The temporary installation, developed by architects: David Chipperfield Architects, Stefano Boeri, Patricia Urquiola, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid and Aires Mateus in Milan as part of ‘White in the City: White architecture Design Week 2017’ curated by Giulio Cappellini at the Cortile d’Onore of Palazzo Brera in Milan, is an attempt to show the essential qualities of White.

ZAHA HADID
THALLUS

Overview & Context: Through the investigation of form and pattern obtained by employing state-of-the-art manufacturing and computational methods, Thallus celebrates the disciples of art, architecture and fashion. Forged by automated additive manufacture as well as hot-wire cutting technology, the sculpture expresses the ongoing research in robotic assisted design carried out by ZHA CoDe and is a tangible demonstration of what can now be achieved in terms of mechanisation and customisation in the AEC industry.
Form: The sculpture is informed by the concept of Ruled Surfaces; a class of surfaces that are generated by the movement of a straight line in space around a given axis. The principles of Ruled Surfaces are applied in the fabrication process of the piece; the shape is tailored to a trimmed twisted cylinder in order to facilitate the use of hot-wire cutting technology to produce the moulds for downstream additive manufacture.
Pattern: Thallus continues ZHA's investigation in biological models and physiological processes to generate geometry through computation. The design explores differential growth and space-filling methods through expansion an diffusion arising from a single, continuous, seed curve guided iteratively via simulation parameters to approximately one kilometre in length with constrained to a reference surface. Density gradation and directionality of growth are defined by parameters such as proximity to boundary and direction of rulings.