Poetry and Construction

Construction A recent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City explored the process of “making”. One unique project, Poetry and “Fabrications”, explores the limits of steel plate through bending and punching, cre- ating in the process a view of the world that changes from every angle. It’s almost unheard of to hear featured 12 full-scale architec- Nader Tehrani of the Office dA the words “poetry” and “con- tural sculptures, four at each in Boston designed one of the struction” spoken in the same venue, produced by separate most intriguing of the sculp- breath, but that was the case at designers under the general tures. Made from sheet steel a recent exhibit held simultane- rubric of exploring tectonic that has been folded and perfo- ously at the Museum of Modern issues. All of the designs were rated, the piece resembles a Art in New York City, the San intended to express the “poetry geometric staircase and also Francisco Museum of Modern of construction and the process serves as a canopy. Installed Art and the Wexner Center for of making.” diagonally to the ground along the Arts at Ohio State University. the north wall of the museum’s Titled “Fabrications”, the exhibit Monica Ponce De Leon and sculpture garden, the piece, Modern Steel Construction / December 1999 titled “Fabricating Coincidences”, ther magnified by the changes ting and “stitching” were all was fabricated off-site. in surface, such as the varia- translated directly from comput- tions of density of the perfora- er files. The perforation involved The sculpture is designed to tions that lighten the steel struc- a punching process that cali- reflect the complex and some- ture as it unfolds upward, brated precisely the gradation of times divergent definitions of allowing the gradual passage of density throughout the steel the word “fabrication”, ranging light to the space beneath. surface. The outline of each from manufacturing/ building to While steel construction is steel piece was finely laser-cut weaving to forgery/fiction. Thus, customarily predicated on a tra- so as to minimize the usual tol- the installation utilizes folded beated system of structural erance required in a construc- steel plate as a way of blurring members such as wide flange tion process. The folds were the traditional distinctions and angles, this installation achieved through a process the between structure and skin, devises an alternative system designers and fabricators supporting and supported build- where steel is stretched and termed “stitching”, an almost ing elements. The geometry stitched like fabric. Warps, unheard of technique for a pro- also is developed on optical and creases and folds in a continu- ject of this scale and gauge of anamorphic principles, yielding ous structural surface substitute metal. Instead of bending plates particular spatial readings from for traditional beam and column or welding different pieces of different points of view. construction and effectively steel together—which would accommodate for different load have resulted in far less preci- The form of the installation and support conditions. sion or a larger radius on each and its relationship with the bend—the pieces of steel are Museum wall are furthermore While the project was initially scored by laser in an offset pat- designed to suggest different conceived and drafted manually, ter. The outcome is a continuous uses: stair, canopy, bleacher or its development towards fabrica- twisted seam at the fold of each shelter—not to mention sculp- tion depended on the use CNC plate, producing the illusion of a ture or even painting. equipment in the manufacturing stitch between two pieces of fab- Ambiguous differences are fur- process. Perforating, laser cut- ric. Modern Steel Construction / December 1999.

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