DESIGNERS CAN NOW NOT ONLY MATERIALIZE HIGHLY COMPLEX DIGITAL CONSTRUCTS, BUT ALSO ENGAGE IN A NOVEL UNDERSTANDING OF MATERIAL FORMATION Abstract With the advent of advanced digital fabrication hardware, design research is pushing towards novel approaches to computational design that re-integrate material thinking in architectural practice. By exploring direct manufacturing techniques, designers can now not only materialize highly complex digital constructs, but also engage in a novel understanding of material formation. Material-driven digital design processes are emerging that start from the physical and arrive at the virtual restructuring traditional digital design steps. A project exemplifying such restructuring is the inter-disciplinary Water-Based Robotic Fabrication research by the MIT Mediated Matter Group. In this work, variable property materials are designed from natural polymers and a water-based technology is implemented to allow novel fabrication of large-scale multi-fucntional structured objects.
Bio Laia Mogas Soldevila Is currently a Researcher at the Mediated Matter Group, MIT Media Lab, focusing on design and digital fabrication of biologically-inspired material systems. She completed her Architectural diploma minoring in Visual Arts at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, School of Architecture (UPC-ETSAV) where she graduated with honors. In 2010, she studied a post-professional degree in ‘Advanced Design and Digital Architecture’ at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). In 2010-2011 she was awarded research grants to pursue the ‘Architecture, Energy and Environment’ program at UPC-ETSAB and the ‘Master of Science in Architecture Studies’ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Design Computation Group. Since 2008, she co-leads the DumoLab design research studio with Jorge Duro-Royo at the intersection of architecture, material practices and advanced computation (http://dumolab.com).
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