MetaBallism

M E TA B A L L - I S M //MICKEYMATTER

Research Cluster 4, 2015-2016 M.Arch Architectural Design

UCL, The Bartlett School of Architecture

UCL, The Bartlett School of Architecture 2

RESEARCH CLUSTER 4, GILLES RETSIN, MANUEL JIMENEZ MickeyMatter: Hyein Lee, Panagiota Spyropoulou, Pooja Gosavi, Pratiksha Renake

UCL, The Bartlett School of Architecture

CONTENTS

01 - INTRODUCTION

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1.1 Introduction 9 1.2 Analog vs Digital 12 1.3 Prefabrication 14 1.4 Robotics in architecture 16 1.5 Research statement 18

02 - DESIGN RESEARCH 21 2.1 Phase 01 21 2.2 Phase 02 36

03 - FABRICATION RESEARCH

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3.1 Material research 68 3.2 Moulding - Extrusion 72 3.3 Robotic assembly

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04 - GENERATION 02: INTERLOCKING BLOCK

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05 - ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION

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5.1 Architectural strategy 5.2 Design research

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01 - INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

MickeyMatter: Hyein Lee, Panagiota Spyropoulou, Pooja Gosavi, Pratiksha Renake

One of the importance of digital design is the way in which there is emergence not only in terms of mediated design but also the architectural concepts and its realization. This structure of design concepts along with their link to theories and technologies presently engaged in digital design research and digital practice, is suggested as a medium of design research. A novel structure for design is receptive to conditions in which digital ideas are combined as a distinctive body of information that consists a relationship between the digital and architectural knowledge.

Today, digital design technologies have comprehensively been embraced as the major means of production in architectural practice. Moreover, digital technologies have empowered new approaches of design.

It illustrates what might be considered the initial influential stages of a paradigm shift.

In design theory, the alteration of original concepts such as representation, design based on previous instances and other ideologies of the past have been switched by a fresh frame of design models. New theories seem to be subjective to digital technologies that upkeep varieties of form development in relation to intricate geometries.

Digital architecture allows complex calculations and allow intricate forms to be produced with great ease using computer algorithms. This has begun a debate

concerning manifestation and role of technology developing new forms of non-standard architecture.

This research emphasizes on a novel digital architectural approach which deals with assembly and also a fabrication realization that is significant as it suggests a different aesthetic and structural paradigm for architecture and also producing it on a larger scale.

We intend to develop framework that identifies digital design models and a digital fabrication technique associated with it.

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Img.3 Img.1 [image] Available at: http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=6553/ [Accessed 21 April. 2016].

Img.2 . [image] Available at :http://www.parametricism.co.uk/blog/nccr-digital-fabrication/ [Accessed 21 April. 2016].

Img.3 [image] Metropol Parasol Available at http://www.worldfortravel.

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INTRODUCTION ANALOG VS DIGITAL

Even though additive and subtractive manufacturing processes are more accessible, they are majorly material dependent processes with either continuously adding material or subtracting material making these processes essentially continuous. These are also irreversible processes as the dependency on materials is continuous. Now we define components which are independent of these material additions or subtractions. A three-dimensional pixel termed as voxel; used as a discrete material is a remarkable approach to study the composition of an object with discrete materials. The design of the voxel is a critical step which allows the surfaces to interlock and assemble within themselves. The smaller the voxel, the denser the object becomes and this combination of dense and sparse composition of voxels gives the structure the desired contrast in strength and stability.

Digital materials are a combination of construction and programming. Computer programs describe the processing of data as a sequence of individual steps in calculation. Likewise, the fabrication of a building is carried out in a proper order of specific steps. With the term digital materiality, we entitle it to be a growing transformation in the manifestation of architecture arising through the interaction between digital and material processes during design and construction.

