Bob Sheil of Sixteen Makers Chairing Fabrication Panel

Bob Sheil of Sixteen*(makers) will be chairing the Digital Architeture & Fabrication Panel at Digital Architecture London 09. Sixteen*(makers) are a small group of architects (Phil Ayres, Nick Callicott, Chris Leung and Bob Sheil), some engaged in professional practice, some in fabrication, and some in research. The practice was formed (London 1994) out of a shared ambition towards sustaining an experimental approach in the practice and development of architecture. The work of the practice can best be described by the term; ‘Design through Making’, In recent years, whilst pursuing a broad set of teaching commitments sixteen*(makers) have executed a number of projects in the field of responsive constructs and environments. The practice seeks direct engagement with a broad set of skills from drawing to making, where each affects the outcome of form and space. Sites are central to the development of any architectural project for them. The practice regards access and occupation of architecture in progress of equal importance to completed work. At the core of their architectural practice is the gathering of information from which spatial and formal interventions are proposed. In itself this is the first act of design through making. Sixteen* (makers) have a long history of creating work which asks questions of achitecture and its users. The practice also synthesises analogue workshop techniques with digital techniques and it in exploring this new hybridised space of making that sixteen*(makers” comes into its own.