Computational Engineer | CW Keller, 2017-2018
Engineering the interior of Trahan Architect’s overhaul of the Alliance Theatre was a monumentus task. Inspired by collaborations with renowned designer and sculptor Matthias Pliessnig, I was tasked with turning basic Rhino surfaces supplied by the architect into over 100,000 linear feet of buildable, bendable, shippable theatre components.
All fabrication geometry was modeled parametrically, including jigs for assembly, finishing, shipping, and installation—this allowed us to keep up with aggressive design changes without sacrificing real-life workability. Further, collaboration with FARO brought the project to a new level. Generating laser projection geometry ensured efficient, repeatable product builds and an incredibly accurate install. This work was presented across the US, and netted the project the 2019 ARCHITECT Magazine R+D Award, among several others.
Beyond bent wood, each of the 13 unique components were fitted with custom steel outriggers. These were also built into the model parametrically, with careful consideration taken of construction tolerances, concrete slab edge accuracy, and design preferences—even the attachment knobs are placed to hide behind the horizontal stringers.
To meet documentation challenges for continuous iterations of countless unique parts, I developed a working plugin to generate complete, lineweighted drawing sets of each component. The result was a live-drawing environment in Rhino that allowed more efficient output from the team and reduced turnaround time for project submittals and external coordination.
