Launched in November 2008, BFI’s Prototype - a program bringing together local artists, designers & architects in the exploration of structure - meets monthly to engage in discussion, design and building new forms.

Prototype was commissioned to create structures for two recent events in New York City, click here to read more...

---

Prototype was invited to design a geometric-based installation for an event to celebrate the book release of Towards 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age. Prototype chose to explore an obvious structure connecting Buckminster Fuller and the Mayans - the tetrahedron or pyramid. Using a space-frame structure (Fuller’s Octet Truss) - Prototype constructed a 10 frequency tetrahedron (picured above, left) with one truncated vertex (in reference to the flat tops of the Mayan pyramids). Translucent plastic pieces were scarcely distributed amongst the hundreds of recycled cardboard components that comprised the bulk of the structure to allow the fluorescent light generated from within to illuminate outside. The installation was funded by Mangusta & LAFCO Productions.

See more pictures here


New York based fashion designer Laura Dawson invited Prototype to create a geodesic-dome inspired architectural installation (pictured above, right) that would serve as both dressing/makeup room, and fashion show centerpiece for the unveiling of Dawson’s spring collection during New York’s 2009 Fashion Week. Through experimentation with network programming, Prototype participant Matt Howard attempted to liberate Fuller’s structural lattices from their platonic solids and reinterpret the struts on dome structures as social connections, molded by forces from physical and behavioral simulations. Fabricated from machine cut triangles of corrugated plastic, the structure was assembled and installed  by Prototype participants. The installation was funded by Red Bull.

Watch a video from backstage

See more pictures here


To get involved with or learn more about Prototype please contact Will Elkins, will@bfi.org