Project Cover Boy Stage Set at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery and recently published in Beth Weinstein’s book: “Architecture & Choreography: Collaborations in Dance Space and Time”
Design Team:
- Aptum Architecture
- research interns:
Gaelan Finney-Day, Kevin Jele
Aaron Laniosz, Brian Vesely
Collaborator:
- Choreography by Tere O’Connor
- Original Music by James Baker
- Lighting by Michael O’Connor
- Photos by Julietta Cervantes
- Featuring Cover Boy Dancers -
Michael Ingle, Niall Jones,
Paul Monaghan, and Matthew Rogers
“Cover Boy” is a stage set designed for New York-based, contemporary dance choreographer Tere O’Connor. His world-renowned dance company, Tere O’Connor Dance, featured its 25th year of experimental performance at the infamous Danspace Project located in the historic St. Mark’s Church in-
the-Bowery in New York City in 2011. The construction and details of the project are a result of stringent weight and time constraints. St. Mark’s church shares the space with Danspace Project but is still an active church so the set needed to be
dismantled after every performance and re-assembled the next day for the following performance (within 2 hours). In order to create an elaborate but simple assembly and transportability, the system was designed with CNC routed technology to shorten the process of continuous assembly and dis-assembly for each performance. 3D modeling techniques were used to generate unfolded forms for the router that are then used as patterns to re-assemble the pieces. The technology allowed
us to create a piece that became an interaction between the performance and its context with the set mediating between the performance itself and the surrounding church. #dance #architecture #stageset #material #performance
Beth Weinstein had her book signing for “Architecture & Choreography: Collaborations in Dance Space and Time” last night at Museum Of Arts & Design. It was a huge success!
Grateful to her that she included our collaboration, Cover Boy Stage Set, with dance choreographer Tere O’Connor in her book! Congrats Beth!!
#coverboy #stageset @beth_weinstein #architecture #dance collaboration @picpicter@hubeliroger@jmlarsen
Proud to be in Beth Weinstein’s book: “Architecture & Choreography: Collaborations in Dance Space and Time” with our project Cover Boy that we collaborated with dance choreographer Tere O’Connor!
Congrats Beth!!
#coverboy #stageset @beth_weinstein #architecture #dance collaboration @picpicter@jmlarsen@hubeliroger
Our folding work is an ongoing project from 2019 in which we have been collaborating with Cemex Global R&D. The speculative work experimentally focuses on deliberately treating concrete and composites as if they are flexible, reconfigurable textiles. We use full‑scale prototypes to test the limits of what these “foldable” planes can do structurally to reduce the amount of concrete needed to make a formal expression in concrete without all the material and formwork.
Conceptually, the projects reframe concrete from static mass to an active surface that can pop up, hinge, and aggregate, opening up future scenarios like floating infrastructures and lightweight hybrid wall‑shell systems we went on to do later.
Aesthetically, the resulting forms sit between artifact and construction mock‑up—creased, perforated, and cellular—so that the evidence of folding, misalignment, and assembly reads as an intentional expression of process rather than a polished final object.
Theoretically, this practice positions design as a speculative tool: folding becomes a way to argue for new material logics, new forms of “thinness,” and new ideas of firmness and support, using empirical experiments to question how structure, surface, and environment might be reorganized in future architectural systems.
#architecture #design #concrete #form #tectonics #folding #formwork @cemexgrd
Our folding work is an ongoing project from 2019 in which we have been collaborating with Cemex Global R&D. The speculative work experimentally focuses on deliberately treating concrete and composites as if they are flexible, reconfigurable textiles. We use full‑scale prototypes to test the limits of what these “foldable” planes can do structurally to reduce the amount of concrete needed to make a formal expression in concrete without all the material and formwork.
Conceptually, the projects reframe concrete from static mass to an active surface that can pop up, hinge, and aggregate, opening up future scenarios like floating infrastructures and lightweight hybrid wall‑shell systems we went on to do later.
Aesthetically, the resulting forms sit between artifact and construction mock‑up—creased, perforated, and cellular—so that the evidence of folding, misalignment, and assembly reads as an intentional expression of process rather than a polished final object.
Theoretically, this practice positions design as a speculative tool: folding becomes a way to argue for new material logics, new forms of “thinness,” and new ideas of firmness and support, using empirical experiments to question how structure, surface, and environment might be reorganized in future architectural systems.
#architecture #design #concrete #form #tectonics #folding #formwork @cemexgrd
Our folding work is an ongoing project from 2019 in which we have been collaborating with Cemex Global R&D. The speculative work experimentally focuses on deliberately treating concrete and composites as if they are flexible, reconfigurable textiles. We use full‑scale prototypes to test the limits of what these “foldable” planes can do structurally to reduce the amount of concrete needed to make a formal expression in concrete without all the material and formwork.
Conceptually, the projects reframe concrete from static mass to an active surface that can pop up, hinge, and aggregate, opening up future scenarios like floating infrastructures and lightweight hybrid wall‑shell systems we went on to do later.
Aesthetically, the resulting forms sit between artifact and construction mock‑up—creased, perforated, and cellular—so that the evidence of folding, misalignment, and assembly reads as an intentional expression of process rather than a polished final object.
Theoretically, this practice positions design as a speculative tool: folding becomes a way to argue for new material logics, new forms of “thinness,” and new ideas of firmness and support, using empirical experiments to question how structure, surface, and environment might be reorganized in future architectural systems.
#architecture #design #concrete #form #tectonics #folding #formwork @cemexgrd
Had an opportunity to see SOM‘s Walter Netsch Personal residence in Chicago. Very cool house! A little disorienting and unnerving stairs with no railings (!) but very intriguing spaces and details. Inspiring!
We were invited to present at the UIC sponsored “Concrete Culture” Symposium. Roger is presenting the latest work of APTUM and Julie is presenting the SU Grad Program!
Very excited to be here! https://concreteculture.uic.edu
@syr_arch_grad
Our grad student, Victor Beomseung Jo’s workshop ‘AI Fabrication Modeling’ was accepted into the CAADRIA conference in Tokyo… we presented the work and his thesis at the conference workshop roundtable discussion. Fantastic work by the participants! Thank you to all who put in great efforts to try out the techniques.
#artificialinteligence #architecture #fabrication #design @caadriaorg #tokyo #japan #workshop #conference @victor_jo1117@chatgptricks@artificialintelligenceee@artificialintelligencenews.in
This past summer, APTUM collaborated with Cemex Global R&D on the fabrication of a concrete shell for the exhibition Felix Candela - “Function, Form and Elegance of Concrete Shells,” at The Fondation Pavillon Sicli (Geneva, Switzerland) in August 2024.
Graduate students Meysam Aghaei (MS) and Victor Beomseung Jo (M.Arch) were research assistants for us over the summer in Switzerland to support the effort.
#architecture #design #concrete #fabrication #shell #candela @cemexgrd@hubeliroger@jmlarsen@meysamaghaeiii@victor_jo1117 #digitalfabrication #material #innovative #foldingconcrete
