Caustic Architecture

Caustic Architecture is featured on the first edition of Lobby Un/Spectacle

From researchers Bijing Zhang and Francois Mangion, 'Furl' is a model of a kinetic pavilion that changes shape according to brainwaves.

Consequential Spaces is an interactive experience which explores the consequences of marine water ballast and the unintentional transport of marine life across oceans. This research-based narrative is part of Fascinate 2014 (Falmouth, Cornwall, UK) and is carried out by B-Pro graduates and IAL members:  William Bondin, Francois Mangion, George Tsakiridis, Eleftheria Varda and Chryssa Varna

Contemporary Interior Design for a young couple's apartment_ contemporary living, compact minimal and functional.

Digital Fabrication

This design research project explains the un-exploited visions of light, how these un-developed visions of light caustics can be applied and developed further - Why Not Architecture?

Designed in collaboration with Shuchi Agarwal the Synaesthetic Museum project seeks to find a harmony between the visual and aural perceptions in architecture. Using light as the architectural generative tool in creating form, this project exemplifies the relationship between the actual form itself and the aural qualities it can create. Studying the play of light …

The unknown architecture becomes a transition towards the understanding that our grasp of what is architecture can never be complete. This does not mean that we know nothing but that there are more things to consider, more complexities to encounter and we should be far from sitting down thinking that we’ve reached full understanding of architecture - construction. Being addicted to the uncertainty and the thrill of the unknown remains a human desire not only to place architecture somewhere within our preconceived stereotypes and cultural context, but further more, to locate architecture as a continuous process rather than a building - a starting point rather then a “safe” fake ending [.]

Designed in collaboration with Shuchi Agarwal the Synaesthetic Museum project seeks to find a harmony between the visual and aural perceptions in architecture.

This research project proposes a desire to challenge the use of technologies available in the architectural field to overcome any historical limitations and conceive an all-round tool of form, function and experience. From analogue to digital to computational, this research engages in a continual serial exchange between the visual and the technical. The computational translation of light itself follows the complex nature of optics hitting a pre-designed undulating surface, the same way as natural caustics, generating multiple 3D light iterations. This process generates intricate and elaborate geometry that represents an architectural vision and a creative digital form finding, combined with the possibilities of design through rules of nature and manufacturing methods. For the very first time the natural focusing of light into form, was able to generate tangible physical architectural surfaces, generating an architectural language where form, matter and function co-exist through a one cohesive process.  

Digital Light Sculpture - The Immaterial Light Architecture http://francoismangion.blogspot.co.uk

Synesthetic Museum by Francois Mangion & Shuchi Agarwal Investigating how new digital fabrication techniques can be employed in construction with ice together with the study of light and sound, Caustic Architecture research gave birth to the Synesthetic Museum. Re-thinking how light can evolve into inhabitable spaces; the museum redefines how people occupy the built environment through light caustics and sound, hence experiencing a homogeneous correlation between the volumetric qualities of both. The design represents the visual analysis of light as a phenomenon, but in principle its architecture represents a study of caustic light performance and how it is scattered in a space.

MArch GAD, RC2 2012-2013 - Bartlett School of Architecture Tutor: Prof. Marjan Colletti & Guan Lee Students: Francois Mangion & Shuchi Agarwal