Design Details No. 18 - Water Points, Istanbul...

Tasmeem Doha - Hybrid Making Event Featured in the Latest Issue of the Context Magazine...

The latest issue of Context Magazine features a cover (and back-cover) showing Tasmeem Doha Student Lab Lima's (run by Jeff Turko) work... The issue also includes an essay by myself, as well as several pages of additional images from the latest Tasmeem Doha 2013 event... 

Good times... 

Design Idiosyncrasies Presentation - VCUQ, Doha...

Tomorrow, Tuesday December 3, at 12.15 PM, I'll be doing a small lunch-time presentation in the VCUQ VIP Room titled Design Idiosyncrasies... The short abstract for the presentation is included below... 

Design Idiosyncrasies 

Making Process and Material Specific Designs

The presentation will show examples of design work that were catalyzed by various, both material and process derived, idiosyncrasies. These include explorations into digital fabrication methods such as Laser-cutting and 3D Printing, and will show examples of designs that would be difficult, if not impossible, to be realized by any other means. The presentation will also show how the use of various 'mundane' materials - such as Velcro, Toast, or Sadu thread - can be appropriated into new, and perhaps somewhat unexpected, design based uses and contexts... 

If you're in the vicinity please stop by... 

3D Printed Ink Saturated Bowl...

A 3D printed prototype of a bowl, using layers of colored inks to saturate and partly harden the (plaster based) bowl cavity... 

Morris Louis and Kenneth Nolan step aside... 

Presenting at Pecha Kucha Doha...

This coming Wednesday, November 20, I'll be one of the presenters at the next Pecha Kucha Night Doha event, taking place at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. The title of my presentation will be 'Made in Qatar' - Exploring the Reciprocal Act of Designing & Making Things in Qatar'. 

The 'performances' start at 18.30... 

A demonstration sequence from one of the projects shown... Click here to see more...

Kuwait City Pop-up Gallery - Katara Art Center, Doha...

Maysaa and I will be showing some work at the Kuwait City Pop-up Gallery opening tomorrow at the Katara Art Center... Stop by if you're in the neighborhood... 

MFA Designer in Residence on CNN

A few screen-shots from CNN of our upcoming Designer in Residence to the VCUQ MFA Program, Ali Ganjavian, from the Madrid based, multi-disciplinary, design practice Studio Banana... He'll be joining us for a two week design module in January 2014... 

Looking forward to it... 

Random Photos from Copenhagen, Denmark...

Burnt Warehouse - Old Industrial Area, Doha...

Hand-Made Mud-Bricks & Structure, Nizwa, Oman...

A few images of a project I did a few years back during a stint at the University of Nizwa in Oman with two of my then students, Ali and Khaled... 

The project began with a visit to Bahla Castle, roughly half an hour drive from Nizwa, where we observed first-hand the process of mud brick making. These lessons were applied in our ‘micro-mud-brick-making-factory’ we set up on campus, which included a barrel for mixing the mud slur; a spot where the mud and straw were mixed; a partially shaded raised platform on which the bricks were made by Ali and Khaled, the two participating students; and an adjacent raised platform for drying the bricks (and protect them from the occasional flash-floods).  Approximately seven-hundred, about 1/4 scale, mud bricks were made, using hand-made ‘mini’ molds, before we ran out of raw material. This process also included a number of experiments where the mud-slur was mixed with a set of dyes or other additives (usually used for changing the properties of concrete) to provide the bricks with additional strength and robustness. 

The bricks were consequently used to build a small structure in which we tested and used a variety of different mud-brick patterns and compositions. A segment of the structure was also covered by a screed coats of a slightly less viscous mud-slur that is still today used in vernacular architecture. 

For more images from the process and comparable structures please click here and here...

The roughly 1/4 scale molds used to make the mud bricks...

Khaled mixing the mud and straw...

Making the bricks...

Laying the bricks in rows for drying...

The making of the wall commences...

A screed coat of mud is added...

Above & Below: Details from the construction of the structure...

Image of the interior...

Above & Below: The semi completed structure...

Khaled and Ali's feet...

National Museum of History & Art, Luxembourg...

A few (quick iPhone) photos of the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg, a place I've walked by a number of times during previous visits, but only recently had a chance to inspect in more detail (beyond their coffee-shop)... 

Interestingly, one enters the ten floor establishment on the fifth floor, which is located at the end of an extended ground level plinth. The five floors below the ground level are thus carved out of the rock that forms the defining foundations of this topographically challenging city (it has a huge, deep, valley that splits the city in two)... The top five floors are contained by the above monolith. The below ground level (basement?) floors are housed within a glass encased set of spaces, located within a stone funnel, of sorts, that reveals the various geological stratums of the city, as well as the adjacent catacombs that seem to snake around and below this ancient city. The intent is to begin ones walkabout at the bottom floor, and gradually make ones way upwards, from the more ancient levels of Luxembourg exhibited at the lowermost level towards more contemporary endeavors at the top. The final level, five floors above the ground level, exhibits contemporary and current works of art. 

For more 'formal' images of the building click here. 

The building was designed by Christian Bauer Associates, a Luxembourg based architectural practice.