concrete column + irwin =

As Irwin always works in response to a specific site to reveal its inherent phenomena. I have chosen a specific site. Just outside the tunnel entrance to the architecture building there is an existing column which has to be circumnavigated to enter the building. One of the only windows into the tunnels brings natural light into the space, illuminating the column. Constant tunnel cart and pedestrian traffic animates the space, playing with light and shadow. Theoretically, my column will replace the existing.

Fabric formwork is an amazing way to capture some of the intrinsic qualities of concrete. A spandex or neoprene fabric allows the slump of the concrete mixture to define form. The stitched seams of the formwork and the texture of the fabric will be cast on the columns surface playing with the phenomena of touch. What is perceived as soft is indeed as hard as rock.

I obtained some sharks tooth scrim from the NAC and performed some tests, trying to understand the material and its characteristics. I then began to wonder how a column could be a scrim, obscuring or playing with our perception. I initially began to sketch columns that had wax candles cast through them in a vertical line up the column, which would be melted with a torch afterward. Thus creating a series of tubular openings through the column which would appear transparent for a brief instance when walking past the column.

Knowing that the tubular openings would be difficult to construct and detract from the overall structural integrity of the column, I decided to replace the wax candles with 1/4" acrylic dowels as the form ties needed to support the fabric. The acrylic dowels allow the same phenomena as Fibre Optic cables allow, the optical phenomena of total internal reflection which allows light to travel through them.

The end result should be a "translucent" column that is constantly in flux as people move around it.