Cecil Balmond
Encyclopedia
Cecil Balmond is a Sri Lankan
/British
designer, engineer, artist, architect, and writer. He has been hailed as "one of the most important forces in contemporary architecture today," and in 2003 received the prestigious RIBA Charles Jencks award for Theory in Practice. He is also the recipient of the Gengo Matsui prize, one of the highest prizes for engineering given in Japan. He teaches extensively and currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at Penn Design as Professor of Architecture where he is also the founding director of the NonLinear Systems Organization, a material and structural research unit.
Balmond’s dynamic and organizational approach to structure is informed by the sciences of complexity, non-linear organization and emergence. Recognizing that the universe is a constantly changing array of patterns, he draws on ancient wisdom and non-western mathematical archetypes as sources.
Through his research, Balmond investigates mathematical concepts and their influence on natural forms and structures, interrogating algorithm
s, fractals, rhythm
and cellular structure. “Peerless in his exploration…Balmond remains truer to the ancient philosophic meaning of techne
than any of his contemporaries.”
Cecil Balmond runs his own research focused practice, Balmond Studio (www.balmondstudio.com) The studio is headquartered in London and involved with consulting, architecture, exhibitions, installations, product design and art.
and later studied engineering at the University of Colombo
. After living briefly in Nigeria he moved to Britain and continued his studies in the University of Southampton
and at Imperial College, London. He currently resides in London.
Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners in 1968, rising to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded the AGU, an experimental research and design unit. Bringing together architects, mathematicians, programmers, artists, musicians and scientists, the lab investiages structural systems, delving to the root of order and patterns, engaging with music, algorithms, and malignant cellular structure to create abstract concepts that inspire tectonic forms.
Since its inception the group has been collaborating with artists and architects. Under Balmond’s artistic direction, it has designed some of the world’s most famous structures including the Metz Centre Pompidou with Shigeru Ban
and CCTV tower with Rem Koolhaas
. Balmond has also been the creative force behind London’s high profile Serpentine Pavilion programme. The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion
, 2002 was crafted in glass and white-painted aluminium and featured a scatter of lines, the product of an algorithm designed by Balmond. The pavilion is now located at the luxury hotel in South of France. Balmond also designed pavilions with Daniel Libeskind
(2001), Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
(2006) and Rem Koolhaas (2006).
One of Balmond’s most recent projects is ArcelorMittal Orbit
a 120m high sculpture designed with Anish Kapoor
for the 2012 Olympics in Stratford, London. Balmond also collaborated with Kapoor on Marysas
a sculpture which was displayed in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern (2002), and also co-designed the giant Tees Valley art installations with Kapoor. Other key works by Balmond include a radical masterplan for Battersea Power Station (2006) and the Victoria & Albert Museum extension with Daniel Libeskind (1996).
Balmond’s own designs are numerous and include Weave Bridge
, a bridge for University of Pennsylvania (2010), and the Pedro E Ines
footbridge in Coimbra (2006).
He has designed a complete interactive art proposal for a college in the US. This transforms the forgotten spaces of hallways, corridors and lobbies into thriving community and learning zones, celebrating the students daily experience. It will be finished this summer.
“It gives visual life to the building, students will have the opportunity to learn from Balmond’s work,” says Linda Ryan, art instructor and chair of the project committee at Casper College.
Balmond has also created a monumental and poetic light sculpture for a public government building in Alaska. This will be completed in 2012.
His first artwork will be installed in Canada this September. Called net_Work, it comprises two sculptures inspired by “several circuits of code, one line of ambition that turns every corner, extending its reach in leaps or closing down its trace in small cells of intensity....”
His most recent exhibition was Element, a show at the Tokyo Opera City in Japan where he presented various original artworks, including Danzer and H_edge.
H_edge is a modular sieve-like sculpture, inspired by an “Indian rope trick”. It was first unveiled at Artists Space in New York (2006), and has since been rebuilt in different guises for The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago (2009) and the Carnegie Museum of Art (2010).
Danzer is a giant, three-dimensional puzzle. Close examination reveals that it is made up of only four kinds of tetrahedrons, each of which is in turn embedded with miniature versions of these four tetrahedrons. It has been shown, in different hand-crafted forms, at various exhibitions.
