300 final words

Michael Hansmeyer 

Subdivided Columns - A New Order (2010)

Michael Hansmeyer’s “Subdivided Columns” utilise subdivision processes to produce columns with unique and intricate ornamental and topographical surfaces. What makes these columns significant though is that Hansmeyer  is not simply designing a column through analog means but instead employing digital technology to produce a generative process which can then be used 

numerous times to reshape endless sets of columns,  there by creating a means to design. 

Hansmeyer's heavy focus on digital design and fabrication links to Bernard Cache’s essay about Associative architecture, stating that “Design procedures that rely on a limited number of geometrical and numerical parents can be easily modified to effect the regenerative form of the whole design of the building.” This process  becomes evident in how Hansmeyer's columns are flexible in that  they are produced algorithmically so that the base shape and topography can be easily changed or manipulated

Focusing on the structure itself, clear parallels can be made to architectural processes and theories  such as morphogenesis and emergence. For example as the structure evolves through its use of digital design processes such as its algorithmic generation and materialisation through digital fabrication this mimics the core ideas behind morphogenic theories where a 

structure is brought to fruition through its progressive design processes (i,e from sketch, to digital models, to final structure). Stemming from that theory the columns themselves can be seen as a product of self organisation as the differing parametric inputs  effect the overall form of the columns.

 Another key aspect of what makes Hansmeyers Columns so relevant to digital design  is through his use of digital fabrication to produce  individual laser cut faces which are then stacked to create the columns unique shape, thus bringing theses structures to the physical world .This fabrication process bridges the   concepts and theories of “Emergence”, being defined as a collection of independent individual components working in unison to reach a final form