Phase Change: Explorations in Robotic Forming with Thermoplastic Materials
This workshop will explore opportunities to overcome tooling
limitations in the formation of individualized thermoplastic building
components using robotic formation during phase change and speculative
additive robotic processes (3D Printing). Explorations will include the
translation of the rigid ideal of computational design space to the soft
reality of an uncertain built environment as mediated by the industrial
robotic work cell. In this case, the industrial robot precisely
translates the digital geometry but the final form is characterized by
the uncertainties of the thermoplastic material behavior during
phase-change. The resulting artifacts will emerge from the integration
of the precise and the imprecise through a feedback loop between the
digital design environment and the results of a series of physical
material experiments. Material properties are considered intrinsic to
the design process and the robotically controlled fabrication process
will be saturated by feedback from the behavioral logics of the material
itself. The exploration of complex material behavior during
phase-change will extend to the introduction of novel additive
manufacturing technologies through the combination of generic robotic
manipulators and custom end effectors. The introduction of additive
processes begins to speculate on fabrication scenarios that distance
themselves from current linear file-to-factory based methods and
industrialized production-modes as well as introduces opportunities for
the eventual introduction of Additive Manufacturing in Architecture.This workshop is kindly supported by the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design-Center for Design Research, University of Innsbruck’s Institute for Experimental Architecture-REX | LAB, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design- Design Robotics Group.
More info here
Workshop leaders:
Chip David Clark – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Marjan Colletti – University of Innsbruck
Georg Grasser – University of Innsbruck
Nathan King – Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Kadri Tamre – University of Innsbruck
Allison Weiler – University of Innsbruck
