RC4
Wonderlab
Printing Architecture Manuel Jiménez Garcia, Gilles Retsin
Students Nadia Al Doukhi, Francesca Camilleri, Xiaosong Chen, Yuchuan Chen, Zhe Feng, Wan Jiang, Amreen Kaleel, Hyunchul Kwon, Xiao Lin Li, Ke Liang, Dan Lin, Longchun Liu, Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez, Roman Strukov, Xi Wang
The Bartlett School of Architecture 2015
Project teams Amalgama Nadia Al Doukhi, Francesca Camilleri, Alvaro Lopez, Roman Strukov VoxelTimber Zhe Feng, Ke Liang, Dan Lin, Xi Wang, nBezier Xiaosong Chen, Yuchuan Chen, Wan Jiang, Longchun Liu CurVoxels Amreen Kaleel, Hyunchul Kwon, Xiao Lin Li Thanks to our critics and consultants Zeeshan Ahmed, Alisa Andrasek, Stefan Bassing, Isaïe Bloch, William Bondin, Mario Carpo, Mollie Claypool, Octavian Gheorghiu, Kostas Grigoriadis, Soomeen Hahm, Vincent Hygh, Nan Jiang, Bruno Juricic, Frédéric Migayrou, Igor Pantic, Jose Sanchez, Peter Scully, Vicente Soler, Filip Visnjic, Daniel Widrig
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With an exponential increase in the possibilities of computation and computer-controlled fabrication, architecture is now facing a novel challenge. As architects we can design for infinite resolution and density of information, controlling the deposition of millions of material particles, but the continuous translation to a material reality is still a significant problem. How can we develop computational systems that are not representational, but actually respond to core architectural logics such as space, structure, material and tectonics? Instead of borrowing existing algorithms from ‘nature’ as a found object, how can architecture generate its own algorithms that are purely concerned with design, materiality and structure? Research Cluster 4 researches computational design methodologies for large-scale 3D printing with industrial robots, taking logistical, structural and material constraints as design opportunities to generate nonrepresentational architectural spaces with extreme information density. The cluster investigates the tectonic problems associated with the idea of 3D printing and makes them inherent to the design. Computational models develop as strategies to organise material in space in response to specific structural and logistical inputs, as well as purely aesthetic concerns, without privileging one over the other. We specifically exploit the aesthetic possibilities of the computational organisation of matter: unseen levels of detail, unknown, alien logics, extreme heterogeneity, novel ideas of composition and new systems of relations. Computational processes are deployed both on the level of space and on the level of tectonics and material articulation. This year’s projects explored a diverse range of printable materials, including concrete, plastic and timber. Projects started out with experimentation on a smaller scale, looking at furniture before scaling up to architectural elements such as stairs and columns. Computational systems investigated discrete, voxel-based models and concepts such as combinatronics.