Topographic Wall Assembly

_______________Installation, University of Minnesota 2009

Design: David Newton

Concept_

This investigation specifically explores the planar fabrication strategy of contouring. Contouring embodies both an
aesthetic and structural logic all its own, which emerge out of the capacities of subtractive CNC equipment like the
laser-cutter, the plasma cutter, and CNC routing equiment. This fabrication strategy is most often used to produce contour models of landscape topography for scaled architectural models, but it can also usefully be applied in the design of many other types of objects – such as wall and ceiling systems, furniture, and can also be the driving formal language for entire buildings and engineered landscapes. So, far from only being useful for topographical models, contouring as a planar fabrication strategy has a lot of hidden and unexplored potential for designed objects.  This project explores this potential.

Assembly and Fabrication Assistance: The Students in My Spring ‘09 Rhino Seminar at the University of Minnesota