ARC3407H S
Instructor: Maria Yablonina
Meeting Section: L0101
Wednesday, 9:00AM - 12:00PM

Course Objectives

This course aims to introduce the students to the field of robotic fabrication in the context of an architectural and design practice. The objective of the course is two-fold: to build an in-depth understanding of the field, its context and history; and to develop technical and conceptual design skills for the development of robot-centered work. Specifically, the students will be introduced to computational tools based on the Grasshopper environment for the development of robotic processes and choreographies. The course will cover a broad range of possible robotic devices, including generic industrial robots and mobile task-specific ones. Throughout the course the students will have an opportunity to work with the Daniels digital fabrication facilities including the KUKA robot arm.

Course Introduction

Any design undertaking and its outcome are inherently dependent on the tools and techniques at the center of the design process itself. In architecture this relationship can be traced to the tools and techniques of representation as well as to the tools and techniques of architectural production. Conventionally, the relationship between the two is a one-way dependency, where the designer considers the feasibility of a designed object in accordance with the current state of technologies of production. However, many examples in the history of architecture demonstrate that design intent can be a driver of production technology innovation and the subsequent expansion of previously available design spaces – as was the case of the dome of Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, conceived in the 15th century by Filippo Brunelleschi, which would have been impossible to construct without the architect’s invention of the custom hoist that allowed the cathedral’s massive crossing to be spanned. A few centuries later, in the 1960s and 1970s, as the third industrial revolution was coming of age, architects began developing prototypical machines for design and research as well as proposing machine-like buildings capable of movement in response to their occupants.

Today the relationship between the design process and the development of the tools and techniques of architectural production is as evident as ever. On the one hand, there has been a rapid increase in technological development in the building and construction industries, as companies race to automate existing and slightly altered construction processes in order to increase speed and reduce cost. On the other hand, developments and increasing availability of robotic technology and software tools has allowed the field of architectural research to explore novel methods of design and fabrication through appropriation of technology.

The community of researchers and practitioners in the field of computational design and digital fabrication over the past two decades has grown around two significant technological tendencies: an increasing availability of industrial robotic hardware, and an increasing availability of open-framework CAD software. The combination of the two has enabled a rich body of work, focusing on investigation and discovery of novel materials, fabrication methods, design methodologies, and ultimately entirely new design possibilities and design spaces.

This course will be focusing on the current state of the relationship between design tools and digital fabrication technologies, specifically focusing on design for robotic fabrication through a series of skill building tutorials, exercises, and assignments. The course will partially build upon the ARC1022 course (fall 2020/21), relying on the student’s knowledge of Grasshopper and digital fabrication. Throughout the course the students will learn how to think with the machine (a robot) and how to design for and with specific machine constraints. Acknowledging that the course delivery will be conducted in an online learning environment, the students will work digitally in a simulation environment to develop their own unique robotic processes.