Marriam Webster Dictionary defines trim as “Molding, or moulding (Commonwealth), also known as coving (UK, Australia), is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration.”
The role of trim within the discourse of architecture can be understood through formatting. Trim is conventionally used as a tool to cover the transition between different surfaces. The broad use of trim within architecture has allowed it to proliferate in a number of ways both physically and representationally. Trim on Trim explores the ways that trim in architecture can become a generative form in architecture rather than one that functions as a masking object. This idea is explored through scale, the generic, and transformation through representation.
In our first project we programmed a tool path for a robot arm to draw an isometric projection of trim pieces from the Vanna Venturi house onto a physical model of itself. This stripped the object of its function to cover, and presented the possibility that trim could become a generative form rather than a post-design one.
The purpose and use of trim in architecture varies so broadly that it has been re-formatted through many means of representation. In the case of Venturi’s mother’s house trim is carefully thought about in each of its implementations as a design element. In other cases the architect plays no role in choosing trim as it is left to the contractor to choose where the implementation of trim should be necessary. There are also abstract diagrams that call out different trim profiles to give a general idea of the moulding aesthetic. These rarely have dimensions or accurate call outs and are understood to be used as conceptual design drawings. In each of these cases trim is being reformatted through its representation. I saw an opportunity for this reformatting to become a generative process by means of recursive projection. Similar to our first project, the final object represents itself.
BIM applicatications have become the status quo among architecture firms around the US. Building Information Modeling is defined as a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of place. The proliferation of this tool among architects has put its limitations into question. In BIM, trim pieces can be called out and linked to real world trim that can be purchased at hardware stores such as Home Depot. Most BIM applications allow users to download specific profiles from different vendors. The advantage of BIM is the real world fidelity that the model has to the actual building. In some cases BIM is so comprehensive that it can function as a living digital version of a building over its lifespan, retaining information for remodels and even the barcodes of parts of the building, including of course trim. The disadvantage of the BIM formatting of trim is the way that the generic becomes a parameter for design. In the case of the Vanna Venturi house, the architect payed meticulous attention to the trim details to create a gezamptkunswerk. This project is about bringing the generic into the realm of custom design. Inspired by the three meticulously intersecting pieces of trim with different profiled in the Ventrui house, this project used different generic trim pieces used in BIM to create intersections that required intervention by the designer. Different transformational strategies were used, but the resulting form became a new way to reformat the generic nature of trim. Each corner piece became an object that represented its context and forced the generic into the custom.