Figure: Robot Made 2024 Plaidwood

Instructor: Aryan Rezaei Rad (UofT Engineering) & Nicholas Hoban
Summer 2026
Dates: May 25th - June 12th 2026

Robot Made is a hands-on Design Build, allowing students to engage in the process of computational design to digital fabrication workflow, exploring techniques for the design, simulation, and fabrication of geometrically complex wooden structures. Wood is unique not only within its material properties within construction but also its ability to store embodied carbon and reduce GHG emissions. Robot Made engages with the following larger question: How can we use computational tools to challenge conventional methods of wood construction through design to digital fabrication facilitated through robotic systems?

Robot Made focuses on computational design to digital fabrication. Students will learn the Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) process through the development of a computational model which allows for structural analysis, simulation, and robotic fabrication process. Construction and assembly logic are imbedded within the computational and physical model, allowing for expedited onsite construction. Rarely is the design to fabrication process experienced within an academic setting, as it is often the domain of industrial fabrication. Within Robot Made students will have the opportunity to engage in novel applications of wood construction, while learning advanced techniques for design and assembly.

For Robot Made 2026, students will investigate the column, one of the first systems in architecture to follow an algorithm logic for its proportioning. The column will be coded to an additive assembly process, considering how a standardized element (the brick) can be utilized in an additive assembly process to explore variable methods of corbelling and patterning. Commencing in the classroom, students will engage with computational design seminars covering computational geometry, robotic path planning and structural analysis. Working at model scale on the universal robots UR10e students will work to develop their own prototype design explorations to understand structural logic, robotic assembly process, and emergent patterns with in the column topology. Students will then shift from prototype model scale to 1:1 scale, building finalized columns within the Kuka Robotic High Bay to be deployed on the university campus.
 

Application 

To apply, please submit a paragraph describing your interest in this Design Build course, five work samples (student work), and a short CV. 

This course is available to undergraduate Architectural Studies students in all streams who have completed ARC200H1 and ARC201H1 before Summer 2026. This includes fourth-year students graduating in June 2026. It is also open to MARC, MLA, and MUD students. 

Applications are to be submitted HERE. (Please note the form is limited to one submission for all summer courses. Further editing and amendments are NOT allowed after the form has been submitted.) 

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 09:00 AM EST.