Practise Fabrication // Lightweight Structures 1:1 Seminar, development continues….
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Practise Fabrication // Lightweight Structures 1:1 Seminar, development continues….
On the last scheduled day on the site, a big effort was made to finish the first layer of bricks, in order for the pavilion to obtain structural integrity and the steel rods to be removed. The weather slowed things down, as varying humidity conditions affected with the behaviour of the fast-setting concrete mixture, while at times rain made it impossible to work on the site. Students and stuff put a lot of effort, while becoming acquainted with this unique catalan technique. Once more, the day ended with a big barbeque. The pavilion is not yet complete, which means more visits will be paid to the site until the completion of the structure.
IAAC will be visiting Russia next week in a series of conferences with Areti Markopoulou, IAAC Master Program Director, on Advaneced Architecture, Towards the next city.
This tour was made possible thanks to Sreda (www.sredadesign.org), general organisation partner for the Global Summer School in St. Petersburg, Simplex Noise (www.simplex-noise.com), lecture co-organisation in Russia, and Daniyar Yusupov, St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (DAS).
Friday 23rd of May 2014
John Palmesino
Lecture: Fathoms
@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public
JOHN PALMESINO
John Palmesino is an architect and urbanist. He has established Territorial Agency together with Ann-Sofi Rönnskog. Territorial Agency is an independent organisation that innovatively promotes and works for sustainable territorial transformations. Territorial Agency works to strengthen the capacity of local and international communities in comprehensive spatial transformation management. Territorial Agency’s projects channel available spatial resources towards the development of their full potential. Territorial Agency’s work builds on wide stake-holder networks. It combines analysis, projects, advocacy and action. Territorial Agency’s projects include the Athropocene Observatory with Armin Linke and Anselm Franke, and a series of researches on European transformation processes. He is the director of AA Territories Think Tank and a Unit Master at the Architectural Association in London, he teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Days four and five of the Brick Works Thin-Tile Vault Seminar – both days on the site at the Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs – kicked off with a collective effort to finish mounting the Laser-cut cardboard pieces that were used as guides for the construction process. These were attached to the wooden formwork. The steel frame and foundations were then set, and the cardboard guides removed, to give way to the beginning of the brick laying phase. Thin bricks are starting to be laid, held in place with the help of the steel rod structure, and fast setting concrete. Once the first layer of bricks is in place, the metal substructure will be removed, and two more layers of bricks will be placed, finally leading to the completion of the structure in question.
The Practise Fabrication // Robotic Micro Carpentry Seminar, led by Tom Pawlofsky – ETH – with Alexandre Dubor and Sofoklis Giannakopoulos, explores the KUKA robot as a multi-tool, micro factory.
The aim is to give an introduction to robotic fabrication, focusing on setting up processes and tools to be used with the robot. The students are learning and practicing how to teach and offline program the robot’s movements and tool-paths. In fact the first couple of days of the workshop have been dedicated to the student’s understanding and manipulation (manually moving the robot) of the Kuka Robot.
The ambitious objective of the Seminar is to mass-produce wooden chairs, where the robot will handle all steps, from shaping the elements to applying the connections, with the aim of integrating digital planing and production into traditional craft.