The design brief for Exhibit Columbus Biennial stated that the University Installations “represent the state of architectural education as well as speculate on the potential to be a catalyst for changing the way we design and build in the Midwest ... expanding design literacy through education.” Within these ambitions, Indelible Pattern(s) is challenging and didactic, telling multiple, simultaneous stories - if one takes time to explore and observe.

A single habitable space is an initial impression, organized by a hanging swarm canopy above and an inscribed deck below. Visitors who slow-down, contemplate and observe, discover this subterfuge concealing a complex set of interacting spaces and patterns that recontextualize the site and city as active participants forming this new, temporary place. Columbus’s Modernist History is formally absorbed via regulating lines within the context. Juxtaposing these clear alignments are less physically identifiable computational rules combined with other aesthetic and spatial agendas. Contradicting smooth and discrete typologies, together with the landscape, define micro-spaces that inscribe the structure with site specificity while other organizational rules evade, obfuscate, or delay immediate comprehension. At a distance, the hanging swarm reveals pixelated volumes that appear and recede as one moves. Other patterns and geometries subtly allude to indelible cultural landmarks. In contrast, voids pierce the installation to clearly frame iconic vertical moments contrasting the horizontality of the region. Without a single story or simple answers, visitors are left with lingering questions and personal discoveries that are felt beyond the temporary exhibit, the foundation of an individual’s education.

Applied research regarding direct to manufacture processes, digital workflows, minimum waste, and integrated modeling were critically deployed producing a living laboratory of current and future practice. Parametric tools evolved with the design and designed parametric workflows tested the limits of an integrated model as construction document, minimizing construction drawings.