Computational regionalism: De-familiarization of tectonics in the wire-bending craft

Abstract

Computer-based design and fabrication systems in architecture contain modes of operation and preferences that often constrain tectonic possibilities in design and construction. These predispositions neglect architecture’s cultural and material dimensions, resulting in universalizing tectonics that erase nuances of place, culture, and expression in design. How may we celebrate local tectonic languages while also revisiting them through computer-based systems in architecture? The project examined here highlights novel possibilities for cultural expression and craftsmanship through computational design methods, retaining the expressive potential of a local craft while de-familiarizing its cultural context. I analyze how shape grammars and digital fabrication methods deployed in design, de-familiarizes the craft of wire-bending in costuming in the Trinidad Carnival. I present and apply new rules for the craft’s computational description based on material tests and an architectural application to expand discourses on critical regionalism. I adopt Tabbarah’s term “computational regionalism” to describe this process and elaborate it as a five-step sequence. Computational regionalism employs computational methods to translate local craft knowledge and tectonic languages into new interpretations and poetics of construction. Its process of creative de-familiarization raises critical questions about the local and the universal.

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“…8 Other works 9–13 address this duality between craftsmanship and computation in different cultural contexts through ethnographic research and encoding of practices, demonstrating possibilities for exploring interactions between disciplines that document traditional knowledge and expand their applications. More recently, Noel 14 elaborated on Computational Regionalism as a process that addresses the gap between traditional techniques and computation in architecture, establishing a framework to combine both while being attentive to the repatriation of this new knowledge. Nevertheless, we identify an absence of discussions on the creative interaction between computational designers and craftsmen in these works, something that could potentially expand the design possibilities of both realms.…”

“…Similarly, Noel 12,13 developed the Bailey-Derek Grammar that describes the Trinidad and Tobago wire-bending techniques, discussing how this tool is capable of restoring a craft that is dying due to the absence of a pedagogical system capable of passing down manual knowledge to a new generation, including missing groups in this practice, and expanding the craft applications to other domains, such as architecture. In a more recent work, 14 Noel addresses one gap we also explore in this study regarding the lack of a framework for merging traditional techniques and computation in architecture, questioning how we can amplify local social relations and roles within the making process and proposing a theorization of Computational Regionalism that can generate creative expressions of tectonic and tactile knowledge and skill attached to local crafts.…”