Santiago Pérez Presents Digital Fabrication Lecture at Arts Center in Little Rock

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Santiago R. Pérez is an assistant professor of architecture and the 21st Century Chair in Integrated Practice in the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Santiago R. Pérez will present a lecture titled “Fabcraft: Crafting the Future with Digital Fabrication” at 6 p.m. Tues., Jan. 17, at the Arkansas Arts Center, 501 E. 9th St., in Little Rock.

Pérez is an assistant professor of architecture and the 21st Century Chair in Integrated Practice in the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Design and craft can be seen as two intertwined aspects of creative activity, underlying much of today’s architectural production. While the traditional view of the craftsman or maker is usually associated with hand-made objects and materials, or the assembly line repetition of commercial production, a new hybrid form of craft is emerging, aided by a confluence of digital software and robotic machining or “rapid prototyping.” This new way of making is generally described as digital fabrication.

This lecture will introduce recent work emerging from the new advanced fabrication, or FabLab, facility, which Pérez directs, at the Fay Jones School of Architecture. The FabLab is under development in conjunction with the acquisition of new computer-controlled equipment, including a 5-axis CNC (computer numerically controlled) mill and steel plasma cutter, and the anticipated arrival of a fully articulated robot. These new initiatives are part of the ongoing research and teaching focus of Perez, who joined the school’s faculty in fall 2010.

His lecture will introduce the public to emerging digital fabrication projects, methods and tools, highlighting both current projects and recently exhibited or published work. The presentation will focus on innovation utilizing digital fabrication, computer numerically controlled tools and rapid prototyping. In particular, Pérez will discuss the relationship between traditional craft culture and making, and advanced, computationally assisted fabrication, toward a new confluence that he has termed “fabcraft.”

The term fabcraft can be understood as a new merger of craft and fabrication that combines the best of both worlds – the insights gained from knowledge of traditional craft processes, mixed with computational design and digital fabrication. The emergence of these robotic and computationally assisted tools in architecture is revolutionizing both the teaching and practice of architecture, and the increasing academic focus on making as an integral part of the design process.

Pérez is currently developing several initiatives for engaging full-scale digital craft and fabrication in collaboration with public and private partners in the city of Fayetteville and the surrounding region, in connection with his design studios and seminars at the university. Ongoing projects include a shade pavilion or rest tower proposed for placement along the Fayetteville multi-use trail, and a feasibility study for an educational pavilion at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. This work is developed with his students and produced at the FabLab.

In addition to teaching, Pérez is developing both individual and collaborative research projects, focused on the confluence of material and computational experiments in design and making. Current research projects include “Rethinking Fab,” an investigation of the influence of 20th century designers, such as Charles Eames and Jean Prouvé, on contemporary fabrication processes. He is also the recipient of a grant to develop a new Honors College course titled “Computational Craft” with joint investigator Russell Deaton, a professor of computer science and computer engineering at the University of Arkansas.

This presentation is part of the 2011-2012 Art of Architecture lecture series sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network, with support from the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arkansas Arts Center and the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be preceded by a 5:30 p.m. reception, hosted by the Friends of Contemporary Craft.

For more information, e-mail Projects4pi@mac.com.