His first book, Balmond travels into a semi-mystical world to unlock a secret realm of numbers.
The definintive account of Balmond’s investigative approach to structure and form. It earned him the Banister Fletcher prize for the best book of the year on architecture (2005). Deyan Sudjic of The Observer says,“ its glimpses of a hidden order of things, of the occult properties of numbers and shapes, suggest it could be the next Brief History of Time, but with pictures”
The book invites the reader to enter the dialogues between Balmond and the architects he works with, sharing the intimacies of the design process. Projects range from a Villa in Bordeaux to a large Transport Interchange in Arnhem, from a canopy in Lisbon to the V&A spiral in London and an Exhibition Centre in Lille, highlighting his collaborations with Ben van Berkel, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Alvaro Siza and Peter Kulka with Ulrich Konigs. The design, realised with Jannuzzi Smith
, is inspired by mathematics books and children’s fiction.
, Saarinen Professor at Yale University School of Architecture and visiting fellow at London School of Economics Cities Programme. Balmond guest lectures extensively and this spring returned to Sri Lanka to give the Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture. He currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, PennDesign, as Professor of Architecture.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
/British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
designer, engineer, artist, architect, and writer. He has been hailed as "one of the most important forces in contemporary architecture today," and in 2003 received the prestigious RIBA Charles Jencks award for Theory in Practice. He is also the recipient of the Gengo Matsui prize, one of the highest prizes for engineering given in Japan. He teaches extensively and currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at Penn Design as Professor of Architecture where he is also the founding director of the NonLinear Systems Organization, a material and structural research unit.
Philosophy
Balmond's work is an open-ended visual application of theory. His principle that "structure as conceptual rigour is architecture" has become a compelling force, changing the face of architecture, art and engineering.Balmond’s dynamic and organizational approach to structure is informed by the sciences of complexity, non-linear organization and emergence. Recognizing that the universe is a constantly changing array of patterns, he draws on ancient wisdom and non-western mathematical archetypes as sources.
Through his research, Balmond investigates mathematical concepts and their influence on natural forms and structures, interrogating algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
s, fractals, rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
and cellular structure. “Peerless in his exploration…Balmond remains truer to the ancient philosophic meaning of techne
Techne
Techne, or techné, as distinguished from episteme, is etymologically derived from the Greek word τέχνη which is often translated as craftsmanship, craft, or art. It is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective...
than any of his contemporaries.”
Cecil Balmond runs his own research focused practice, Balmond Studio (www.balmondstudio.com) The studio is headquartered in London and involved with consulting, architecture, exhibitions, installations, product design and art.
Work
Cecil Balmond was born and educated in Sri Lanka. He received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, KandyTrinity College, Kandy
Trinity College, Kandy founded in 1872 by Anglican missionaries, is an Independent elite private boys’ school providing primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka...
and later studied engineering at the University of Colombo
University of Colombo
The University of Colombo is a public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka...
. After living briefly in Nigeria he moved to Britain and continued his studies in the University of Southampton
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
and at Imperial College, London. He currently resides in London.
Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners in 1968, rising to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded the AGU, an experimental research and design unit. Bringing together architects, mathematicians, programmers, artists, musicians and scientists, the lab investiages structural systems, delving to the root of order and patterns, engaging with music, algorithms, and malignant cellular structure to create abstract concepts that inspire tectonic forms.
Since its inception the group has been collaborating with artists and architects. Under Balmond’s artistic direction, it has designed some of the world’s most famous structures including the Metz Centre Pompidou with Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims...
and CCTV tower with Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
. Balmond has also been the creative force behind London’s high profile Serpentine Pavilion programme. The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion
The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion
The Ito-Balmond Serpentine Pavilion was designed by Cecil Balmond and Toyo Ito in 2002.Cecil Balmond is a designer, engineer, artist, architect, thinker and writer.Toyo Ito is a Japanese architects and is currently based in Tokyo.-Overview:...
, 2002 was crafted in glass and white-painted aluminium and featured a scatter of lines, the product of an algorithm designed by Balmond. The pavilion is now located at the luxury hotel in South of France. Balmond also designed pavilions with Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
(2001), Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
Eduardo Souto de Moura
-Life and career:Souto de Moura was born in Porto, and studied sculpture before switching to architecture at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, the current FAUP - Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, and receiving his degree in 1980. From 1974 to 1979 he worked with...
