Hive, EDL x K2LD

Nature is everywhere.
Even artifice cannot escape its elemental influence. Our world appears to us through congregations of molecular structures, forming all organic and inorganic matter. Nonetheless, these microscopic building blocks normally evade our vision. The advanced nanotechnology used in EDL’s Fenix NTM® laminate is potent yet unseen.

The exhibition and installation was designed for the launch of this new laminate material. The material’s unique properties create a smoothly matte and damage-resistant surface. While the nanostructures that enable these qualities are invisible, they are an integral part of the structure which creates the sculpture’s form. Curves highlight the material’s smoothness. A congregation of such elements facilitates an understanding of the material’s beauty.

A curve exhibits the smooth matte quality of the material.
A number of folded units congregate into strands and the strands into a rounded collective form, reminiscent of an organic body. As such, the beauty of nature exists on multiple levels in the same body, all based on an elemental structure.

In exploring different ways of representing the laminates conventionally used as a sheet material, the FENIX NTM was manipulated into a three dimensional form. The first step was to fold a sheet and it took on a petal- like form. Each petal is a laminate sheet that is precut, drilled to size and uniquely numbered. They are held on the ends with metal fixtures before being mounted on the stem.

The stems – forming the structural framework for this installation, are steel columns, held together by rings, nuts and bolt fixings. Taking inspiration from nature, multiple petals were attached onto a stem and arrayed in a radial configuration much like a flower. The end result is called HIVE, which has an outer skin and inner shell, giving rise to an ambivalent nature of being an object-sculpture-pavilion.

The HIVE allows visitors to contemplate the format aspects and materiality of the installation from multiple vantage points, culminating in a spatial and visual array of multi-coloured laminates inside its heart.