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CONTINUOUS

DISCRETE

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Img.4 Brick masonry requires mortar which makes the process continuos Img.5 Lego blocks Img.6 [image] concrete 3D printing by WinSun http//www.yhbm.com/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Img.7 Additive Assembly of Digital Materials By Jonathan Ward Img.8 [image] Contour Crafting Insitu 3D printer by Dr.Berokh Khoshnevis Available at : http//inhabitat.com/ usc-professor-recieves-nasa-grant-to-develop-3d-printed-space-homes/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Img.9 [image] Available at :http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/exhibition/participants/gramazio-kohlerresearch-eth-zurich/[Accessed 21 April 2016].

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INTRODUCTION PREFABRICATION

Pre-fabrication is a practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site. The method controls construction cost by economizing on time, wages and materials.

The term is used to distinguish this process from the conventional construction practice of transporting basic materials and then assembling them.

The practice includes pre-fabrication of building blocks such as doors, window, walls, floor panels, columns, etc in a more conventional architectural design.

Even though pre-fabrication has been a more recent trend in architecture, the concept has not been utilized to its optimum value. It has been associated with conventional building components. Our research takes the concept of pre-fabrication and applies it to produce more complex architectural elements.

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Img.10 . [image] Available at: https://sourceable.net/how-offshore-prefabrication-will-challenge-building-regulations/# [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Img.11 . prefabricated flight of stairs [image] Available at : http://www.coltman.co.uk/stairs.htm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Img.12 . [image] Available at: http://www.brandt.us/category/modular-prefabrication-construction/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Img.13 . [image] Available at : https://sourceable.net/heightened-possibilities-urban-skyscrapers-and-prefabrication/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

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INTRODUCTION ROBOTS IN ARCHITECTURE

Over the last few decades, we have seen research in the field of automation of building processes .A number of robotic solutions have been developed especially for the construction industry. Although robots were conceived as highly flexible machines and have been around for quite some time, they ordinarily perform repetitive tasks. Perhaps one reason for this is how the introduction of robots was fundamentally concentrated in manufacturing industries essentially in increasing the pace of standardization and substituting manual skills in order to bring about profit. Early researchers concentrated on standardization and structured production practices targeting complete automation. As a result, the architectural conditions were disregarded in favour of automation of manual tasks. Even though the intricacy of a building is similar to that of a car, designing and building process is heterogeneous and is dependent on context. This means it cannot be regarded as a product of mass production. As digital paradigms shift, the robotic fabrication emphasizes in involving advanced material design with adaptive, non-standard robotic construction, and hence increasing the ability of digital manufacturing in architecture.

This indicates that various structural arrangements can grow, not only optimizing productivity through the digitally controlled operation of material but also merging the aesthetics and structural concerns.

The robot acts as an impulse in making a change in the production conditions of architecture, by engaging computational design adjacent to reality. “Through robots the digitalization of architecture becomes physical and tangible, taking away the abstract and forced artificial character from the digital in architecture and imbuing it with aesthetic significance and identity�

(Willmann 2014).

It is necessary to create a shared association between robotic technology and the material actuality of architecture as architecture will be susceptible to variations made by robotic technology.

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Img.14. [Video] Hyperbody Msc2 1:1 prototypes - Rob|Arch 2012 Available at https://vimeo.com/61218893 [Accessed 22 April. 2016].

Img.15 . [image] Available at http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/robots-in-architecture [Accessed 21 April.

2016].

Img.16 . .[image] Gantenbein vineyard facade Available at : http://www.gramaziokohler.com/web/e/bauten/52.html [Accessed 21 April.

2016].

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INTRODUCTION METABALL-ISM RESEARCH STATEMENT

DISCRETE MEREOLOGY COMBINATORICS ASSEMBLAGE Team MickeyMatter developed a plastic injection moulded block that aims to increase the tolerances in a robotic assembly process. These elements are light weight, pre-fabricated and can be gripped with vacuum suction and slide into place through their spherical geometry. The team developed a computational method based on combinatorics, that is able to efficiently assemble these serialised elements into complex, non-repetitive assemblies with multiple scales. Complex part to whole relations are developped as a result of both aesthetic decisions, as well as constraints of the robotic fabrication process.

