Parametric Bookshelves

Caterina Tiazzoldi/ Nuova Ordentra is pleased to announce its new release, Parametric Bookshelves.
Parametric Bookshelves is the product of collaboration between the Research Lab NSU, at the Graduate
School of Architecture of Columbia University (www.arch.columbia.edu/nlsu) in New York, and the
Turin-based architectural firm Caterina Tiazzoldi / Nuova Ordentra. Parametric Bookshelves is a new
piece from the Parametric Furniture line.
Designed by Caterina Tiazzoldi, it uses advanced digital tools in formal exploration of new configurations
of the same bookshelf.
Initially conceived for the Fashion Firm GB Sportelli, Parametric Bookshelves work as described below.
Each customer introduces data (length, height, preferred colours) and the parametric system responds
by automatically changing some of the attributes (depth, thickness, colour saturation). In this way each
customer is assured of a unique configuration.
Parametric Furniture, particularly Parametric Bookshelves, helps develop and produce an infinite
number of unique pieces, tailored to the customer's requirements, using a single model.
The application of a large number of iterations to a limited number of rules leads to a level of formal
complexity and sophistication which it is impossible to obtain from traditional processes.
Finalist at the Wood Design Competition, Parametric Bookshelves respond to the desire for uniqueness
so incompatible with the standards of the contemporary industry.
In the past, only skilled craftsmen and women could respond to the user?s need for individuality. Today?s
evolution of technical tools (such as computer-assisted fabrication) and advanced design techniques
have opened new possibilities for a more personal approach and humanised the industrial design of
today and tomorrow.
The vision is not only to customise a piece. Parametric Bookshelves transform the production process
and give to each user the power and tools to be the creator of their own environment.
Caterina Tiazzoldi / Nuova Ordentra is a design firm whose agenda is to develop design tools to face
creatively the complexity of today?s cities.

Caterina Tiazzoldi
She is the principal of the architecture firm Caterina Tiazzoldi/ Nuova Ordentra whose agenda is to develop design tools to face creatively the complexity of today?s cities. Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, Visiting Researcher at the DIPRADI, Politecnico di Torino, Presented a PhD thesis on the topic of Nonlinear Design Strategies. Co-founder and director of the research lab Nonlinear Solutions Unit at the GSAPP, Columbia University NY, Caterina Tiazzold?s work has been presented in various lectures and exhibitions in the USA and Europe (Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, Ecole Architecture de Grenoble, Ecole Architecture de Lyon, Istituto Architectura Avancada de Cataluna, Columbia University, Torino World Design Capital). Her agenda is to develop a new sensibility in the approach to architectural design that would lead to the architect?s heightened control of an increasing level of complexity in the design process. She works by developing concrete case studies taken from existing problems in architecture the projects Parametric Bookshelves (a bookshelves adaptable on clients? requirements) and Parametric Stalactites (a retail space module adaptable to the different locations) are a clear example of this type of approach.
She has been invited to develop projects for various architectural firms (Impresa Rosso, Fiat Engineering) exhibitions, conferences and events such as the Salone Satellite Salone del Mobile, Torino World Design Capital 2008 (http://protocity.blogspot.com/).
Her work constantly challenges the boundary between the Measurable and the Non-measurable dimensions of architecture.