Could ONE fabrication technology, ONE material, ONE morphological algorithm that generates INFINITE possibilities be used at ALL scales of design? This was our key question. We tested this idea by designing, developing and prototyping miscellaneous products from small to large scale. Our selection was not exhaustive but included interior objects, (furniture, doors, windows, cabinets, lighting, etc.), interior surfaces (columns, walls, ceilings, vaults, labyrinths), exterior surfaces (cladding, curtain wall systems), to entire structural systems (trusses, frames) at an architectural scale. Algo products by Milgo – Column, Wall and Ceiling Systems – were the first examples of mass-customized products in architecture and design, preceded only by the apparel industry (jeans). See architectural historian Mario Carpo’s article ‘Pattern Recognition’ written for the Venice Biennale, 2004, citing the works of Haresh Lalvani, Greg Lynn and Bernard Cache as the pioneering examples of mass-customized designed products.
ALGO ENVIRONMENTS, 1999-2004
We developed several Algo environments to explore the architectural potential of AlgoRhythm Technologies. Candidate projects included several versions of Milgo Gallery, a set-up for display of our products. In Umbrellas and WaveSpace Labyrinth, we explored folded columns as a continuum of ceiling and floor, Transitions was a space with irregular free-standing surfaces, WaveKnot introduced a linear knot space, and InterRipples modulated the folded surfaces variably.