Aalto is a sculpture consisting of a pair
of 2-meter diameter orbs which I made while visiting
Aalto University in
Helsinki for a week in April 2013. The sculpture and
the university are named after the Finnish architect and
designer Alvar Aalto. The doubled
A of
Aalto
strikes me as very appropriate in the name for this
sculpture, which consists of two almost-identical
components. Unlike the
A's, the orbs are the
same size, but are mirror images. Look carefully in
the photo above to see that one is "left-handed" and the
other is "right-handed."
Here's a peek into the room where I led a class in the
construction. This is an interdisciplinary design
class called "Crystal Flowers in Halls of Mirrors:
Mathematics Meets Art and Architecture” with seven
instructors (Kirsi Peltonen, Jouko Koskinen, Taneli
Luotoniemi, Riikka Kangaslampi, Jouko Lehtomäki, Anssi
Ahlgrén, and Mikko Kauhanen) and about 25
students. Each of the orbs we are making consists of
sixty identical plywood components. You can see the
complete shape of the part being carried at left.
Assembling the parts required about an hour and a half for
the first orb, with 25 people working together. But
then we knew how to do it, so it took only 55 minutes for
the second orb. This doesn't include the time for
cutting and drilling the wood beforehand.
The parts have holes near their edges and are joined with
cable ties through the holes. This was an experimental
technique I was trying and turned out to be a very quick and
strong way to assemble parts with a group. Cable ties
adapt automatically to the various angles between the
planes.
Although it is very intricate, it is highly regular, so the
same types of connections are made all around in many
places. And if all the local connections are correct,
the global structure is automatically correct.
But it is rather tricky at first to see how the parts weave
in front of and behind the other pieces. I had
initially made some goofs and we had to cut some cable ties
to correct the arrangement of modules. After that,
everyone was on the lookout for any problems that might
arise.
As we went along, we used wire clippers to cut all the
protruding ends of the cable ties, leaving a nicely finished
appearance. Each of the 60 parts has 17 holes, and
each cable tie has to be threaded through 2, 3, or 4 holes,
depending on its connection. In all, there are 390
ties to be attached and then clipped.
This is me in the middle of things, checking out some of the
connections in the first orb. For the second orb, I
didn't say a word of instructions. The group was able
to make it completely on their own.
It ends up very rigid, with a very light and open feeling,
simultaneously geometric and organic. I am very happy
with the results.
We hung them up so they can rotate freely from one point and
aimed the lights so they make cool shadows as they
rotate. To better understand the design, see these
three videos
. The last of these shows the
actual construction along with the preparatory process of
cutting and drilling the plywood parts, which is omitted in
the images above:
There are many people to thank for making this possible,
beginning with all the students who worked on assembling it
with me, and the Aalto University Design Factory staff who
helped in preparing the parts and hanging it afterward, Kari
Kääriäinen, Enna Rane, and Jani
Kalasniemi. Thank you also to Eero Kaarlehto for
taking these beautiful photos. A big thank you goes to
Prof. Kirsi Peltonen, of the Aalto Mathematics Department,
who invited me to visit this class she teaches and made many
arrangements. And a special thank you to Jouko
Koskinen, who took care of many details and hosted me in
many ways, including teaching me about Finnish sauna.
Kiitos.