Styx

Vienna, Austria (2018)

Installation Styx was designed and built for the AA Visiting School Vienna at Die Angewandte. A discrete cellular growth simulation was utilized for the generation of the overall geometry. Voxelization, orientation and⁣ sparsification of the material (4x4cm wooden sticks) was controlled through the growth logic defined at the local level of the cells.

Cellular growth simulations attempt to computationally simulate the growth processes of entities that are made up of multiple individual cells. The growth and the development of the entity’s form are based on cell proliferation (cell division), cell differentiation and morphogenesis. Programmed as point-clouds, the cells are subdividing and taking on specific functions within the larger accumulation. During the growth the cells react highly emergently to intercellular behaviours towards their neighbours, as well as to global location-dependent forces. Those behaviours and forces then shape the resulting geometry.

Architectural Association Visiting School at the Angewandte Vienna

Directed by: Igor Pantic, Christoph Klemmt, Andrei Gheorghe

Teaching assistants: Alexandra Moisi, Nasim Nabavi, Saba Nabavi, Adam Sebestyen

Students: Diana Khotimskaya, Diana Marin, Tamara Salman, Nuraddin Kazimov, Irina Balan, Qinya Liu, Ada Gulyamdzhis, Iunia Borsa, Tianye Zhou, Xiye Mou, Guangrui Wang