Grotto on site

Grotto installation

The Grotto project comes to substantial completion two years after it was designed…

Joe’s iPhone Grotto Gallery

[View with PicLens]

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Cave of the New Being

OffCite article

Frederick Kiesler: New Harmony to Houston

Tuesday, January 26th

University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture Auditorium

What started as a studio project to rethink Frederick Kiesler’s unbuilt Grotto for Meditation has turned into an opportunity for scholarship and design.  The unveiling of the digitally fabricated New Harmony Grotto is the first installation of a two tier project that will culminate in the publication of a forthcoming book.  Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of faculty and students.

5 p.m. Welcome CoA Auditorium Patricia Oliver, Dean UHCoA
Introduction Michelangelo Sabatino, UHCoA
Kiesler: Architecture and Psychoanalysis Beatriz Colomina, Princeton University

6 p.m. Introduction Joe Mashburn, UHCoA
The Kiesler Studio: Ben Nicholson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Conversation with Mrs. Jane Blaffer Owen

6:30 p.m. Unveiling of Grotto Keeland Center President Renu Khator and Provost John Antel
Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana, UHCoA

Exhibition Opening in the Archives and Reception in the Atrium to follow.

Grotto half assembled

New Harmony Grotto taking shape

All components have been formed and the “tail” section bolts together in 45 minutes.

Component assembly

The full-scale Grotto cut out of 1/8″, 1/4″ and 3/8″ stainless steel sheets will need more tolerance between the components as we incrementally assemble the structure.  It won’t be possible to weld a part without checking and tweaking the alignments a few cells away.  We’ve devised a system of holes that will allow for fasteners to be placed to hold the connectors to the ribs temporarily.  As adjustments are made to the braked angles, the fasteners are tightened and contact is made.  Two other holes in the connector will provide easy access to perform a basic plug weld.  Fasteners are removed, welds ground and the entire structure will be glass-bead sandblasted, erasing the trace of the assembly process.

Houston Architecture Foundation Grant

The book project we are working on with Ben Nicholson and Michelangelo Sabatino about Frederick Kiesler in New Harmony has been granted financial support from the HAF to fund the publication with University of Chicago Press.  The book will include the New Harmony Grotto developed by our studio at UHCOA.

New Harmony in Houston

We are contributing the final chapter to a book about New Harmony, Frederick Kiesler and the Grotto for Meditation.  Our essay will be called “New Harmony in Houston” and will discuss the work of our studio at UHCOA with Ben Nicholson that has become a project called the New Harmony Grotto and Garden.  The book will be edited by Ben and Michelangelo Sabatino with contributions from Stephen Fox, Monika Pessler of the Kiesler Foundation among others.