SALT Ornaments

For the renovation of SALT Beyoğlu — the cultural institution of Garanti (now BBVA) — FABB produced a set of robotically-cut ornaments that creep across the walls and ceilings of the residency and winter-garden spaces. With KHORA as lead architect, FABB translated a single design into close to a thousand individually cut pieces, each a different geometry, assembled to millimetric precision into medallions that read as one seamless surface.

The ornaments do two things at once: they play light and shadow as the sun moves — the cut direction deliberately counters each shifting row, so the surface animates through the day — while doubling as acoustic treatment for the rooms they occupy.

What made a thousand unique parts buildable was the generative system behind them. FABB didn’t model the pieces one by one — it built a system that generated the pieces and their fabrication: a distinct, simulation-verified robot program for every single part, thousands of them, each checked for a clean cut before a single piece was made. The design and the means of making it were one program.

The medallions remain on SALT Beyoğlu’s walls today.