We built a new site-specific installation for LICHTSTROEME 2012 in Koblenz, Germany using the Archilace technique. The installation gave homage to the work of Ernst Haeckel, one of the first thinkers who successfully bridged the gap between art and the sciences.
Archilace is lace-making on an architectural scale with strong composite fibres and is a method to craft space and reflect on the materiality and fabrication processes within the architectural practice. Archilace combines a parametric design process with a hands-on crafting technique.
Micro structures observed in the natural world were blown up to architectural proportions to create an ephemeral and luminous outdoor installation that visitors could walk through and experience on a human scale. The built structures are based on Radiolaria – the intricate skeletons of mineral deposits left behind by ocean microorganisms. Haeckel produced finely detailed drawings of radiolaria in Kunstformen der Natur(1904), helping to popularize these protists among Victorian parlour microscopists alongside foraminifera and diatoms.
TEAM: Mathias Gmachl, James Tattersall
A site-specific installation in homage to the work of Ernst Haeckel
