Penn MSD-RAS ARCH802 Material Agencies: Robotics & Design Lab Final Review May 2021
Instructor: Robert Stuart-Smith, TA: Patrick Danahy
Projects developed in collaboration with courses ARCH804, 806, 808 & Instructors: Billy Faircloth, Nathan King, Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo y Lopez, Jeffrey Anderson
Penn MSD-RAS Program Director: Robert Stuart-Smith

Yuran Liu, Riley Studebaker, Yuxuan Wang

Grey Wartinger, Matthew White, Jiansong Yuan

Deon Kim, Geng Liu, Claire Moriarty

Master of Science in Design: Robotics and Autonomous Systems (MSD-RAS)
Students: Deon Kim, Geng Liu, Yuran Liu, Claire Moriarty, Riley Studebaker , Yuxuan Wang, Grey Wartinger, Matthew White, Jiansong Yuan

ARCH802: Material Agencies: Robotics & Design Lab
Instructor: Robert Stuart-Smith @robstuartsmith
TA: Patrick Danahy Ehly @pdanahy

Together with:

ARCH804: Advanced RAS Programming
Instructors: Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo y Lopez @garciadelcastillo & Jeffrey Anderson @anderson1512

ARCH806: Experimental Matter
Instructor: Nathan King @thetestcell

ARCH808: Scientific Research & Writing
Instructor: Billie Faircloth @kierantimberlake

Design Research: Material Agencies engages with robotic fabrication and material production as generative contributors to creative design outcomes. Qualitative design character will be curated through the parallel development of custom approaches to conceiving, manipulating, and responding to matter. Material Agencies explores an architecture designed and manufactured to leverage robotic fabrication to operate as polyvalent matter, a complex heterogeneous whole that goes beyond discrete functional or aesthetic expression and operates as a bespoke solution to multiple conflicting design criteria.  Working with ceramics, projects aim to integrate ornamental qualities found in early high-rise ceramic cladding by architects such as Louis Sullivan that are not economically feasible in present day mass produced building ceramics. Participants will develop an approach to design and production, operating primarily through the development of fabricated prototypes and computational, material, and robotic processes, with the aim of developing novel design affects intrinsic to material and production efficiencies.
Speculative Application Scenario: The studio will develop designs that challenge established roles for architectural ceramics with a focus on facade screens, rethinking their ability to operate within the public sphere, particularly at street level. Designs will be developed digitally to the scale of approximately one typical structural bay (approx. 20m x 5m), part of which will be physically fabricated.  Each student group is free to vary the site, scale and application scenario to best fit their thesis proposition.