Niccolo Dambrosio_Portfolio of selected work

Niccolò Dambrosio

Portfolio of selected work

+39 349 1897000

Website nicc.dam@gmail.com

Education and Training

Master of Architecture - MArch II Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA

Professional Qualification

Politecnico di Bari – Faculty of Architecture, Bari, Italy

Master’s Degree in Architecture 110/110 cum Laude Politecnico di Bari – Faculty of Architecture, Bari, Italy

High School Degree (Maturità Scientifica) 100/100 Highschool: Liceo Scientifico D. Cirillo, Bari

Computer Skills

OS: Microsoft Windows - Microsoft Office Suite - AutoCAD - Rhinoceros 3D - Grasshopper

- Grasshopper plug-ins (Karamba, Optimization tools, etc.) - Python - Adobe Creative Suite

Honours and Awards

DETAIL Prize 2020

Buga Fibre Pavilion

German Design Award 2020 Buga Fibre Pavilion

Iconic Awards 2019 - Innovative Architecture Buga Fibre Pavilion

Beyond Bauhaus Award Buga Fibre Pavilion

Maison Fibre

Institute for Computational Design and Construction Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design

For: Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 Location: Venezia, IT Year: 2021 Status: Built Involvement in the project: - Coordination of researchers’ team - Conceptualization - Global design - Development of the building system - Involvemement in fabrication and assembly

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

Maison Fibre, exhibited at the 17th International Architec ture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2021, explores an alternative approach to the design and construction of fu ture habitable spaces. In response to the exhibition theme “How will we live together?”, the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) of the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC at the University of Stuttgart present a full-scale inhabitable installation made entirely from robot ically produced, fibrous building elements, constituting the very first multi-story structure of its kind.

Maison Fibre offers visitors the intense material experience and spatial expression of future, highly dematerialized structures, where each building element can be locally made from just a few kilos of construction material. The fibrous wall and ceiling elements were manufactured using the coreless, robotic winding process developed by the project team, which allows for locally load-adapted design and alignment of the fibers, thus enabling an extraordinary lightweight construction: The code-compliant, load-bearing fiber structure of the upper floor weighs just 9,9 kg/m². The wall elements are even lighter.

Photo: © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

LivMatS Pavilion

Institute for Computational Design and Construction

Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design

For: Freiburg University

Location: Freiburg im Breisgau, Botanical Garden Year: 2021 Status: Built Involvement in the project: - Conceptualization - Scientific development - Involvemement in prototyping and assembly

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

The livMatS Pavilion offers a viable, resource-efficient alternative to conventional construction methods and rep resents an important step towards sustainability in architec ture. It constitutes the first building ever with a load-bearing structure that is entirely made of robotically wound flax fibre, a material that is fully naturally renewable, biodegrad able, and regionally available in Central Europe

The bioinspired pavilion showcases how novel co-design processes that account concurrently for geometrical, ma terial, structural, productional, environmental, and aesthetic requirements, together with advanced robotic fabrication techniques applied to natural materials, are capable to generate a unique architecture that is at the same time ecological and expressive. The distinctive, intricate surface appearance of the structural flax elements is evocative of both vernacular examples of latticework and biological systems.

The load-bearing building elements are produced with a coreless filament winding process developed by the project team. In this additive manufacturing approach, a robot very precisely places fibre bundles on a winding frame. This al lows for the targeted calibration and architectural articula tion of the orientation, alignment, and density of the fibres to fit exactly the structural requirements in the component.

Photo: © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Buga Fibre Pavilion

Institute for Computational Design and Construction Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design

For: Heilbronn Bundesgartenschau 2019 Location: Heilbronn, DE Year: 2019 Status: Built

Involvement in the project: - Technical coordinator - Conceptualization - Global design - Development of the building system - Involvemement in fabrication and assembly

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

Embedded in the wavelike landscape of the Bundesgar tenschau grounds, the BUGA Fibre Pavilion offers visitors an astounding architectural experience and a glimpse of future construction. It builds on many years of biomimetic research in architecture at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart.

