Casey Mahon

Matter: an exhibition at The Bakery

Casey Mahon — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:43:21 +0000

MATTER is an exhibition taking place this fall at The Bakery in San Diego, CA, which explores the physical experiments and processes that link creative disciplines from art to architecture and design. The objects exhibited will serve as glimpses into the methodologies of the process driven investigations of a diverse group of creatives. Physical models in a variety of media will be presented in this group exhibition opening September 1, 2011, during the Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair in downtown San Diego.
The Bakery

s.phy.180.76

Casey Mahon — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:03:49 +0000

The evolution of the s.phx.121.111 project came via a commission from a colleague who was in need of a new lighting fixture for his home. The primary goal of the project was to simplify some of the more complex aspects of the original project, namely to cut the number of unique parts (11 vs 2), cut the amount of connection points (111 vs. 76), and to decrease the amount of time the material spent in the laser cutter/assembly (2 hours cutting/4 hours assembly vs. 47mins cutting/1 hour assembly). The final installation of the project will happen shortly, be sure to check back for drawings and installation photos.

Victor Civita Plaza

Casey Mahon — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:28:07 +0000

Built on a recently deactivated garbage collection and incinerator site, the Victor Civita Plaza & Museum for Sustainability reinvigorated the 130,000 sq. ft. site in central São Paulo. Like many postindustrial urban sites, the desire for open public space and the need to re-mediate the contaminated site required a unique solution. The plaza and museum compound was created by elevating a steel and hardwood deck above the existing grade level. The deck wraps and folds to create pockets of defined space, essentially urban rooms. Throughout the plaza information panels are placed in strategic locations to introduce the many sustainable features of the project, including recycled Brazilian hardwood, water retention systems, and soil purification. Working under the direction of Anna Dietzsch and Adriana Levisky, my role in the project ranged from producing 3-D models and renderings to producing construction drawings. Construction was completed on the plaza in the fall of 2008 to a very enthusiastic welcome, and the project has subsequently been published in Metropolis, Projeto Design, and Landscape Design, among others. The project was also awarded the Urban Design Prize by the Institute of Brazilian Architects and the Public Work category by the VII Corporate Architect Prize.

s.phx.121.111

Casey Mahon — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:34:10 +0000

The research behind the lamp installation project was twofold. The initial development began as an investigation into the ability of Rhinoceros’s Grasshopper program to dynamically panelize a doubly-curved surface with planar elements to be cut from flat-sheeted material. As the development of the Grasshopper definition moved forward, so did the fabrication of the test object, in this case a sphere. Several methods for joining were investigated, with the final selection for this prototype being a modified form of a notched joining system. The utility of the definition and the range of connection details will allow the research to be deployed in the future development of small-scale lighting fixtures and furniture pieces constructed from a range of sheet goods.

Six Scripts for Karl Blossfeldt

Casey Mahon — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:13:43 +0000

Karl Blossfeldt’s early twentieth-century work focused on exploring vegetal form through magnified photography. These plant forms then became source material for the designers of the early art nouveau movement. The photographs were reintroduced as source material for formal investigations in the 3-D computational environment of Rhinoceros and Grasshopper. The scripts that resulted were explorations into how vegetal form can be pushed by the tools available to propose new and novel forms. The work and research done for the project was formalized into a published paper at the 2011 International Symposium on Algorithmic Design for Architecture and Urban Design (ALGODE 2011). You can read the paper here Six Scrips for Karl Blossfeldt

Native Son – Fall 2011 Show

Casey Mahon — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:45:03 +0000

The Native Son fashion label enlisted Jordan Tait to design their fall 2011 New York City Fashion Week show hosted by Ecco Domani Wines at Pier 59 Studios. As a design and construction consultant in the project I was involved with guiding and directing the design and construction of the project. The space took inspiration from the tripartite collection of “The Track,” “The Train,” and “The Traveler,” designed by Kyle Fitzgibbons, owner and designer of Native Son. The entry sequence brings the visitors through an immersive four-dimensional space, and then spills into the show room, which highlights the collection on three distinct platforms.

On Chapels, Caves, and Erotic Misery_Sculpture Center

Casey Mahon — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:26:21 +0000

The fifth and final installation of the On Chapels, Caves, and Erotic Misery series was an installation created by Christian Tomaszewski for the Sculpture Center in Long Island City, New York. Christian’s vision was to expand upon our previous installation’s “cave within a room” design by creating an entirely new space within the lower level of the center. Christian’s work consists of meticulously reconstructing parts of David Lynch’s seminal film Blue Velvet in real space, exploring the ability of architectural fragments to convey dramatic narrative. My role in the exhibition was to assist in making Christian’s vision become reality by collaborating on conceptual treatments for the existing architectural spaces of the Sculpture Center and producing working documents for the construction of the installation space. The show was on display at the Sculpture Center from April 29 to July 29, 2007, and was reviewed by many noteworthy publications including the New York Times.

On Chapels, Caves, and Erotic Misery_Chemintz

Casey Mahon — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:25:47 +0000

The first installation of the On Chapels, Caves, and Erotic Misery series by Christian Tomaszwaski was a result of an invitation to display not only the previous sculptural pieces created by Tomaszwaski, but also to stage an intervention within the gallery space itself. My involvement with the project was as an architectural design consultant responsible for the design and fabrication strategies. The design of the space was inspired equally by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, which the sculptural elements were recreated from, and Kurt Schwitters’s Merzbau.

Aggregated Assemblies

Casey Mahon — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:37:47 +0000

Aggregated Assemblies is the title of a course taught by myself, Brent Klokis, and Justin Foster at NJIT’s School of Architecture during the summer of 2010. The course was initially intended to be an advanced scripting and parametrics course that would focus on the creation of architectural interventions through component pieces. A concurrently running fabrication course was folded into the Aggregated Assemblies class, which allowed us to concentrate on the connection between algorithmic processes and construction strategies. The course website we constructed is still live at aggregatedassemblies.com, and serves as a great source for tools and resources related to parametric design.

Cricursa Glass Studio

Casey Mahon — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:46:07 +0000

The Cricursa Glass Studio was taught by Gerry Lang and Jo Walker at the School of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The intention of the studio was to design a showroom for the Cricursa glass company on the roof of 155 Sixth Avenue in New York City. The unique site conditions lead my partner on the project, Matthew Mulkeen, and I to propose a novel solution that emphasized the location of the showroom by creating a landmark on the edges of NYC’s SoHo neighborhood. As the design progressed, unique glazing systems for the building were developed with the assistance of the Arup Engineering Curtain Wall team.