Inquiry

• Aurora in Outer Space

  Francesca Grassi

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    Francesca Grassi for the Architectural Association, 2009

  Two recent encounters eluded and fascinated me at the same time. The first was my experience of an Aurora, and the second was a 2003 viewing of architect Greg Lynn’s design for Alessi’s Coffee and Tea Towers project.

  The natural phenomenon of an Aurora is caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere of the earth. It is incomparable to any man-made object, but I like to think that these two encounters share a design resulting from their specific contexts.

  In the case of Coffee and Tea Towers, part of the context is the constant exploration and experimentation with new technology that is intrinsic to Greg Lynn’s practice. The latest, most sophisticated calculus-based software was used to generate the shapes for these one-of-a-kind containers, creating tens of thousands of different forms, each with subtle variations. The pattern, texture, and orientation of each container’s surface was achieved through subverting the settings of the machines used for cutting the moulds. The gradient color scheme was also procedurally generated during the anodizing of the titanium.

  The idea that a contextual setting or scenario can create a design is what triggered my inquiry. I understand Greg Lynn’s Coffee and Tea Towers set as I do the vision of an Aurora—as a particular representation of the time in which it was created, and as a physical signifier of a time that has yet to come.

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    Alessi Coffee and Tea Towers, 2003. Image courtesy of Greg Lynn FORM, Los Angeles.

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    Alessi Coffee and Tea Towers, 2003. Image courtesy of Greg Lynn FORM, Los Angeles.

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    The Aurora Australis as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery in May 1991. Image courtesy NASA’s Earth Observatory.