Herewith a link to a Harvard led research with extensive media coverage that considers the Islamic mosaics patterns as medieval conceptual breakthrough as it involved advanced mathematics that were not understood by modern scientists until three decades ago.
Peter J.Lu / Islamic Tiles
Tile07 proposes a multidisciplinary encounter designed to developed advanced tiling principles based on ceramic material. Held in Marrakech, the collaborative workshop aims to learn from the local culture and particular climatic conditions to insert new performances into tile design. Tile07 will explore conception through the combination of advanced digital tools and updated ancestral materials & techniques. It will build on the diversity of approach brought by the participants to make tiling strategies emerge.
AGENDA
Patterns and processes
Marrakech being one of the finest and oldest Moroccan cities, the workshop will have facilitated access to ancient buildings displaying extraordinary patterns for multiple surfaces and uses. Renowned for their geometric sophistication, these may also be regarded as explicit examples of convergences between culture, techniques and constraints. Tile07 proposes to rethink how this convergence can be updated by contemporary conception processes and tools. Geometrical definitions and modeling aspects will be informed both by design procedures and manufacturing
constraints, and thus question what a contemporary tile design can achieve.
Tiles and Tiling
In traditional Moroccan cladding, the repetitiveness of tile unit is disguised by the complexity of the overall pattern. Elusive variations of tiles generate seamless effects at the larger scale. Likewise, the workshop will look at component-based approaches to exploit the decorative aspect of tiling and invent or rethink additional properties. Integrating the modeling and manufacturing processes designs will look at how digital conception and production can generate differentiated and adaptive tiling principles. We will ask to further the systematic aspect of a component approach by creating opportunities for continuous and activated changes along tile constructs.
Architectural tiling
The 10 days workshop will focus on tiling applied as an adaptable architectural component, revisiting the idea of digital craftsmanship at a spatial scale. Tile07 will aim to update tiles from their traditional aspect by exploring the implementation of additional behaviours; Generating spatial organisation of tiles including structural and performance properties such as self-supporting capacities, active interfacing and formal compositions. Likewise, the material discussion will be placed within the alternative contexts and technologies of contemporary sustainable production built on traditional techniques.
Environmental parameters
Marrakech not only exposes the research to a rich cultural context, it also engages with a place with an extreme range of climatic conditions. Across scales, local architectural organisations have always responded to the specificities of these conditions, through the modulation of ambient natural mediums such as light, water, wind, etc. Marrakech offers an encouraging set of climatic features to accompany this investigation, as a pool of new parameters raising design opportunities and leading to the potential enrichment of behaviours for responsive tiling systems.
Methodology & Resulting products
The intention is to develop the most creative setting possible for an openly experimental approach to collaborative conception. This workshop is aimed at mature (trained) participants who will collaborate on developing proposals in a non-hierarchical studio environment. The workshop will be held in a unique work and living space where participants will be able to develop projects in groups and individually through a hands-on approach.
More than specific production, the workshop will stress the exchange of thoughts within processes of conception, encouraging combinatory logics between the participants.
The intention for this 10-days workshop is to achieve proposals for spatial designs interacting with the immediate environment, which exploit the convergence of contemporary design and local production technologies. We will aim to design a selection of prototypes, which will be manufactured and tested at their full scale. Essential to the work, the process of design will be carefully recorded and gathered to form a subsequent exhibition and publication of proposals.
VENUE
Participation
The workshop will start on the 15th September 2007 and run through to the 23rd (included).
Up to 20 graduate participants will be selected on a first come basis and in accordance to the event’s criteria of multidisciplinary approach. Admission will end on June 30th or prior to this if notified on the website.
Venue
The workshop will be hosted in the facilities of the darchiba house, where all amenities will be
provided (accommodation, catering and leisure). The house is in an ideal setting for intense
collaborative work sessions while concurrently enjoying a typical Moroccan lifestyle.
Fees
The participation fee of 600 euros includes accommodation and catering for the duration of the
workshop. Flights are not included, thus we advise for early bookings to get cheap flights.
Materials
We invite you to bring your own digital and modeling equipment (computers, digital cameras, model making tools, etc.) in order to increase our resources. Some modeling materials will be provided but participants will be asked to purchase additional materials they might need.
Our aim is to associate local craftsmen in order to contribute to the success of the workshop by
sharing production techniques with participants and help with models to test designs.
Other activities
Using the facilities of the host venue the workshop will be complemented by a series of visits in the historic city as well as discussions and debates with local contributors.
Organisation
The TILEO7 gathering is organised by the DOTS research group setup by tutors and practitioners in the design and architectural realm. Sharing a common educational background at the Architectural Association in London, the founders have records of experiences in internationally renowned architectural practices.
Now engaged in individual practice, they have teaching charges in the UK and France as well as being regularly coordinators of prospective educational events such as the recent urban folds workshop and the breeding design course in Singapore.
Nathalie Rozencwajg is currently a Tutor at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London . After graduating from the AA she has worked with Erick van Egeraat and Architecture Studio on award-wining competitions and projects. Co-founder of r_ar|e she develops projects in Europe and Asia; work includes furniture design, private housing, public buildings and urban master planning.
Michel da Costa Goncalves studied in France and Spain and has completed research work in the Emergent Design & Technologies programme at the AA. Currently tutoring at the ENSAPL in France, he is collection director of architecture books at ‘Editions Autrement’. He was Project Manager for Shigeru Ban and Architecture Studio on a variety of prominent projects until 2004, when he co-founded r_ar|e.
Edouard Cabay graduated from the Architectural Association where he has also conducted workshops and classes on digital modeling. He has worked for Foreign Office Architects in London and is currently project manager for Cloud9 in Barcelona: his experiences range from working in a farm in Niigata, Japan, designing furniture in India and collaborating on the design of a zoo in Damascus.