Zip Tie Massimal: An Architectural Design Research Installation

Exploring the Relationship Between Social Engagement and Built Form

The Zip Tie Massimal is an architectural design research project that explores the relationship between social engagement and built form. Inspired by a constellation of stars and a petting zoo, the installation invites the public to interact with it by touching, holding, and pulling. It creates a spectacle in the form of a glowing volume comprised of over 20,000 zip ties.

The form of the Zip Tie Massimal was generated using digital surface modeling software. For the purposes of fabrication, these surfaces were unrolled in the modeling program to generate flattened templates. These templates served as maps for laying out a skin out of connected zip ties that were then rolled back into the original form.

The Massimals project seeks to expand the possibilities of how people interact with built form. They are created as an architectural design research model at full scale. Each Massimal expresses a familiar character in negotiation with material, construction, site specificity, and contextual parameters used as an opportunity to drive design experimentation and simultaneously engage the public discourse.

The durability and flexibility of the Zip Tie Massimal’s material allows visitors to physically engage the installation and generate responsive movement. The design challenge for d.o.t.s was to produce something with unique formal characteristics out of standardized components and simple construction logic that will engage the public conscious. For this particular installation, the Massimal had to be durable and lightweight and generate a spectacle.

The Zip Tie Massimal was designed in 2011 as an installation to be included in the annual Beaux Arts Ball event in Lexington, Kentucky. It has been widely published through numbers of major design sites and blogs and has recently been added to the collection started by the Archive of Spatial Aesthetics and Praxis (ASAP), whose aim is to be the foremost collection of spatial practice today, collecting and exhibiting architecture as part of a broader social, political, and aesthetic discourse.

This Design was awarded Golden in A' Fine Arts and Art Installation Design Award in 2012. The award is granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations that reflect the designer's prodigy and wisdom. They are venerated products and bright ideas that advance art, science, design, and technology, embodying extraordinary excellence and significantly impacting the world with their desirable characteristics.