MATERIAL CONSEQUENCE

EASTON + COMBS. text by Michael Caton

Crisis is a relative term, but there is a crisis in contemporary architecture today that imminently threatens our efficacy tomorrow. A simulation is broad and vague, but in the context of architecture and design, their tools, being computational, parametric, analytical, etc. have in an amazing way opened Pandora’s Box of the possibilities of form, structure, space, and experience.

However, with the birth of such tools, the products of their use have largely been…frankly more tools, more processes, and more definitions of technique; where is it going? Where does the simulation end and reality enter? Here is where the crisis lay, because one thing that architects and designers cannot, and should not avoid, is materiality.

Enter Easton + Combs, the New York based emerging architectural practice committed to architecture, design research, and most importantly its relevance to building. While heavily invested in digital methodologies it is the efficacy of these same methodologies to effect material conditions that accentuate Easton + Combs as a leader in contemporary architecture.

The Hunter Douglas light research studio, conducted at Pratt Institute in New York, exemplifies this modus operandi. Through the use of digital tools rigorous explorations of form and structure are simulated, yet ultimately examined through their physical material effects. The window treatment material becomes a malleable terrain for exploration with the use of flexible fiberglass rods as its material actuator. Digital studies of pattern and force enter into a feedback loop of light and structural consequence to produce exuberantly elegant bulbous structures.

In the same vein is the remarkably innovative Luminous Structural Lattices. 100% recyclable, this system is an exceptionally strong featherweight building component that embodies a beautiful play of light and an 80% weight reduction to a glass equivalent system. This is all achieved without compromising structural integrity at a fractional production cost. A finalist in New York’s Museum of Modern Art P.S.1 Young Architects competition, and recently recognized by the American Institute of Architects as one of New York’s 10 most promising emerging practices; Easton + Combs offers a us a glimpse down the promising road where the simulation ends and we proactively consider the material consequences.