Mentor Review: Alex Mademochoritis

Alex Mademochoritis is an architect and urban technologist at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). I met Alex last year while studying abroad in Barcelona as part of the CIEE Global Architecture and Design program, which focused on computational design techniques and was where I learned many of the design techniques I'm using in my project. His expertise is more in the realm of buildings and architectural scale design, but he is very familiar with computational design methods, as well as digital manufacturing. I reached out to him for advice and mentorship related to my project via email. He was very interested in the concept, as well as the prototypes I have made so far. He particularly liked how my design takes advantage of the capabilities of a 3d printer, using only a single extrusion to create the form. At IAAC he helped research building large scale clay 3d printers, and a lot of effort goes into finding ways to use these printers efficiently, but also artistically. He said this technique could be applied to these printers to create columns, or other architectural elements with a natural geometry. As far as the concept behind my project goes, he said to lean in to the "synthetic nature" idea. He said it was compelling that the form of the lamp looks organic and grown, but only involves a comparatively simple set of rules. He also agreed with Joel that the LED lights really only add to the project if they connect in some way to the structure of the lamp itself. He said that the form alone is compelling, and it could become a series where each lamp is uniquely printed. One way he suggested to continue developing the project was to create other types of lights, not just hanging pendant lamps. They could use the same overall algorithm, but take different forms, like a wall sconce or a desk lamp. Overall he was excited about the project, and wanted to see more photos of the final project.