Retro-Futurism 10: Computational Architecture

This. Is. Cardboard. Subdivision Columns © by Michael Hansmeyer.

Last month, CNN covered the work of Swiss architect Michael Hansmeyer, who creates incredible structures out of cardboard, which are carved using a computer algorithm:

It looks like an architectural fantasy from a world far in the future, but Michael Hansmeyer's complex column design is so real you can touch it.

His work is composed of sixteen million faces and made from 2,700 layers of cardboard. It is the result of a cutting-edge computational process and people's responses to it are just as improbable.

"Some people say it looks like a reptile, some people think it looks like an underwater creature and other people bring up the Gothic," said Hansmeyer, an architect and computer scientist based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The incredible complexity of the column's fractal surface is the product of what is known as a "subdivision algorithm," a process that used a computer program to divide and sub-divide the the facets of a classical Doric column.

This is a true example of retro-futurism, where something ancient is recast into a sci-fi fantasy using current tech. To see Hansmeyer's work go to his Website here.  All images are copyrighted by him and reproduced strictly for purposes of review.

Subdivision Columns (Detail) © by Michael Hansmeyer.

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