From tools to tiles, art to interfaces, we can learn more about ourselves and connect with the world and those around us when we build things together.

︎︎︎Architecture Group Exhibit

Year: 2022

Location: Design at Riverside Gallery, Cambridge ON

Partner Organization: University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the Idea Exchange Cambridge

Featured Designers: Jes Hanzelkova, Ye Sul E. Cho, Alexander Gontarz, Nathanael Scheffler

Title of Work: The Artifacts of No-Place [M.Arch thesis]

Prototypica_ was an exhibit about processes of making. The exhibit features the theses of four M.Arch graduates from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. This collection of work celebrates process-based prototyping by focusing on objects made using digital fabrication methods [like 3D printing or laser cutting]; are sometimes interactive [meant to be touched, activated or worn]; and are collective or imagine collective futures [are for everyone and engage with historically marginalized communities].

Commonly, prototypes are used to refine a production process or craft a singular object, the prototypes displayed in this exhibit oppose this and instead offer a glimpse into several simultaneous thoughts and explorations. Throughout these four thesis projects: Smart Aging, The Fabrication Commons, The Artifacts of No-Place, and Let’s Make Good Stuff, prototyping is used to satisfy curiosities. A way of testing, proving, and playing with ideas. These prototypes imagine futures of connection. Human to machine, human to human, and human to material synergies that feed communality, agency based in making, open-source knowledge, and inclusionary design. Unmaking. Redoing. Unlearning. Reimagining. Repairing. In times like these, what better way to spend an afternoon?

We’ve missed building things together.