Designing [with] machines : task- and site-specific robotic teams for architectural in situ making

Abstract

Over the past two decades, robotic fabrication in the context of an architectural practice has become almost synonymous with large-scale industrial robots and fabrication machines. The appropriation of industrial hardware in an architectural context has allowed designers to explore novel processes, materials, and design methodologies enabled by the freedom of mechanized movement that an industrial machine affords. However, in inheriting industrial automation technology, designers and architects had to adapt to and work around the limitations, protocols, and workflows that these machines imply. This thesis proposes an alternative approach to robotic fabrication in architecture focusing on design and development of architecture-specific fabrication robots rather than appropriating existing industrial equipment. It specifically addresses the fabrication of temporary lightweight filament structures within environments that are defined by the existing building stock. This thesis presents three case study projects, each demonstrating a task- and site-specific mobile robotic team for in situ fabrication of tensile filament structures in interior spaces. Each of the three case studies demonstrates a climbing robotic locomotion system that is designed to match the affordances of the site. Each of the robotic systems is able to navigate along the architectural features of a given interior space, and to perform filament winding fabrication tasks in order to produce room-scale architectural objects. Throughout the three presented case studies this thesis explores an approach to the design of robotic fabrication systems and workflows wherein the hardware and the design parameters are treated as interdependent variables. This approach, titled Designing[with]Machines, offers an opportunity to develop robotic hardware and software systems from scratch, and tailoring them to fit the criteria of the design and fabrication processes. The proposed methodology includes simultaneous development of hardware, software, and architectural design parameters, which can be described as a series of interdependent relationships between the machine, the site, the material, and the designer. Within these relationships, the typically rigid technical parameter boundaries of robotic hardware become compliant and adjustable in response to the design criteria.