Voluptuous and Rubens versus the Tyranny of the Slim.
Fat or fatness has been the point of contention for society for centuries. When hunger was rampant, the size of your gut was looked upon with desire – the beauty in the Baroque forms of Skin and flesh from Bernini to Rubens. Today in modern society the slim, athlete rule fashion and the movie screen. As with society, Architecture has gone through similar transformations. Since the introduction of the International Building style in 20th century, the modern building has become thin, slick, and high tech. Yet, unarguably, voluptuous and overweight buildings equal more space and new opportunities. I look not to a return to the old building construction, fat structures, but a change of perception to fat volumes and thin structures due to new technologies. Just as the Maison Domino [1], Fat Domino looks to change your view of what is possible. Surfaces are merely skins filled with material that can be mass or void. Their construction can be made from a variety of methodology ranging from parametric paneling, pre-preg resin skins, spray concrete, to numerous other techniques available today [2]. Whatever physical manifestation, this project looks to reevaluate the model and find new value where olds values have been exhausted. Just as much as the domino is not only the sum of its parts, Slabs, columns, stairs and footings are all elements just as much as the objects they create. Fat Domino does not look to remove them from discussion but to challenge their reading and question their functionality through ornament, space, and structure [3].
[1] Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier Et Pierre Jeanneret Oeuvre Complete 1910-1929. Les Editions D’ Architecture 1956. Pg 23-26
[2] The growing amount of technologies developed since the early 20th century comes from many different industries into Architecture. From aerospace fabric development with Gerber Technologies to paneling system and space frames designed and fabricated in Dassault Systemes to pre-preg skins developed by North Sails, the thin shell industry of manufacturing is continually changing the way we look at even the simplest construction.
[3] In the drawings, notice the complete change in perceptive of each individual element. Where in one case, a column can begin to act as ornament and another case it can act as a secondary support for the skin. In the same since, the slab changes from a floor to the interiority of the space.
