Tessellating House Tiles

The Westerwald Prize is an internationally recognised ceramics competition held at one of Germany’s principal ceramic museums. \ud \ud The AHRB funded research project which resulted in these ceramic tiles aimed to assess the impact of integrating digital technologies into the process of designing and making low relief ceramic surfaces in the wider context of developing sustainable creative enterprise in the Southwest. \ud \ud Through practice based research methods the project developed a range of digitally based strategies for creating low relief ceramic surfaces with new aesthetic qualities. This research informed the development of the final design for the ceramic tiles produced in collaboration with Dartington Pottery. The production of batches of tiles through collaboration with this SME was a key element in the project. The collaboration sought to test the combining of digital design and production techniques with established crafts knowledge and local production in order to develop a model of sustainable enterprise appropriate to the region and potentially beyond.\ud \ud The research can be regarded as making a contribution to the body of knowledge which seeks to establish a place for digital design and production systems alongside more established ceramic making technologies