Lawrence Kim/A+U Lab Creates an Optical Illusion Installation at a South Korea University
An installation at a South Korea university by Lawrence Kim/A+U Lab was seemingly endless. 10 designers, fabricators, and graduate students assembled the installation. 216 boxes and eight prefabricated modules make up the 10-foot-tall structure.
“It reminded viewers of design’s ability to transcend physical limitations, blurring the boundary between actual and fictitious realms,” Lawrence Kim remarks.
An isometric drawing created in SketchUp, Illustrator, and Photoshop software depicts Formal Abstraction and Reflective Luminance, a temporary installation by Lawrence Kim/A+U Lab at South Korea’s Pusan National University, where architect Lawrence Kim is an associate professor of architecture and urban design.
Off-site at A+U Lab’s studio, fabricators assemble 7-foot-square modules consisting of boxes made from CNC-cut polystyrene boards, adhered with PVC glue in varying configurations, some lined with mirrored film.
The lined boxes are fitted with LED strips that converge into a concealed single-line wire, which connects to a standard power outlet.
On-site, fabricators suspend the completed modules from the ceiling with nylon and polyethylene wires normally used for carp fishing.
Located in the university’s architecture and engineering building, which hosted A+U Lab’s similarly repetition-themed Woolscape last year, Formal Abstraction and Reflective Luminance featured 14-inch boxes, some of which are open and empty and others that create the illusion of infinity.
