Genetic Algoritm for Stable Brick Assembly – Video

Arduino Controlled Rotating Saw Video

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water. We used the crystallizing properties of borax to test the potential of making structures, using various threads and meshes.

Team members : Viraat Kumar, Gamze Gunduz, Diego Lopez Ibarra

KRY_N_STALLATION presentation

Video Links :

Crystal growth video :Crystal growth test

Scaffold test : Thread Scaffold

On site : On site construction

teaching staff: Marta Male-Alemany, Victor Viña, Brian Peters

Our project “material networks” is based upon the investigation of a multimaterial building processes with the aim of being able to generate material networks which depending  on environmental factors on site such as heat, light, wind may feature specialized physical properties according to  the quantity and deposition of the single materials in the network. The deposition process is based on a piling principle. The project is still progressing,meanwhile some of the accomplished tasks and stages of the project are illustrated below.

simulation of granular material deposition in processing

various nozzle types with each a specific material can be placed in order to simulate multiple gemometric patterns emerging during deposition over time; even this simulation is still two dimensional it already conveys an idea of th ecomplex interaction of material which is possible through stacking of multiple layers.

an extension of the processing script allows  for simulation of the wettening process as well; water can be poured on top of the sand piles and the penetration depth can be analized thus informing about the quantitative relation between the  thickness of the deposited material layer and the poured amount of water.

this is the first approach of replicating the “light detector” from the hacking workshop in a processing simulation; the idea is that an environmental physical value can be measured ( grey scale ring ) and the pile deposition can happen within a certain “wall” thickness corresponding to the measured environmental factor; i.e. we can measure radiation and react accordingly with different wall thicknesses.

click here to see the “granular material simulation” working

teaching staff: Marta Male-Alemany, Victor Viña, Brian Peters

Our project “material networks” is based upon the investigation of a multimaterial building processes with the aim of being able to generate material networks which depending  on environmental factors on site such as heat, light, wind may feature specialized physical properties according to  the quantity and deposition of the single materials in the network. The deposition process is based on a piling principle. The project is still progressing,meanwhile some of the accomplished tasks and stages of the project are illustrated below.

test in variation of deposition sequence

manual deposition test with colored sand; creation of vertical and overlapping partitions between piles depending on tempism during deposition process. If piles are generated consecutively piles overlap each other, if deposition happens at the same time the a close to vertical separation between piles emerges.

machinic material deposition setup; colored sand has been poured from three nozzles contemporaneously.

we expected to see purely vertical partitions emerging during contemporaneous deposition of piles; instead due to imprecision inthe deposition process we had clearly blurred areas between two piles

testing realtion of quantity of water and layer thickness during hardening process with cement

machinic control of deposition with new nozzle

In order to organize the deposition of multiple materials machinically we created a nozzle prototype which can be filled with custom plastic bottles containing sand, cement or any other granular material sort. This nozzle can be connected to the shopbot at Iaac, a 3-axis milling machine which during the development of a separate machine can serve for first experiments in material deposition. Switch of scale

for further information please download our  “midterm presentation” pdf

click here for short documentation movies of material tests

teaching staff: Marta Male-Alemany, Victor Viña, Brian Peters

the “light detector” is the outcome of the workshop in digital tectonics  2011 at Iaac . By taking apart a basic printer and reusing its motors in combination with some laser cut MDF parts and a microcontroller we finally succeeded in transforming the old printer into a light mapping device which could both map light intensity and localize areas of equal light intensities in a radial diagram.

for further information please download our “hacking devices” pdf

to see the “light detector” in action, please click here