ABSTRACTION OF TRADITIONAL CRAFTS INTO EXPRESSIVE SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Socio-cultural aspects of craft, along with aesthetic and creativity, are expressed in the products of craft practices. Craft activities of weaving may be deeply imbued with unique cultural values and expressive of cultural identities. The paper concerns how traditional Malay craft is abstracted onto a real-life project which has to deal with the problem of modularity and buildability. The focus is on the food covers or better known as tudung saji pattern, woven using a specific technique called triaxial or hexagonal weave, where the strands are plaited in three directions. Understanding and making explicit, formalizing and computing the craft patterns provide new insights into its cultural dynamics as well as creative and generative possibilities. The paper summarizes the design process from craft to meaning and philosophy to variations of modern abstraction. The concepts were integrated into an innovative cladding design of a passive cooling system. The design and development process of water-wall design includes the production of digital three-dimensional model. The efforts to merge craft sensibilities and practices with new making technologies and computational strategies have uncovered several interesting viewpoints. The implication of the study is to inculcate the symbolic application of cultural values in craft goods towards design. Future work towards sustainability in craft is part of revival. Traditional Malay craft need abstraction and reinvention in a contemporary way, to create an expressive connection and foster cultural identity within time and space.