Essay: 'An Example of [En]coding Neo Materialism: ProtoRobotic
FOAMing', pp. 56-65.
Published in [En]Coding Architecture. The Book, ed. by Liss C. Werner, Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University - School of Architecture, 2013.
Published in [En]Coding Architecture. The Book, ed. by Liss C. Werner, Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University - School of Architecture, 2013.
Marjan Colletti
In 1968, David Campion rightly
anticipated, albeit with some scepticism, the use of computers within the
architectural practice: ‘It is perhaps still too soon to foresee all the ways
in which computers will eventually be used by architects; there is, however,
little doubt that they will become indispensable to the architect of the
future. Since architects are trained to use their imagination it should not be
so difficult for them to use their imagination in applying computer techniques
and technology.’[1]
In the last two/three decades a quantum leap in computing
power and availability, flexibility and adaptability of computer-aided design
(CAD) software packages has made computers more than indispensible tools to the
discipline of architecture. They have ambitiously revolutionized the design
process, widened the formal vocabulary and fast-forwarded the theory of
architecture into the 21st century. Nowadays we are entering a
postdigital age of what may be called New Materialism, focussed mostly on
finding ways of translating digital design into real life prototyping. The
research here described inquires how CNC technologies and in particular
industrial robots can cope with, and boost, the realization of the raising
complexity of architectural forms generated by designers, and how they can
lower the levitating costs of bespoke shapes, fabrication and assembly.
Rethinking the ways buildings are made can have a considerable impact on costs:
it can save shipping and personnel costs, lower energy and time loss. The study
of fabrication and assembly protocols, shapes and joints, structures and skins
goes hand in hand with material research: its production, behaviour,
properties, parameters and capacities. ProtoRobotic FOAMing investigates
how digital and computational design techniques and robotic fabrication
technologies, in combination with novel material use (in particular foam) can be
improved to achieve the synthesis of material aesthetics (e.g. shapes,
ornamentation) and performativity (e.g. structure, insulation).
Neo Materialism
I would argue that the history of
architecture is also a history of materials, material innovation, material
assembly and fabrication (as well as many other parallel histories) and how
they have drastically changed the discipline. It applies to the material
integration of stone, concrete, steel, glass, digital matter and will apply to
hitherto unknown material discoveries of the future.
In a contemporary debate, materiality as a driving force of
innovation is reflected in a postcyber, postvirtual, postfluid and postdigital
paradigm shift towards Neo Materialism. Neo Materialism marks the ambition to
escape from the socially and environmentally unsustainable, virtual and cyber
architectural visions of the early days, as well as from the standardized,
off-the-shelf and environmentally and financially unsustainable architectural
production methods of the past towards innovative applied theories, techniques
and technologies. On account of new demands of the economical and ecological
crisis it is understandable that architects’ subjectivity and idiosyncrasy are
questioned. However, I will not subscribe to a total dismissal of these values!
An over-rational misguidance of the discipline throughout these paradigm
changes can bring architecture to lose its open and dynamic nature, which sets
it apart from the building industry.
Despite the bewildering variety of the contemporary digital
architectural debate, the most pressing questions today are no longer concerned
with providing theories of cyberspace or virtuality, but with providing a novel
practice and theory of actual applicability. After the initial period of definition
and discovery of disembodied virtual realities, data-scapes and cyberworlds,
the endeavour and challenge for this generation of creative thinkers is to
fully engage with the actuality of digital technologies. For example: social
media and telecommunication technologies do not exist in a detached, virtual
and cyber sphere. They are a fully integrated part of everyday living, they are
fully tactile: swiping on a smartphone’s screen is a physical experience.
Initially, cybernetics and virtual reality had brought forth
a belief in architecture underpinned by the complete disembodiment of
cyberspace, culminating in an almost quasi-religious myth of total liberation
from physical limitations (think of the famous goggles or data gloves for
example). The liberation from the body allowed artists and architects to dream
of unheard potentialities.[2] However, early 21st century
architectural design postulates material truth (party disguised by a
non-humancentric design agenda) and parametric certainty as core functions of
design, rather than cyberworlds. By rethinking real and physical processes of
design and fabrication, architecture itself has performed a u-turn. In the tug
of war of actual body versus virtual phantom, body wins. Matter matters, more
than ever. Because of this trajectory from matter to substance, from virtual
imagery to machinic fabrication etc., the terms postdigital and Neo Materialism
could be used to define this era of real-world physical production and a new
digital paradigm based on evolving processes (including file-to-factory
protocols and biotechnologies).
