shopfront fab São Paulo - Architectural Association Visiting School São Paulo Workshop

The Barra Funda district of São Paulo was once characterised by a vibrant mix of small industrial, commercial and residential programmes, but over time, as economic policies have favoured agglomerated, larger production industries, numerous companies have abandoned the area and moved to the periphery or even abroad. In response to this decentralisation, the workshop proposes the creation of new types of smaller industries to produce a mix of both consumption and production within the centre, manifested through micro-manufacturing interventions that can co-exist alongside retail and housing. At its core will be the idea that computational design and digital fabrication can be used to help create these new micro-industries, which in turn will help empower local craftsman to produce and sell directly to consumers through micro-manufacturing, located in small urban workshops implanted within the centre district.

The workshop will tap into the energy of the emergent gallery scene of Barra Funda together with local initiatives that are employing computational technology to introduce a new cultural and economic impetus for the area. Participants will learn to use these technologies – notably the CAD programmes Rhino and Grasshopper, and the use of laser-cutters, rapid-prototype machines and CNC routers and mills – to produce 1:1-scale interventions within the region, working with both AA Tutors and assistants and local architects.

The workshop itself will be a part of the 2012 International Festival of Electronic Language (FILE), an exhibition of interactive digital art, and will suggest ways in which these electronic technologies can be imported out of the gallery and into a new neighbourhood.cooperative In this we will work directly with local Barra Funda manufacturers which will include using  resin as a finish and in digitally fabricated through milled moulds. The workshop will also collaborate with local DIY rapid prototype machine manufacturers, whose goal of disseminating a high-tech yet low-cost and small-scale fabrication system will hopefully further promote this new micro-industrial movement.

The workshop is open to architecture and design students and professionals worldwide.