Tangible Computing. Manufacturing of Intertwined Logics

International Journal of Architectural Computing, 2009

The article is based on the premise that in the history of architecture there has always been an intimate relationship between architectural ideas and the various perceptions of the alive. On this premise the article focuses on and investigates the relationship of the contemporary architectural paradigm labeled as digital, parametric or morphogenetic with the alive. Its objective is to reveal its new profound reasonings which lead and nourish its creative expression; to articulate its new ethos with the extended use of advanced information technologies for the creation of architectural forms, but also for the generation of a broad spectrum of new building materials with properties predefined by the architect. The immaterial, the hybrid, the composite, the mutable, the transformable, the interactive, the dynamic, do not only appear as properties of certain architectural creations or building materials, but also as values expressing this ethos and declaring a new relationship or a rec...

2007

Digital technologies have opened up a vast array of possibilities with respect to architectural design and fabrication. Architects must be wary, however, of not only the possibilities but also the limitations inherent in digital fabrication methods, particularly the continued need for trial and error and craft as integral parts of the construction process. We tend to extend the precision of digital fabrication to all aspects of buildings that incorporate these technologies and forget that, at least for the time being, the building process is still subject to the vagaries of weather, human error, and site conditions. Disciplines Architecture Comments

Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) [Volume 2]

Considering both architectural and constructional aspects of the built environment, hybridity or multi-materiality is essential to generate functional habitable spaces. Buildings consist of subsystems that each require different and sometimes conflicting material attributes and behaviours. In this context, expanding the solution space for material properties in architectural applications can be achieved through the integration of innovative design computation and production methods. With this focus, the paper presents prototyping processes and frames a discourse on robotic materialisation of architectural hybridity, ranging from micro or material to macro or component scales. The paper discusses three case studies, each with a specific focus on digital modelling, computation and robotic production of hybrid systems. The conclusion outlines how robotic fabrication of architectural multi-materiality redefines, informs and extends methods of design computation and materialisation.

Architectural Science Review, 2019

Buildings consist of subsystems and components which have various functional and performance requirements. This inherent multiplicity demands the design and production of multi-material systems with varying and complementary properties and behaviours. This paper discusses a set of methods of digital design modelling and robotic production of hybridity in various architectural scales. In the case studies, the performance criteria serve as the underlying logic of the design and computation. The projects showcase how programmability and customizability of robotic manufacturing allow for establishing feedback loops from the production to design. Three projects are discussed in detail: a hybrid of flexible cork and rigid polystyrene, a hybrid of structural concrete with an intertwined permanent mould, and a hybrid of soft additively deposited silicone and subtractively produced hard foam. Each project has specific design performance criteria, with which a certain level of geometric complexity and variation is accomplished. Therefore, the research objective is to define and materialize the practical and robotically producible ranges of geometric complexities for each of the proposed methods. Additionally, the customization and development of robotic production setups are discussed. The research concludes that multi-materiality achieved through multimode robotic production methods introduces a higher, on-demand, and performance-driven resolution in building systems.

2015

My research investigates agency of computation and digital fabrication and its influence on the making and materiality in architecture and design. Recent developments in the computation and digital fabrication have made these techno

The document illustrates the transformation from the craftmanship production method of the «more or less» to the «zero tolerance for imprecision» imposed by industrial manufacturing. Consequently, the paper analyzes how this changes affected approaches in conceiving/realizing architectures and designing in general with the birth of industrial designers. The paper briefly describes the historical process of transition from a qualitative approach, «by analogy», to the introduction of numbers as a measuring and design instrument until the recent digital modeling. It also analyzes the opposition between design practices based on regulatory approach and those arising from experimental modeling to affirm a new figure of architect: the architectural industrial designer, a new craftsman that – quoting Gropius – “… will result in a new unit of work, which will make him the exponent of experimentation to be applied in the industrial production”. The paper is a synthesis of the introductory lecture for the class «From manufacturing- Architecture and Structure Design Lab» held by the author at the International Course of Architectural Design, University of Florence. ERRATA CORRIGENDA: pg.33 about half a century >about half a millennium

