In Conversation with....Arthur Mamou-Mani, architect

Arthur Mamou-Mani is a French architect and Director of award-winning practise Mamou-Mani Architects. FabPub (Fabrication Public) is a joint venture between Therme Group and Mamou-Mani Architects. Its expert team of in-house digital fabrication and material experts use 3D modelling, 3D printing, fabrication, prototyping, laser cutting, engraving and assembly to design and deliver intricate technical ideas for internal and external architectural systems in Therme resorts.

I am an architect living and working in London. I specialise in parametric design which is a design approach that uses environmental, structural and fabrication parameters to guide the design process. Whereas in traditional architecture you start with the idea and draw top-down shapes, with parametric design you bring the shapes in from the bottom up, guided by parameters. 

I think my parents have a lot to do with the development of my approach. My father was a computer scientist and math teacher and my mother worked for the Ministry of the Environment. They would take part in seminars about ethical capitalism and how entrepreneurs can make big changes. They even wrote a book together about how to merge ecology and the economy. My father would teach me about technology and maths and my mother would trigger my creativity – so from the very beginning, my work has been a blend between the two. 

I studied at the Architectural Association in London which is a brilliant school. They encourage you to think outside the box, of systems instead of just forms. It’s here that I first learned about parametric design. What is amazing to me about parametric design is that it is embedded in reality. Designs emerge from the constraints of reality rather than through ego-led geometry. 

I spent a few years teaching parametric design including at the University of Westminster and my approach evolved through this. It was a colleague of mine at the University who asked me to go with him to teach at Burning Man. Burning Man is this utopia based on self-reliance, circular economies and ‘leave no trace.’ It was amazing to bring a playful and functional design to the desert which could be built and dismantled easily and sustainably. 

After starting an architectural practice, we quickly realised that our processes are so embedded with fabrication that we would need two entities: one with the knowledge and architectural design and one with the ability to develop technology for ourselves and others. That’s how we ended up with the Mamou-Mani Architects and FabPub double act – FabPub being our 3D-printing, digital fabrication lab. 

Around the time I graduated from university some pioneering design software was just becoming available. However, it was very cryptic and hard to use. I was asked to teach this software, so I had to learn it inside out. I became one of the first teachers of it and trained many companies across the UK including, among others, Maclaren racing and Cadbury’s chocolate. 

Through teaching, I was confronted with so many different worlds and approaches. This technology was a way to break down the boundaries between industries – it could connect jewellers with architects and chocolate makers. All this technology was open source so together we developed new tools and plug-ins to make the process easier and more accessible. This is when we developed Silkworm. 

Silkworm is a plug-in that translates geometric designs into g-code which informs the 3D printers. It was amazing because this technology brought us into a community of grassroots contributors. 3D printing was, and still is in some sense, very niche and we were pioneers. 

We saw during the Covid pandemic the big problem of supply chains. Much of the products we use today are mass-produced in countries very far away using cheap labour. This results in cheap and efficient products, however products from which we are disconnected. Moreover, it is a fake cheapness. There is a discrepancy between the financial cost and the social and environmental cost of these products. They may be cheap to buy but they cost in other ways. 

FabPub was conceived as a way to activate the local fabrication of products with high personalisation. We work with local materials, such as bioplastics. We are not constrained to one kind of injection moulding material, which gives users loads of flexibility. Our ambition is to create a worldwide community of designers outputting designs locally which can also be crushed and reprinted locally. With this circularity, we could overcome present issues with our infrastructure and broken systems. To take an example, recycling is currently taken far away and mostly not even recycled. We could change this and keep product cycles within local contexts. 

Robert Hanea’s desire to have more control over supply chains is good for the environment and innovation. It means he can take more risks. The two of us are connected on that point. It’s part of empowering people to create the change they want to see. Which is also our main value ‘be the change’. 

There are two types of materials, exploitative ones that you have to mine and deplete (steel, oil, concrete) and those that you can grow and can be renewed. It’s the second type, biomaterials, that I work with. These include sugar and starch-based materials but can come from a huge range of places. For example, shrimp or any crustacean can be used as biomaterial. Their shells contain chitin which is a polysaccharide and is not dissimilar to the polymers found in oil. 

Oil is an organic substance but, because it takes billions of years to produce, it is not circular. Renewable materials and energy are used in much shorter carbon cycles. That leads us to the question: how can we impact our environment as little as possible and be regenerative within our existing infrastructure? 

I believe biomaterials could provide us with an answer. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is a bioplastic made from fermented sugars, mostly from corn but also from other sources. It was invented by the same person who invented Nylon but they did not take it forward as it was more expensive. The technology has developed since then and it is more efficient and cheaper. Though it remains more expensive than petroleum plastics what is amazing about PLA is that the sugars needed to create it can be grown locally.

We commissioned a report into bioplastics from ARUP and the findings were fascinating. PLA uses 80% less carbon, is 60% less carcinogenic when it is burnt, does not seem to cause the same level of hormone disruption as petroleum plastics, and can be composted. We’re still doing studies to find out more but, even though we are not 100% sure on these points, it already shows an improvement on what we have.

We didn’t invent PLA it has been present for a long time but the difference is that we have been consistently talking about it. People have said that it’s worse than petroleum plastics in terms of usability, but it has started a conversation and that’s important. I believe the tide is turning. I see a new generation of people who are excited about the possibilities of these products. Every time I tell people a structure is made of sugar they love it. 

I see these materials as an interesting avenue of discovery that could have a real lasting impact. For example, there has been very little exploration into the possibility of whether British crops, such as sugar beet, could be used to make PLA. This is something I’d like to explore. We could grow it using vertical farming or from crayfish. We could think about using restaurant waste for bioplastics – it’s these creative possibilities I find so exciting. 

I’m most excited by the possibility of merging parametric design with the natural world to create a city that looks like nature with plants and flowers embedded into its structure. Unfortunately, I think this will take a very long time, but I see a growing willingness to invest in these ideas and technologies, as well as a move to step away from the cheap and easy option. 

As a society, we need to take risks. That’s why we partner with Therme because they are taking risks in exploring things outside the box. With Therme, we can test things end to end within the projects and facilities. Usually, people and companies are separated into silos but the beauty of Therme is that it is one big ecosystem that all works separately and together, and that’s a really exciting opportunity.

Currently, we are working on a very interesting project to explore helium balloons as a sustainable carbon-free alternative to air freight. Our manufacturing facility in France has been specifically designed using algorithms that replicate natural structures, resulting in a 50% reduction in steel usage, thanks to the innovative curved dome design. At FabPub we will soon have a store in London where people can buy our products. We will offer a take-back scheme where people can bring back products when they are finished with them. We’re looking forward to exploring the possibility of local circularity. Perhaps one day we will become the Apple Stores of 3D printing.