(2006) and Rem Koolhaas (2006).
One of Balmond’s most recent projects is ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a high observation tower in the Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The steel sculpture is Britain's largest piece of public art, and is a permanent, lasting legacy of London's hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics, assisting in the post-Olympics regeneration of the...
a 120m high sculpture designed with Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
for the 2012 Olympics in Stratford, London. Balmond also collaborated with Kapoor on Marysas
Marysas
Marsyas is a 150 meter-long, ten storey high sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. It was on show at the Tate Modern gallery, London in 2003 and was commissioned as part of the Unilever Series...
a sculpture which was displayed in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern (2002), and also co-designed the giant Tees Valley art installations with Kapoor. Other key works by Balmond include a radical masterplan for Battersea Power Station (2006) and the Victoria & Albert Museum extension with Daniel Libeskind (1996).
Balmond’s own designs are numerous and include Weave Bridge
Weave Bridge
The Weave Bridge is a bridge at The University of Pennsylvania, USA which was conceptualized by Cecil Balmond and engineered by Ammann & Whitney. It was commissioned by the University in 2007, and opened in June 2009....
, a bridge for University of Pennsylvania (2010), and the Pedro E Ines
Pedro E Ines
The Pedro E Ines footbridge opened in 2007 in the University town of Coimbra, Portugal. It is designed by Cecil Balmond.Spanning the Rio Modego, the 600 ft structure marks the city's first footbridge and has become locally known as the "bridge that doesn't meet."The form pushes the limits of...
footbridge in Coimbra (2006).
Art
Balmond is currently involved with various public art projects.He has designed a complete interactive art proposal for a college in the US. This transforms the forgotten spaces of hallways, corridors and lobbies into thriving community and learning zones, celebrating the students daily experience. It will be finished this summer.
“It gives visual life to the building, students will have the opportunity to learn from Balmond’s work,” says Linda Ryan, art instructor and chair of the project committee at Casper College.
Balmond has also created a monumental and poetic light sculpture for a public government building in Alaska. This will be completed in 2012.
His first artwork will be installed in Canada this September. Called net_Work, it comprises two sculptures inspired by “several circuits of code, one line of ambition that turns every corner, extending its reach in leaps or closing down its trace in small cells of intensity....”
Exhibitions
Balmond’s work and installations have been presented in a number of shows including Frontiers of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in Denmark (2007). It was hailed as a “revolution – rich, complex, sometimes baffling, often beautiful"His most recent exhibition was Element, a show at the Tokyo Opera City in Japan where he presented various original artworks, including Danzer and H_edge.
H_edge is a modular sieve-like sculpture, inspired by an “Indian rope trick”. It was first unveiled at Artists Space in New York (2006), and has since been rebuilt in different guises for The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago (2009) and the Carnegie Museum of Art (2010).
Danzer is a giant, three-dimensional puzzle. Close examination reveals that it is made up of only four kinds of tetrahedrons, each of which is in turn embedded with miniature versions of these four tetrahedrons. It has been shown, in different hand-crafted forms, at various exhibitions.
No 9, The Search for the Sigma Code (Prestel 1998)
Translations: Portuguese, Japanese, HebrewHis first book, Balmond travels into a semi-mystical world to unlock a secret realm of numbers.
informal: the informal in architecture and engineering (Prestel 2002)
Translations: Japanese, Korean and ChineseThe definintive account of Balmond’s investigative approach to structure and form. It earned him the Banister Fletcher prize for the best book of the year on architecture (2005). Deyan Sudjic of The Observer says,“ its glimpses of a hidden order of things, of the occult properties of numbers and shapes, suggest it could be the next Brief History of Time, but with pictures”
The book invites the reader to enter the dialogues between Balmond and the architects he works with, sharing the intimacies of the design process. Projects range from a Villa in Bordeaux to a large Transport Interchange in Arnhem, from a canopy in Lisbon to the V&A spiral in London and an Exhibition Centre in Lille, highlighting his collaborations with Ben van Berkel, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Alvaro Siza and Peter Kulka with Ulrich Konigs. The design, realised with Jannuzzi Smith
Jannuzzi Smith
Jannuzzi Smith is a design studio founded in 1993 by Michele Jannuzzi and Richard Smith in London. They now have offices in London and Lugano, Switzerland....
