Yanchen Liu

Ceramic Digital Fabrication

Drawing inspiration from traditional fabric smocking techniques that transform two-dimensional cloth into three-dimensional pockets, the Flippi Flora project casts a single layer of slip in a one-part, pocket-shaped mold.The resultant "pocket" is ideally suited for holding foliage.

The modules are stacked to form a wall. They can be rotated in plan, flipped upside down, or both. Some orientation patterns allow light and air to pass through the wall, while others result in a solid barrier. Some orientation patterns leave the pockets open for vegetation, while others close the pockets off.

In this way, uniform single-layer modules are able to generate strong texture and express a wide variety of atmospheric effects, as a result of their shape and the way they are aggregated.