Fabien Vienne
Designer and architect, creator of Cix and co-creator of Tubespace
geometric construction sets, co-inventor of Zometool's "green lines".
http://www.FabienVienne.com (design/architecture portfolio)
http://www.EmergentWorld.com (Tubespace construction set)
"I create 3D forms to convey the notion that geometry is no mere tool of composition, it's an epistemology - a way to understand the world and to express its underlying laws. Each work seeks to employ the principle of economy to find the essential in a problem and to then "substantiate" it in a least-action solution which brings that essence to light and to life. While using modern materials to explore classical questions, I often wonder how much further along we might be today if the great minds of the past had also had these materials for their earlier explorations."
“ Ful(ler)fillment - (homage to R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983) ”
2008, Plastic connectors and tubes (Tubespace), silicone tubing, fishing line, height=56cm, diam.=112cm Suspended height=90cm, weight=1,600g
"Ful(ler)fillment" is an 8-frequency hemispherical exploration of the geometry of the 16-frequency icosahedral dome designed by Buckminster Fuller for Expo67 in Montreal. The Montreal structure is a 3/4-sphere double-layer spaceframe with hexagonal inner layer, triangulated outer layer, joined by a web network. This early dome architecture is extremely strong, with perhaps more redundancy than is structurally necessary. More recent double-skin domes often employ fewer struts in the sandwich layer. The 3/4-sphere's"truncatable" geometry allowed horizontal lesser circles below the dome's equator. In this hemispherical idealization, all edges are true geodesics (i.e. on great circles).