MANIFESTO : METAMORPISM: TOWARDS A NEW KINETIC ARCHITECTURE

The following text Metamorphism : Towards a New Kinetic Architecture constitutes the manifesto of Metamorphic Art Studio.

Both this statement and the film The Kinetower, together with the accompanying metamorphic lamps, were first unveiled to the public at the Abitare il Tempo exhibition in Verona, Italy in 18-22 Septembre 2008.

In May of that same year, 2008, two prototypes of the New York Lamp were presented at the Sofa Show in New York, held in the historic Armory Building.

The Kinetower represents the architectural extrapolation of the New York Lamp — a poetic synthesis in which transformation and the modulation of light coexist as a single evolving gesture.

“Metamorfismo verso una Nuova Architettura Cinetica

Metamorphism towards a New Kinetic Architecture

Presentato da/ Presented by Berengo Studio 1989

Designers: Xaveer Claerhout & Barbara Van Biervliet

Si ringrazia/ Thanks to: Federica Marangonu, Noel Vanderplaetse, Eltek, Curama, Koen Van Lancker

METAMORPHISM

towards a New Kinetic Architecture

Xaveer Claerhout and Barbara Van Biervliet in cooperation with Berengo Studio 1989

The prototypes and ideas we will show in Abitare il Tempo 2008 are some results of our investigation towards a new aesthetics applied to light, architecture and spatial con-cepts.

Just like modern poetry knew how to free itself from rime without losing its essence, modern architecture and design of the 20th century focused on function to result in essential but mainly static forms.

Contemporary architecture and design tries to cope with the new and complex society of today. Sophisticated forms express the digital possibilities available. Even physical motion in architecture begins to appear more and more.

In our vision we don’t seek minimalism, neither decoration, nor representation of organic forms. Even motion itself is not our objective but only a means.

Through motion we try to combine fundamental functions and dimensions of materials, form and space.

As in a poem, it’s the combination of verses, which evokes a world of meaning and unlimited connections. This synergetic principle is close to the way kinetic architecture can generate sense. The movement can only be meaningful when being part of a functional scenario, as if the movement were a pace in a dance.

The world of the composite materials is essential for the future of kinetic architecture and design. The possibilities of composites are unlimited and in combination with motion-based technologies they can give multi-usable answers to major problems such as energy control and energy capture.

That is why we are convinced that for the future, the strength of motion and design will lay in its deformation or the transformation of form depending on its use. We call it Meta-morphism.

This multi-usability leads in a very contemporary way to a new aesthetics.

The dialectic of rigid versus flexible, closed versus open, dark versus light, hide versus reveal, male versus female, objectivity versus emotion creates a poetical dimension in this approach of Metamorphism: oppositions as innate properties of one.

All lamps and systems as shown in the exhibition and catalogue are patent-pending.”