Project Team: Aaron Schalon, Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Holder
Type: Design Study
Year: 2005

"Kaka Beak" is a study in the way a manufactured prototype might begin to control the material properties of plastic by utilizing new thermoform technologies. Plastic poses a special problem for architecture because it is simultaneously a material, a property, and a cloud of cultural and historical associations: things can be made out of plastic, things can be plastic and malleable even if they aren't literally made of plastic and plastic describes the qualities of things affiliated with a certain strain of artificiality and superficial perfection.  By studying the geometries and connective tissues of the "Kaka Beak" tropical flower, the prototype demonstrates a system for solving the technical and cultural problems of working with plasticity. A joint system borrowed from the study of the flower capitalizes on the material performance of plastic to hold several plastic components together, while color, texture, and lighting are coordinated to achieve a variety of flori-form effects.