Mark Walden our Head of Design and Technology recently spent a few days in the US at the annual Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop. This prestigious event is organised by Boston Valley Terra Cotta in partnership with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning and the UB Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technologies (SMART). The event is designed to further the participants understanding of architectural ceramics, making it very relevant to the extensive ceramic projects we deliver. Six teams with members from all corners of the industry including architecture, engineering and ceramic production participated in the event, with Mark joining Team Radical Matter. At the end of the four day event, each team presented the project and prototype they had developed with Team Radical Matter looking at the design possibilities of terra cotta extrusions. The team produced over 700lbs of terra cotta extrusions using several different extrusion dies. Their experiments resulted in the creation of linear self-supported screens and walls with combined extruded units. While we generally work with hand produced faience, we do undertake some extruded projects, so it was of particular interest for Mark to explore the potentials of this process.
