Navier-Stokes Equations, Fluid Simulations and Harmonic Architectures: Introducing AmniosyA

I’m republishing here a piece I originally wrote for the site Irenebrination.

The future may still be rather uncertain, but one thing is for sure, we will be working in a world with fewer barriers and we will be focusing not on one but on several hybridic disciplines at the same time. Some of us, like Florence-based studio AmniosyA have already started doing it.

AmniosyA carries out work and researches on architecture, design and fashion, and experiments with structures inspired by organic shapes characterised by a special intrinsic dynamism.

The studio, including university lecturer Marino Moretti, and young architects Marco Carratelli, Lucia Lunghi, Elvira Perfetto, Lorenzo Pianigiani, and Leonardo Pilati, focused its latest researches on generating alternative forms and design methods.

One example is a recently unveiled project which is not a building, but a 3D printed jewellery combo entitled “EntropyA” featuring a necklace and a bangle with a design based on dynamic fluid simulation.

The surface of the pieces gives indeed the impression they are made not with a solid but with a fluid material that splashes and ripples around the neck and the arm of the wearer, simulating fluid effects caused by variables such as velocity, temperature and density. Who knows, the “EntropyA” necklace and bangle could be the first jewellery pieces that physically represent the Navier-Stokes equations, the foundation of the science of fluid mechanics.

Can you briefly tell us more about your practice?
AmniosyA: AmniosyA began as a research group in the field of architecture, design and fashion design. Our research is focused on the world of new technologies, on dynamic simulations used as incipit of morphological shape inspired by unexpected suggestions, by biology as well as scientific studies. Architecture, design and fashion design are fields through which we can create alternative forms and design methods. Our studio’s ongoing research focuses on the transference of digital process into contemporary design.

How do you reconcile in your work disciplines such as architecture and fashion?
AmniosyA: All of our projects have the intent of developing new expressions towards creative atmospheres trying to generate suggestive three-dimensional experiences at different scales through the same creative process. Architecture and fashion are the most powerful areas of creative expression, they are both intrigued by art as well as by three-dimensional concepts, since both generate space and interact with it. We think that there is not so much difference between fashion and architecture.

In which ways do the new digital tools and softwares used to develop the design process influence your work?
AmniosyA: Software plays an important part in terms of form and design process, it gives us the freedom to express our ideas, changing the way we think design, and connecting “unexpected” fields.

The forms and shapes you develop through your projects are very futuristic, what kind of programmes do you use to design them?
AmniosyA: Our interest is mainly focused on the world of dynamic simulation and animations used as a generator of morphological shapes, so we use animation software as Maya autodesk or Softimage as well as Grasshopper. Simulation means entering into a software physical data or values and, depending on the area in which you are working and on the natural interaction of these values, a number of projects in various fields takes life.

What inspired your jewellery pieces and do you plan to sell them online?
AmniosyA: EntropyA, etymologically comes from the Greek ἐν τροπή (in processing), indicating a spontaneous change of state, a measure of disorder. The collection is the result of a dynamic fluid simulation in which a planar surface is altered from the energy generated by a physical system. That complexity recalls the softness of a piece of fabric and the articulation of natural interactions between different parts of a high density fluid. In this way the classic design of a jewel begins to develop his own unexpected geometry. EntropyA interacts with light and with space and it is made with a opaque material in order to reflect the spatial depth. We are currently in a deal regarding the sale, and we plan to sell it also online.

In which ways do you think we will be using 3D technology in the fields of fashion and architecture in future?
AmniosyA: 3D tecnologies as well as the use of digital software allow us to be able to imagine and create very complex spaces and forms, increasing thinking skills. We belive that thanks to developing researches the concept of dress fabric and finishing will change. We talk about interaction between clothes enviroment and people, and it is a good starting point. For what regards architecture, Italian Enrico Dini is studying a large size 3D printing system through which you can print houses and complex components that in future will cut key factors such as costs and time. These are the paths fashion and architecture will take in future.

There are quite a few designers who have been developing 3D printed pieces, do you have a favourite one?
AmniosyA: We follow different designers who work in this field. We are interested in the work of Niccolò Casas, Daniel Widrig, and Iris Van Herpen. We also find Neri Oxman’s research particularly interesting.

You are based in Florence and Italians have always been at the forefront of design and fashion, but in the last few years the attention switched to designers from other countries. Can new technologies help us re-setting ourselves at the forefront of these disciplines?
AmniosyA: Yes, definitely. In the last few years the attention switched to designers from other countries probably because Italians are quite attached to a traditional production and to a classical idea of elegance both in fashion and design. We have a sort of poetical link that connects us to the history of a material and to specific manufacturing processes. But this peculiarly Italian attitude and our passion for research can collide with digital processing and inputs like innovative technologies coming from other countries leading to great results and propelling back Italians at the forefront of fashion and design.