Craftmanship is back. Following a century of mass production and industrial development, crafts are starting to be revalued and reinterpreted. A new sensitivity towards raw materials, the recovery of local techniques and the defense of small-scale trade are a few of the claims that this comeback represents. Materials such as earth and ceramics, textiles and wood are being reinterpreted by designers, artists, and architects around the world, in search of both their own style and the representation of collective nostalgia.
However, today there are new ways to respond to those old needs. Although an important part of the trend is the recovery of manual manufacturing techniques, today there are technologies that allow emulating these processes in less time and on a larger scale. Is it a new industrialization process? Additive manufacturing, already in use since the 90s, allows the materialization of precise organic forms designed for specific contexts. As an option halfway between uniqueness and the masses, 3D printing has the ability to extend the craft beyond manual labour. #architecture #crafts #materials #architects #designers #techniques #art
