Assemblies. A world made of parts

(…) The assumption that parts are made of single material and fulfill predetermined specific functions is deeply rooted in design and usually goes unquestioned; it is also enforced by the way that industrial supply chains work. These age-old design paradigms have been reincarnated in Computer-aided Design (CAD) tools as well as Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAM) technologies where homogeneous materials are formed into pre-defined shapes at the service of pre-determined functions.

Neri Oxman

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world of design has been dominated by the rigors of manufacturing and mass production. Assembly lines have dictated a world made of parts, framing the imagination of designers who have been trained to think about their objects as assemblies of discrete parts with distinct functions.

But you don’t find homogenous material assemblies in nature, where there are no parts, no assemblies. It’s a system that gradually varies its functionality by varying one of its properties. Between machine and organism, between assembly and growth, between Henry Ford and Charles Darwin. These two worldviews, analysis and synthesis. Our work is about uniting these two worldviews, moving away from assembly and closer into growth.

Neri Oxman