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A real craft, in order to become an art, requires not only efficient handling of the tool and material. In architecture, just like in crafts, what makes the work outstanding is dependent on factors which go beyond the standards of competence – on the individuality of the creator, his/her commitment and dedication to work.
Every craft requires an effort – arduous repetitions and long-lasting learning to deeply understand the tool and the material. The excellent craft of drawing, although not as common and obvious as several decades ago, is still a prerequisite for becoming an architect. It contributes to gaining the investor’s respect in the design process and keeping the architect’s status of a creator who knows this demanding graphic jargon (see V. 5). It ennobles and teaches humility in the face of decision-making. The craft of drawing, understood from the perspective of the second decade of the 21st century as a slowing limitation at the stage of refining the concept, had the advantage of the necessary and insightful contemplation of the design solution. Errors on paper or tracing paper cannot be corrected easily. Redesigning, introducing changes or starting from scratch, especially with reference to hand-drawn construction documentation, required time and effort, hence the subsequent design versions had to be well-thought-out. The stunning ease of making changes in computer programs, apart from the undoubted advantages, can sometimes result in the lack of in-depth studies on the aspects of the design, and in their superficiality.
The traditional drawing technique as well as the production of physical models ensured a tactile connection between the author and the shaped form. Easily discernible cause-effect relationships between the manual action of hands and the drawing or mock-up resulted in a learning process. This valuable relationship between the author and the material does not occur in the case of computer modeling, even if the model has been printed – the effect obtained of a tangible solid figure is the effect of an automated machine. Understanding the process that took place between modeling and printing or cutting is not important for the designer. Thus he/she loses the direct connection between his/her action and the form that has become its effect. The above-mentioned learning process with the use of traditional techniques concerned the cognition of the attributes of real space and objects found in it.
Meanwhile, digital modeling takes place in a virtual space, unreal and created by a man, so different from the space in which the project will actually be implemented. The designer becomes the user of a computer program – the name itself suggests that he/she
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operates inside the world created by someone else (the program developer). It moves away the architect or urban planner from the real conditions of the design, leaving him/her in the world of simulations (Scheer 2014, 176).
Learning about the functioning of the material tool and the material being processed takes place naturally, the limits of the possibilities are clear and tangible. The resistance of the material selected by the designer disciplines the latter. Seemingly, this is a limitation, but the desire to overcome it can stimulate creativity. In the case of digital tools, software developers try to make them as easy and user-friendly as possible, thereby hiding the real mechanisms of software operations from the user. This results in many assumptions, often incorrect, adopted by the user. It helps neither architects or urban planners learn the properties of the tool and create individual, original ways of using it, which is a feature of real craftsmanship. The convergence of digital tools and crafts would be possible in case of combining the profession of designer and software developer into one.
David Scheer suggests that increasing the involvement of the body in design can be ensured by hybrid design, consisting in combining digital and traditional methods, i.e.
drawing with digital modeling, and also physical one – creating mock-ups. In addition, Scheer prefers computer models which are not realistic, as their deceptive illusion of tissue materiality and authenticity is reduced. The attractiveness of simulation re-presentations on the screen has such an enchanting potential that designers can forget about the real properties of buildings designed by them. The material expression of archi-tecture can be replaced by a fictitious simulation based only on the visual side of the object (op. cit., 163, 178).
On the other hand, understanding the material combined with parametric modeling can result in very interesting designs and open up new possibilities. The ‘Swish’ stool, designed by the design office Carlo Ratti Associati (Fig. 44), constitutes an example of the above. Swish is made up of 27 thin wooden elements interlocked through a system of individually designed joints and hinges, each different from the other. The same effect would be difficult to obtain, if not impossible, with the use of traditional crafts (including also traditional drawing). Designed digitally and made with the use of CNC technology, this object makes good use of the characteristics of the material from which it is made (Swish for Cassina 2017).
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The stool is an example of the already mentioned digital craftsmanship (see II. 4. 1, p. 45). Diversity, which resulted primarily from the imperfection of hand movements, appears in the digital environment as programmed and fully controlled. Mass customisation of products follows. This is made possible through the vertical integration of the design and manufacturing of objects, in which the file from the designer’s computer is transferred directly to production site. The proximity of design and manufacturing, as well as the unitary, original character of this type of objects constitute two features that bring digital craftsmanship closer to how the craft looked like in the pre-industrial era.
Mario Carpo, however, points out that the admiration for the uniqueness of handmade craft products resulted from their limited number. Infinite diversity can lead to the loss of the significance of originality. Mario Carpo compares this phenomenon to the current dysfunctional visual communication, caused by an abundance of changing images. Carpo adds: ‘sign that changes too often and too randomly may mean less’ (Carpo 2011, 10–11).
Fig. 44 Swish stool prototype, designed by: Carlo Ratti Associati: Carlo Ratti, Saverio Panata, Andrea Cassi, Andrea Galli, Pietro Leoni, Sammy Zarka; contractor: FGM Works
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