Metropolitan Works panels

In August 2007 I was commissioned to create a design to be laser-cut into aluminium panels cladding the ground floor of the new Metropolitan Works building in East London.

The building houses a range of state of the art digital manufacturing machines, such as an impressively large 5-axis CNC router; water-jet cutter; rapid prototyping machines and 3D scanners.

I felt it was important to create a design that would express the almost limitless possibilities offered by these new technologies and hint at what may lie within.

The regimented perforations of the aluminium panels cladding the upper floors of the building provided the inspiration. I allowed the perforations to trickle down onto the ground floor panels where I then proceeded to warp and twist them into melting, swirling, liquefied patterns.

This subversion is intended to illustrate the evolution of technology and manufacturing processes from a rigid pre-digital era to the much more fluid and flexible means of production we have at our disposal today.

The building was officially opened in February 2009.