Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between designer and artisan, and the benefit of collaboration to leverage the intersections between ancestral craft and contemporary design. Furthermore, it argues that collaboration between designers and craftspeople is essential in its reciprocal advancement of craft and design. There is artistry, skill, and fundamental wisdom embedded in weaving. However, craft has suffered from a lack of innovation and thus, the perception of irrelevance. The value of traditional handcrafts as a unique and environmentally responsible form of making continues to be reduced to decorative objects rather than exploring its potential as a design and architectural material methodology. The research argues that sustainable design and making is embedded in ancestral technologies abandoned, ignored, and forgotten, rather than evolved and adapted to study an environmentally and culturally sensitive, contextually specific, new architectural vernacular. The paper proposes that the artisan can be reintegrated into design and construction practices through advancing and applying weaving techniques. Using a series of material experiments with an indigenous freehand weaver from Upper Egypt, the project explores the application of basket weaving techniques to architectural design. Through documented experiential, auto-ethnographical research and creative production, the project investigates the use of design as a tool to elevate craft in a way that builds on the knowledge of the artisan. As such, the paper analyses the potential of material collaborations between designers and artisans to reimagine the ways in which we live and create, making woven handcraft relevant to contemporary design, culture, and technology.
Presenters
Tania UrsomarzoAssistant Professor of Architecture and Interior Design, Architecture, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design
KEYWORDS
INDIGENOUS WEAVING, WOVEN ARCHITECTURE, CRAFT-BASED DESIGN, DESIGN-BASED CRAFT, ANCESTRAL INTELLIGENCE
