By Emily Kazanowski
Cocoon is a wooden architectural creature suspended amongst the trees.
Assembled of bungee-type rope with accoya wooden spheres, Cocoon’s tension mesh structure cradles children in the trees to view a historic old growth tree. The spheres nest within each other providing a shingle-like shelter from the rain. The spherical joints allow rotation and kinetic movement within the structure. As different forces act on the forest and trees the structure is changed and children are able to register the impact of natural and human processes. For instance, when it rains the structure will get heavier and hang lower in the trees. Also, when there wind the structure will sway gently. The structure’s form is generated from the location of the trees surrounding it. Viewers are shown the interconnectedness of natural systems. A change to one element affects the whole ecosystem.
The wood bead-like element enables flexibility (through rotation) within the system. The layout and sizes of the spheres relate to the cellular growth of a flower petal. A petal begins relatively flat, but the exterior cells grow faster creating tension and curling within the form over time. Similar to how a flower blooms, the spheres increase in size as tension increase (usually towards the edge of the structure). As the sizes of the spheres change and the shape of each sphere is influenced by the sphere below and beside it, each wooden element is custom. A multiple-axis robot is required to mill each sphere, which can be done with the incorporation of two flat edges to the bead’s design. The highly 3 dimensional nature of the joint and structure creates an unusual double curving form that expresses structural forces and natural processes in an interactive way.
