Suspended from the large atrium in Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, the new permanent installation Under Magnitude disrupts the scene with its exaggerated organic form. Created by Brooklyn, N.Y.–based art and architecture studio Marc Fornes/Theverymany, the porous all-white structure is reminiscent of a coral colony (or cartoon-ish nervous system), twisting and bending to make playful 3D branches that both complement and contrast the subdued look of the convention center.
Courtesy Theverymany/Marc Fornes
The sculpture is made up of 4,672 strips of less than one-millimeter-thick perforated aluminum that are fastened by 103,723 rivets. Measuring 25′-tall-by-30′ wide, its monochromatic hue relies on natural light—an ample resource found in the atrium lined with large windows and a skylight—to create gray gradients against its curvatures and create new shapes through perspective.
Courtesy Theverymany/Marc Fornes
Courtesy Theverymany/Marc Fornes
Inspired by late German architect Frei Otto‘s membrane-like structures, the firm utilized its own “intensive curvature” technique which aims to maintain the maximum radii of an object while creating tighter curves in multiple directions. This technique is made possible by Fornes’ “structural stripe” system whereby strips of a material are made specific to their location on a project, and respond to neighboring pieces in order to create a structurally sound whole. In other words, as Fornes described it at a lecture in Bangalore, India, these stripes take advantage of tangential continuity, or “linear parts describing a non-linear type of geometry.”
This is the firm’s largest permanent structure to date.
Courtesy Theverymany/Marc Fornes
The Origin of Stripes from MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY on Vimeo.