Q-BA-MAZE

Q makes ID Magazine's "Most Ingenious of 2007"

"Q-BA-MAZE...(cubes) can be stacked into elaborate towers, demonstrating cantilever and center of gravity to any budding Herzog or De Meuron." ID Magazine, November/December 2007 Issue, p. 83.

Here By Design Exhibit: Opening Snapshots

I'm on the right side of the display case describing the design process. The original inspiration came from the green wooden marble run on the right made by my grandfather, probably in the 1940s. My handmade plaster prototypes are at the far end of the case on the left. Two rows of rapid prototypes show the evolving generations of the design of the single-exit and double-exit cubes.

Another view of the display case.

Exhibit curator James Boyd-Brent is on the left. A wall system designed by Marc Swackhammer fills the background. I am demonstrating how a side joint on one cube can connect on all four sides of another cube.

Minnesota Design Mafia

Seven years ago, this red-headed fellow set in motion a series of events that led to the creation of Q-BA-MAZE:

He is Thomas Fisher, the Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota (CDes UMN), pictured here at the opening party for Here By Design III watching a ball wiggle its way through the cubes.

In early 2001, he organized a gathering for UMN architecture alumni living in New York City -- a social and networking event attended by about 15 people. I was living in Brooklyn and had just started my architectural rendering business. The gathering was at the Manhattan office of EEK Architects, where UMN alum Peter Cavaluzzi is a principal. I offered Peter my rendering services and came back to his office a couple of weeks later to show him my portfolio. It took a while to build the relationship, but because of the implicit trust from the Minnesota connection and the whole Mid-Western work ethic thing, I eventually had fairly regular rendering assignments from Peter. The intermittent nature of the work was exactly what I wanted and it was during one of the lulls between assignments that the inspiration for Q-BA-MAZE hit.

I moved back to Minneapolis in 2003 and continued to get rendering assignments from Peter at a distance. Then in summer 2004, EEK was competing to become the master planner for Project City Center -- a $4 billion casino project for MGM on the strip in Las Vegas. I did the initial renderings and the project just kept expanding to include more renderings and eventually videos. EEK won the commission and the renderings ended up in the Wall Street Journal and the videos played on the CBS Evening News. When my part of the project was complete and my final paycheck came in I calculated that I had enough money to put everything else aside and begin full-time work on Q-BA-MAZE.

Here is the rendering that was published in the Wall Street Journal (in this case, computer-generated buildings composited into an aerial photo taken from a helicopter):

For six months I simultaneously researched and wrote the business plan, designed the cubes, initiated the patenting process and incorporated the business. All of the rapid prototyped cubes on display at Here By Design III were made during that period. At the end of this process I had a product and a business concept that was sufficient to convince investors to come on board so that we could take the expensive next steps of bringing Q-BA-MAZE to production. I've always thought it funny that I got all of the pre-investor money for this risky bet from Las Vegas.

Above is another rendering of the project that is 100% computer-generated (all of the tiny specks at the bottom of the image are people -- which is to say, this project is huge).

There was a time when I thought design was about things, but I am learning more and more that it is about people and relationships. Tom and Peter are just two of hundreds of people who in one way or another have made Q-BA-MAZE possible. And so:

This is post #6 in a series on "The Making of Q-BA-MAZE"

YOU'RE INVITED: "Here by Design" Opening Party

Here by Design III: Process and Prototype

Opening Party
Friday, October 19
7-9 p.m. FREE
@ Goldstein Museum gallery
Minneapolis, MN

I'm honored to be part of this new exhibit, curated by James Boyd-Brent, Associate Professor of Graphic Design. The entire design process behind Q-BA-MAZE is on display -- inspiration, sketches, CAD drawings, rapid prototypes.  Visitors even get a chance to play with a multi-pack structure!  As part of the related symposium, I'll be sitting on a panel -- and a fellow panelist will be Vince James, one of my architecture instructors from the University of Minnesota.

"HbDIII will examine the ingenuity of Minnesota designers using digital fabrication for rapid prototyping innovative and sustainable design solutions. A related symposium will explore these issues in greater depth through panel discussions with the designers, tours to digital fabrication facilities, and a nationally-known keynote challenge speaker." Exhibit runs October 20, 2007 - January 20 2008

Watch for photos in the next few days...

Dreaming of Metabolist Architecture

Photo: arcspace

Metabolist Architecture was a movement of the 60s and 70s and this apartment tower in Tokyo is one of the best examples -- the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa. The repetition of simple modular units is a basic principal of architecture. The bricks in a wall, for example, are all the same size, repeated over and over, but capable of making so many different forms and enclosing so many different spaces. The Nakagin Tower uses an entire apartment as the modular unit instead of just a single brick.

One day I hope to make it to Tokyo, but this landmark building will problably not be there anymore -- it faces the wrecking ball due to both neglect and rising land values. So the Capsule Tower must live on in dreams.

This Q-BA-MAZE construction is how I imagine the Capsule Tower at night -- with each cube being a modular apartment unit: