October 16, 2019

Approaching Natural Complexity - The Algorithmic Embodiment of Production

October 16, 2019/ r s-s

Approaching Natural Complexity - The Algorithmic Embodiment of Production

A discursive history of architectural design involves varied relationships to production technologies and industry. Numerous architectural advances have been secured through the invention or exploitation of new technologies. Recent advances in robotic technologies allow design and production to be more easily synthesized for large-scale bespoke fabrication, offering widespread architectural application. Unlike mass-production and mass-customisation production paradigms, today’s robotics technologies provide the designer a more direct, variable, and messy engagement with materials and technology. This facilitates a broader architectural design agenda, only limited by its ability to systematize and actualize design intent. Architectural expression in this context, may be determined through a conscious fusion of three ingredients; design intent, production technology and physical material, with each providing constraints and opportunities.

Stuart-Smith, Robert. “Approaching Natural Complexity - The Algorithmic Embodiment of Production.” In Meeting Nature Halfway, edited by Marjan Colletti and Peter Massin, Innsbruck University Press. 2018. 260–69

meeting-nature-halfway book publication

AML-PENN

Autonomous Manufacturing Lab Weitzman School of Design | University of Pennsylvania
Autonomous Manufacturing Lab (AML-PENN) explores the integration of design and production within robotic processes of building manufacturing. The interdisciplinary AML lab aims to develop innovative methods of autonomous and semi-autonomous bespoke fabrication that leverage real-time robotics, computation, sensor and computer vision technologies within generative design processes for architectural design. AML-PENNDesign is part of PennDesign's Advanced Research and Innovation Lab (ARI).

Advanced Research & Innovation Lab & PennDesign Robotics Lab
The Advanced Research & Innovation Lab (ARI) brings together the combined expertise of PennDesign faculty members with state-of-the art fabrication, measurement and modeling technologies. ARI is led by Professor and Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam and comprises a wide variety of research groups: the Autonomous Manufacturing Lab (Assistant Professor of Architecture Robert Stuart-Smith), the Polyhedral Structures Lab or PSL (Assistant Professor of Architecture Masoud Akbarzadeh), and the Baroque Topologies Lab (Associate Professor of Architecture Andrew Saunders), with additional initiatives in development. As part of multi-year plan to provide additional tools and facilities to support the scholarship of PennDesign faculty and students, ARI opens up vast new territories for innovation and places the School at the forefront of applied and speculative research in several domains.

University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
The Weitzman School of Design prepares students to address complex sociocultural and environmental issues through thoughtful inquiry, creative expression, and innovation. As a diverse community of scholars and practitioners, we are committed to advancing the public good–both locally and globally–through art, design, planning, and preservation.

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