Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus

Denver, Colorado, USA: 2015

Designed to capture the essence of what it feels like to climb a mountain, Altitude provides chil­dren and (brave) adults the opportunity to feel the hair-raising sensation of conquering one’s fears. This three-dimensional labyrinth asks its guests to cross a real ski gondola, traverse wobbly bridges, reach the glass-capped summit, and help others find their way through the many twists and turns. We designed custom parametric algorithms (digital design recipes) to develop Altitude’s mountain-like geometry. Local steel fabricators cut the 28,000 pieces of this origami structure using robotic fabrication technology, which greatly increased precision and ensured an on-time, under-budget delivery. We decided to keep the hand-written parts code visible for guests, so they could have some tacit understanding of how the structure was built. Altitude’s open cell design offers an expansive visual experience as well as little pockets everywhere to hold strange artifacts, curios, and way-finding tokens.

Fabricator: JunoWorks