Good morning and welcome to another Estel Jiminab, your host, Alvaro, to bring you an exciting guest to talk about Luxury. In this case, it's going to be very unique because for that we're going to have our friend, architect, Arthur Mungmani, and the way that he does architecture is so different than what I've used to see. He does, you know, eco-parametric architect with the whole 3D printing, view materials and detail. He's well known for his amazing piece of architect at the Burning Man.
It's called the Temple Galaxia and he's done such incredible pieces of art and construction. So I really like the way that they keep their mantra of changing the world stay by step. For that we're going to have him here to explain what he does and how he's redesign the way that architecture is done. Hello, I'm good.
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here. Yeah, we're in a studio now. I'm going to take you around a little bit.
Yeah, in London. Not all the magic. Correct, that's it. I'll take you around a bit.
All right, let's do it. Yeah, I want you to do that. Tell me a little bit about what we're looking at because if you do the intro, you know, every architect has a unique pattern, you have something that before I say to you from everybody else. So I want to hear all about it while we start looking at the studio.
Yeah, 100%. So we're basically a two companies, one that is an architectural firm and one that is a fabrication studio. And it's really important for us because generally architects are quite separated from the output of what they make. And so, you're being able to design and make was crucial to the sort of DNA of the studio.
And so we have an architecture studio where we can express our dreams. And then we have a place where we can realize them, but also others. So we opened up to other people and it's accessible for everyone. Wonderful.
And that's in London where you have this studio, right? It's in London. We have opened one in Eastern Europe now, but we are also planning to open some in the US. And we hope that this could allow other people to fabricate locally.
So that it's not just, you know, we're trying to prevent from shipping and having like all these different problems that comes with carbon. And so by printing locally, we're hoping that people can just send files around the world and have things printed locally. Yeah. That's incredible.
Well, listen, you have a whole year in Miami. So whenever you want to make them open, go ahead and show us around. Tell us what's happening. One of the things that is going on.
Okay, cool. Let's do it. I'll do my best. So we keep a lot of these prototypes.
So these prototypes are 3D printed using fermented sugar. It's a bioplastic that is compostable. And we do this in all kinds of ways. I don't know if you can see the different gradients.
This is using fermented sugar with wood, then with what's called a rice in oil or casted in oil, and then back to the sugar itself. So we play with parameters so that we can create all kinds of natural geometries. This is Galakita at Burning Man. This is one of the structures that is based on the Fibonacci sequence.
We are really inspired by nature, in general, like you can see here at sort of dry cactus that we used for another project that we worked on. We try things all the time, you know, with different materials, seeing how they behave. I'm going to show you the machines because that's quite exciting as well to see operate. But generally, we do what's called parametric design.
Parametric design is the sort of ability to switch between parameters so that instead of developing just finished form, we develop systems. So systems that can be adapted, you know, given different criteria like the environment or structure and so on and so forth. You'll see it. I think things are kind of mixing up a little bit.
This was what we did for costs in Milan and lots of different things. It's kind of like we're a bit like a cabinet of curiosity because we've got like tons of stuff lying around that I can show you a little bit more what's possible with the technology. We tend to like let the material do its thing and like learn from all the failures. You know, what sometimes is considered as failure is often something that's quite beautiful.
Here you'll see our team. There they are working hard. Yeah, working real hard. And then you have some of the modular elements that we're developing with 3D printing.
Slowly, as I get closer to the printer, you're probably hearing this roar and that's pretty much the machine going and doing the thing. So here you go. This is printing. The one is printing.
They're making all kinds of weird sounds. So this is printing at the side and you can see you can hear the sound, right? It's sort of this really peaceful, but it's kind of repetitive elements. And this is the Shanda Dé we're working on at the moment in Edinburgh, for Virgin Hotel.
So it's quite nice to be able to bring you around and share stuff. We don't often do it. No, it's incredible. I think it's very interesting to get to know how you're not only the idea of how you're linked to happen.
Now with this machine that you just showed us, what are the parameters? Like how big can you go? So you can print about a cubic meter. So you'll probably notice that most of our projects are modular.
We always try and think like how to attach things together. And what can we do with the size that we have? It's already quite big. I mean a cubic meter can print like, for example, we have tools here that we're printing, tools that I'm touching here.
The code behind it. Yeah, they've got these really nice motif and the table that I have behind me. Like all of these things are 3D printed with our machine. So something like that, actually, like that table will do the show that's long that we take to print.
How do I do it? How long does it take to get printed? They take roughly like two hours to print. We try and like optimize the code.
So basically what you send to the printer is a certain kind of code called Gcode. And actually, it's something that you can monitor. It's like a big line, like a big polyline in the computer. And so you can measure the length and you can push it so that you use as little as possible.