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System of high degree of tolerance

Prefabricated blocks using plastic injection moulding

Robotic assembly - rapid pick and place mechanism

Combinatorial Computation

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02 - DESIGN RESEARCH

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 01 Woody

Design of the digital material

Phase 1 of the research started with an approach to find the potentials of a design module and produce voxel that corresponds to certain properties.

Certain patterns were taken as references in terms of tessellation, directions and combinations.

In order to fabricate useful, robust devices in a massively parallel assembly operation, the voxels used in digital materials should maximize the following properties: • Passively SELF-ALIGN relative to neighbors.

• Be FLIP-INVARIANT and also invariant to rotation, allowing easier manipulation.

• RIGIDLY CONNECT to neighbors to maintain strength of final structure • Fully TESSELLATE to allow for fabrication of both dense and sparse solids

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24 rotations of geometry

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Possible combinations of 2 components

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Stable combinations of 2

After physically testing and evaluating all possible combinations between 2 components listed in the opposite page, the ones that were not capable to provide stable connections were eliminated. The combinations presented above were the ones able to be used in the design process and aggregations - structures that follow.

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 01 Aggregations Recursion, Multiple scales- hierarchies

Pattern 001 - top view

Pattern 001 - perspective view

Aggregation 001 - repetition of pattern 001 in differenet rotations

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Recursion, Multiple scales - hierarchies test case: Seahorse

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Multiple scales aggregation design

Aggregation 002 - top view

Aggregation 002 - front view

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Aggregation 002 - pattern alanlysis

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Aggregation 002 - physical model

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Aggregation 003: Flat surface creation

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Colour-coding: Pattern creation

In order to visualise the brick rotation and add variation to the pattern, two of the outer faces of the brick were colour-coded in black. This difference is following translated into a second material. The above aggregation is used as the seating part of the chair designed following

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 01 FABRICATION

Combination of rigid and soft material

In order to make the components interlock, they need a force which resists the relative motion of the solid surfaces. A force that compresses two parallel surfaces together and its direction is perpendicular to the surfaces. We consider static friction as the basis for interlocking.

A rigid material such as birch plywood was used to make voxels giving it strength as well as stability and desired amount of friction. Each voxel was made of five equal sized elements of the plywood and then combined together with the help of a mold.

A 3D volume consists of 2D surfaces and these two dimensional surfaces can have differentiated materials. The existence of two distinct materials in one object as opposed to having a combination of two different objects with two distinct materials is what makes the object multi-material.

In order to make them multi-material, a combination of rigid and soft materials is used. The soft material had to be a part of the voxel itself giving it certain stability and contribute to the thickness of the component. This material had to be soft at the same time give some friction while interlocking. Leather was used as a soft material which also gave some amount of friction.

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Fabrication steps

Cutting sheets of birch plywood, we create the 5 linear parts that the component is made out of. Using a 3d-printed mould to provide accuracy, the parts are possitioned and glued together. When needed to create a soft surface (ex. chair seat part), the colourcoded surfaces instead of been painted black are covered with leather which is cut into pieces and attached to the plywood.

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Chair physical model - Reference chair design: Kundalini Hara Chair by Giorgio Gurioli, 2002

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Chair physical model - Pattern details

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 01 EVALUATION

Having fabricated the chair, we realize the drawbacks of such an interlocking voxel. Although it fully interlocks and has strength and stability, this voxel could only grow in a specific manner in terms of design and also it did not generate any new aesthetic sensibility when aggregated.

The friction made it difficult to aggregate manually as the counter force needed is high and this would make it even more difficult with the robots and would also be time consuming.

Towards a high degree of tolerance Team Mickey Matter focuses on designing a system which allows ease of robotic assembly. With robotic assembly, the level of precision matters. With components having right angles and friction as a means of interlocking, it becomes difficult as every move has to be precise while being accurately positioned.

Here we consider a system which has curved surface rather than right angles. The reason we look for a curved surface is it increases tolerance of assemble. So we wouldn’t have the problem that it has to be an accurate fit and we make a system that has high tolerance for mistakes with assembly and the curved surface makes it fall into place. Basically if something is half a millimeter out of place, robotic assembly would not be possible and it would be a physical feedback. Now if we take something with such high degree of tolerance, we can avoid this problem in pick and place.

No tolerance

Low tolerance

High level of precision

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High tolerance

Slide into position

DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 02 HIGH DEGREE OF TOLERANCE Convex + Concave forms

Inspiration from nature Owing to the drawbacks in phase 1 of the research, discrete matter occurring in nature was looked upon.

We considered the skeleton joints as they are discrete in nature. The different joints in the skeleton were analyzed ultimately selecting the ball and socket joint which has a male and female connection. The positive and the negative spaces are in integral part of having a good male and female joint. The concave and convex nature of the bone is good way to examine the joint and this was taken into consideration.

The positive and the negative joint in 2D becomes concave and convex in 3D. So the curved surface allows much smoother transition. Our research takes this property into consideration and applies it to the design of discrete digital material.

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 02

2D curved unit design and combinatorial logic

Beginning in two-dimension, the design initiated by taking a hexagon and scooping out curves from some sides and adding them to other sides. By combining these hexagons into staggered grid, it created growing patterns.

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Pattern growth example with 2 different scales

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Pattern generation logic

1,3 or 3,4

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1. Checking one by one the grid cells, if empty, then neighbour cells are checked as well

2. If at least one neighbour cell is full (possible growth) possible combinations are checked, according to the neighbour’s type

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3. For each possible combination check if combination matches the rest of the pattern

4. If any of the possible combination matches, then it locks. Or If not then the cell remains empty and the next cell is checked the same way

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PHASE 02 PHASE 2 FROM 2D TO 3D

Exploration of possible solutions in 3D

Taking the logic used in 2D, we did various explorations in 3D. We explored five possibilities to transform the 2D logic into 3D. These shapes were 3D printed to physically test and analyze the parameters of stack ability, mereology and growth pattern. The growth pattern gave us further solution to select a one of the five designs.

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‘WORM’ design logic

Starting in 2D, we arranged circles with two scales in a grid. Taking an octree grid, three circles were selected (indicated in grey in top figure). The circles in grid surrounding these grey circles where selected to take their arcs and join them with the grey circles as shown in middlle figure. Theses arcs allow for the other discrete piece to fit in. These arcs when transfigured into 3D form concave and convex spaces forming a METABALL which allows two pieces to precisely connect.

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24 rotations of the ‘worm’ component

This voxel connects with other by virtue of its arcs and the positive and negative spaces as mentioned earlier and also has circles in two scales which enables the voxels to grow and form a pattern in mereology. The bigger ball of one scale fits into the arc of the smaller ball in the second scale. Hence, using three different scales is possible in this situation which gives the growth heterogeneity.

This voxel converts into a different data with 24 rotations and can be connected to the previous voxel with a rotation that the existing voxel demands. The figure above shows the 24 rotations of the voxel.

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Possible combinations of 2

Presented above are combinations of two voxels of the same scale with different rotations which can be used to further grow a pattern. Using these rotations, an initial pattern was formed which helped us speculate the direction of the growth pattern, the combinations, connections and aesthetic appeal. The following figure shows an initial digital pattern test of the voxel.

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “WORM” TEST CASE :CHAIR DESIGN

Reference chair design: Panton Chair

Panton Chair, 1965 the world’s first moulded plastic chair made of the same material and in one continuous piece dimensions: H: 84cm x W: 47cm x D: 60cm

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC List of possible combinations by type

Type 1

Type 2

Type 3

Type 4

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Case 01:Manually controlled pattern growth - Intorduce a control voxel for every component (right-low voxel of the big circle)

1. Choose the part of the pattern to grow

2. ‘MouseClick’ on the control voxel of the componet

to grow next to

3. Find growing options

4. One of the options will be generated randomly

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Case 02: Linear growth towards a point - Use of control points (the center if the big circle)to generate, locate and rotate geometries

1. Save possible neighbour’s control points depending on the rotation type of the initial component

4. If none of the previous two distances is 1,5*r

(r=radius of the big circle), then rotate 90o clockwise and check again

2. Check distance between each possible neighbour’s control point and the attractor point and find the closest one

5. Rotate until the new component matches the previous one (the condition is met)

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3. Create new component at the closest control point in rotation type 1. Then check distance between smaller circles of the new component and control point of the previous one

