As a teenager, Eric Ferreira Crevels used to get distracted in class and start drawing designs. Then he learned that studying architecture meant he could ‘draw with a purpose’. During his studies, he became both fascinated by and practiced in craftsmanship, which eventually led to his PhD research. “Architecture feels abstract, but it is a material profession. It relates to all these craftspeople, which I refer to as a ‘constellation of crafts’. Architects should explore and learn to navigate this constellation.”

Eric grew up in Brazil. As a child he excelled in both mathematics and drawing. “My sister first saw the connection: architecture. I reached the same conclusion in high school. It would give me a chance to be creative, both figuratively and literally.” Eric’s bachelor thesis was a fully functional small bamboo library. He designed it together with a professional craftsman in bamboo, then led a team of 14 architects, engineers, and artisans who signed up for the construction ‘course’.

During his master’s, Eric continued to explore craftsmanship. He learned metalworking and, for his thesis, set up workshops (see the two images above this article) to pass these skills along: “for example, in small cultural centres in poorer neighbourhoods, or anarchist communities.” Parallel to his studies, Eric tried running an ‘office workshop’ with a friend who was already an architect. “We provided anything from home redesign to custom art. In the end, I mostly made furniture.” After obtaining his degree, Eric worked as a teacher until applying for and receiving a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant to study ‘tacit knowledge in architecture’.

Exploring practices and archives of architecture firms

Tacit knowledge is developed through practise; hard to verbalise; impossible to write down. Eric figured that craftsmanship was a good fit. He started an open-ended literature exploration to develop a theory of craftsmanship in architecture. Meanwhile, he scheduled two ethnographic studies, five months each, in architecture firms and institutions in Rotterdam and Antwerp. “I wanted to know what architects consider important in their designs, and how they reach those goals. I kept asking critical questions. In Antwerp, I also studied the archives to find links between architecture and craft.”

Slowly, with occasional hiccups and dead-ends, Eric’s theory began to take shape. One breakthrough was the discovery of a 1:1 model of a wooden joint in the archives in Antwerp, accompanied by all the relevant paperwork. “That became a deep dive: how did this joint come into existence? Why did they build the model, and when? I could see how the drawings were changed based on certain input, and compare pictures with documents to uncover the hidden influence of craftsmanship.”

A new view on research (and Marxist philosophy)

Eric’s thesis starts with his theory of the knowledge of craftspeople. He then applies this theory to architecture in three case studies. Two of those are his aforementioned experiences in the Rotterdam office and Antwerp archives. The third is a study of architectural discourse throughout history: what do architects think about and consider craftsmanship? How do architects and craftspeople view building materials? And how does his theory fit into a debate between two Marxist thinkers who completely disagree on the nature of architecture? “This PhD really changed my perspective on Marxist philosophy, giving me a more nuanced view of the interplay of knowledge and the material world.”

More broadly, Eric feels that he developed a different view of research. “I used to look first at social impact and my own interests, and design my study from there. But my five months in Rotterdam were quite stressful: it taught me that I had to let go of such preconceived notions. I became more practical and method-focussed, and at the same time more open to explore new theories.” For his next project, Eric will interview builders working in North Macedonia. “My goal is to listen closely, to find answers, and use those to construct new knowledge.”
 

Published: October 2024

More information

All images in this article are property of Eric Crevels.

Eric’s full thesis, titled ‘Epistemologies of Making: A theory of craftsmanship for architecture’, can be found in the TU Delft repository.