The Making of Things: Ali Tayar

THE MAKING OF THINGS ALI TAYAR

The Keller Gallery at MIT Architecture

EXHIBITION DESIGN ALI TAYAR NICHOLAS NEW

INSTALLATION ASSISTANTS ANDREW MANTO JAMES COLEMAN

EXHIBITION DOCUMENTATION JUDITH DANIELS / SA+P

COORDINATION SARAH M. HIRSCHMAN THE KELLER GALLERY AT MIT ARCHITECTURE ROOM 7-408, MIT 77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139-2307

SERIES EDITOR

SARAH M. HIRSCHMAN

PUBLISHER SA+P PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MA 2013

PRINTER PURITAN PRESS HOLLIS, NH

CONTACT SA+P PRESS ROOM 7-337, MIT 77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139-2307

ISBN 978-0-9835082-5-0 ©2013 SA+P PRESS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

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EXHIBITED PROJECTS

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THE FABLAB PARADOX ANDREW J. MANTO

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THE MAKING OF THINGS WAS PRESENTED IN THE KELLER GALLERY AT MIT ARCHITECTURE IN JANUARY 2012.

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INTRODUCTION

The exhibition highlights Tayar’s design process as applied to different manufacturing methods in a wide range of scales, from a small cast aluminum candle holder to a carbon fiber house. His idiosyncratic process is presented through sketches, drawings, samples, prototypes, patterns and final objects.

Ali Tayar, a principal of the New York based parallel design studied architecture at the University of Stuttgart and at M.I.T. Tayar’s work ranges from objects and furniture to commercial interiors and architectural projects. Tayar was a finalist for Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award in 2009. His designs are represented in various museum collections, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.

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EXHIBITED PROJECTS

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POP BURGER ON 58TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY, 2008 Window facade system, fabricated by Case Windows, utilizes a slumped glass exterior element, produced

by Detlef Gotzens of Andet Glass Form and Design, and includes an internal anodized aluminum panel.

Photography: Joshua McHugh

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HAWKEYE SYSTEM, 1994

The connection between a horizontal plywood panel and the vertical stainless steel dowel is the basis for a kit-of-parts system. A wide range of furniture pieces such as cabinets, night tables, and desks can be assembled from its components. While the prototype was made out of CNC-milled stainless steel, the above pattern was used to cast the corner hardware in aluminum.

Photography: David Sundberg.

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ICON WORK/WALL, 1999

This office system is made of laser-cut, brake-formed, powder-coated sheet metal boxes (similar to the ceiling of PoP). The units are stacked to create a partition wall while providing storage space along the entire inside surface. The desk surfaces are simple plywood panels which span between the work/wall and filing cabinets. These further act as outriggers stabilizing the shallow wall planes. The modular construction is intended as a low-cost office system.

Photography: Joshua McHugh

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RASAMNY CHAIR, 1998

Two teak frames are connected to each other by the use of three aluminum extrusions. The self tapping stainless steel screws are inserted through the wood frame and subsequently tap their own mating threads into the aluminum extrusions comprising the seat and seat back.

Structural Engineer: Attila Rona Manufactured by ICF Photography: Joshua McHugh

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ELLEN’S BRACKETS, 1994

A wall-mounted adjustable shelving system consists of two custom extrusions: a ‘T’ shaped rail and a structurally expressive bracket which is fixed vertically with a stainless steel pin.

Structural Engineer: Attila Rona

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MARTEN 6701, 2009

The interior of a 67’ carbonfiber high performance sailboat designed by Steve Martin was fabricated by Azzura Marine in Nawra, Australia. The primary materials used for the interior are teak, leather by Spinneybeck and carbon fiber components. All of the carbon pieces were fabricated by John Slater in Indianapolis.

Slater’s company, Forward Fabrication, specializes in the fabrication of Indy 500 race cars.

Most of the hardware - like door pulls and hinges - were custom made for this project.

Project Manager: John Hildebrand, Sydney, Australia Lighting Design: Attila Uysal, New York, USA Shipyard: Azzura Marine, Nawra, Australia Carbon fiber components: Forward Fabrication Inc., Indianapolis, IN

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STRATHISLA TABLE, 2007

A Japanese cedar tabletop is supported by two carbon fiber legs.

