Selected Publications, Exhibitions & Presentations
Recent research dissemination from members of the CSALT lab on topics related to materiality and fabrication and other areas of research currently underway at the lab.
Husic, S. and S. Boyle (2022). “Research Creation and Materiality: making with 3D printing and Ultra-High-Performance Concrete.” Empower: Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 110th Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings article (2022 Acceptance rate 24%, Double-blind peer review)
Keywords: Research Creation, Digitally-Assisted Craft, Materiality.
Abstract: Research creation opens opportunities to explore the
evolving understanding of materiality in a world seemingly split between hand-craft and digital design and fabrication. This project explores 3D printing of ultra-high performance concrete through a series of material exercises in the creation of a chair to interrogate how materiality might be evolving.
Boyle, S. and K. Washco, (2021) “Thinking/Making With.” Uncommon Senses III Conference, Concordia Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, QC. Online, May 6 - 9, 2021.
Keywords: Materiality, Senses, Architectural Tools
Abstract: This presentation explores the concept of “thinking/making with” versus “thinking about” materiality as a multisensory process engaging the body, as a way of knowing history. In particular, we will deal with architectural tools for drawing and how they can affect our imagination and process of drawing by looking at four historic artifacts: gesso panels, charcoal and silver drawing pencils and bread erasers. These “instruments” create the basic set of tools that enable drawing. By looking to the 14th century artisans manual Il Libro dell’Arte by the Italian Cennino Cennini and his recipes for these elements, the authors reflect on how (re)making these tools and using them produced an opportunity to “think with” rather than “think about” the artifacts, producing a deeply sensory experience of drawing that brought into focus temporal and atmospheric dimensions of drawing not otherwise evident.
Hacker, J. and S. Boyle (2020). “Tall Wood, Thin Concrete.” October 1, 2020, Carbon + Materials plenary session, Intersections: Research Conference: Carbon, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture/American Institute of Architects Conference. Sept. 30 - Oct. 2, 2020.
Keywords: UHPC, Mass Timber, Comprehensive Studio, 3D Printing, Digital Fabrication
Abstract: This paper illustrates how a graduate design studio can seek out an innovative and comprehensive design process, while simultaneously addressing two current crises in the architectural profession: 1) A perceived disconnect between the abstraction of design education and the realities of practice; and, 2) The critically time sensitive imperative of transforming ecological practices in building materials and building energy consumption.
Boyle, S (2020). Fragrant Walls and the Table of Delight: Sensory (re)construction as a way of knowing, the case of Thornbury Castle, 1508-21. PhD thesis, Concordia University, Montreal, QC.
Keywords: Reconstruction, Materiality, Senses, Artisanal Knowledge
Abstract: Framed by the 13 years that Thornbury Castle functioned as a construction site, this dissertation approaches the building as an epistemic site – a place that informs and is informed by the continual process of making by masons, carpenters cooks, gardeners, painters, tailors alongside the family that lived there. The project reconstructs the work in three layers over the course of three chapters, with each chapter building one upon the next. In Chapter 1, I reconstruct the site setting using works of the pen - historical texts, notes, letters, chronicles and drawings. In Chapter 2, I use that setting to reconstruct several epistemic objects in the world of the early modern artisan and reveal their interconnections, including practices, materials and tools that demonstrate trading zones between them. In Chapter 3, I scaffold the two previous chapters to reconstruct practices which I then use to create a series of projective sensory (re)constructions captured in “fragrant walls” and a “table of delight.” The form of each project reveals the process and wit (an archaic term for the senses) which I share with the artisans of the early 16th century and include edibles in the form of sotelties (or entremets) to be consumed at the dissertation defense.
