Trans/Hitos: Harmonies

A white paper house by Mixuro Studio and a tassellated wall by Harvard Graduate School of Design are among this year’s innovative proposals for alternative uses of ceramics.

Trans/Hitos 2016 “Harmonies”, Cevisama, Valencia

During Cevisama Trans/Hitos 2016 “Harmonies” launched innovative proposals for alternative uses of ceramics.

The term “Harmonies” signals the quest for equilibrium, proportion, and appropriate correspondence between the different units of a group. A group that brings together companies and professionals with different backgrounds and starting points, working together on a common project primarily aimed at promoting and showcasing the capabilities of ceramics.

The first area was devoted to displaying the work of the students from the different Ceramic Tile Studies Departments promoted by Ascer at the Harvard, Liverpool, Graz, Barcelona, Alicante, Valencia, and Madrid Schools of Architecture, in its endeavour to disseminate the knowledge of ceramics and of their applications to professional stakeholders.

The Little House of Paper, by Mixuro studio, is the winner of the competition organised by Cevisama, Ascer, and ITC to energise the event, encouraging designers and architecture and interior design studios to put forward their ideas. The authors highlighted the idealisation embodied by the little paper house, the perfect house, a symbol. A call to attention is involved, as it is an icon, in addition to being a symbol of efficiency and sustainability, realised with materials respectful of the environment, which can be readily disassembled and gathered up for subsequent re-assembly elsewhere, quickly, at any time.

The structure holds ceramic pieces that do not come from a given manufacturer or are even of a particular type or model, generating a composition with different pieces, all of which are white, providing an overall texture.

The installation by Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is a tessellated wall which explores the design space of a novel ceramic customization strategy developed by researchers and students at the Graduate School of Design. The technique involves the automated cutting of clay extrusions that are industrially produced on a state-of-the-art extrusion line. The approach is based on extruding pieces from a single die, thus reducing tooling costs while at the same time maximizing the scope for varied design expressions.

The tessellated wall investigates the design space of this approach with a module design that features interlocking, ornamental patterns which allow for novel structural use of ceramic blocks in planar, folding and curved wall assemblies. The modules can be bonded with cement for permanent installations, or be dry stacked and clipped together for easy assembly and disassembly, such as in the case of Cevisama.

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