Syn_athr(0)isis in Athens...

The exhibition was held inside an old, refurbished, gas-container...

Firstly, apologies for not submitting any blog-entries for a while. We've been travelling as well as completing various practice and academia related duties which have kept us very busy of late. However, the aforementioned activities have also provided plenty of material for future submissions that should allow for more regular contributions.

As mentioned in the previous submission, we were invited to partake in an exhibition, presentation and roundtable at the Syn_athr(0)isis Symposium in Athens earlier this week. The event was a great success and the discussions and themes covered, which mostly dealt with the use of various generative as well as CAD-CAM related fabrications methods (and the various conceptual premises guiding them), are probably going to resonate and colour many future submissions on this blog.

Included below are some further images from the exhibition.

Above and below - some further images from the exhibition, some taken during the opening event...

One of the Finger Run Panels (here CNC Milled out of wood) on display at the event...

Small(sm) Architecture Summer Festivals...

We've been invited to take part in two events this summer. The first one, titled Syn_athr(0)isis}, which is a part of the Synch Festival, will take place later this month in Athens, where we'll be exhibiting a CNC milled version of the Finger Run design. Tom's also going to be giving a presentation, as well as partake in a round-table discussion with a number of illustrious colleagues (list included below), at this event on June 15th.

We've also recently submitted material for the Visions - Beyond Media International Festival for Architecture taking place in Florence this July. We were invited to this event by the London based nous Gallery, who specialize in exhibiting more polemic and experimental, usually computing based, architectural work. For images of our last year's exhibition at the nous gallery click here.

More about these, and perhaps a few other, events in future blog submissions...

(This is a slightly abbreviated version of a submission included originally in the Kuwait School blog)

The London Office...

Our partner Paul Brady sent us these great images of our London office, which we share with our sister company 4M Group. It's located at 101 Southwark Street, a stone-throw away from the Tate Modern. The screen design, which is the most visible feature in the images, was designed by Peparim Rama in collaboration with Edward Finucane.

The central area is used for displaying models from past and ongoing projects, and also occasionally for various other exhibitions...

View from the entrance...

All the over three meter tall screens are hinged, allowing the space, its levels of privacy and light, to be adjusted according to need...

Closer view of the laser-cut steel screens...

Shades of Green...

The ruins of an old palace, fronted by posters from its more prominent past...

Came across an article in Building Design, a UK based architectural weekly newspaper, and thought that in its, call it, 'softness', it provided a nice approach to 'Green' Building. Even though clearly not directly related to this region, it nevertheless seems to accept that sustainability is more of a 'qualitative' than a 'quantitative' art - i.e. it provides a nice way to avoid the usually more numerical way of using percentages or quota based means to justify an (environmental) aim. Such 'shades of green', to provide a more regional comparison, was also something practiced by architects such as Hassan Fathy or Charles Correa, who mostly relied on 'passive' (non technological) methods and an evolved understanding of the climate and cultures in which they realized their plans. (As stated in the 'Kuwait School Manifesto') We learn everything from history, but this doesn't mean we have to duplicate it - just walking around some of the, now abandoned, traditional buildings/ ruins in Kuwait there is abundant evidence of some inherent 'age old' sensibilities that make sense when constructing in an arid climate. We need not necessarily replicate these, but there is much empirical wisdom saturated in those old walls which we could learn from and apply in the way we practice our discipline today...

A mid 20th century residential house...

Contemporary Renditions of Mashrabiyas...

Interior view of one of the canvas mashrabiyas...

Maysaa just returned from a brief visit to Bahrain, where she took some photos of some (mashrabiya) screens we designed (predominantly realized by Maysaa) for the La fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art. These were initially intended to be completed for our exhibition at the art Centre last year, but were only finished after the exhibition had already concluded. However, the client seems to be happy indeed with the end result.

Close-up, showing some of the 'extruded' light patterns on the wall, of the mashrabiya screen above...

In total three different renditions of the screen were used - two made of canvas which were used to frame some of the large windows in the entrance courtyard, which were laser-cut. The last version was cut with a water-jet out of steel. These panels were used on top of the peripheral of the fountain courtyard to provide additional privacy from the buildings surrounding the centre. These have by now rusted (which was intentional) to match the terracotta of the walls.

Close-up, here through an interior mesh-screen, of a canvas mashrabiya...

Included below are some additional photos (all taken by Maysaa) of the mashrabiya screens.

Exterior view of the screen above...

Entrance courtyard of the La fontaine Contemporary Arts Centre

Second laser-cut canvas mashrabiya pattern...

The pattern density changes across a screen as well as between adjacent mashrabiya screens...

An exterior view of the second canvas screen...

The water-jet cut peripheral wall screens surround the (inner) fountain courtyard. These block the views from the adjacent buildings surrounding the centre...

These mashrabiya screens' coat of rust blends well with the peripheral walls terracotta finish (above and below)...

Finger-Run Update - Scales of Touch...

Arm and Torso Touch...

A few more recent images of the Finger-Run Design (a design made through touch, for touch, - all through computing based means), outlining the various scales of touch the design aims to involve...

Hand (scale) Touch...

Finger (scale) (exploratory) touch...

Fingertip (scale) touch...

Night view in Izmir...

I'm currently in Izmir, Turkey, where I've been invited to present at the Department of Architecture, at the Izmir University of Economics. More of that later, but above is an image, the view, from my hotel window... I find it quite charming. It has something domestic and intimate about it, and also something very reflective of the local vernacular...

An additional update hopefully accompanied by some more photos in a few days time...

Project Recap No. 5 - Finger Run (a Tactile Folly)...

