Nendo’s newly commissioned installation Visible Structures will be featured as part of the Modern by Design exhibition to be held at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta starting June 4th.
The installation will feature a collection of carbon fiber furniture, specifically exploring the material in a supporting role to the main material. Carbon fiber was used as supporting building material specifically after the Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake of 1995 in Japan. When wrapped around pillars or bridge girders, carbon fiber cladding can provide additional seismic resistance for civil engineering works that would be difficult to reinforce against earthquakes through traditional methods.
Interestingly enough, when used on its own carbon fiber bends; however, when it is used to ‘sandwich’ weaker materials such as cardboard or polystyrene, somehow the combination creates a strong, light composite material. Simply adhering carbon fibers to the surface such as tape or sticker achieves the necessary strength for furniture.
This new method of making overturns both the traditional composition of internal structure and external cladding and the basic manufacturing process in which the structure is first formed then finished common to both architecture and furniture, ultimately reorganizing the relationship between structural form and surface material.
Exhibit Information
June 4 – August 21, 2011
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta
1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309
All Photos by Masayuki Hayashi, photos and text excerpts provided courtesy of Nendo.
