My name is Ahmed Sami Angawi
I'm originally from Mecca and I live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
I'm a product designer and maker I like to make stuff with my hands.
Since the beginning I was always been interacting with craftmen
and always been looking to work with them
I felt I wanted to go to the essence of making
so that's why the route of craftsmen came along
I've been doing this craft and teaching it back home in the old city.
There is a way to document and analyze and then innovate
and that's been the process of my making of things
is just to document them the way they are,
analyse them geometrically
and the way it's making and then develop ways to
innovate within tradition in the order of balance
once you understand the structure of any craft
you can, you know,you can innovate.
Those screens are assembled together without using nail or glue
so the cuts have to be very precise
otherwise you will not have this joint perfectly coming in together.
Everything had to be finished with the chisel,
everything had to be cut with the hand in the end.
When we are working we always have to find a way to perfect each cut
So we as a group, each one of us focused on a specific cut
and by time you perfect it.
That's the craftsman, he is a maker who makes things, a beautiful object
but after you do it, after a while
he become crafted at it
he become a craftsman
and that needs time
that needs time and repetition
and to be always conscious and aware of what you do
so in a way what we did it as a group, each one of us was focused in a specific cut
and he's naturally perfecting it because
he's doing it day after day after day.
We started working with makers here
in London and I really wanted to involve
them in the project because it first of
all is a great pleasure to work with
such talents and to have this kind of
exchange of knowledge that he used to
happen in Mecca from the craftsmen from
different part of the world.
So we had people from Germany, people from Korea,
people from Iraq, people from London of
course, and it was a nice diverse group.
That each one of us had a certain way
of doing things and a technique and
profession, that we learned from one
another so it's a wonderful experience
for us; making those screens.
Mecca is always considered as the heart of the Islamic civilization
and I really wanted to work with this concept
meaning that the idea of inhale and exhale
Mecca has inhaled from cultures around the world
and also exhaled its own.
Culture is always based in this diversity you can see it in our architecture,
you can see it in our food, you can see it even our own genetic blood
you know there's a lot of diversity in there
and we take pride in that.
We celebrate the diversity and unity that we have.
I saw the two windows opposing one another in the tradition gallery
I immediately thought of a dialog between those two
it has to be something that relates to what I'm talking about Mecca being the heart
and I'm also walking into any museum or any gallery
you always look at the objects and art pieces with your mind and heart,
with your mind you can see how the craft was made,
what techniques were used
what's the material.
With the heart, if you're passionate about the culture,
you completely connect with it.
So we have this idea of dialogue between the heart and mind
and in many different cultures so I thought of each time the person visit
can say he can always reflect on this idea.
Each one of those screens has openings and those openings
we either call them units or I prefer to call them letters.
It's the same idea with letters when you
compose letters together to come up with words
and you compose words together come up with sentences
and for me it all falls within the grammar of Islamic architecture.
it's all part of the element.
If I start calling them letters and then composing and made sure
that each one of those units have a
different, I wanted to show you the view
that we have so much variation, you know,
this is only just a few and there's some
of them are hybrid, meaning that two units
together develop this new interesting shape
and I saw that also part of the tradition that the craft
used to make it with that kind of concept
so I felt very comfortable to to go in that direction
since it also has been documented have been shown in old houses
and again move move with it and develop many different variations
I come up with so many variations because I was very excited.
At the same time I wanted to have the ideal screens there.
Something representing my country,
my culture, and also for the viewers to see
that this is how you used to be and this
is what the different variations of it.
Nowadays we only look at appearance and
how things looks rather than the process
how they develop and if it follows an ethics of making.
So I wanted to merge between design, craft and technology
and find a way that they can work together.