6. The first possible rotation that matches it gets locked in position.

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Case 03: Growth within a boundary

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Code flow: 1. Check for possible neighbours’ control points

2. Find matching rotation of new component

3. Check if at least half of the new component is within the shape boundary (condition to be met: at least the big circle ‘s center or both small circles’ centers should be inside the shape outline)

4. If the condition is met, then new component is locked into possition and is added to the aggregation

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Case 04: Chair design generation

chair shape

voxelize

point cloud

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DESIGN RESEARCH

PHASE 2 - Generation 01: “WORM” COMBINATORICS: COMPUTATIONAL LOGIC Combination of two scales

chair shape

chair shape

voxelize

voxelize

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point cloud

create point clouds out of voxels

2nd scale

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combination

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03 - FABRICATION RESEARCH

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FABRICATION RESEARCH MATERIAL RESEARCH

Potential materials for casting

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FABRICATION RESEARCH MATERIAL RESEARCH

Material Test

Hot Melt Glue Stick

ABS Pellets

Polyethylene

Flexible Pellets

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FABRICATION RESEARCH INJECTION MOULDING

Material Test

ABS Pellets Extrusion time Material used Healing Cooling Strength

Flexible Pellets Extrusion time Material used Healing Cooling Strength

PLA Plastic Extrusion time Material used Healing Cooling Strength

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FABRICATION RESEARCH PLASTER CASTING

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FABRICATION RESEARCH 3D PRINTING

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FABRICATION RESEARCH CNC 3-AXIS MILLING MACHINE For making the mould, we chose aluminium as it is heat resistant which enables us to carry out casting tests with materials. In order to get the accurate shape for casting, we chose to make the mould using CNC machine. In the case of injection moulding, the aluminiun gives impact resistance to heat and force generated by the extruder.

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1. Aluminium block clamped Setup in CNC Machine 2. CNC Milling with Coolent 3. CNC Milling Cutting Tools 4. Aluminium Mould 3

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FABRICATION RESEARCH PATTERN AGGREGATION TESTS

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FABRICATION RESEARCH SELF - ASSEMBLY EXPERIMENT

HIGH ENTROPY AND LOW ENTROPY

Considering the uniqueness of this unit as it allows for 360 degrees of tolerance ,we decided to make a chair with high entropy which is random nd chaotic with lots of possibilities of connection.

A mold using polystyrene was made in layers. Metaballism units were tossed randomly into the mold layer by layer pouring glue between every layer. After tossing the units completely along the figure of the chair, it was demolded layer by layer. A chair with high entropy was achieved.

This chair when turned upright collapsed as the connections at the structural positions cannot be controlled.

So we go for low entropy which is highly ordered and has limited connections.

We discretize the connection possibilities by establishing gluing points within the topology of the geometry.

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Layers of the panton chair for the mold

Layer 4

Layer 5

Random tossing of the components into the mold

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FABRICATION RESEARCH MULTI-SCALE VOXEL ANALYSIS Design and Analysis for Physical 3D Voxel

• MULTI-SCALE • HETEROGENEITY • DISCRETENESS

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FABRICATION RESEARCH MULTI-SCALE VOXEL ANALYSIS Design and Analysis for Physical 3D Voxel

SCALE 1

SCALE 3

SCALE 2

Width - 50mm Volume - 11,200 cubic mm Weight - 15 gms Width - 100mm Volume - 89,650 cubic mm Weight - 66 gms

Width - 200mm Volume - 7,17,120 cubic mm Weight - 530 gms

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FABRICATION RESEARCH MULTI-SCALE VOXEL ANALYSIS Design and Analysis for Physical 3D Voxel

SOLID VOXEL • Heavy • Material Wastage • Time Consuming Extrusion

HOLLOW VOXEL • Light Weight • Material Efficient • Time Saving Extrusion

MALE AND FEMALE PART OF THE VOXEL

In the fabrication of the voxel of smallest scale, we made a solid mould. When we consider the higher scales, the voxels will be heavy and also lead to material wastage. In order to make them light-weight, we decided to fabricate hollow voxels. Voxels at a larger scale will be made in two parts with a two part mould.

