The collaboration between, Matter Design and CEMEX Global R&D, exists in two projects. The first is a performative sculpture titled Janus. The second, Walking Assembly, is a demonstration of how those same principles of Janus can be applied to assemble massive construction elements without the use of a crane.
About WALKING ASSEMBLY
The mysterious knowledge surrounding the transportation and placement of megalithic structures of the past eludes contemporary building practices. Walking Assemblyre-introduces the potentials of that ancient knowledge to better inform the transportation and assembly of future architectures.
If a brick is designed for a single hand, and a concrete masonry unit (CMU) is designed for two, these massive masonry units (MMU) unshackle the dependency between size and the human body. Intelligence of transportation and assembly is designed into the elements themselves, liberating humans to guide these colossal concrete elements into place.
Structures that would otherwise rely on cranes or heavy equipment can now be intelligently assembled and disassembled with little energy. By using variable density concrete, the center of mass of the object is calibrated precisely to control the stable, but easy motion of the elements.
This ensures that these massive elements successfully walk and assemble into place, creating the possibility for a crane-less tilt up construction method and turning our building sites into spectacles of play.
About JANUS
Janus is the Roman god of thresholds, simultaneously looking to the past and the future. Matter Design and CEMEX Global R&D have conjured this god of contradictions to help demonstrate the potentials of moving mass with joy. The ghost of Janus manifest as an animated double concrete sculpture on its original home and the current site of the American Academy in Rome—the Janiculum. Janus emerges from its own formwork and performs on stage in front of an audience of spectators.
Working with composers Federico Gardella and Simone Conforti, this collaboration merges sonic and physical animation to produce a performance of living spectacle. In an hour-long performance, the audience is enveloped in a spatial chatter that transitions from the noise of the crowd itself to a spirit like whispering that draws the audience’s attention to an apparently gift-wrapped object on stage. Janus is designed through a series of monstrous contradictions.
This graphic box references the Arch of Janus with a uniquely Roman color palette of pinks, oranges, and blues. The box slowly rolls onto its back, exposing it is merely the lightweight formwork of a massive object inside. From this rigid box, a vital concrete object springs to life on its own. Janus wobbles on stage, breathing life into a solid sphere and hollowed ring sculpture until the momentum slowly fades and the wrecking ball of an object appears to hover on a single point for the amusement of spectators. This spectacle of witnessing Janus’ rebirth projects a perception of life in this inorganic object, but Janus was not done.
Janus re-manifest across the Atlantic on the campus of MIT, this time, dedicated to expressing a deeper understanding of the concrete form in relation to the human body through the act of play. Terez Lowry dances with Janus accompanied by the sounds of Gardella and Conforti’s composition, re-mastered for a 15-minute progressive presentation that demonstrates the apparently light but incredibly massive capabilities of what working with mass could look like today.
If a brick is designed for a single hand, and a concrete masonry unit (CMU) is designed for two, these massive masonry units (MMU) unshackle the dependency between size and the human body. Intelligence of transportation and assembly is designed into the elements themselves, liberating humans to guide these colossal concrete elements into place.
Structures that would otherwise rely on cranes or heavy equipment can now be intelligently assembled and disassembled with little energy. By using variable density concrete, the center of mass of the object is calibrated precisely to control the stable, but easy motion of the elements.
This ensures that these massive elements successfully walk and assemble into place, creating the possibility for a crane-less tilt up construction method and turning our building sites into spectacles of play.
About JANUS
Janus is the Roman god of thresholds, simultaneously looking to the past and the future. Matter Design and CEMEX Global R&D have conjured this god of contradictions to help demonstrate the potentials of moving mass with joy. The ghost of Janus manifest as an animated double concrete sculpture on its original home and the current site of the American Academy in Rome—the Janiculum. Janus emerges from its own formwork and performs on stage in front of an audience of spectators.
Working with composers Federico Gardella and Simone Conforti, this collaboration merges sonic and physical animation to produce a performance of living spectacle. In an hour-long performance, the audience is enveloped in a spatial chatter that transitions from the noise of the crowd itself to a spirit like whispering that draws the audience’s attention to an apparently gift-wrapped object on stage. Janus is designed through a series of monstrous contradictions.
This graphic box references the Arch of Janus with a uniquely Roman color palette of pinks, oranges, and blues. The box slowly rolls onto its back, exposing it is merely the lightweight formwork of a massive object inside. From this rigid box, a vital concrete object springs to life on its own. Janus wobbles on stage, breathing life into a solid sphere and hollowed ring sculpture until the momentum slowly fades and the wrecking ball of an object appears to hover on a single point for the amusement of spectators. This spectacle of witnessing Janus’ rebirth projects a perception of life in this inorganic object, but Janus was not done.
Janus re-manifest across the Atlantic on the campus of MIT, this time, dedicated to expressing a deeper understanding of the concrete form in relation to the human body through the act of play. Terez Lowry dances with Janus accompanied by the sounds of Gardella and Conforti’s composition, re-mastered for a 15-minute progressive presentation that demonstrates the apparently light but incredibly massive capabilities of what working with mass could look like today.
