Discotopia

University of Kentucky
College of Design
School of Architecture

ARC 599/499: Spring 2020 Design Elective

Fabricating Play

Fabricating Play explores the use of the systematic processes of digital design and fabrication directed towards the development of an architectural installation that considers how the resulting artifact may activate user participation. This full-scale intervention will serve as a prototype for the design and production of architecture.

Discotopia is a flexible textile surface comprised of 784 mirrored tiles resembling an unrolled and undulating disco ball. It can be manipulated into an infinite variety of forms by adjusting the nylon lines suspending it from above. It exhibits a wide array of lighting patterns as well as a presenting a fragmented reflective surface distorting its environment and the images of its inhabitants.

2020 Participants
Destini Chenault, Lauren Davis, Dallas Johns, Heather Reeves, Sydney Rocha, Brad Rodriguez, Kadin Setters, Trevor Sparks, Ben Thornton

2021 Installation
Lauren Davis, Heather Reeves, Kadin Setters, Ben Thornton, Dallas Johns, Olivia Rippetoe, Sarah Madison Brown

Special thanks to the UK College of Design, Alex Brooks, and UK/CoD Shop Manager Paul Masterson for helping realize the project.

Image Gallery
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