Crafting Luxury with ‘More-ish’ Qualities …
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mosaic tiles, which show deliberate and some imperfections—or the perfected handmade markings. As master craftsman, Studio KO incorporated this luxurious artisan
technique by inserting the green zellige tiles within the museum’s atrium (Fig. 9),
perhaps as a homage to Tamegroute itself to expose its lost cultural horizons.
Craftsmanship, for Risatti, ‘is a way of making that provides a universal standard
for judging objects and work itself that transcends cultural horizons because, as a
process connected to the hand working of material, it is available to everyone and thus
occurs worldwide’ [40]. In hand-making products, appreciation of the effort and skill
makes one question the origins of specific ancient practices. Originally influenced by
Carthage, some scholars consider Amazigh culture as older than the luxury practices
of the Egyptians, who were, amongst other things, experts in mummification and
preservation of precious objects and foodstuffs for the afterlife. Craftsmanship thus
affected our appreciation of the idea of the organic within architecture as a form
of sustainable luxury. Intriguingly, it also engages ideas relating to the uncommon
mysteries of craft.
In terms of what is sustainable today, sociologist Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman
suggests that it veers towards ‘living more at one with nature’ [42]. This has always
been the case and Amazigh culture represents this, especially when observing the
techniques used by the ancient Egyptians in context. He argues, ‘the invention of the
Fig. 9 Museum’s zellige
laid within the atrium,
paying tribute to
Tamegroute’s traditional
green-ceramics technique.
Photo: A. Condello, 2019
141
mosaic tiles, which show deliberate and some imperfections—or the perfected handmade markings. As master craftsman, Studio KO incorporated this luxurious artisan
technique by inserting the green zellige tiles within the museum’s atrium (Fig. 9),
perhaps as a homage to Tamegroute itself to expose its lost cultural horizons.
Craftsmanship, for Risatti, ‘is a way of making that provides a universal standard
for judging objects and work itself that transcends cultural horizons because, as a
process connected to the hand working of material, it is available to everyone and thus
occurs worldwide’ [40]. In hand-making products, appreciation of the effort and skill
makes one question the origins of specific ancient practices. Originally influenced by
Carthage, some scholars consider Amazigh culture as older than the luxury practices
of the Egyptians, who were, amongst other things, experts in mummification and
preservation of precious objects and foodstuffs for the afterlife. Craftsmanship thus
affected our appreciation of the idea of the organic within architecture as a form
of sustainable luxury. Intriguingly, it also engages ideas relating to the uncommon
mysteries of craft.
In terms of what is sustainable today, sociologist Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman
suggests that it veers towards ‘living more at one with nature’ [42]. This has always
been the case and Amazigh culture represents this, especially when observing the
techniques used by the ancient Egyptians in context. He argues, ‘the invention of the
Fig. 9 Museum’s zellige
laid within the atrium,
paying tribute to
Tamegroute’s traditional
green-ceramics technique.
Photo: A. Condello, 2019