Portfolio WaĂŤl el Allouche The Rietveld Academy Design-LAB
Kufic Modern Flexible Molding Filling Books Unpacking Folding Paper
Fluid Brick Odyssey Landscape Machine Transparant Hammam Blanc Espace
Art or design doesn’t save society, but I believe that it can add a critical tone to the outside world. I was born and partially raised in Tunisia. Being an immigrant in the Netherland made me conscious of my identity and resulted in a dream of influencing both cultures. This awareness gives me the urge to look further than only design and art. I am mostly fond of topics that are in the greyzone between art, design and society. I use every kind of data (digital, analoge) that can add value to the design process. Design through computational and practical means. A field of interest at this moment is what ‘Big data’ and algorithms can become in the physical world as an object(design) or spatial(architect).
Transparant Hammam Project: heating system Tutor: Joost Conijn This project was about creating heat with the use of analog (low-tech) and digital (high tech) means. I chose to create a Hammam (bathhouse) that I remember from my youth in Tunisia. I asked myself the question:’ can I make a working ‘‘hammam’’? And, what can this hammam be? I wanted especially to look at it as a contemporary community bathhouse and try to reinvent its use in public-space. I designed it as a transparant and inflatable hammam which can be executed in different scales.
Flexible Molding Project: flexible mold Tutor: Teyo Remy I collaborated with Mehdi Vilquin an exchange student from ENSAD. He is also a good friend with whom I shared a lot of interests. One of our fascinations was the architectural and engineering method of constructing with concrete. With examples like Felix Candela and Heinz Isler. We tried several kinds of molds where we used textile and elastic fabrics. We ended up with an analog parametric mold where we laid down our pillows filled with concrete, which we eventually put into place on a wooden structure for its further defined shape.
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Filling Books Project: Daily extreme Tutor: Jeroen Kramer
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The daily extreme was about taking a ritual or object and make it extreme or radical. I chose to research my books and see if I could make a cabinet that would be able to allow radical use. It began with the history of cabinets and the most awkward ways of showing and dividing your books. I photographed all my books, analysed them and concluded that the so-called filling books were mainly used to fill in the gaps. I wondered if I could make them more functional by giving them more importance. So the ‘filling books’ would create space for your more important ones. It’s also a way to organise and curate what you want to show.
Blanc Espace Project: DIY-week Tutors: Anne Holtrop, 1 minute-foundation During this week we had to think about a undefined space, and what possibly can happen in there. The template for this workshop was making short one minute-movies. I collaborated with Eva Schalkwijk a student of Immediate space. These videos were moments of doing nothing, as a crucial part in the process of ‘making’. They were also selected and are officially part of the one-minute foundation. https://vimeo.com/channels/205853/79087668
Landscape Machine project: Landscape Experience Machine Tutors: Melle Smets, Cynthia Hathaway This research highlighted the landscape as a machine designed and engineered by humans being. Maps imply how we should read and interpret it. Reading a map is a language that has been taught in our education. With this I could create a fantasy landscape that everybody could read, so I used the vocabulary of maps to understand its power and use it to make my own world.
Fluid Project: Fluid design Tutor: Michiel Meurs The purpose of this assignment was to create a fluid design, I chose an ornament which can be reproduced endlessly and can function as a window faรงade that influences the incoming light on the fluid object.
Kufic Modern Project: Ode to a font Tutor: Richard van der laken Translating a typeface into a 3d object in space using my favorite font, which we had to sculpt into an object in the schools courtyard. I chose a font called Kufic square wich was first used in public space during the cultural golden age of the islamic caliphate (kingdom). The text I chose for my sculpture was the last verse of the Fatiha: ‘The path of those upon whom you have bestowed Your blessings, those whose (portion) is not wrath, nor of those who have gone astray’. So the meaning of this verse played also a role in the visualisation and function of the sculptured building. The only contrast in my opinion is its historical context.
Unpacking Project: Package for yourself Tutor: Richard van der laken I wanted to unpack myself and do this in a surreal environment, which was the Ito building in the Zuid-as district. This unpacking was done by shaving my hair, a ritual performed during the hadj (pilgrimage). As a metaphor for being reborn.
Brick Odyssey Project: Brick Tutors: Bart Guldemond &Baukje Trenning This annual brick workshop with the Academy of Architecture I collaborated with Valerio Falconi who is studying to become an architect. The concept was to use a brick as a vehicle for ‘nature’. Allowing moss or plants to grow on the wall. In that way also to know your orientation, so in the north you mostly will have a lot of moss and in the southern part there will be plants growing.
Paper Folding Project: Paper Tutor: Jeroen Wand The aim of this workshop was to create an object through experimenting within a week. There was one restriction which was the use of only paper. So I laminated A-4 papers and gave it a simple fold, and from this I created a diamond shape which eventually can be given a function as a stool or chair.
Ongoing project
Curriculum Vitae Personal Information Name: Adress: Zipcode: City: Telephone: Country: E-mail: Birthplace: Date of birth:
WaĂŤl el Allouche Dennenrodepad 207 1102 MW Amsterdam 0642084655 Nederland w.elallouche@live.nl Bizerte, Tunisia 27 April 1990
Education 2012- present Gerrit Rietveld Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten en Vormgeving
Bachelor of Design (BDes)
2010-2011 ABKM (Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design)
Propedeuse
2003-2009 Pleincollege Eckart in Eindhoven VWO, diploma.
Skills Computer skills: Adobe photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator 3-d cad programma’s: Rhino, Autocad, Grasshopper, vectorworks Practical skills: Woodwork Metal, Welding Model & Maquette Ceramics Moldmaking Languages: Dutch English Arabic