Flatform

New York, USA

Architects: Marble Fairbanks

Location: MoMA: Home Delivery, 11 West 53rd Street, 10019 New York, USA
Year: 2008

Flatform combines the constraints of material properties and pre manufactured sizes with the flexibility of digital production processes to explore new logics of design and assembly. Architectural details are largely a product of the relationship of design to industry. If the modernist detail was based on negotiating tolerances (differences) between pre manufactured, standardized building components through separate systems of fastening, today we are shifting to methods of production that are based on the management and organization of information, where details, tolerances, and assembly logics are numerically controlled and fully integrated during design. In this context, CNC (computer numerically controlled) systems bring the process of design closer to the production of buildings, merging them through a common language of information. Flatform is a panel system of flat stock stainless steel components that are cut, scored, and folded to form details of assembly without external fasteners. Facing panels are joined through tabs that either join between the two panels or extend through the face of the opposite panel. The surface geometry of each panel is parametrically linked to the characteristics of the tabs and is limited by the ability of the material to bend. The composition and number of tabs can vary to address specific performance requirements.