I Fold

Visual studies project at The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), instructor Andrew Zago, 2014

with Helena Yun and Graham Jordan

This project undertook an investigation of the a rudimentary architectural maneuver – the fold – in an abstract sense as a method by which to interrogate the normative ways that architecture responds, geometrically speaking, to commonplace decisions of form and shape.

To investigate the problematic nature of folding fat materials in architecture, this project was from the outset an investigation of the sometimes chunky, sometimes effervescent miter.

By folding a fictionalized letter, issues of dimensions and clearances presented themselves as grounds for experimentation in terms of form and figurality. The ramifications of these geometric maneuvers can be seen as a series of calculated responses to material reality and physical conformation.

Studying existing fonts also provided an opportunity to step beyond architecture, revealing the processes through which geometry regulates forms in other disciplines, such as typography and graphic design.

After this process, a rendering was done to entice the licentious aspects of the folded letters from their entangled forms, further pushing a prerogative of material consequence in the reading of the project.

In the final production, shading and tonality became important components by which to register the conglomeration of made-up letter forms. Initially indexical in nature, these became opportunities to explore reflectivity and intentional ambiguity in surface affect as means by which to problematize the process of rendering.