So for example, on these, you know, now on our table, here, this guy, you see all these really thin lines. What we try and do is to maximize the amount of tension rather than compression so that we can have as little material as possible. And we always do that. We always try and get as little material as as as as is possible because then we of course, like print faster so it can build bigger stuff.
But also use less material so it's more environmental. Right. And then you assemble them together. You know, we're talking about big projects that you've done.
Like the sample collection, you showed us briefly over there, but it's in a bigger scale, something amazing. So I obviously encourage everybody to check out your Instagram page and your website and follow you because some of the projects that we're talking about, they're not just like miniatures, they're like taking into big scale and they're phenomenal. Tell us a bit about, for example, about project temple. Yeah.
So the next I was a really, really big project. You're right. Probably one of the biggest I worked on. Here it is.
It was basically a temple, so a secular temple that didn't have a religion associated to it, but it welcomed everyone. So you had these portals here and you entered from here. And so the size of the structure was defined by the human. And then as you went in, this was meant to represent like the black hole, you know, in a galaxy.
And so it was sort of twisting it and like warping this geometry so that you would start by the portal, the human portal, and then your mind would wander up. And then we had these tear drops here, 3D printed tear drops that went down and kind of united everyone around this kind of central outer volcano. So it was roughly 60 meters wide and about 20 meters high. Sorry, I know you probably used feet.
I'm less familiar with feet. And that's the man. So Burning Man has a big axe. So this is the city.
So it's a big city of 70,000 people that assemble for a week and then disappear in the desert, you know. And this is the man. And then this is the temple at the other end of the men. So they burned the men here on the Saturday and then burned the temple on a Sunday in a quiet sort of beautiful sermon.
Now you think that Arthur really printing a start between us and future, isn't that how more architects are going to get into building their own project? Yeah, I really think so. Maybe not just 3D printing, just the idea of being able to send your file to a local space that can actually fabricate locally based on the raw materials that are also grown locally. To me that is the necessary future.
It's by the case of future I want to push for because we're always constrained with products that are shipped all around the world using materials that come from unsustainable places or working with materials that have a very strong carbon footprint that are very heavy, that are not very bespoke, not very customized. So when you think of 3D printing, you can customize stuff. You can actually adapt things to your needs. You can create again.
And so to me it's an necessary future because it empowers people to make. It enables customization. It makes you print locally things that would otherwise be shipped. You're part of the making so you're not just a designer, you're also maker.
So there's so many benefits to it that yeah, I really want it to the future. I'm so excited. I'm glad that you got this conversation because this is something that more people need to be aware of. I'm kind of getting into it because the more that you can work with architects that have that mindset, the more that we're going to be accelerating going to a more efficient future.
I mean, when you're doing it amazing and a really big pile of your project, so I do appreciate showing us around and explaining how there's another thing that we always ask that the world is luxury. Because in so many different shapes and forms. But what is luxury to you? To me, luxury is really about taking the right decision and having the ability to take these decisions.
For example, we're working on our home with my wife at the moment. And we decided to use only environmental materials. And what that means is that we are doing our research. We're making sure that the materials we're using don't have any petroleum or cement and actually, strangely enough, it's extremely difficult to find.
And it's a luxury to be able to take that decision. And it's a kind of mindful luxury. It's a luxury that is also very informed and very involved. It's not the kind of luxury where we just purchase.
It's a luxury where you actually get into what it is that you're purchasing. You become almost like a prosumer rather than just a consumer. And I think that really, for us, it's the ultimate luxury because it means that we can get back. Well, I think that you define it very well about mindfulness.
Everybody likes in luxury in so many different ways. But mindfulness keeps you grounded and understand the purpose behind anything that you do is really what fulfills your soul and allows you to give to others. So, well said, I couldn't agree more. I know you are a busy guy.
You have so many friends going on. You have your key back there working hard. So I wanted to just rub this out by asking you if there's anything else that you would like to share. I would really love to come to you and my enemy.
We have some exciting opportunities. At the moment, we're really looking at if the biomaterials we're using can be used for facades. Can we use for external architectural elements? So, bear with me on that.
This is our research. These are the materials we're developing and potentially near you. And so I hope we'll get to speak again in front of a build rather than in my studio, in front of a building that we would have built with that technology. So, I can't say too much, of course, but this will be the next exciting thing, I think.
Well, I'm sure it's going to happen. We're here for you. Anything you need to know you talked with us. That's an exciting feature that's nice as well.
So, thanks again for your time for opening up the doors. I know you know it. And for those that are watching this now or later, please make sure to follow our show, which is incredible. I know that this is a super talented architect, but it's also on the making team of you.
So, I do appreciate your time again and I wish you nothing about the best. Thank you very much, Avara. Have a lovely day. Bye-bye.
And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace its beautiful success in life. My name is Avara and I'll see you next time.