Gold 3D Printed Forms and Products Design · 2024
The Forum Pavilion
by Joel Putnam, Justin Nardone and Joonhaeng Lee
- A' Design Award 2024 Gold Winner in 3D Printed Forms and Products Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Figur Inference
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 172,424
- Verification code 39B518A11E · Verify this award
About The Forum Pavilion
The Forum is a pavilion designed as a venue for gatherings, public programming and the arts. The structure works as a stage, a screen and a backdrop, so the space can be adapted to different uses. Structure and facade are unified in one language of fluid surfaces made of aerospace grade aluminium. Sixty-six unique panels were shaped by digital sheet forming, without tooling or dies, in under twelve hours. The result is a large, lightweight and modular structure that is quick to produce and can be assembled with basic hand tools.
The Forum Pavilion by Justin Nardone exemplifies the expanding possibilities of additive manufacturing technologies applied at architectural scale, representing a significant achievement within the evolving discourse surrounding computational design and digital fabrication methodologies. This installation emerges from traditions of sculptural intervention within public architectural space while simultaneously advancing contemporary investigations into parametric form-finding and modular assembly systems. The hexagonal cellular structure references both natural precedents, such as honeycomb formations and radiolarian skeletons, and the mathematical elegance of tessellation patterns that have fascinated artists and designers from classical antiquity through contemporary practice. Technical accomplishment manifests through the precise coordination of numerous individually fabricated modules into a unified flowing form that appears almost impossibly organic given its metallic materiality, suggesting mastery of both digital modeling procedures and physical assembly protocols. The concave cellular recesses with their centered protrusions create surfaces of remarkable visual complexity, transforming ambient light into constantly shifting patterns of reflection and shadow that activate the work throughout varying daily conditions. Positioned within a contemporary institutional atrium, the pavilion functions simultaneously as sculptural presence, spatial organizing element, and demonstration of fabrication innovation, inviting viewers to consider the evolving relationship between computational tools, material science, and architectural imagination. The warm reflective surfaces appear almost biological in their responsiveness to surrounding color and movement, breathing life into industrial materials through thoughtful formal articulation. One might observe how the undulating profile creates zones of implied shelter and passage, suggesting architectural utility within its predominantly sculptural identity. Viewers are invited to contemplate how emerging fabrication technologies might reshape our built environment, offering new vocabularies of form previously impossible to realize.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Forum will be a stage, a screen, an instrument, and a backdrop, creating space that can be transformed through its use as a venue for convening, public programming, and the arts, fostering a sense of community and encouraging social interaction and engagement. Forum is a prototype for a new way of using new digital sheet metal forming technologies to create large scale, lightweight structures that are easy to produce and quick to assemble.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 12700mm x 5700mm x 3100mm
- Tags
- 3D printed, digital manufacturing, parametric modeling,sheet metal forming
- Production Technology
- The design was created in Rhino and Grasshopper with special attention given to design capabilities and constraints of the manufacturing process. Figur digital sheet forming technology was used to create each unique panel without any tooling or dies. Average time to form each aluminum component was approximately 10 minutes. The structure and façade are unified into one language of fluid surfaces composed of aerospace grade aluminum. 66 unique panels create both structure and form, created using digital sheet forming machinery in under 12 hours.
- Design Challenge
- The goal of the project was to create a new language of construction utilizing a state for the art manufacturing method. Designing and constructing a large scale installation that was lightweight, structurally sound and easy to assemble with basic hand tools were all goals of the project. The modular nature of the construction and ability of the manufacturing method to adapt to unique shapes allowed the creation of a unique modular structure.
- Project Duration
- The project was first exhibited in Chicago during the Chicago Architectural Biennial in 2023. It is currently being reassembled in its permanent home in a gallery space in Chicago.
- Research
- The team was deeply interested in the physical manifestation of objects - how they’re conceived, designed, and the craft of making. The tectonics of an object are a direct reflection and representation of how they are used and what they can achieve. It is with this understanding that we will rehearse new modes of manufacturing, assemblage and organization
- Inspiration
- The Forum design and structure was inspired by construction and assembly methods not typically found in architecture and the built environment. Specifically in aerospace and automotive manufacturing, sheet metal often has multifunction utilization. By using a single material to perform the tasks of structure, enclosure, and design we are able to create a cohesive and efficient object that becomes a blueprint for a new and unique method of construction.
- Image Credits
- Image 1 : Nick Ulivieri
Image 2 : Nick Ulivieri
Image 3 : Forum Team
Image 4 : Forum Team
Image 5 : Forum Team
Colors of The Forum Pavilion
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