Marc Fornes creates sculptural installation in France using perforated metal shingles
New York-based designer Marc Fornes has completed an outdoor installation for a French school, consisting of perforated aluminium plates that cast patterned shadows on the ground below (+ slideshow).
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_0.jpg)
Called Pleated Inflation, the permanent structure serves as an informal amphitheatre at the Lycée Christian Bourquin, a newly constructed high school in Argeles, France.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_15.jpg)
Fornes, who leads the Brooklyn-based studio The Very Many, stitched together perforated metal plates to create the web-like canopy, which casts lacy shadows on the concrete below.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_6.jpg)
"Bringing together structural performance and spatial experience, the permanent installation immerses students of Lycée Christian Bourquin in ornate shadows cast from porous structural pleats," said the firm.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_4.jpg)
Fornes, who was born in France, is known for using computational design and digital fabrication to produce installations that are experiential and geometrically complex.
Pleated Inflation is the next in a series of "structural shingle" projects by the designer.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_7.jpg)
The series consists of lightweight, self-supporting systems that "unify skin, structure, ornamentation and spatial experience".
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_8.jpg)
The new installation is made up of 990 multi-coloured aluminium shingles that are bolted together to form archways, columns and walls.
The overlapping of the shingles creates rigidity and structural strength.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_2.jpg)
The canopy – which measures 21 feet (6.4 metres) at its highest point and 46 feet (14 metres) at its widest – is anchored to the ground by 26 base plates.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_10.jpg)
The form was computer-generated and the parts were digitally fabricated.
"The design was developed through custom computational protocols of structural form-finding, descriptive geometry, and stress flow-driven porosity," said the firm.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_11.jpg)
"A 2D network of lines as a footprint inflates and expands in the air, resulting in a voluminous space created with minimal lightweight material," the firm added.
The installation was built over the course of four days by a team of four people.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_12.jpg)
The project was commissioned by the governmental department Region Languedoc Roussillon as part of France's 1% Artistic program.
Established in 1951, the program calls for spending one per cent of the budget for construction or renovation of a public building on artwork.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_3.jpg)
Fornes founded his Brooklyn studio in 2005 after working for Zaha Hadid Architects and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Installation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France_dezeen_936_1.jpg)
Other projects by Marc Fornes include a sinuous pink installation at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York and the NonLin/Lin Pavilion, which resembles a piece of coral.
Photography is by The Very Many.
![Pleated Inflation by Marc Fornes in Argeles, France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/Pleated-Inflation-Marc-Fornes-Argeles-France-Elevation_dezeen_936_0.jpg)