From Metropolis
Magazine July-August 2013 issue
This article reflects on Brandon
Clifford and Wes McGee and creating Matter Design. McGee was a graduate student
in industrial design with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and went to
Graduate school of design at Harvard to run a digital fabrication lab (which he
was recommended to by Clifford). Clifford was an undergraduate in architecture
with interest in theory and history. The following year of their conference
they created Matter Design.
Matter design looks for ancient
architecture and their methods to bring into the modern world. Their vaulted
ceiling La Voute de LeFevre, made of plywood supports itself entirely. The
article takes us through the process of how they designed their helix staircase
from CAD to computerized machine-code files and was completed in early 2013.
This helix staircase was a series of interlocking case concrete blocks with
only a center core support. They idea of interlocking came from the Incan
walls.
Matter Design is a well thought out
combination of for McGee and Clifford, combining theory and history with
architecture skill. Their ideas of creating modern innovations with past
architecture and methods can produce industrial structures. Today domes and
vaults are not as common but taking the ideas and turning them modern could
create diverse architecture.
Pictures
by Matter Design
