Robert Krawczyk

Professor and Associate Dean
College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL, USA

My overall interest is to investigate methods which can develop forms that are in one sense predictable, but have the element to generate the unexpected: the unexpected in a predictable way.

This series was developed after one on exploring a container, a non-traditional container that holds nothing but air. This container is at one level representing a functional object and another a dis-functional object. Given this, the form and surface can be reformulated and deviate from traditional meanings and use. The overall form can also express containing a more interconnected volume, since it cannot hold anything. The surface can be articulated in a number of ways, from smooth to textured.

Being Dis-Functional 00_01e1a / 00_01d1a
Being Dis-Functional 00_01e1a / 00_01d1a
19 x 8 x 12 cm
Sandstone
2016

Lemniscate of Bernoulli, included angle of 90 and 290 degrees with a 225 degree twist; 90 and 270 degrees with a 180 degree twist.

This series investigates a simple form based on approximately one-half of a Lemniscate of Bernoulli curve, developed about 1694. It is very similar to a common eight curve, except the loops are more elliptical. For the enclosure a simple solid surface was incorporated. Custom software has been developed to generate these containers.

These containers are computationally generated by custom developed software, a method which can express a consistency of a developing concept and enable a variety of designs that focus on the idea and its variations. Then the digital model is 3D printed in sandstone.

Being Dis-Functional 01_01f1d / 01_01a1b
Being Dis-Functional 01_01f1d / 01_01a1b
19 x 6 x 11 cm
Sandstone
2016

Lemniscate of Bernoulli, included angle of 70 through 290 degrees with a 225 degree twist; 70 through 290 degree with a 180 degree twist.

This series also explores 3D printing techniques in common materials that can structurally be very delicate, pushing the technology to its limits of defining enclosures and still be structurally viable.

Forms and their structural enclosures can be explored in a number of ways, in a number of scales. As extrusions, assemblages, or incorporating traditional structural systems, or ones according to mathematically defined elements. What forms emerge when a 2D curve is used as a 3D path for some section defined by a simple shape, such as a circle, an ellipse, a square, a rectangle, or a triangle?