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A Towering 4-Story Organic Structure Built From Material as Thin as a Coin

All photographs © NAARO

Minima | Maxima is the latest creation from Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, known for their innovative fusion of computational design and architecture to build organic self-supporting structures. This new piece was commissioned by World Expo 2017 and now stands as a permanent structure on the grounds in Astana, Kazakhstan. Despite its impressive height of 43′ feet (13.1 meters), the core material used to build Minima | Maxima are 2mm strips of aluminum. From their project statement:

Minima | Maxima evolves the studio’s invention of ‘Structural Stripes’ — a signature material system for building self-supporting curvilinear structures — with a step in a direction that offers even more structural potential: multi-ply composite. Three layers of flat stripes — white and white sandwiching pink — are constructed in tandem, supporting one another as they assume curvature and gain height. One layer never exists independently, but contributes to and benefits from the unified whole as it is built.

The system warrants comparison to fiber technology — such as carbon or glass fiber — yet is unique in that unlike fibers, each individual component does not need to be in tension (a straight line), and/or their processing does not require any mold or temporary scaffolding. Also such a composite system is mechanically bonded, allowing for recomposition and corrections during construction.

You can see how the structure was assembled in the video below, and explore more work by THEVERYMANY on Instagram.