X- Labs

PI: Levi Hammett, Associate Professor, Graphic Design, Mohammad Suleiman Associate Professor, Interior Design, Dr. Hiathem El-Hammali, Associate Professor, Interior Design

xLab is an anti-hierarchical and extra-disciplinary research and development entity with the goal of creating design tools and artifacts that converge art, design, and the sciences through technology, computation, and craft. A pillar of the Institute for Creative Research at the Qatar campus of Virginia Commonwealth School of the Arts, located in Doha, Qatar, the lab is currently composed of five primary researchers: Mohammed Suleiman is an architect and assistant professor who investigates spatial mapping and data-driven design workflows for the existing built environment. Levi Hammett is a designer and associate professor exploring the synthesis of computational processes and traditional crafts with an emphasis on the development of culturally constructive graphic objects. Haithem El-Hammali is an architect and assistant professor whose research focuses on human-computer interaction (HCI) in design and design education as well as the integration of building Information Modeling (BIM) and mixed reality in design education. Hind Al Saad is a computational artist and teacher at the School for Poetic Computation, who creates emergent graphical forms, both digital and physical, using procedural systems. Additionally the lab is currently working with undergraduate student Fatima Abbas, a graphic designer, whose work pushes the boundaries of Arabic type design by rethinking the fundamental structure of the language in order to imagine new typographic forms.