New Harmony Grotto

With the expanding wave of contemporary architecture inspired and informed by biomorphic design and biomimetic processes, the re-evaluation of work of Frederick Kiesler has become immanent. Throughout the mid 20th century he became increasingly interested in the relationship of natural form and structure to architectural space and organization. The Grotto for Meditation proposed in 1963 for New Harmony, Indiana commissioned by Mrs. Jane Blaffer-Owen was the culmination of his lifeis work. Though the project was not realized, it embodies all of the influences of his time from surrealism to biology and cybernetic theory. Through our university and the Blaffer Foundation, we engaged in formal research and tectonic resolution of the project employing digital modelling and fabrication technologies at our College and in Houston where Mrs. Owen lives when she is not in New Harmony. We based this project on the full catalog of archival material made available to us with support from the Blaffer and Kielser Foundations. Our exploration also was influenced by discussions with Mrs. Blaffer-Owen who is still very interested in realizing this profoundly interesting and enigmatic project. Our university has opened the door to the opportunity that our reinterpreted Grotto become a permanent fixture on the campus next to a wetland landscape that it is currently under construction. Our research into Kiesler has engaged his esoteric concepts of “co-realismi and “continuous tensioni as well as his early use of recursive geometry and biomorphic form in design. From reverse engineering and digital fabrication via 3D scanning to generative structural articulation, we are experimenting with a structural/spatial system that closely aligns with Kiesleris originally proposed tile patterning dilated into a minimal structure. Our prototypes and the final version will be fabricated by one of the largest commercially for-hire water jet cutter in country and assembled on the site