Robotics
It is save to say that some of the most
relevant research in contemporary architecture is targeted at the translation
of digital aesthetics (for example formal exuberance, geometric complexity,
parametric ornamentation), via postdigital ethics (in particular environmental
sustainability, low carbon impact etc.) to the implementation of Neo Material
design and fabrication processes (computer numerically controlled [CNC]
machines, Rapid Prototyping [RP] technologies and industrial and soft robotics)
in architecture. However, architecture has not encompassed robotic automation
yet.
Industrial robots are mechanical handling devices – advanced
automation systems – controlled by computers and software. They are
particularly useful in a wide variety of tasks such as assembly, material
handling, product inspection, and of applications such as welding, laser
cutting, painting etc. Thanks to the advances of digital systems, computational
power, and programming techniques, more complex tasks can be processed, making
robots more flexible, multi-functional, multi-axial, re-programmable, precise,
and indefatigable. The automotive industry has been the first and largest
employer of industrial robots (the first, Unimate, joined General Motors in
1961). In 2011 the World Robotics report gave an estimate of 1.3 million
industrial robots operating in the factories world-wide by the end of 2014.[3] Most probably an underestimate, according
to the increase in sales in the last years. Surely the number will increase
soon, and drastically. Architecture, which has deeply embraced digital and
computational technology, is therefore ready to assimilate robotic intelligence
into the design and fabrication processes of architecture, such as assembly,
material handling, product inspection, and a plethora of application such as
welding, laser cutting, painting etc. Moreover, ProtoRobotic FOAMing is
an attempt to find an innovative technique for implementing industrial robots
into novel fabrication processes.
Robots and foam have been used before. Of course CNC milling of foam is per se
a widely used subtractive process, for example in the nautical, car and aero
spatial industries, as well as in product design and architecture (milled foam
is in fact often used to produce moulds and formworks for casting). But rarely
it has been used as final product, taking advantage of its insulation
qualities, ornamentability and translucency, as in ProtoRobotic FOAMing.
Robots are also generally used to hot-wire cut foam boards to minimize material
waste (e.g. the 2010 Periscope Foam Tower by Matter Design). This is a
subtractive process, too, which eliminates residual material. Robots are used
for additive processes as well; either as assembly of individual entities (bricks
etc.) or as layering of continuous material (such as concrete or clay).
Furthermore, robotic spray-layering additive processes with foam have been
attempted elsewhere.
However, the process implemented in ProtoRobotic FOAMing
is unique. It is neither a subtractive nor additive process. It is an analogue
real-live simulation of natural growth and self-organization algorithms – since
the resulting prototypes resemble biological and natural structures, such as
bone structures, plants, tissue, sponges, corals… Therefore, FOAMing could be
seen as a Neo Materialist example of encoding and decoding complex analogue
formation processes by observing, computing and controlling material behaviour.
So far, ProtoRobotic FOAMing’s computational focus is
on 'MultiMove coordination' to develop novel robotic production techniques. The
manufacturer describes MultiMove as ’a function embedded into the software that
allows up to four robots together with work positioners or other devices, to
work in cooperation including fully coordinated operation’.[4] REX|LAB at the Institute for Experimental
Architecture at the University of Innsbruck, Austria consists of a flexible and
open 16-axes ABB MultiMove Coordinated Robotsystem with 3 IRB 2600 robotic
arms. It allows for a market-leading performance in terms of accuracy, speed,
cycle-time, programmability and synchronisation with external devices. The
system is controlled by RobotStudio, ABB’s software together with HAL, an
integrated Grasshopper plugin (developed by Thibault Schwartz), which provides
a more direct link between 3D modelling and the robots’ controls. It is
world-wide the only MultiMove system with this particular configuration.
