26/05/2017
Every year, Manchester School of Architecture organizes ‘Events’, a series of collaborative design exercises that encourage communication between architecture academia and other domains such as arts, construction, industry, film or fashion.
This year Sika got involved in ‘Events’ by sponsoring the materials and transportation necessary for building one of the student projects.'Tessellated Tunes' was a collaborative design exercise between 1st, 2nd and 5th year architecture students. As a 5th year, completing my Masters Degree in Architecture and working part time for Sika, I was involved in designing and coordinating this event. This exercise proved to be engaging, challenging, but stimulating at the same time. Working to a strict deadline, ‘Tessellated Tunes’ installation was designed and realised over a period of two weeks at 'Night & Day' Cafe in the Northern Quarter, Manchester.
The brief required the design of an aesthetically pleasing, crisp and bright in colour, installation that would contrast the dark space of the music venue. The final design was a combination between the preferred client’s choice and our input. Our approach focused on using tessellated shapes that would vary in scale and density. Over 400 individual paper origami pieces were used to compose the final shape. The individual units were treated with fire protection spray in order to comply with regulations.
The official opening of the ‘Tessellated Tunes’ installation coincided with a relaxed, acoustic night in the café. It was a time for celebration and good vibes of two weeks of commitment and hard work. The public provided positive feedback about the impact of the installation and the owner decided to keep the installation in place for as long as possible. If you are around Manchester, this definitely is worth a closer look!
I would like to thank Sika for making this possible and hope that further collaborations like this will be encouraged in the future!
