NEW HARMONY GROTTO

New Harmony in Houston

2009-03-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

We are contributing the final chapter to a book about New Harmony, Frederick Kiesler and the Grotto for Meditation. Our essay will be called “New Harmony in Houston” and will discuss the work of our studio at UHCOA with Ben Nicholson that has become a project called the New Harmony Grotto and Garden. The book will be edited by Ben and Michelangelo Sabatino with contributions from Branko Kolarevik, Monika Pessler of the Kiesler Foundation among others.

NHG Press Coverage

2009-02-04T10:22:00.001-08:00

The New Harmony Grotto got the attention of the local media after the completion of the studio. Houston Chronicle, Texas Architect, Daily Cougar and the new President Renu Khator all took notice.

NHG Construction Documents

2009-02-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

We have completed our set of Construction Documents for the fabrication and installation of the Grotto, Gate and Bridge in the New Harmony Garden proposed for the UH Campus next to the Architecture Building. We have tried to rethink what CD's mean in terms of Digital Fabrication where we are describing a series of instructions to machines and assembly diagrams to the fabricators. No dimension strings in the drawings, no tape measures on the site...

UH students try to build the unbuildable

2008-10-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

"What would you build if it were possible to build anything at all?

That wild question bedevils architecture professors trying to give their students an appropriate challenge. 3-D design software and digital-fabrication equipment mean that the old rules no longer constrain their students. Walls need not be straight. Corners don't need to meet at right angles."

read the entire article by Lisa Gray in the Houston Chronicle

Grotto Structural Analysis

2008-10-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

We are working with Buro Happold to analyze the Grotto’s structure to determine where we need to be concerned about deformation and torsion in the frame. Some preliminary feedback shows the tendancy to deflect toward the curled side.

Exhibition of the New Harmony Grotto on view at the UHcoA Gallery

2008-06-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

The Grotto meets its site...

2008-05-03T21:58:00.001-07:00

The model (25% of actual size) was placed on the slab that had been cut and diamond polished in time for our review.

Final Review at UHcoA

2008-05-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Fabrication Day 2 (Shell Completed)

2008-05-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

The shell goes together on ONE DAY with some first time welders.

Fabrication Time

2008-04-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

From Campo Sheet Metal Works' 12'x60' Water jet cutter to the Keeland Building at UHcoA. The parts for our 1/4 actual size model have been received with a ONE DAY turnaround from our friends at Campo. We must label by hand because the water jet can not etch the parts. The part names and bends are determined by interacting and referencing the 3D model in realtime in order to dynamically control accuracy to the virtual Grotto our students modeled in Rhino software.

Site Integration

2008-04-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Lee Kelly has drawn the site plan of our Grotto in the same retro-graphic style as Kiesler's draftsman.

Grotto in Houston

2008-04-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Our process as culminated to a point that we feel is a definitive interpretation of Kiesler's Grotto adapted to our context here in Houston through the eyes and hands of our talented students using contemporary design tools. Come by on Friday, May 2nd from 5 to 7pm in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture Atrium for the exhibition opening and see the adjacent proposed site for the project next to College, the new Keeland Building and the University's new Koi Pond.

DigiFAB Shell Model

2008-04-21T20:17:00.001-07:00

Rosalia is leading the effort to assemble a complex assembly of parts extracted from the digital models. After days of preparation and negotiating the queue at the laser cutter, the model goes together in ONE DAY!

Slab Cutting

2008-04-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

UH Facilities started cutting the slab today as per the studio's site plan...

Kiesler at the Drawing Center

2008-04-17T08:03:00.001-07:00

This week marks the opening of nARCHITECTS exhibition design for Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities at the Drawing Center in NYC. A brief preview is online at Serial Consign.

Shell Development

2008-04-02T06:03:00.001-07:00

Structual Gradient

2008-03-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

We are now coordinating the form of the shell, core and groundwork with the structural patterning. The cellular system is derived by points projected along the z-axis onto the surface. This produces regularity in the top while creating elongated cells in the wall area. As the shell approaches the Cartesian plane it lineates into ribs that extend along the surface of the existing slab on the west side and curl under to support the seating core on the east side of the grotto.

Kiesler's Tile

2008-03-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

Original tile for the Grotto designed by Kiesler and made in Japan. This tile was created especially for the Grotto but of course never used. A pallet of it resides in New Harmony. We are very interested in how this pattern might influence the differentiated modularity within our structural system. Kiesler was an early user of recursive geometry from the site plan of the Grotto down to the intricacies of surface articulation.

Grotto for Meditation Exhibition at the Kiesler Foundation

2008-03-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Living in Shelters
The Future of the Cavern
Opening: Thursday, February 28th, 2008, 7.30 pm Mariahilfer Strasse 1b se 1b, 1060 Vienna/Austria
Duration: February 29th, 2008 - March 18th, 2008
Opening hours: Mo – Fr: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.,
Do: 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

http://www.kiesler.org/cms/index.php?lang=3&idcat=88

For the first time in an exhibition, the Kiesler-foundation confronts the two models Grotto for Meditation and Endless House. Both concepts are characterized by the artists research for a form, which attempts to satisfy both practical and spiritual human demands, in order to provide men a livable and adequate environment.

