Rice Architecture
21EM_X05
PHYSICAL MODEL
DIGITAL MODEL
PROCESS
EQUILIBRIUM MODEL / EXPERIMENT FIVE
To play with a normal cube is hard. It’s too simple, smooth and perfect to form an equilibrium relationship with other objects without some cuts or additions. After digging a diagonal cylindrical notch along the six faces of a hexahedron, new possibilities are now open for forces to be conducted along the new object: the additional groups of vertices created by the notches, the chamfered corner that shapes like bird beaks and the diagonal instead of perpendicular notches all points to a new framework of equilibrium centering on utilizing the formal potential of this object.
The exploration started with resting the cube on the base with the help of one stick and one string, gradually increasing the number of sticks as well as the complexity of combination, while lifting the cube up until it seems to be hovering in midair. String was wrapped around the cube in extremely eccentric ways by hooking onto the corners and vertices, while the sticks were attached to the cube and the ground in asymmetrical ways so as to fit in with the unconventional condition of this cube.
John Curylo
Zichen Huang
Kexuan Shang