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Interview with Zayad Motlib |
Home > Designer Interviews > Zayad Motlib |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Zayad Motlib (ZM) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Zayad Motlib by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
ZM: I have studied and worked in different countries, both as an academic and a practicing architect. I did my undergraduate degree at the department of Architecture, University of Baghdad, in 1990. Then I worked in Jordan, in New Zealand, and in Australia. I have also completed a Masters degree at Auckland University, New Zealand. Currently I am residing in Dubai.I always had a fascination with space, mathematics, and the complex forms in natural systems. Design gave me a way of combining all these areas of interests into a physical manifestation of form and space. I developed this passion to explore the design space at the intersection of design, nature and technology, which gradually started to define my work.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
ZM: I run two entities: d-NAT (Dubai Network for Art, Architecture and Technology)- www.d-nat.net , and AmorphouStudio - www.amorphoustudio.com. d-NAT is an educational / research based platform where we organize workshops and events to explore new design tools and workflows. Our workshops examine digital design and fabrication processes at the intersection of Design, Nature and Technology. They aim to introduce new form of design thinking. AmorphouStudio is the visionary practice where we implement some of these processes in real projects. Our projects span across multiple scale and domains from jewelry, to furniture, products, interior, and architecture.
FS: What is "design" for you?
ZM: Creating a form, or an experience, that embodies a promise of goodness and a capacity to inspire.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
ZM: Something that I neither done before, nor that I have any experience doing it. It is that feeling of getting lost, being insecure, that drives the best creative impulse.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
ZM: Zaha Hadid liquid glacial collection. It has that sense of of something that is ethereal, transcendental, sophisticated, but with ultimate simplicity. It combines materials, physics, gravity, fabrication techniques to produce beauty.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
ZM: A house in Amman. It was my first job after graduation, and I got to design a house on a mountain in Amman. I had to deal with complex site topography, new construction materials, and a very specific family brief.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
ZM: I work with a wide range of materials. They all offer different possibilities in design. Nowadays I am developing a series of furniture using 3d printing technology. Using topological optimization process in the design, 3d printing offers the possibility of achieving a jointless monolithic pieces that combines art and technology. I also love the use of Fibre composites for the combination of strength, light weight, and versatility. I also drawn into using earthy clay materials in my architecture, for their ecological and thermal advantages.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
ZM: Talking to like-minded people on subjects related to future technologies, new design ideas, nature processes of formation, and the like. I often come up with design concepts out of these conversations.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
ZM: Keep the clarity and simplicity of initial concept through to its realization. Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication, to quote Leonardo da Vinci.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
ZM: In a state of Flow. Totally in the present, while my mind is continously connecting the dots into shapes and forms.
FS: What makes a design successful?
ZM: Clarity of the idea and Performance are two key aspects. The design needs to communicate visually and functionally the purpose it has been created for.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
ZM: It needs to be visually engaging. It communicates to our senses its purpose. When it captures our vision, we look closely at other aspects such as materiality, details, being fit to purpose etc.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
ZM: Designers play a key role for society and environment. Both the social and the environmental agenda are vital for the success of any design. In our design, environmental data inform the form generation and details, to achieve a symbiosis between the environment and the architecture.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
ZM: There are two revolutions that are happening in a parallel way. The revolution of materials science including Nano materials, and the AI revolution in robotics and fabrication techniques. Both these revolutions are causing huge disturbance in design possibilities across all domains. They are transforming the design fields as they are expanding the toolset, and the processes of materializing ideas and creating forms.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
ZM: Last exhibition was at “Made in Tashkeel” in Nad Alshiba, Dubai. We have exhibited some of our work-in-progress in the form of sketches, renderings and 3d prints. Next exhibition is going to be in d3, Dubai Design District, during Dubai Design Week in November.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
ZM: My design is often inspired by the complex order exhibited in natural systems: biological, cultural, materials, or physical systems. I study the underlying forces behind the formation, or the behavior, of these systems, and look at meaningful ways to re-adapt it in my design pursuits.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
ZM: My passion to explore and understand the complex forces shaping the natural formations and the processes behind their generation. My curiosity in researching new materials and fabrication techniques, and the cross-disciplinary application of certain design techniques from one discipline into another. My aim is to create sustainable solutions directed towards achieving a symbiosis between the building and the natural environment.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
ZM: I currently live in Dubai. There is always a debate about whether the new technological integration in buildings design will affect the cultural identity of the place. My take on this is that cultural identity is not something that happened in the past, some 30,50, or 100 years ago, and stopped there. So whenever we want to address the cultural identity we need to go back and borrow some of the elements that have been used in that time. Cultural identity is something that evolves with the place, and the future vision of the place. Dubai is an evolving city that aspires to be a tech-hub for the region, and to have 20% of its buildings to be 3d printed. So its identity needs to evolve to reflect that, rather than anchoring it in the past.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
ZM: The process and the toolset vary depends on the nature of the project and the concept. Sometimes in Furniture design, sometimes I go from a sketch into 3d printing. Then we start revising and developing the design by upscaling the model gradually to full scale. Buildings design is more complex, as there are many restrictions and requirements that we need to comply with. We often use different software and prototypes to conceptualize our ideas, and to move them from concept into design details and development.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
ZM: I am gradually replacing most of the furniture items with new 3d printed ones that is developed at my studio, such as a coffee table, a table lamp, book shelves, bed side tables and so on. These pieces are giving the place a new spirit, and help bridging the ambience of where I work, and where I live.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
ZM: Never stop experimenting, questioning, and exploring. Your learning journey never stops after graduation, it starts from there.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
ZM: Follow your gut feeling on what is right. Don’t try to force in a certain pre-conceived idea. Keep looking. Start with a white canvas in your head, and keep exploring.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
ZM: Intuition, desire to explore, observation, resilience
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
ZM: A mix pallet of analogue and digital tools. Pens and papers, a Mac laptop, 3d printer, laser cutter, and lots cardboards !. Software, mainly Rhino, Maya, and Grasshopper.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
ZM: Hopelessly well !
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
ZM: It varies based on the concept, and the workflow I am using to realize it. Sometimes the concept starts on paper, and gets developed with a grasshopper script, then gets 3d printed and so on. Other times we use Maya polygonal modeling too within the process, which makes it more complicated.
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
ZM: Do you still use pen and papers? Because of the digital processes we explore at d-NAT, most people tend to think that all our work is driven by computer modeling and scripting to develop our concepts. We often get critiqued that our work is just digital driven, or being a product of a certain script. And this is far from the truth. Our process is complex, non-linear, and uses a variety of media as we see necessary to inform its development.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
ZM: The one I never tried before, and have little to no knowledge on how to do it. When I am pushed into a zone of insecurity, of not knowing what to do. This space sparks the best creative impulse.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
ZM: To be able to push the ideas I am developing with the symbiotic towers into reality. I think Dubai needs this type of developments that address the environment and the social context in a sustainable way. Dubai needs new typologies of high-rise buildings that are departing from the prevailing glass boxes, or the outdated 19th century forms, and towards typologies that are driven by contextual data. We need to design for better living and working standards, with less reliance on the electrical resources and the prevailing air-conditioning system, and better symbiosis with the natural environment.
FS: How can people contact you?
ZM: By email, though lots of people write to me using the social networks too.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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