LAND NARRATIVES | FANTASTIC FUTURES

Urban American City La Biennale Architettura 2023, Land Narratives Fantastic Futures- Technical Collaboration

I am honored to have been involved as a technical collaborator for the “LAND NARRATIVES | FANTASTIC FUTURES” installation by Harvard Graduate School of Design professor and founder of urban american city (urbanAC) Toni L. Griffin with Danny Clarke, Rayshad Dorsey, and Gabriel Soomar exhibiting at the La Biennale Architettura 2023, Venice, May 10 – November 26, 2023 . The installation exposes the lost histories and unrecognized imaginations of creativity born in spite of the segregation and land vacancy found in ‘Black Belt’ neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side.

I , as a part of MaP+S , trained team member Danny Clarke with the robotic 3D printing of ceramic vessels. We enjoyed the opportunity to work with such a talented team and provide the training and technical support to help bring their vision to life. MaP+S’s work was supported by ASCER Tile of Spain.

Collage made from images by Danny Clarke

Starting from an audio clip, Clarke’s computational workflow involved converting the audio frequency spectrum to 3D printable toolpaths. The clay was then printed using our Lutum extruder mounted on the ABB IRB140 robot, our standard setup.

Clarke’s Audio to Touch Designer to Toolpath (Rhino/Ghx) Workflow. ©Danny Clarke

Printing process using a Vormvrij Lutum extruder with a ABB IRB140 6 axis robot. © Danny Clarke

Fired Vessels. ©Toni L. Griffin

Project webpage : https://urbanac.city/landnarrativesfantasticfutures

Team

urban american city (urbanAC)

Toni L. Griffin, Urban American City, Just City Lab, Professor of Practice Urban Planning, Harvard GSD

Danny Clarke, MDes Publics ‘23, Harvard GSD

Rayshad Dorsey, MArch1 ’23, Harvard GSD

Gabriel Soomar, MArch2/MDes Publics ’24, HarvardGSD

MaP+S Team (Technical Collaborators) :

Saurabh Mhatre, Senior Research Associate, MaP+S Group, Harvard GSD & Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities

Martin Bechthold, Kumagai Professor of Architectural Technology, Harvard GSD