In Mendoza, Argentina, the digital fabrication research lab Node 39 FabLab created a frame loom structure made of digitally cut wood to help indigenous people in the central region of the country weave and create their traditional patterns. In the state of Ceará, northeast Brazil, a study entitled "Artífices Digitais" (Digital Artisans) by the Federal University of the State of Ceará used digital fabrication tools, namely 3D printing, to produce digital models, like digital prosthetics, to restore the damaged parts of an altarpiece of the high altar of the Mother Church in the city of Russas.
These are just two examples of many new initiatives that have been combining handcraft techniques and digital technology. This move seems to highlight a strange contradiction in the world (and in architecture) today. Because digital tools make everything more accessible and more alike, there is a persistent desire to express the uniqueness of each place, each community, each architect. In this sense, the connection between these two worlds, digital and vernacular, is an alternative between systematic replication and unique craftsmanship.
