AEDS | Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio
Text by Greg Lynn - 2006
It has been more than a decade since the advent of digital technology as a modeling tool on architect’s and designer’s desktops. More importantly, it has been more than twice as long since the advent of digital technology in workshops, fabrication shops and factories. When faced with the new and exotic tools for design, it was assumed that the fresh new digital imagination of designers exceeded the available technology. In fact it was and still is the reverse. The potential of CNC (computer numerically controlled) construction is for the most part untapped by architects and designers. It is only recently that designers have developed the facility with their new digital medium to exploit the possibilities of construction.
Ammar Eloueini was among the first to begin his creative exploration with a grounded education in CNC manufacturing processes. Beginning with simple principles of two-dimensional templates and building to more complex three-dimensional compound joinery; he has developed a personal signature, a technical expertise and new formal and material sensibilities that is coherent and rigorous.
Happily, Ammar is not experimenting and relying on happy accidents as many designers were a decade ago. He is among a new generation of architects who are building a repertoire of linked design and fabrication techniques that are leading towards a very provocative, personal and innovative architectural and spatial vocabulary.
Biography
Ammar Eloueini
Ammar Eloueini (French American born in Beirut, Lebanon) is a registered architect who established AEDS | AMMAR ELOUEINI DIGIT-ALL STUDIO in Paris. The office has operated with locations in Europe and the United States since 1999.
AEDS has completed projects at different scales in a range of geographic locations. Current
projects include a 10,000sqft residence/retreat in Tasmania for David Walsh (owner of MONA: Museum of Old and New Art), an office building expansion and renovation, several residential and commercial spaces. For a decade in the early 2000, Eloueini worked closely with Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake on six retail spaces in Paris, London and Berlin.
Over time, the office has developed an expertise in solving a large number of design problems, while serving a wide range of clients including the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and choreographer John Jasperse in New York. This diversity of clients and project locations have one thing in common: the office's commitment to creativity, innovation and quality. AEDS's work has been recognized with a series of awards including the New York Architectural League's Emerging Voices, eleven AIA (The American Institute of Architects) Design Excellence awards and the French Ministry of Culture Nouveaux Albums des Jeunes Architectes. The work of Ammar Eloueini is part of five museum’s permanent collections: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, Disseny Hub (DHUB) in Barcelona and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.
As an educator, Ammar Eloueini chaired the Digital Media Program, as well as taught design studios, theory and digital fabrication seminars at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Currently Eloueini is a tenured Favrot Professor of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans and regularly serves
as thesis advisor at the Ecole Nationale de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris.
Ammar Eloueini received, with honors, the Master of Architecture degree of Diplômé par le Gouvernement from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais in Paris and a postgraduate Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York City. Eloueini has participated in several symposia and exhibitions, including "Mixing It Up With Mies" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Venice Biennale in Italy. In addition to several solo and group shows, the work of Ammar Eloueini has been documented by two bilingual monographs, published by Damdi in Korea and AADCU in China.
Monographs
Next AEDS: Ammar Eloueini [buy this book]
Design Document Series 26: Digital Recall, AEDS - Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio [buy this book]
Permanent Collections
The work of Ammar Eloueini is part of five permanent collections.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), CoReFab#116_25 chair (full scale), New York, USA
Centre Pompidou, 3 CoReFab#71 chairs (full scale), Paris, France
Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), 4 CoReFab#71 chairs (scale models), Montreal, Canada
Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHUB), 21 CoReFab#116 chairs (scale models), Barcelona, Spain
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 100 prints of CoReFab#71 chairs, New Orleans, USA
Awards and Honors
2005-pres 11 AIA Design Excellence Awards
2012 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program (YAP) Finalist
2007 Emerging Voices, Architectural League of NY
2006 Aides a la Creation unrestricted grant, VIA, CoReFab#71
2001-02 Nouveaux Albums des Jeunes Architectes (highest recognition for architects under 35), French Ministry of Culture
2001 Publication Grant, Graham Foundation