Victoria Reiter – Looking Outwards – 03

Product design studio uses CAD software to craft stone architecture inspired by nature

Anoma, a product design studio, combines seemingly un-like forces to technologically create natural masterpieces. The studio takes inspiration from nature, such as the delicate and often overlooked vein structure on leaves, and amplifies it to create large-scale works of sculpture and structure on slabs of materials such as granite, marble, and limestone. Designs are first etched out by hand, then drawn using CAD software, amplifying the patterns, charting out where lines will be deeper, until it is sent to a CNC machine to be cut out before ultimately being finished by hand.

See the process below or here.

What I find inspiring about this is how it combines unlike forces: inspiration from nature, execution by technology; large machines cutting through hard rock, with delicate finishes by human hands; utilitarian and heavy building materials like rock, being used for delicate art.

Furthermore, growing up my dad always told me how he operated CNC machines for the better part of his life. Since I was a kid when he did this, I never really thought about what this meant. So, seeing a video of a CNC machine operating gave me insight into what it is he did for 28 years.

More information available here.