Bryx

Beijing, China (2018)

The installation Bryx was designed and constructed at the CAADRIA 2018 conference, during a workshop taught jointly by Christoph Klemmt and Igor Pantic. Bryx explored the possibilities of Cellular Growth Simulations that mimic the development of form based on processes of cell proliferation and cell differentiation. Similar to the way that organisms grow in nature, living architectural bodies are grown computationally. Those are programmed to react to different intercellular behaviours and external forces that are used to direct the growth towards a desirable outcome.

The geometries generated by the algorithms are initially free-form arrangements of cells in space. In order to include a logic for the construction, the cells are then positioned within 3-dimensional grids so that repetitive identical components can be placed along them. For the construction of the physical 1:1 prototype, custom shaped aluminum profiles were extruded and cut to form arrangements of 8 voxels per component. Those extrusions were then automatically placed by the algorithm along the grown geometry.

Directed by: Christoph Klemmt, Igor Pantic

Teaching Assistant: Ning Tang

Students: Bing Zhao, Changdai Han, Guannan Jiang, Haoyang Shi, Lingyu Zhai, Jing Yuan, Mengyuan Li, Shaoji Wu, Xingyu Huang, Xinyun Liu, Yangshuhe Zhang, Yi Sheng, Yuan Tian, Yutong Chen, Yuxin Yang, Zhihua Zhu, Ziyou Xu
Photography: Jiao Yang