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ALUMINIUM MOULD DESIGN APPROACH Mould Optimization

Combined parts of Voxel

Representation of both parts of Voxel

Representation of both parts of Mould

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ALUMINIUM MOULD DESIGN APPROACH Mould Optimization Mold Design Approach

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Increased Productivity

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Reduced Material Wastage

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Cost Effective

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Simplified Onsite Logistics

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Aluminium Mould Optimization

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add mould pic

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1. Oil to be sprayed on Mould 2. Male and Female part of Mould combined 3. Mould Clamping 4. Clamped and tight closed both parts of Mould 5. Mould is fixed to the Nossel of Extrusion 6. Extrusion Machine to be heated to 250 degree 7. Unclamp Mould 8. Extruded Male & Female parts of Components

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FABRICATION RESEARCH Aluminium Mould Optimization

Injection Moulding Problems and Solutions

Representation of both parts of Mould

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FABRICATION RESEARCH Aluminium Mould Optimization

Injection Moulding Problems and Solutions

Representation of both parts of Mould

Male Part of the Mould

Female Part of the Mould

Male Part of the Component

Female Part of the Component

Combination of both parts of Component

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FABRICATION RESEARCH CNC Milled Aluminium Hollow Mould

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FABRICATION RESEARCH CNC Milled Aluminium Hollow Mould

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY END EFFECTOR

Compressed Air

Air Solenoid

Vacuum generator

24V Power connected to robot

Air Hose

Suction cup

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Connected to the tube

Robot Flange Two way Air Solenoid

Push-fit connector 1/4

Push-fit connector 1/8

Steel Flange plate to attach the tool to the robot Steel rod connected for vacuum flow

Single stage vacuum

Steel rod welded to flange plate

Air hose Push-fit connector female 8mm to 8mm

Aluminium suction cup Neoprene fabric

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY END EFFECTOR

Suction cup evolution

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Combination strength and stability evaluation based on gluing points

22 possible gluing points per component

0 glue points

1 glue point

2 glue points

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3 glue points

4 glue points

Combination feasibility based on support points All possible gluing points of the bottom half of the component in each rotation can provide support contributing to the feasibility of the combination. In order to achieve the feasibility of a component deposition during the robotic pick and place process each component added ot the structure needs to have at least 2 support points provided by the neighbouring pieces.

Condition to be met : ≼ 2 support points

Possible support points per component rotation type 1-4

type 5-8

type 9-12

type 13-16

type 17-20

type 21-24

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

The voxel can be picked by the suction cup from four points of the bigger sphere in the voxel. Picking up from the bigger sphere of the voxel enables better grip in order to place it in the desired position correctly. Each pick up position can give eight different rotations when rotated with axis 5 and axis 6 of the robot arm+

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Case sudy 001: Robotically assembled chair prototype Pattern analysis

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Type 4 Type 1

Type 2

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Case sudy 001: Robotically assembled chair prototype Assembly sequence in layers

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Setup for robotic assembly

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4 1. Negative space for positioning Voxel 2. Voxel position 3. End Effector attached to the robot 4. Base for the robotically assembled chair

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Assembly tests

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Robotic Chair Prototype 01: Pattern based design Number of 3rd Scale components: 12 Number 2nd Scale components: 171

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Pattern catalogue

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Robotic Chair Prototype 02: Code Generated chair Number of big size components: 15 Number of medium size components: 78

chair shape

chair shape

voxelize

voxelize

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point cloud

create point clouds out of voxels

2nd scale

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combination

Assembly sequence by layer

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FABRICATION RESEARCH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY

Robotic Table Prototype Structural strategy

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Number of big scale components: 70 Number small scale components: 210

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04 - GENERATION 2: INTERLOCKING BLOCK

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “BEAR�

Sphere packing methodology Further exploring the design possibilities of concave and convex surfaces, an attempt to get them interlock was made. Here, we used sphere packing as it is a stable form of aggregating spheres. Sphere packing is an arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within a containing space. An arrangement is made in which the spheres fill as large a proportion of the space as possible. The density of the arrangement was done taking a grid and placing the spheres with the mid-point of the grid. The voids between these circles were filled with circles with smaller diameter that fill the gap between the existing circles.

