Transient Materialization
Created by Shih-Yuan Wang, Yu-Ting Sheng, Dr. Alex Barchiesi and Vyacheslav Kryvosheya with guidance from Prof. Jeffrey Huang at the Media and Design Laboratory LDM, EPFL / SINLAB, Transient Materialization explores the relationship between digital and material-based digital fabrication through n-hedron structure composed mainly of soap foam that is blown, through a mixture of air and helium, into a foam structure.The project questions structure’s materiality and examines its physical performance and ephemeral characteristics. In the first phase of the project the team achieved a programmable foam structure and presented various configurations of dynamic and transformable foam structures. The fabrication interacts with the algorithm, which involves a mixture of air and helium (controlled by pneumatic valves) and additive chemical substances and thickening agents.The aim of the project is to take architecture beyond the creation of static forms and into the design of dynamic, transformable and ephemeral material experimental processes.