Visitors to Astana invited to engage with striking new aluminium

An eye-catching, 43ft-tall installation has been unveiled in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana. Designed by Marc Fornes of New York-based art and architecture firm THEVERYMANY, ‘Minima | Maxima’ was commissioned for the World Expo, which takes place this year in the city. The striking, angular installation is one of four public pavilions or ‘Creative Energy Spaces’, meant to reflect this year’s theme; Future Energies.
 

“‘Minima | Maxima’ is a free-standing thin-shell aluminium structure, a development of the studio’s research into ‘Structural Stripes’ and ‘Crawling Assemblies’,” Marc tells Lonely Planet. As he explains, the smart innovation used means the piece didn’t require structural beams or columns. “2mm aluminium stripes are woven and mechanically bonded in three perpendicular layers to form a rigid, anisotropic composite from an isotropic material (like aluminium or glass, where the structural properties are identical in all directions). It’s similar to fibre technology, but unlike fibres, each individual component does not need to be in tension, and their processing does not require any formwork.”

“What really allows ‘Minima | Maxima’ to stand at this height (and thickness) though is its form: pleats at the base rise into doubly-curved, continuous surfaces. We see these conditions – material, structural, formal, spatial – as unified in the assembly, each enabling and enhancing the performance and experience of the construction.

Another key element for Marc is the idea of play. Visitors are invited to move in and around the installation, making it a true public piece of art. “Our motivation is really in the manufacture of new and surprising spatial experiences,” he says. “And playful occupations – tucking yourself into a pleat, adjusting your body to unfamiliar contours, visual wandering – is exactly how people are compelled to engage with spaces that depart from conventional notions of enclosure. We want to draw people in, incite curiosity, and provide a space for discovery, wonder, and contemplation within.”