The pavilion demonstrates how combining cutting-edge computational technologies with constructional principles found in nature enables the development of truly novel and genuinely digital building systems. The pavilion’s load-bear ing structure is robotically produced from advanced fibre composites only. This globally unique structure is not only highly effective and exceptionally lightweight, but it also provides a distinctive yet authentic architectural expression and an extraordinary spatial experience

Photo: © Roland Halbe

Elytra Filament Pavilion

Institute for Computational Design and Construction Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design

For: Victoria and Albert Museum

Location: London, UK Year: 2016 Status: Built Involvement in the project: - Member of design team - Design studies - Involvemement in fabrication and assembly

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

The Elytra Filament Pavilion celebrates a truly integrative approach to design and engineering. It demonstrates how architectural design can unfold from a synergy of structural engineering, environmental engineering and production engineering, resulting in unique spatial and aesthetic qual ities.

Instead of a linear workflow the design, engineering and production of the installation’s fibrous system is based on a continuous feedback loop. As the design, structural analysis and adaptation of each cell is a fully digital pro cess, the machine control code for the robotic fabrication can be directly derived. Each canopy cell is adapted to its specific loading condition through a differentiation of its fibre arrangement, density and orientation, resulting in a very material efficient and light structure, which weighs just 9kg/m².

Please follow the link for a video of the project

Wot-a-Bot

Wot-a-Bot

Sahej Bhatia, Niccolo Dambrosio, Yuan Mu

Student project - Harvard GSD

Course:

Informal Robotics (C. Hoberman)

Year: 2016

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Autodesk Fusion 360 -Grasshopper -Arduino

New fabrication techniques are transforming the field of robotics. Rather than rigid parts connected by mechani cal connectors, robots can now be made of folded paper, carbon laminates or soft gels. They can be formed fully integrated from a 3D printer rather than assembled from individual components.

Wot-a-Bot is a robotics project developed in the frame work of “Informal Robotics” class at the Harvard GSD. The course draws on cutting-edge research from leading labs and, going beyond traditional engineering approaches, also explores new opportunities for design at the product, architectural, and urban scales.

Wot-a-Bot explores informal robotics, and culminates with the design of an original floating and swimming device which displays a high degree of control in real-time.

No Time No Space /A

Niccolo Dambrosio and Haram Kim

Student project - Harvard GSD

Course: Developable Surfaces (C. Wu)

Year: 2016

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

No Time No Space represents a series of design investiga tions aiming at creating forms which can be manufactured solely through the cutting, bending and joining of thin metal sheets.

Starting from the study of developable surfaces and how to aggregate them for the creation of more complex geom etries (/A), it moved towards the individuation of target surfaces and the subsequent creation of custom-made scripts and algorithms, in Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper environment, for the approximation of said surfaces with developable ones. (/B).

The main goal behind these studies was the mastering of fabrication oriented designs and relevant computational tools, with the added benefit of gaining knowledge on diverse digital fabrication techniques (CNC milling, multiaxis water-jet).

No Time No Space /B

Niccolo Dambrosio and Yuan Mu

Student project - Harvard GSD

Course: Hybrid Formations (V. Alkanoglu)

Year: 2016

Main softwares used: -Rhinoceros 3D -Grasshopper

No Time No Space represents a series of design investiga tions aiming at creating forms which can be manufactured solely through the cutting, bending and joining of thin metal sheets.

Starting from the study of developable surfaces and how to aggregate them for the creation of more complex geom etries (/A), it moved towards the individuation of target surfaces and the subsequent creation of custom-made scripts and algorithms, in Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper environment, for the approximation of said surfaces with developable ones. (/B).

The main goal behind these studies was the mastering of fabrication oriented designs and relevant computational tools, with the added benefit of gaining knowledge on diverse digital fabrication techniques (CNC milling, multiaxis water-jet).