For two weeks, Ball State University architecture students have painted, stretched and pulled liquid latex material during a workshop that exposed them to the immediacy of a space as opposed to its representations in hand drawings and computer renderings.
Their creations will be on display at a 6 p.m. reception in the Muncie Urban Design Studio, which follows a 4 p.m. presentation by Frank Fantauzzi, associate professor of architecture at State University New York at Buffalo on his work with liquid latex.
Students painted multiple layers of latex onto a surface of their choice to form a membrane that they stretched with a variety of tools such as pulleys and nylon string to bring their designs to life.
"With [liquid latex] there're a lot of unknowns," junior Nathan Ziulkowski said. "We know what we want it to look like, but it'll be interesting to see what it actually looks like in the end."
Juniors Teresa Klingensmith-Haines and Stephanie McLeish also said that the material's unpredictability made it fun to work with.
Tim Gray, associate professor of architecture at Ball State, organized and facilitated the installations workshop for his third-year architecture students. The goals of the workshop were for students to learn from the material and the space, he said.
"Students are reacting to the immediacy of the space," Gray said. "Part of reacting is listening to the building and listening to the materials."
Ziulkowski said the workshop is one of the first hands-on projects he and his classmates have done as a full-scale endeavor.
Junior Meg Leder said the workshop opened up a different kind of architecture to her.
"It deals with our mind's eye, but it's not so literal as designing a building," Leder said. "This is freedom for us: to see space in all ways and not just something we design for people to use."
Working with real materials and space is especially "healthy" for architecture students, Fantauzzi said.
Gray said it is hard for his students to explore design when working with materials that represent something else.
"[This workshop] reminds us that materials can be used in different ways, and, as architects, we need to explore the different possibilities a material can bring," McLeish said.
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