The Column Museum is a prototype experiment with a simple goal: one algorithm, one material, one method of making, infinite forms.
This mirrors nature’s prime theme “unity in diversity,” and is enabled by the use of a morphologic coding similar in concept to the genetic code in biology. Constructed from a single sheet material (e.g. metal), these columns capture the variable geometries of continuously curved and folded surfaces in nature (sand dunes, waves and ripples in nay medium, mountain folds, human skin, etc.). The dimensional transformation from 2d to 3d by folding highlights an important emergent property, the native strength of curved surfaces. The undulating curves of AlgoRhythms are in response to the nature of a flat surface subjected to a force along its surface. As the surface folds, it acquires strength in a direction perpendicular to the overall plane of the surface.
The Column Museum, a universe of all possible architectural columns (past, present and future), is a meta-museum in virtual space through which a viewer (designer, client, visitor) can navigate via any chosen pathway. Any point within this space is an entrance or an exit to the museum. The museum is open-ended as new columns can be continually added to increase the repertory.
The museum can also be visualized as a physical installation on a suitable site. The photomontage shown here displays columns that have been
prototyped by Milgo-Bufkin on a full-scale in metal.
The Prague Installation shows an excerpt with mini-columns.
— Haresh Lalvani

Dr. Lalvani is a tenured professor of architecture at Pratt Institute where he is also the co-director of the Center for Experimental Structures. In 2003 Dr. Lalvani received the Pioneers’ Award from the Space Structures Research Center, University of Surrey, UK. He has worked at NASA-Langley Research Center on space applications and at Computer Graphics Laboratory, NYIT, on computer-animations.