ProtoRobotic FOAMing
In most general terms, this research is
situated in the field of digital design-research. In this particular instance,
this includes [en]coding morphogenesis (draughting, modelling, scripting,
programming) in conjunction with material research (foam), as well as
fabrication workflows and technologies (CNC, robotic MultiMove). The title
summarizes the twofold objectives of this arts-based design-research:
ProtoRobotic: The project looks at the potential of earliest
forms (from Greek prōtos) of robotic fabrication in architecture in the
attempt to start bridging the gaps in scale, price and expertise between
relatively simply achievable RP models and 1:1 architectural production by CNC
equipment (i.e. milling machines, multi-material 3D printing machines) as well
as multi-axial MultiMove robotic systems, such as REX|LAB.[5]
FOAMing: FOAMing suggests that an architecturally
more challenging and original alternative may be found to the Passive House
guidelines, which for example recommend thick layers of insulation to be
sandwiched between cavity walls or hidden behind render. The research
investigates the possibilities of design freedom and morphological manipulation
that result from freeing and extroverting an insulation material such as blown
foam boards from these cavity walls. This research proposes how we could take
advantage of the enormous geometric potential given by digital design tools and
CNC technologies to apply ornamentation, geometry and texture onto these large
surfaces, which could partly be indoors, as well as outdoors. This would open
up new possibilities to architects and designers to design facades in more 3D
terms, as the thickness of the foam allows for more complex shapes and
textures. Furthermore, this approach makes the retro-fitting of badly
performing buildings more design-attentive and precise: with the implementation
of thermo imaging and 3D scanning, precise bespoke facades can be designed to
accurately fit existing conditions.
More importantly the research investigates foam as agile
malleable and soft material (as found in regular tubes). Mixed with additives,
such unstructured mass can be stretched into stiff yet light, filamentous and
porous and fragile structures. The combination of the openness of fully
controlled robotic movements, semi-controlled material mixtures and
unpredictable morphogenetic behaviour is challenging. However, clear pattern of
biomimetic formations emerge, with stunning similarities to natural biological
systems. Simply put: FOAMing seems to manage to decode in an analogue way
encoded complex accelerated biological growth algorithms – as can be seen in the
prototypes developed at the University of Innsbruck, Smartgeometry 2013 in
London, Architecture Challenge 13 in Vienna.
But we should not misunderstand such processes of [en]coding
patterns, forms or processes as mere simulation or mimicry – especially with
foam: certainly considered a ‘non- materials or environments (think of fun
parks and many replica grottos around the world) – or as proper scientific
endeavour. It is and remains a creative, and therefore approximative, act of
design. The creative act of [en]coding production, behaviour, properties,
parameters, capacities, affordances and constraints of (natural, biological or
chemical) materials by the aid of advanced digital, computational and robotic
processes goes beyond simulation. It enters a world of production. Of cultural
production through machinic – robotic – production.
Captions:
Detail of the Molly
Wally exhibition stand at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre London,
for the ICE group, London Centre for Nanotechnology & Department of
Chemistry UCL, by marcosandmarjan. CNC flipped-milled foam installation
with notched MDF structure. Photograph by Marjan Colletti.
REX|LAB at Smartgeometry 2013 at the Bartlett
School of Architecture, in the process of stretching soft foam into
self-supporting filamentous structures. The Smartgeometry Robotic FOAMing
cluster was run by Marjan Colletti, Georg Grasser, Kadri Tamre and Allison
Weiler. Photograph by
Marjan Colletti.
Self-supporting filamentous foam
structures (by Y1 students at the Institute for Experimental
Architecture.Hochbau and by the workshop participants of the Smartgeometry 2013
Robotic FOAMing cluster). Photograph(s)
by Marjan Colletti.
Detail of self-structured bifurcation
filaments. Photograph(s)
by Marjan Colletti.
Detail of quasi-fractal self-organization
of filaments. Photograph(s)
by Marjan Colletti.
1. David
Campion, Computers in Architectural Design (London: Elsevier Publishing
Company, 1968), p. 300.
2.
Perhaps it is not a
coincidence that books on the topic VR use the term ‘dream’ in their titles:
Neil Spiller, Digital Dreams: Architecture and the New Alchemic Technologies
(London: Ellipsis, 1998). Other examples: Paul and Charla Devereux’s
updated classic Lucid
dreaming. Accessing your Inner Virtual Realities etc.
3. World Robotics News: ‘IFR:
All-time-high for industrial robots. Substantial increase of industrial robot
installations is continuing’. Frankfurt, 1 September 2011. http://www.worldrobotics.org/index.php?id=home&news_id=259
accessed Nov. 2013.
4. ‘ABB MultiMove
functionality heralds a new era in robot applications’, MultiMove technical
article.doc ABB – 2004-03-01, http://www05.abb.com/global/scot/scot241.nsf/veritydisplay/734fb908d1c8ee50c12576dd005b69d0/$file/abb%20multimove%20functionality.pdf accessed Nov. 2013.
5. REX|LAB at the University of
Innsbruck consists
of a flexible and open 16-axes ABB MultiMove Coordinated Robotsystem with 3 IRB
2600 robotic arms. This unique piece of equipment is directly controlled via
the HAL Robot Programming & Control plugin for Grasshopper (designed and
written by Thibault Schwartz).
