Nessie & Fred

Together with architect and tensile expert Sarah Bonnemaison, Eisenbach led a group of graduate architecture students through the form-finding process of tensile architectures in a one-week Tensile Structures Workshop. Working with two professional dancers, the students learned how to trace their movements with wire in three dimensions, by following a single point on the body such as the shoulder or the foot. All the models tracing the body parts were brought together into one body in motion. Learning about minimal surfaces, pattern-making and lightweight structures, the students built one of these composite models larger than life. The structure was then hung in the lobby of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Taken with the way that these sails express the idea of movement, the installation and an exhibit about their construction remained in place for one year.