the difference indicating two current design directions. This resulted in two polar opposite geometries with opposite personalities that strongly defined exteriority and interiority.

Bi-Polar can then be explained more effectively in three systems working together: (1) The tessellated parametric logic performative exterior, (2) the loose free-flowing sensual interior, and (3) the in-between performative bladder system that mediates between the two extremes.

Bi-Polar is a project like many others emerging from the discussion of performance and sensation through an architectural skin. While there are projects addressing similar discussions, Bi-Polar embraces an emphasis on the distinction between two competing directions. Just like bipolar disorder this prototype is argued in two different moods, different personalities, you can psychotically switch from one to the other. One personality, the exterior side, is about performance whose surface logic is resolved parametrically, as a rain water collecting instrument that takes the water into bladders integrated between the two skins. These bladders also serve as heating and cooling devices producing light and temperature affects. The other personality, the interior surface, is emotionally designed and more interested in matters of sensation whose surface logic is created by a sensual pleated skin, silk and/or leather, producing nuances and affordances that become ornament, pattern and furniture.