A design made by touch for touch, - all through computing based means. The design was realized through the use of a 'haptic interface', a device that allows one to 'feel' and sculpt objects on the computer screen through touch. The design was conceived as a touch based landscape, with its two halves designed to form a tactile topography for the various dimensions of exploratory touch(ing) – the fingertips, fingers, hand, forearm and arm for which the design provides various textures and routes (tactile follies) to explore and follow.

A Sensable 'Phantom' haptic interface, which allows one to 'feel' and manually sculpt the objects on the screen.

Initially inspired by studies of various roundabouts and intersections found on Google Earth, the piece explores the various layers of touch and the act of exploring something through the sense of touch.

Roundabouts and intersections from around the world, found on Google Earth, provided the initial inspiration for the design...

The routes are combined into an amalgamation of various tactile properties and sensations...

The design is 'read' by moving ones arm in a circular motion across the design's two adjacent panels' various textures and overlapping routes.

The two panels perform as a unified tactile topography, a touch based folly...

The final piece was made through Stereolithography, a form of three-dimensional printing (using two different resins for each half of the Finger-Run design), as well as through a CNC-milling machine.

The two Finger Run panels made through Stereolithography...

...And a few close-up details of the design's various textures, made through the sense of touch for the sense of touch, and all through fully digitized means...

Above and below - close-ups of the two Stereolithography finger Run panels...

A Kuwaiti gentleman examining the Finger Run panels during their exhibit at the la fontaine centre in Bahrain...

The pieces in this posting have been exhibited at the nous Gallery in London, la fontaine Centre of contemporary Art in Bahrain, and the Dar Al-Funoon Gallery in Kuwait. A rendition (CNC-milled) has also been exhibited as a part of the group exhibition titled Syn_athr(0)isis last year in Thessalonki, which will be again on display in Athens in June, 2009.

Project Recap No. 4 - Snakeskin (a Tactile Interface)...

An almost eleven meter long, Rapid Manufactured, strip of the Snakeskin (panoramic image from our nous Gallery exhibition in London)...

The Snakeskin provides a, somewhat Braille or Moon type like, touch based method and language for how to communicate things about the users surroundings and to prompt actions he or she might wish to take. The design is predominantly 'read' through running ones hand across the wall mounted relief patterns, but it can occasionally also be used and adapted as a floor based texture.

A rougly five meter section of the Snakeskin displayed at the la fontaine Gallery in Bahrain in November - December, 2008.

The design has five main components in its repertoire.

Tactile Spine

The central raised spine which provides the user, through a set of Tactile Icons (which are a set of tactile graphics that provide a form of short-hand through which to communicate a message), with a more literal note of information, such as approaching left or right turn, speed up or slow down, stop, etc.

A roughly one meter close-up of the Snakeskin (from our exhibition at the nous Gallery in London)...

Handscape

The scaled area on each side (top and bottom) of the Tactile Spine. This surface amplifies the message communicated by the Tactile Spine by modifying the textural qualities of the scale patterns provide a more intuitive reading of the information. For example, if one wishes the user to slow down or even to stop one can, by gradually raising the scale pattern (which are directional - smoother to touch in the intended direction of motion) increase the friction of the hand on the scale pattern and thus 'suggest' that slowing down might be a option worth considering. This action can obviously be reversed by smoothing out and elongating the scales if one wishes the user to speed up (along, say, a long corridor with nothing noteworthy to experience). More asymmetrical applications of the scale pattern can also be used to suggest various other actions or features...

Close-up of the Handscape's scale texture...

Handscape textural variations, here showing how the texture pattern is adapted to suggests its user should 'slow down'...

Clicks

Are a regular pattern at the top side of the Handscape that provide a set metric means to distinguish the distance covered (highlighted in red).

A 'Click', highlighted in red...

Quivers

Occupy the bottom flank of the Handscape (highlighted in red in the image below). They provide a bespoke pattern specific to one location or demarcation. For example, each department or wing of a building can have its own Quiver pattern.

An example of a (variable) 'Quiver', highlighted in red...

InfoIntro

Provides a abbreviated summary of upcoming features along a specific segment of the Snakeskin. It is always at the beginning of a stretch of Snakeskin and acts as a tactile rendition of the tube map (of sorts)...

The 'InfoIntro' at the start of a stretch of Snakeskin...

All of the aforementioned elements work in conjunction to convey its tactile (haptic) message, and, as a more accurate sense than vision (see this recent NYT article for some interesting facts), the richness of nuances that can be used in creating such messages seem almost infinite...

The design also used some of the same haptic interface tools mentioned in previous posts.

A different example of a 'Quiver'...

The design was fabricated through Rapid Manufacturing, a form of three-dimensional printing (the only realistic way to make something as infinitely variable as this design), and, in the almost eleven meter long piece of the design which was made as a part of our research, we would like to cautiously claim it to be amongst the biggest ever pieces realized through these additive CAD-CAM methods.

A chart comparing the fabricated stretch of Snakeskin to various everyday characters and objects...

This design would not have been possible without the invaluable help of Loughborough University's Rapid Manufacturing Research Group (RMRG), one of the foremost centres involved with related research.

The Snakeskin has been exhibited at the nous Gallery in London, the la fontaine Centre of contemporary Art in Bahrain and the Dar al-Funoon Gallery in Kuwait.

The Snakeskin is always perceived whilst in motion...

This is a abbreviated outline of research we've been involved with for the last seven years. If you have any further questions or comments please don't hesitate to get in touch. I can be reached through my e-mail at thomas@small-architecture.com .