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The same logic as used in generation 1 was applied. A combination of small and big spheres was selected and using arcs these spheres were connected forming yet another metaball. These voxels were connected in a 3D sphere packing grid. The connections between these voxels is stable and allows for more interlocking. We studied growth patterns by aggregating these voxels in the same grid.

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “BEAR JUNIOR�

INTERLOCKING GEOMETRY

Further modifications were made to reinforce more interlocking between the voxels. Using the same sphere packing grid as mentioned earlier, this time the combinations of the spheres selected in the grid differed. More number of spheres were selected and these spheres were again connected with arcs forming concave and convex surfaces creating a new modified voxel. Again patterns and aggregations were made to study the growth and connectivity. Figure** shows an aggregation of the modified voxel.

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “BEAR JUNIOR” INTERLOCKING GEOMETRY

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “BEAR JUNIOR” INTERLOCKING GEOMETRY

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DESIGN RESEARCH PHASE 2 - “BEAR JUNIOR” INTERLOCKING GEOMETRY

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05 - ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION ARCHITECTURAL STRATEGY

ARCHITECTURAL SCALE

STRATEGY

Robotic manufacturing of voxels

Logistics (sphere packing)

Kit-of parts Robotic assembly in factory

“A system is considered to scale economically if it responds to increased processing requirements with a sub-linear growth in the resources used for processing.”

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On-site assembly with parts library

Robotic manufacturing of voxels

Economies of scale A system is considered to scale economically if it responds to increased processing requirements with a sub-linear growth in the resources used for processing.

We propose the automation of manufacturing of individual voxels at a larger scale by robots.

Extruders are attached to the robotic arm and the molds are clamped in a row; and through a mechanical process, we create a system of automated production of voxels. Handling multiple identical components is an efficient use of the computer in the planning stage, and use of standard components can take advantage of mass-production and mass-customization manufacturing technologies.

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION ARCHITECTURAL STRATEGY MICKEYMATTER FACTORY

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Application of object-oriented building techniques, where building components are pre-designed / pre-fabricated for inclusion in joint-based (linear element), panel-based (planar element), module-based (solid element), and deployable (time element) construction systems. Kit-of-parts architecture involves organizing the individual parts and raw material in a building into assemblies of standard easy-to-manufacture components, sized for convenient handling or according to logistical constraints. The construction of the building is carried out on the assembly level as opposed to the raw material level. We define a parts library describing every major assembly in the building. The assemblies are conceived in a systematic way, based on certain rules such as increment, size, or by shape. Standard, simple connections between the assemblies are carefully defined, so the number of possible shapes and appearance the parts can take is vast.

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION ARCHITECTURAL STRATEGY LOGISTICS

Transportation & On-site assembly with parts library

We define a parts library where all the parts on a structure are demarcated into separate aggregations. These separate aggregations are transported to the site and then connected on site. Since we work with sphere packing methodology, we propose the logistics also in a sphere packing method where the individual parts are stacked and they form a sphere packing grid in a constraint of the logistical parameter in this case the truck. In this manner, the space is completely utilised and the pieces are transported to the site to be assembled into the structure using cranes.

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ON-SITE ASSEMBLY

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH COLUMN DESIGN

Reference column design: Frei Otto, Stuttgart 21, 2011

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH DOME DESIGN Structural strategy

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH DOME DESIGN Pattern library

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH DOME DESIGN Pattern library

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH HOUSE DESIGN

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Top view

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ARCHITECTURAL SPECULATION DESIGN RESEARCH HOUSE DESIGN

Parts library

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TEAM MICKEYMATTER Hyein Lee Panagiota Spyropoulou Pooja Gosavi Pratiksha Renake

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