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.

Sense-It explores the potentials of materially-directed generative fabrication through an integration of research in robotic sensing, plastic deposition, and generative code. This approach tests the limits of a machine-material-sensor interface to act autonomously, without direct adjustments from an observing operator, and capitalizes on sensor responsiveness and material agency to produce unpredictable outcomes. This workshop moves away from optimization and efficiency as the primary drivers of digital fabrication in pursuit of a model where materials assume maximum agency in the fabrication process. Feedback loops between machining parameters, real-time sensors, and plastic deposition will infuse the workshop results with both intelligence and an intentional instability, where the outcomes can be guided but never fully predicted.

The Workshop participants are working in groups of three to four with Arduino microcontrollers, basic electronic components, and sensors to developing their own logic for the workshop’s unique sensor-deposition workflow. Manipulating simple code in Kuka Robot Language (KRL) and Arduinos, each group is testing physical deposition patterns using the sensor of their choice. Through design strategies comprised of small adjustments to the workflow’s many parameters—robot movements, speed of actuation, limits of sensor data, etc.—catalogue of possible outcomes is being created.

Hexis, the dancing kuka, blurring the line between human and machine, by Carmen Aguilar

Voltaic, an interactive energy ecosystem (with adaptive, intelligent textiles), by Mary Katherine Heinrich

Temple of Silence, exploring the senses, by Sebastian Alvarado

Today the IAAC OTF researchers presented their research proposals to the partner companies (KUKA, CRICURSA, SANTA&COLE, DUPONT, STORA ENSO, BREINCO and CERAMICA CUMELLA), as well as the research line advisors, to discuss the next possible steps towards the development of their experimental prototypes.

9 projects, presented by 10 OTF researchers, in total were presented inside the research lines of INTELLIGENT BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS, and SMART URBAN ELEMENTS, bringing forth great interest on behalf of the partner companies, and an interesting discussion in general.

The research proposals presented various aspects and themes of interest:

_How can buildings meet the needs of public space, adapting continuously to the changing conditions posed by the environment and the interaction between public and private space? What is the potential of a building to interact and adjust to its physical, environmental and social context?

_What are the potentialities of embedding responsive technologies into various materials to generate smart materials, and dynamic products, finally a dynamic and responsive city, potentially generating constant evolution in the spatial context of these material applications, according to the real time needs of these contexts?

_What is the potential of parasite architecture towards the rehabilitation of obsolete infrastructure in the dense urban scape?

_How can invisible elements, such as pollutants and sound, become the basis for the interaction with space, creating new spatiality, according to urban and social needs, and potentially generating energy for these?

Today at IAAC the OTF Researchers followed a lecture on Intellectual and Industrial Property & Unfair Competition, given by Ignasi Espiell, Santiago Nadal, and Mònica López, vibrant young and experienced lawyers from Volartpons and SNAbogados.

This lecture gave the OTF Researchers the opportunity to understand and fully grasp the potentials, limits, the path to be undertaken, and possible problematics that can be encountered regarding Patenting, Industrial Design, Trademarks, unfair competition, and copy rights, as well as a final discussion on general Intellectual and industrial property doubts.

This year the researchers will follow one of three research lines: 3D printing in Architectural Construction, tutored by Enrico Dini, Petr Novikov and Sasha Jokic; Intelligent Building Constructions, tutored by Areti Markopoulou, Marc Viader, Silvia Brandi and Victor Arribas; and Smart Urban Elements, tutored by Luis E. Fraguada, Ali Basbous and Roland Bosbach.

The researchers’ projects will be developed hand in hand with the partner companies, consisting in: KUKA, CRICURSA, SANTA&COLE, DUPONT, STORA ENSO, BREINCO and CERAMICA CUMELLA.

This morning, after a welcoming and introductory presentation given by Areti Markopoulou, IAAC Master Program Director, each of the Partner Companies briefly presented themselves, and outlined some of their innovation and development interests.

With the knowledge gained today, the researchers will proceed to further elaborate their Projects, based on an individual research topic based on their own interests and prior experience, and in line with the challenges proposed by the divers partner companies, and start prototyping.

On the 26th of June in IAAC from 02:00 pm to 09:00 pm

Tutors:

Claudia Pasquero
Marco Poletto

International Jury Board:

Manuel Gausa – IAAC Dean
Areti Markopoulou - MAA Director – IAAC
Thomas Ermacora – Lime Wharf
Ulrika Karlsson – Stockholm Faculty of Architecture
Neil Leach – University of Southern California
Jaume Avellaneda – ETSAV-Department of Construction
Juan Carlos Sanabria – Veritas University in Costa Rica
Edouard Cabay - AA School of Architecture
Jordi Pagés – Max de Cusa Architects
Manja van de Worp – AA School of Architecture

in Architecture

Computation, in its most basic meaning, refers to the processing of information. In this way, both machinic processes operating in the binary realm of the digital, as well as material processes operating in the complex domain of the physical can be considered computational. The lecture will introduce Achim Menges’ work on exploring the territory where machine computation and material computation potentially overlap, where they not simply co-exist but intensely interact in the design process. He will present the related design research – conducted at the Architectural Association, at Harvard University and at his new institute at the University of Stuttgart University over the last ten years – along a series of constructed prototype buildings. This will include the institute’s latest research pavilion, which was entirely constructed by robotic carbon and glass fibre filament winding processes.

Lecture “Material Computation in Architecture”
3rd of June // 19:30 // IAAC Auditorium // C/Pujades 102 BARCELONA

Achim Menges, born 1975, is a registered architect and professor at University of Stuttgart where he is the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design (since 2008).  In addition, he has been Visiting Professor in Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (2009-10), at the AA School of Architecture in London (2009-current) and at Rice University in Houston (2004). Achim Menges graduated with honors from the AA School of Architecture in London (2002) where he subsequently taught as Studio Master of the Emergent Technologies and Design Graduate Program (2002-09) and as Unit Master of Diploma Unit 4 (2003-06).
Achim Menges practice and research focuses on the development of integral design processes at the intersection of morphogenetic design computation, biomimetic engineering and computer aided manufacturing that enables a highly articulated, performative built environment. His work is based on an interdisciplinary approach in collaboration with structural engineers, computer scientists, material scientists and biologists. Achim Menges has published several books on this work and related fields of design research, and he is the author/coauthor of numerous articles and scientific papers.  His projects and design research has received many international awards, has been published and exhibited worldwide, and form parts of several renowned museum collections.