Corollaria Gyroid

Corollaria Gyroid is a sculpture created by Nervous System for the Albany International Airport which explores the connections between mathematics and the natural world, highlighting the presence of mathematical principles in biological structures. Measuring almost 7 feet in diameter, it is made up of 121 flat aluminum panels connected by 1789 rivets into an undulating surface perforated by morphing cellular patterns. The surface represented is a gyroid, a minimal surface discovered in 1968 by Alan Schoen at NASA as a purely mathematical invention but which was later found in natural structures such as the scales of butterfly wings. The cellular filigree is inspired by the patterns seen in plant cross sections, bryozoans and the undersides of some mushrooms. The design is generated via a computational system we invented which breaks a surface into flat puzzle piece panels that can be assembled without any forming, jigs or instructions into a complex shape.