AT THE EDGE OF THE EARTH

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Document Type

Contribution to a Book

Publication Title

Interior Design on Edge: History, Theory, Praxis

DOI

10.4324/9781003457749-12

First Page

159

Last Page

174

Abstract

This chapter will illustrate how locally harvested earthen materials are being used in conjunction with emerging technologies, including robots and 3D printers, to fabricate architectural interiors and the objects therein. Featured projects will include the Casa Covida, Uphoria Amphora, the Sexy Beasts, and the Future Archeologies installation. The Casa Covida project will serve as a case study to discuss how mobile fabrication setups are essential and allow one to bring technology out of the laboratory and to the literal edge of the earth for onsite fabrication. I will share examples of journeys that have been made in search of wild, local, and ancestral clays that were used in the works illustrated in this chapter and discuss the provenance of these materials. In the Uphoria Amphora and Sexy Beasts projects, I am edging away from complete reliance on the 3D printer to fabricate the designs and instead have started collaborating and working co-botically with the hardware and the earthenware in order to make pieces that are more original, impossible to replicate, and to step outside of the boundaries and limitations that the printers and robots bring to the creative process. The Future Archeologies project explores the transformation of earthen materials and construction techniques at the edges of time. The 3D-printed bricks fabricated for the project are made from the local Faenza clay, as is almost every building in Faenza, Italy. The bricks are installed among the ancient column fragments in a local archeology exhibit. The installation highlights both the handmade traditional bricks and the contemporary 3D printed bricks. The 3D printed bricks are cutting edge but also curiously at home here, both in harmony and in dialogue with the existing architecture of brick columns and vaults in the Palazzo, and its centuries-old architectural elements, but also strangely foreign with their new shape and texture. This new 3D-printed brick assembly is a kind of future archaeology or ruin, already a part of something historic but new at the same time.

Department

Design

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS