Rice Gallery commissioned this installation in collaboration with The Museum Fine Arts in Houston exhibition, The Modern West: American Landscape, 1890-1950 - The project required laminating over 20,000 strips (weighing approximately eight tons) of curved, industrially die-cut corrugated cardboard in twelve days. Incredibly strong and capable of supporting the weight of several people, the cardboard laminates operate as semi-monocoques with an intermediary plywood armature. The armature was made of standard wood materials – 2 x 4s and plywood – individually cut and CNC routered offsite to conform to the varying dimensions and curvature of the undulating cardboard shells.
How many trees must die to satiate the need for architectural expression? I wonder if less wood would be used if it was just solid wood, instead of first making the wood into pulp, pressing it into paper, gluing it into cardboard and finally laminating the cardboard. I guess that is an interesting transformation from solid to solid, but where does all the energy go?
ReplyDeleteIt would be a better as an application for recycled paper pulp.
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