“Architectural space is traditionally composed through elements such as walls, ceilings, columns, etc... supermanoeuvre’s installation for the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture establishes an alternate construct: diffused space. Here an ultra high population of customised robotically fabricated bent steel rod elements establishes a diffused spatial gradient.”
‘The Clouds of Venice’ is a site specific installation produced for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Designed by SUPERMANOEUVRE in collaboration with Matter Design Studio, the structure was commissioned by the Australian Institute of Architects.
SUPERMANOEUVRE was selected as one of the six most innovative architecture practices to represent Australia in their pavilion. Curators Anthony Burke and Gerard Reinmuth had set the theme ‘Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture’, exploring the many ways in which the profession of architecture is being transformed in order to face the challenges of contemporary practice. The commission, was to “produce a new work that demonstrates the specific agency or potential of your unique practice structure”. ‘The Clouds of Venice’ demonstrates SUPERMANOUEVRE’s unique position at the overlap of practice, research and teaching; and the practice’s extreme level of technical and computational literacy. The realisation of the project was only made possible through the extensive international network of collaborators that is SUPERMANOEUVRE ‘s practice formation.
No construction drawings of the project exist! Instead some 5,000 lines of generative code and almost 50,000 lines of file-to-factory robot control code allowed 6,800 unique bends to be applied to over 5,200 linear metres of 1⁄4” diameter mild steel rod. The installation is an exemplar of a novel and highly collaborative trans-continental workflow where design files were generated in Sydney and London while the installation was robotically fabricated at the University of Michigan.
