Yesterday I was asked to be a kind of casual translator for a lecture given by Ammar Eloueini.  What was interesting was that while Ammar is an architect (base din USA and in France, currently also teaching at Tulane in New Orleans) he was speaking to a group of people who were not.  The audience was composed of creative types from all sorts of companies, including Sony, Panasonic and others, and their jobs ranged from product design to software programming.  So why were they listening to this architect?

I can only conjecture, but my gut feeling is that he was there to show them how to treat technology as a craft rather than just a tool.  Why he is a particularly good choice for that lecture is best understood by looking at his work, which is impressive.

the reason he was in tokyo was to attend an opening at hhstyle which is showing models of his corefab chair, which is created digitally and then printed with a 3D printer.  The process of making/designing the chair is  much easier to understand with an animation, for the simple reason that the design is based on the combination of a simple chair shape that is “filled” by a cascading animated sequence.  Stills from the animation are then printed out.  Simple.

personally, what i like about these chairs is the fact that the details are slightly accidental.  the process of mass-customisation allows for a kind of freedom to not worry about every little piece.  so the connections are interesting, even beautiful, but not precious.  if the digital age allows designers the possibility of making things that work very well and are beautiful without needing to devote so much (even smothering) attention to the small things then i am all for it.

I mentioned craft above.  It is easy to assume that there is no room for craft in this kind of process, but as ammar pointed out in his lecture, even if he gave the same software and described his methodology to another architect he is doubtful they would be able to create the same project.  The way he uses scripting in the process, or the way he maps the animation onto (into?) the generic chair shape creates something that is uniquely his own.  I would go further, even.  Talking later with the people in the audience it was clear that most of them were very comfortable with 3d printing technology and so the technical side of the project was not a revelation to them.  The creative side however was I think rather educational.  For me the insight of using an animation to create a chair is evidence of a rather large creative leap.  And the results certainly make the jump worthwhile.  That craftsmanship is now about writing script is also very interesting.  I can’t imagine it yet, but is this a glimpse into the future of architecture?  Will creativity be measured in how we use scripts and software?

As a final project Ammar showed a house he is now getting ready to build in New Orleans, called the J-house.  It is based on practical lessons in construction gained from his work doing showrooms for issey miyake in europe, combined with a pragmatic transformation of the traditional shotgun house, raised 3 meters over the ground.  I must say I quite like this version of a raised building more than many of the other examples out there today.  Interestingly, the structure, which would normally be inordinately expensive is kept fairly cheap because he is creating the twisting steel box beams that run the length of the house from flat stock.  Cut with CNC technology, the flat pieces are then welded together to make the twisted forms, but at about 1/10th the cost of bending and twisting a standard steel tube.  If there was ever any doubt the potential in this kind of technology would never get past the level of an interesting installation or temporary artwork, I think this is a great example that we need not fear.