Conglomerate Experiments Towards an Imagination in Fauske Marble

In this chapter, we discuss a series of robotically fabricated experiments and installations that aimed to reveal the material character of Fauske marble. In total, three approaches were developed, each focused on a historical connection between marble and architecture. The first experiments responded to the notion of veining, and in particular the unique conglomerate structure of Norwegian Rose. This aspect of marble has been historically applied in architecture through the technique of folding and book-matching. The second approach focused on the tectonic traces of Hermelin and Norwegian Rose as visible in the geology of fracturing. To explore this aspect, hammering and splitting were utilized, what in architecture was historically expressed through “rustication”. And thirdly, the inner crystalline structure of Norwegian Rose was investigated through the unique capacity of marble to capture and transmit light. Architecturally, this was often expressed through thinly cut panels set inside window frames. Although each phase of the research had a different point of departure, the subsequent outcomes reveal an inter-connected, oneiric encounter with the Fauske conglomerate.