Ball Nogues Studio

Ball-Nogues Studio is Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, the very talented creators behind the integrated design and fabrication practice that creates experimental built environments to enhance and celebrate the potential for social interaction through sensation, spectacle and physical engagement.

Rip Curl Canyon, Rice University Art Gallery, 2006

Rip Curl Canyon viewed through the glass provided only glimpses of the unfolding topography beyond and invited the visitor to probe deeper.

Details of Rip Curl Canyon, Rice University Art Gallery, 2006

The project, created of 20,000 strips of corrugated cardboard curved,industrially die-cut and laminated over twelve days, weighs almost eight tons. Incredibly strong with an intermediary plywood armature, it is capable of supporting the weight of several people. Ball Nogues Studio digitally developed a language of slotting connections so that these non-standard parts came together like a giant puzzle in four days, required very little structural decision making on site, giving them freedom to improvise during installation.

Rip Curl Canyon, Rice University Art Gallery, 2006

Using the properties and limitations of the material the designers determined the shape of the cardboard ribbons through building full scaled mock-ups during development combined with a digital study of the parametric interface.

For more information, visit Ball Nogues Studio.