John Bezold

Visualizing the future of architecture is a task unbound by limits and indefinite in its possibilities. But not all the world’s dreamers have a chance to construct prototypes of the future, a task usually requiring large sums of money and even larger blocks of time. Offering a helping hand to some of those who do is MoMA, which lends time, money, and support. The museum commissioned local NYC firm Contemporary Architecture Practice (CAP) to design ‘a wall of the future’ for its summer show ‘Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling’. The wall ‘Migrating Formations’ was designed to showcase the future of digital technology in relation to the built environments of architecture and design. Completely self-supporting, ‘the wall is an investigation into light, shade, and structure’, says CAP. ‘Structural loads migrate from left to right, spreading through the wall in a gradated manner–as opposed to straight down. Openings expand and compress, widen, and narrow: each side of the wall is unique, maintaining our desire to yield an aesthetic sense of elegance.’ CAP created the piece through a robotic printing procedure, standardizing construction and leaving behind traditional techniques of moulds, fasteners, and connections. The printing process allows for no-repeat elements within the wall. Although currently a small building block in the future of design construction, a wall foresees a room, and a room foresees a building. Does the future of architecture hold buildings that are merely designed, printed, and assembled on-site? Both CAP and architecture enthusiasts seem to think so.