Codes, eros and craft: an interview with Evan Douglis

From a studio in Brooklyn, New York, Evan Douglis has carved out an international reputation for innovative research into self-generative systems, membrane technology and contemporary fabrication. In the last decade, this work has largely been expressed through interactive installations, a medium that is compatible with Douglisʹs curatorial interests (he was the director of the architecture galleries at Columbia University for eight years). However, with the opening last year of the REptile, Haku Japanese Restaurant in New York, and the ongoing development of the REptile tile product line, Douglis is currently working at new building and manufacturing scales. As Chair of the Department of Undergraduate Architecture at the Pratt Institute since 2003, his influence on a generation of younger designers has been palpable. Here, guest-editor Mike Silver discusses with Douglis the significance for him of the interface between the algorithmic and the material.