JCoDe: Journal of Computational Design, 2022

New production techniques and digital design tools allow new possibilities in architecture and digital fabrication laboratories provide an environment for these new opportunities. In addition to its potential in terms of science and technology, digital fabrication creates many opportunities for artistic aspects of architecture. Therefore, we aimed to make a theoretical discussion and present a new perspective for artistic and poetic aspects of digital fabrication. From this perspective, to clarify the artistic aspects of architecture in the context of digital fabrication technologies and to understand how the subject is covered in the literature clearly, a comprehensive literature review has been made. Initially, the literature review was limited to the themes of digital fabrication and architecture to extract from out-of-context articles and 197 peer review journals written in the last 10 years were examined. Then, a pre-coding schema was prepared from two authors and extended after a detail literature review. The extended coding schema was grouped in terms of their semantic distance and these groups were used to make an assumption about papers. The software MAXQDA, which is commonly used in the social science, assist us to identify the semantic codes related to the research context without any omission. Articles were investigated with the keywords created after precoding. Content analysis was used to investigate the remaining 51 articles on the field of Architecture through these codes. Our aim is not to prove if there is sufficient paper that discuss the artistic aspects of digital fabrication. However, this methodology helps us to understand the focus of the papers and the tendencies as an approach in this context. In general, the subject of digital fabrication in architecture is studied more about materials, structures, processes, technology and how to use digital fabrication tools instead of why it was examined in the literature. From perspective of artistic dimension, the reviewed papers mainly emphasize ‘characteristic, identity, variety, style, concept, customization, subjective, subjectivity, formal, composition, tectonic, geometry, form’. On the other hand, ‘aesthetic, beauty, expression, art, stereotomy, craft, artifact, are less discusses codes. Words directly related to art and craft are not discussed in the articles and there is less discussion on the aesthetic values of digital fabrication. ‘Sense, experience, perception, intuition’ are also less discussed codes even if these are strong relationship with architectural context. Although not included in the academic literature, the issue of digital fabrication has begun to be discussed in the context of experience, through art installations in 1:1 scale produced by digital fabrication tools. In a nutshell, the issue of art is at least as valuable as the most frequently asked question of how in digital fabrication, and this aspect should be given more place in scientific research

INTED2015 Proceedings

This paper aims to expose current developments in digital architectural design, digital fabrication techniques and their relations to design pedagogy. The conjoining of machine and material computation potentially has significant and unprecedented consequences for design and built environment. With the influence of the emerging technologies, architectural design has become engaged with the exploration of complex geometries, free forms as well as related materialization processes of fabrication technologies. Today, with the emerging interest in fabrication techniques and through file to factory processes, architects are able to design, fabricate and assemble digitally created form, structure and surface. As a result of these developments, architects became closer to the production process and to have a better control over building parts and materials. Accordingly, there is an emerging need for a new digital design pedagogy, responsive to contemporary conditions in which digital fabrication techniques are integrated as a unique body of knowledge consisting of the relationship between digital architectural knowledge and digital fabrication skill. The discussion of this very paper will be based on the design curriculum of the Architectural Association Summer DLAB 2014, in which the author was one of the participants. With the experimental design approach of Summer DLAB, a search for a new pedagogical approach emphasizing the integration of conceptual content, experimental methodologies, digital architectural knowledge and digital fabrication skill will be demonstrated.

2012

The synthesis of data and material, which decisively failed to develop in the early digital age, is being realized – enticingly, playfully, and sensually – in today’s architecture. This becomes apparent in various medial, spatial and structural manifestations, whereby one premise persists: In the moment in which two seemingly separate worlds meet through the interaction between digital and material processes, data and material can no longer be interpreted as a mere complement but rather as an inherent condition and thus an essential expression of architecture in the digital age. A Digital Materiality is emerging, where the interplay between data and material is seen then, in a new light, as an interdependent structuring of architecture and its material manifestations. Digital Materiality is thus not incidental, nor supplemental, nor is it a process of embellishment; instead it corresponds to an extensive collaboration, which can be analytically developed and implemented on an archit...