(CITA - Center for IT og Arkitektur, KADK)
An exhibition project initiated by CITA for the Sydney Opera House, entitled Danish Design at the House.
In 2014, CITA (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture), based at the School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, was commissioned to develop a “pod” for the Danish design contribution to The House Exhibition at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. The exhibition was organised by the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces in connection with the 40th anniversary of the Danish-designed building.
The project takes as its point of departure a digitally mediated interpretation of Jørn Utzon’s approach to design, particularly his inspiration drawn from patterns of growth found in nature. These references inform the spatial and structural thinking behind the project, with corresponding principles integrated into the digital design process.
This approach allows the designer to move beyond an allegorical interpretation of growth towards a more experimental way of encoding and exploring fundamental understandings of how nature can serve as a system, a model, or a framework of inspiration for architectural thinking.
Project participants
Claus Rytter Bruun de Neergaard, David Stasiuk (CITA), Martin Tamke (CITA), Gerard Reinmuth (Terroir), Karen Kjaergaard.
Claus Rytter Bruun de Neergaard, David Stasiuk (CITA), Martin Tamke (CITA), Gerard Reinmuth (Terroir), Karen Kjaergaard.
The design of the “pod”, which houses the exhibition objects, draws its references and digital design framework from The Rise (see the related project elsewhere on this website), developed by CITA and David Stasiuk for the exhibition ALIVE – Designing with Living Technology, held in Paris in 2013.
Through this project, CITA undertook systematic research into digital tools for exploring principles of growth, working in close dialogue with physical experimentation. Using code, parametric systems, and related computational methods, the research enabled the simulation of an architecture that is continually growing, sensing, and adapting to its surroundings — establishing a form of exchange and dialogue with the physical elements in its immediate environment.
Among the many parameters explored, the project investigates how site-specific architecture can emerge and develop. The concept of growth allows three aspects to be considered simultaneously: materiality, structure and construction, and intention.
Within the pod, these dynamic growth patterns emerge across the interior surface. Cast as shadows onto the walls, they create a visual framework that becomes an integral part of the exhibition, providing a setting for the displayed objects.
The pod is realised through digital fabrication. The digital model generates patterns in the structural timber, varying in density and dimension (diameter values). These parameters are then used to control the CNC milling process, bringing the design process into closer dialogue with fabrication.
All design and production information was developed in Denmark at CITA, in collaboration with TERROIR. The resulting files and data were then sent to Sydney, where the pod was fabricated and assembled.
The Danish Design at the House exhibition was officially opened by Denmark’s then Minister for Culture, Marianne Jelved, in the presence of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary.
The exhibition ran from 25 October to 11 November 2014 and was curated by architects Gerard Reinmuth (TERROIR, Australia) and Karen Kjærgaard (Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark).