VTOL – Vertical Take Off and Landing, an installation by designers Kram/Weisshaar, went on show outside the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna this month.
The 1.3cm thick concrete installation is part of Vienna Design Week, which runs until 12th October. Photography courtesy of Ditz Fejer.
The following is from Kram/Weisshaar:
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At the invitation of the Vienna Design Week, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram have designed, developed and implemented this large-scale public installation in close collaboration with Wolfgang Rieder and his company Rieder Smart Elements.
A twisting, glass fibre-reinforced concrete surface – 100 m2 in size and only 13 mm thick – appears to float weightlessly above the ground on a mirrored pedestal. VTOL is shaped with the aid of a set of software tools especially developed by the designers.
Custom programming was introduced to allow for the flexible and rapid manufacturing of unique parametric concrete objects.In this regard it can be seen as the successor of their VENDÔME project introduced several months prior at Design Miami/ Basel 2008.
In both cases the intelligent combination of the given static properties of concrete with the dynamic potential of process-oriented software forms the central theme for the project.
VTOL is constructed using an innovative glass fibre-reinforced concrete called fibreC. The material can be thought of as a concrete skin, exhibiting the best properties of both glass fibre and concrete.
The material is constructed from purely mineral raw materials, environmentally-friendly, solid and durable, malleable and easy to control, thin-walled and extremely light.
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Posted by Rob Ong
October 8th, 2008 at 4:52 am
BIG WORDS BIG WORDS….the form is pretty simple..easy Rhino stuff..
“In both cases the intelligent combination of the given static properties of concrete with the dynamic potential of process-oriented software forms the central theme for the project”.
seemingly intelligent words but actually say nothing..no process shown as well.. BIG and BORING
October 8th, 2008 at 7:08 am
you need software for that?
October 8th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Reminds me a main element of scenography to Angelin Preljocaj’s / Stravinski’s “Rite of Spring”
October 8th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Its nice use of materials but seriously can be done easily and by analog way in countries such as india and china and other parts of asia…
its much ado about nothing but the idea is simple and should have kept the words that way…
October 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Having been at the Vienna Design Week opening this installation is actually very very beautiful – the skin really floats, the mirrors let the floor continue under the installation.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Would be interesting to see this “custom made” software in action – the same with the vendome – never saw any prove of this software…
October 9th, 2008 at 9:13 am
it floats, kinda… if you squint a lot.
floaty wackness, whatever will they think of next?
October 9th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
i’ve nerver seen any of the promoted software in any of the projects which were software driven really working. this is basic rhino-freeform-tutorial
and material is not special at all. by the way: fibre-concrete excists for about 30 years.
so, why don’t you just say it’s a sculpture, instead of talking pseudo-intellectual about which is not…?
October 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
the thing really is pretty boring.. not even a real 3d form.
and it does not look floating at all..
have been at the design week opening and thought that’s not even a new installation.
but still, it’s good for kids to do some scating on it.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
bauster, that’s the first thing I thought of. That would be amazing to skate on.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
My first reaction…..Great….Nani Marquina has made a giant concrete version of her flying carpet.
I am surprised that these people make the claim they have “designed” this object
December 1st, 2008 at 2:17 pm
We did see the software in action in Vienna – negotiating beautifully the limits of the bending process in the factory – and lots of kids skating. You guys should stop talking and get busy with some work.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Hmmm, I don’t see a “No skateboarding” sign.