Photography: Bruno Augsburger, Joshua McHugh

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QUEEN OF GREENE PENTHOUSE, 2011 PENTHOUSE STAIRCASE, 2011 A pre-fabricated interior build-out system was inserted into the 19th century shell of a cast-iron building in SoHo. The system consists of building blocks made of anodized aluminum and wood panels based on a four foot square module. The perforated acoustic ceiling panels, the interior paneling and the aluminum panels were manufactured in Switzerland and shipped to NYC. The kit-of-parts interior system represents a link between the Fritz Haller designed office furniture system, USM Modular Furniture, and the 1967 designed Mini building system of the penthouse structure.

Design Team: Nick New, Maria Villamil, Alejandro Cabrera, Victoria Cho, Prashant Pradhan, Hee-Jung Yoon Project Architect: William Bialosky + Partners Architects Lighting Design: Attila Uysal Swiss Coordination: Iwan Ruppen Innenarchitektur, Brig, Switzerland Wood Fabricator: Schreinerei Schnidrig, Visp, Switzerland

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The staircase in the loft is fabricated with cnc-milled aluminum links. These links mate with themselves to create a 3D chain. The stair system was engineered by Attila Rona and fabricated by Ferra Design Inc., Brooklyn, NY.

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THE FABLAB PARADOX ANDREW J. MANTO In the winter of 2012, the work of designer Ali Tayar was exhibited in the Keller Gallery at MIT Architecture. Simply entitled “The Making of Things,” the show comprised a collection of pieces that range in size and complexity from furniture to buildings, some quite spectacular and enormous in scale. The more workaday objects, however - chairs, signs, staircases, shelves, the bread and butter of Tayar’s practice – provide the greatest insight into the designing mind. Each final object is accompanied by sketches and construction documentation that show how closely fine-grained details were studied in the design process.

Andrew Manto is a graduate student pursuing his Master of Architecture at MIT. He has worked in design studios and workshops across the country, and his explorations take him to the intersection of digital fabrication and traditional handcraft and its implications for the architectural design process.

Tayar’s “Things” would seem at home in a galley for an industrial design office, but being showcased at an architecture school brings to light a rather curious relationship. Tayar’s objects are compact in scale and seem to emerge at times from the particularities of their respective manufacturing processes. Architectural design, through necessity, encapsulates the scale of whole buildings and master plans and is often made from materials but it is rarely informed by them.

Interestingly, there is resurgence in the study of materials and making processes in architecture schools right now fueled by a new type of workspace that borrows from both the workshop and the studio: fabrication labs. Though extremely popular and growing in number around the world, so-called “fablabs” have actually distorted the designer-material relationship in a way that is counterproductive to the discipline. We can learn as much by stepping back and observing Tayar’s finetuned and considerate process.

Fabrication labs stand apart from traditional workshops in that they typically include digital fabrication capabilities. Tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, and waterjet cutters allow for machinery to be manipulated through a computer interface that, in theory, allows designers to quickly materialize their ideas.

On the surface, the argument for designers to use such tools appears simple, since the majority of contemporary design processes already pass through a computer at some point anyway. Digital fabrication is touted as a natural progression in a process of digitization, but the “just press print” mentality is actually a disservice both to design and to production. The danger in digital fabrication comes when the drive for difference and multiplicity starts to take precedence and indeed overtake material and craft. Workshops have been to a greater or lesser degree part of architecture schools since the Bauhaus, but fablabs overturn historical models of craftsmanship and assembly to produce an entirely new animal.

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In many cases of fablab workflow, students are integral in the actual production of their designs. They not only conceptualize their ideas into digital models and drawings, but they also set up cut files, develop toolpaths, prep materials, and learn to operate machines. Students now have the ability to realize their ideas through a sort of streamlined design/fabrication process that appears, on the surface, to be efficient and empowering. But architecture schools aren’t in the business of training machine operators – what is the value added by inserting a designer into the workflow?

In many cases, running digital fabrication equipment can be easy as just pressing print, but perhaps it shouldn’t be. Design practices such as Tayar’s work closely with fabrication experts to produce objects that are explicitly designed and materially sophisticated. His process, as shown through sketches and progress photos, is anything but streamlined and linear. If powerful fabrication tools are all about manifesting design intention into some (or any) kind of physical model, then yes, they work wonders – but what about the crucial steps that come next – refinement, editing, evaluation? Tayar’s exhibition implores us to find meaning in the process of production and to use it both backwards and forwards in the design process. Objects embedded with the knowledge of their material and their fabrication can enhance the experience of design and ultimately make it better.

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