Working on a construction (which was close to Philip Johnsons Roofless Church in New Harmony, Indiana) for the successors of Robert Owen (1771-1858), an early socialist and founder of the cooperative system, Kiesler found in 1962 an opportunity to verify his co-realistic theories in the built practise. The design of the Grotto for Meditation refers to the history of the social-reformatory movement of the location, but first of all, it should represent a room of meditation, a universal form beyond all religious denominations.

Similar to the Endless House, Kiesler gets inspired by morphologic formal vocabulary and chooses the motif of a spiral, for the artist a symbol for change and assimilation. The centre of the complex is built in form of a snail. This form combines the centrifugal power, the expansion to the infinity, with the centripetal power, which approaches the individual towards contemplation.

Mid Review

2008-03-12T16:02:00.001-07:00

Digital Fabrication Team

2008-03-09T13:29:00.001-07:00

The Grotto in Houston

2008-03-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

We are exploring the idea of building a contemporary interpretation of the Grotto in Houston next to another Philip Johnson building... the UH College of Architecture. This proposal will take the project from its original spiritual context and reframe it into architectural pedagogy that will provide a place for rest and contemplation on the campus. UH Facilities is serendipitously building a "Meditation Pond" adjacent to an existing slab next to the architecture building. We are in discussion with their landscape team on how we can integrate the project with their efforts using some of Kiesler's earthwork forms. We have been invited to submit our proposal to Campus Planning for their review... Here are some images that describe the larger context of the project within the UH Arts Precinct and the new quad beginning formed with the Grotto as its focal point.

New Harmony Site Plans

2008-03-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

The aerial view shows the Roofless Church at th e Northern edge of New Harmony. The group of trees to the east is Paul Tillich Park with its adjacent pond. We are building a scale model of Kiesler's model in its originally proposed context and will present it as a gift to the Blaffer Foundation in New Harmony.

NEW HARMONY, INDIANA

2008-03-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

The students made the architectural pilgrimage to New Harmony, Indiana to meet with Ben Nicholson and visit the original site for the Grotto. We listened to Ben read the address Paul Tillich gave at the dedication of the park and proposed project...

"I have seen the model of the new park and the Cave in it. It was sent to me in bronze, a very heavy package, and was immediately powerful in its symbolic character, even in the diminished form of a model. So I look forward to one day when Mrs. Tillich and I might be here again, to see the work as it is finished. In any case, my impression of this place is an impression of something astonishing, surprising, great in itself, in its past, and in its present. And my wish is that it may remain great also in its future."

Across the street is Philip Johnson's Roofless Church also commissioned by Jane Blaffer Owen. Johnson introduced Kiesler to Mrs. Owen which led to the conception of the Grotto. He subsequently told Mrs. Owen that it could not be built and the project was abruptly ended.

We had our review in Ben's studio space. The teams were able to see their collective efforts in one space for the first time outside of the Architecture Building in Houston.

St. Louis is the closest airport to New Harmony so we had an opportunity to the Saarinen's Arch. Its exquisite stainless steel structural skin was a profound experience for the group as we consider the materiality of the Grotto and its potential for permanence in the Houston climate. The subtle integration of the monument into its landscape pedestal is just as impressive.

Digital reproduction of Kiesler Model in Keeland Building

2008-03-03T07:53:00.000-08:00

Surface Structural Patterning

2008-02-26T19:56:00.001-08:00

A series of studies involving different patterns projected, mapping or generated along a surface. The fact that a patterned surface can perform as a minimal structure opens the possibility to us that Kiesler's Grotto might be constructed using a frame rather than a homogeneous amorphous mass. This moves us toward an assembly of rigid parts instead of an arrested liquid such as concrete.

SKETCHES

2008-02-26T19:27:00.001-08:00

This series of sketches exemplifies the exploration of Kiesler's spaces through the medium he used consistently throughout his career. The expression of topological space formed by a closely measured presence of the body is one point of departure for our current work.

Detail Analysis

2008-02-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

Kiesler was a prolific designer of visionary architecture as well as furnishings, exhibitions, interiors and theatrical spaces. An analysis of this peripheral material has been an essential tool for us to understand his broader intentions and to help us abstract the Grotto's design into a series of elements that we can riff on as we move forward with the tectonic resolution of the Grotto in our terms.

Sectional Analysis

2008-02-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

Kiesler and his various drafting assistants produced several versions of the Grotto in section. An important task is to compare these original studies at a common scale to see what the essential qualities were in development and how they contradict each other.

Phase 1 Complete

2008-02-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

The students have completed the Formal Research & Documentation phase of the project.

PDF files can be downloaded and viewed:

www.snapdrive.net

username: studiokiesler

password: grotto

Interview with Jane Blaffer Owen

2008-02-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

On January 26th, during Ben Nicholson's first visit to Houston, we had the opportunity of meet and interview Mrs. Owen about Kiesler's Grotto and related subjects. She spoke at length about the circumstances surrounding the commissioning of the project, its demise and our renewed interest in this important work by a visionary architect. She described the influence of Paul Tillich on the genesis of the project: The Cave of the New Being. We will all travel in a month to visit the utopian town of New Harmony. We'll tour the original proposed site for the Grotto, the adjacent Roofless Church by Philip Johnson and walk the town with Ben.

Model 1

2008-02-07T06:56:00.000-08:00

Our first challenge was to reproduce the original bronze model built by Frederick Kiesler in 1963 using the latest 3D scanning, CNC fabrication and rapid prototyping technologies. This model was presented to the students at the initiation of the project as a point of departure rather than the end goal of the studio's exploration

It's on!

2008-02-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Grotto...