, is inspired by mathematics books and children’s fiction.
Element (Prestel 2007)
Balmond looks through drawing and composition at a perception of space that has interconnected narratives. The narrative unfolds in three conceptual chapters - elements, pattern, nature - linked by two conceptual bridges, digital 'tectonics' and numbers.Teaching
Balmond has been visiting Kenzo Tange professor at Harvard Graduate School of DesignHarvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
, Saarinen Professor at Yale University School of Architecture and visiting fellow at London School of Economics Cities Programme. Balmond guest lectures extensively and this spring returned to Sri Lanka to give the Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture. He currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, PennDesign, as Professor of Architecture.
Relevant Projects
- 1970 Carlsberg Brewery, Northhampton, UK. Architect, Knud Munk (1973)
- 1975 Qatar University, Doha, Qatar. Architect, Kamal Kafrawi
- 1978 Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Architect, James Stirling (1984)
- 1983 Royal London House, Finsbury, London. Architect, Sheppard Robson
- 1985 1 Poultry, London UK Architect, James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates
- 1988 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Spain. Architect, Rafael Moneo (1992)
- Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Architect, OMA
- 1989 Congrexpo, Lille France. Architect, OMA
- 1992 Abando Passenger Interchange, Bilbao, Spain. Architect, James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates (1999)
- 1995 Portuguese Pavilion for Expo 98, Lisbon Portugal. Architect, Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souta de Moura (1998)
- 1996 Victoria & Albert Museum, Spiral, London. Architect, Daniel Libeskind in collaboration with Cecil Balmond
- 1997 Centraal station, Arnhem, Netherlands. Architect, UNStudio
- 1997 Imperial War Museum, Salford, UK. Architect, Daniel Libeskind (2001)
- 1998 Portuguese National Pavilion Expo 1998, Lisbon, Portugal. Architect: Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
- 1998 Maison a Bordeaux, France. Architect, OMA
- 1999 University of Graz Music School, Austria. Architect, UNStudio
- 1999 Seattle Central Library, USA. Architect, OMA/LMN Architects (2004)
- 1999 Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal. Architect OMA (2005)
- 2000 Portuguese Pavilion Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany. Architect Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
- 2000 Prada, Los Angeles, CA USA. Architect, OMA (2004)
- 2001 Serpentine Pavilion, London UK. Architect Daniel Libeskind with Arup
- 2002 St Francois d'Assise. Olivier Messiaen stage design and costumes. Daniel Libeskind with Thore Garbers. Artistic consulting, Cecil Balmond
- 2002 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Architect Toyo Ito with Balmond
- 2002 Marsyas, Tate Modern, London. Sculptor Anish Kapoor
- 2003 Battersea Power Station Masterplan, London.
- 2003 Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Cairo. Architect, Heneghan Peng Architects
- 2002 China Central Television (CCTV). Architect, OMA (2008)
- 2002 Installation of Louis Vuitton, Tokyo, Japan. Architect, Farjadi Architects
- 2002 British Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale. Design Chris Ofili with AGU and Adjaye/Associates
- 2004 Centre Pompidou, Metz, France. Architect Shigeru Ban, Jean de Gastines and Philip Gumuchdjian (2009)
- 2004 St Louis Forest Park, MO USA. Architect Shigeru Ban with Cecil Balmond
- 2004 Pedro E Ines bridge, Mondego River. Coimbra, Portugal. Design Cecil Balmond/AGU with Antonio Adao da Fonseca/AFA (2006)
- 2005 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond
- 2006 Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, Taichung, Taiwan. Architect Toyo Ito and Associates
- 2006 Serpentine Pavilion, London. Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond
- 2007 Tees Valley Giants, UK. Cable Net Sculpture, Middlehaven. Artist Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond
- 2007 Hotel Le Beauvallon masterplan, Saint-Tropez, France. Architect Cecil Balmond and AGU
- 2008 Institute of the Pen, Medina, Saudi Arabia. Design Cecil Balmond/AGU
- 2009 Weave bridge, University of Penn. Architect, Cecil Balmond/AGU