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

Early life and education

Hoberman's father was an architect, and his mother, Mary Ann Hoberman, was a children's book author. 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. He designed the Hoberman Arch as a centerpiece of Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics. It was later moved to Olympic Cauldron Park and then to the Salt Lake City airport.

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 elliptical display that would grow into a seven-story cone. The display weighed , 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. Hoberman has also created the Expandagon Construction System, a kind of construction toy, and the Switch Pitch, a toy which turns itself inside out when tossed into the air, thus appearing to change colors.

Awards and honors

In 1994, the Museum of Modern Art added the Hoberman sphere into its permanent collection. 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.

In 2016, he was appointed the Pierce Anderson Lecturer in Design Engineering at Harvard University. In 2018, he received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Business

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

Patents

Hoberman has been granted numerous US and foreign patents. These include:

  • Reversibly expandable doubly-curved truss structure, (1990).
  • Radial expansion/retraction truss structures, (1991).
  • Curved pleated sheet structures, (1993).
  • Reversibly expandable structures having polygon links, (2000).
  • Continuously rotating mechanisms, (2001).
  • Retractable structures composed of interlinked panels, (2004).
  • Folding covering panels for expanding structures, (2004).
  • Loop assemblies having a central link, (2006).
  • Transforming puzzle, (2006).
  • Geared expanding structures, (2008).
  • Synchronized ring linkages, (2009).
  • Panel assemblies for variable shading and ventilation, (2009).
  • Covering structure having links and stepped overlapping panels, (2009).
  • Synchronized four-bar linkages, (2010).
  • Panel assemblies having controllable surface properties, (2013).

Exhibitions

  • Projects 45: Chuck Hoberman, MoMA, New York (1994)
  • Living Form, The Building Centre, London (2011)
  • Archaeology of the Digital, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal (2013)
  • Kids Build, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal (2016)
  • 10° – Chuck Hoberman, Wyss Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2017)

See also

  • Hoberman mechanism
  • Hoberman sphere

References

  • Hoberman Associates: Transformable Design (official website)
  • Finding aid for the Chuck Hoberman fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture (digitized items).