An amazing workshop was held this weekend at IAAC with the designer Ronen Kadushin about Open Design:

“As makers convincingly push on to become a cultural movement, they create a new breed of products that is free from traditional product design discipline, and the need to be perfect. These products are an authentic expression of the person or collaboration that created them, and with the practice of openness, successful products are quickly copied and modified. But to reach bigger audiences and have an impact on the way products come into the world, a maker has to consider the aesthetic qualities of hers or his creation, and the manner and content that is communicated through it. This workshop aimed to elaborate authentic expression by introducing a design process based on storytelling. A guided storytelling design process sets a creative environment for generating ideas and concepts, understanding their potential, and developing them into objects that reflect your character and unique way of expression. The workshop was a learning experience where the participants, their qualities, skills, creativity and energy were the focus.”
Ronen Kadushin – Open Design

During this 4 days workshop, students from the Fabrication Ecologies research line of the Master in Advanced Architecture 2013 were able to develop and test a new fabrication protocol deploying Hemp fibres by means of an industrial robot.
Through the production of a 1:1 scale prototype, the 4 teams explored the design opportunities arising from 2 different fabrication techniques developed within the Fabrication Ecologies Studio, focussed on the production of:
- an aggregate substratum via pick and place of fibrous component units.
- a non-woven fabric skin via robotic spraying of row hemp filaments.

The collaborative effort progressed in loops, with the work of one group informing the operations of the next. The feedback was mediated by a set of interfaces for real-time scanning (Kinect) and digital generative modelling (Grasshopper). The fabrication process than evolved into a conversation between designer, machine, material system, designer, prototype, machine, designer, and so on; each loop driven by a set of negotiations and specific design decisions.

Such fabrication protocol opens the possibility for a new form of participatory mass-customisation, ones that operates in real-time during and takes into account multiple factors such as design intentions, material behaviour, mechanical constraints and microclimatic conditions.

Machinic Conversations II on Vimeo.

Program Directors: Marco Poletto, Claudia Pasquero,

Workshop tutors: Andrea Bugli, Alexandre Dubor
Students: Jean Akanish, Drew Carson, Franciso Castillo, Marisa Charusilawong, Alexander Dolan, Kartik Gala, Sofokli Giannakopoulous, Gabriela Gonzalez, Vincent Huyghe, Yogesh Karekar, Stefanos Levidis, Iker Luna, Peter Malaga, Niccolo Marini, Priyanka Narula, Venkatakasi Raju, Aishwarya Sampath, Ahmed Selim, Jin Shihui, Georgios Soutos, Ali Yerdel

Architect, New York/Paris

Professor, Columbia University

Bernard Tschumi is an architect based in New York and Paris. First known as a theorist, he exhibited and published The Manhattan Transcripts (1981) and wrote Architecture and Disjunction, a series of theoretical essays (MIT Press, 1994). In 1983, he won the prestigious competition to design and build the Parc de la Villette, in Paris. Since then, he has made a reputation for groundbreaking designs that include the New Acropolis Museum, Le Fresnoy Center for the Contemporary Arts, and the Vacheron-Constantin Corporate Headquarters, among other projects. Tschumi’s work has been widely exhibited, with solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Venice Biennale. He served as Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York from 1988 to 2003. The New Acropolis Museum has been widely acclaimed, receiving awards from the American Institute of Architects, the French Ministry of Culture, and was one of six finalists for the Mies van der Rohe 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

Abstract: Bernard Tschumi will discuss concepts in architecture and his recently published book, a comprehensive documentation of his 30-year investigations as a designer, builder, and theorist. (Bernard Tschumi, Architect, New York and Paris; Professor, Columbia University)

Our first experimental set up was the following:

-The robot was controlled by each student via Grasshopper, through the use of the KUKA | Krc plug-in (from association for robots in architecture) for Grasshopper and Rhino. Each group did draw a series of parametric lines that would become the tool paths for the robot.

-A video simulation with the virtual robot in Grasshopper was performed by each student to understand the behaviour of the machine along the path and amend eventual errors; the video  would allow also the testing of multiple path parameters and robot behavioural options.

-The tool mounted on the robot contained 1 fixed LED light and 2 or 4 blinking ones; the blinking was also controlled via Grasshopper and related to the robotic arm path.

-A camera was positioned in front of the robot and its exposure tuned to the particular lighting conditions and the length in time of the tool path. Such configuration allowed capturing the ephemeral lighting traces left by the robotic arm movements. The robotic behaviour is therefore translated into a 3D robotic light painting.

FABRICATION ECOLOGIES 2013
Research Line Directors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto [ecoLogicStudio]
Robotic Fabrication Assistant : Alexandre Dubor
Students : Venkatakasi Raju, Dolan Alexander, Ali Yerdel, Francisco Castillo, Drew Carson, Georgios Soutos, Niccolo Marini, Priyanka Narula, Gabriela Gonzalez, Jin Shihui, Nasr Chamma, Kartikashok Gala, Aishwarya Sampath, Giannakopoulous Sofoklis, Vincent Huyghe, Peter  Malaga, Ahmed Selim, Iker Luna, Yogesh Karekar, Jean Akanish, Charusilawong Marisa, Levidis Stefanos