Chuck Hoberman

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Chuck Hoberman
Neri Oxman and Chuck Hoberman.jpg
Hoberman (right) speaking with MIT design professor Neri Oxman
Born1956
OccupationArtist, engineer, architect, and inventor of folding toys
Known forHoberman sphere
Hoberman Arch

Chuck Hoberman (born 1956) is an artist, engineer, architect, and inventor of folding toys and structures, most notably the Hoberman sphere.[1][2]

Early life and education[]

Hoberman's father was an architect, and his mother was a children's book author.[3] He wanted to be an artist from an early age, doing drawing and painting, and eventually taking courses at Cooper Union in New York City. He studied liberal arts at Brown University, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in sculpture from Cooper Union in 1979, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. At some point during his education, he was asked to produce a sculpture that could move. He made a work that unrolled colored plastic sheets on the floor, and he became fascinated with kinetic art.[3] Finishing his formal education, he then went to work for a robotics engineering firm, where he added computer modeling (CAD-CAM) to his skills.[3] After six years, he left to pursue his artistic and technical interests full-time.

Temporary and permanent installations[]

Hoberman Arch, Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park

The second largest Hoberman sphere is displayed at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, in an atrium where it periodically contracts and then expands to a diameter of 18 feet (5.5 m).

Hoberman also has designed folding architectural structures like the Expanding Hypar (1997) at the California Museum of Science and Industry; the Hoberman Arch, the centerpiece of the medals plaza for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics; and a retractable dome featured at the World's Fair 2000 in Hanover, Germany. His artwork has been exhibited at international museums including the New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Mycal Otaru Bay in Hokkaidō, Japan.

Hoberman has installed permanent building facades that transform in transparency at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering of Harvard University and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University.[4]

In July 2011, the rock band U2 concluded a nearly three-year world-wide concert tour (called "360°") that featured Hoberman's expanding video screen, a 3,800 square feet (350 m2) elliptical display that would grow into a seven-story cone. The display weighed 120,000 pounds (54,000 kg), and incorporated 888 LED screens displaying a total of 500,000 pixels. The complex apparatus was successfully transported and reassembled for 110 concerts during that time.[4]

Toys[]

In addition to toys such as the Hoberman sphere, Hoberman created the "Brain Twist", a hard plastic tetrahedron that folds, stellates, and becomes self-dual while having a component that rotates similarly to a Rubik's Cube. Likewise, Hoberman's "Pocket Flight Ring" is a folding, throwable toy resembling a chakram.[5] Hoberman has also created the Expandagon Construction System, a kind of construction toy,[6] and the Switch Pitch, a toy which turns itself inside out when tossed into the air, thus appearing to change colors.[7]

Business[]

In 1990, he formed Hoberman Associates. In 1995, he co-founded Hoberman Designs with his wife and business partner, Carolyn Hoberman.

Awards and honors[]

In 1994, the Museum of Modern Art added the Hoberman sphere into its permanent collection.[8] Hoberman won the Chrysler Design Award for Innovation and Design in 1997 and was a finalist for the 2000 Smithsonian National Design Award. He shared the LDI2009 Award for Excellence in Video Design and Technology for the U2360 expanding video screen.[9] He was appointed the Pierce Anderson Lecturer in Design Engineering at Harvard University in 2016.[10] In 2018, he received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology.[11]

Patents[]

Hoberman has been granted numerous US and foreign patents including for:

Reversibly expandable doubly-curved truss structure [12]
Radial expansion/retraction truss structures [13]
Curved pleated sheet structures [14]
Reversibly expandable structures having polygon links [15]
Continuously rotating mechanisms [16]
Loop assemblies having a central link [17]
Retractable structures composed of interlinked panels [18]
Folding covering panels for expanding structures [19]
Geared expanding structures [20]
Synchronized ring linkages [21]
Transforming puzzle [22]
Synchronized four-bar linkages [23]
Panel assemblies for variable shading and ventilation [24]
Covering structure having links and stepped overlapping panels [25]
Panel assemblies having controllable surface properties [26]

Exhibitions[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Chuck Hoberman". BUILDING DYNAMICS. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  2. ^ "Chuck Hoberman". Harvard Graduate School of Design. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Chuck Hoberman: Unfolding Structures". Lemelson-MIT Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "News". Hoberman: Transformable Design. Hoberman Associates, Inc. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  5. ^ "Hoberman Design—Pocket Flight Ring—Yellow, Red—Closed". Flying Disc Museum. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  6. ^ "Expandagon construction system prototype". Canadian Centre for Architecture. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  7. ^ Hoberman, Chuck. "Portfolio: Switch Pitch Toy". Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Hoberman Sphere". The Collection. The Museum of Modern Art. 1994. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  9. ^ "LDI2009 Awards". LiveDesign. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  10. ^ "Designer & Inventor Chuck Hoberman Appointed Pierce Anderson Lecturer in Design Engineering at Harvard GSD". Wyss Institute, Harvard University. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Luciano Benetton Receives Doctor of Fine Arts From FIT: Chuck Hoberman, designer, inventor and engineer, also received a Doctor of Fine Arts". WWD. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  12. ^ US 4942700 
  13. ^ US 5024031 
  14. ^ US 5234727 
  15. ^ US 6082056 
  16. ^ US 6190231 
  17. ^ US 7100333 
  18. ^ US 6739098 
  19. ^ US 6834465 
  20. ^ US 7464503 
  21. ^ US 7540215 
  22. ^ US 7125015 
  23. ^ US 7644721 
  24. ^ US 7584777 
  25. ^ US 7559174 
  26. ^ US 8615970 

External links[]

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