Maximilian's Schell

Creating spaces with a minimum of material, this is the aim of the Los Angeles based architects of Ball Nogues Studio. The temporary outdoor installation ‘Maximilian´s Schell’ – a featherweight shade structure, which casts beautiful, colored fractal light patterns onto the ground – is an impressive example of their strategy.

Ball Nogues invested more than a year into a development process that involved several prototypes, though actual fabrication took only two weeks. The designers achieved their aesthetic effects by manipulating Mylar reinforced with bundled Nylon and Kevlar Fibers on a computer-controlled (CNC) cutting machine. The result was neither a tent-type membrane nor a cable net structure in the manner of Frei Otto, but a unique tensile matrix comprised of 504 different instances of a parametric component or “petal,” each cut and labeled using the CNC system.

I love the color, shadows and patterns. I am sure my neighbors wouldn't mind this hanging between our homes. . . . yeah right! I wonder how it holds up to a 40 mph wind gust.

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