BEYOND | call for projects

ENTRY #27 | roborite

Project Brief

The project was presented as a “research table” – separate peaces are much smaller and transportable individually as well.

Do new technologies change the design methods and support fabrication processes? The aim of the course was directed towards obtaining deeper knowledge over mechanic design and fabrication opportunities, unlocking the potential of digital methods to implement in building structures.

The study of fabrication and assembly protocols goes hand in hand with material research: its production, behavior, properties, parameters and capacities. Therefore, starting with a broad study of fabrication methods being inspired by the synergetic potential to understand architecture as something between nature and man-made, the initial ideas followed different strategies, form which one was chosen for the workshop to be tested in bigger scale.

The chosen concept was inspired by fulgurite – a mineral formed by a lightning strike in quartz-sand or soil. A series of material tests, tools and a method of fabrication were developed and amended from this concept. Fulgurite is formed through a lightning strike that fuses mineral grains together and leaves an evidence of the path on a surface or inside the earth. As a testing field, an abstract installation composed of a field of poles, was set up in order to test and study the limits and opportunities of the selected process. For the current study, modeling plaster was injected into the body of sand with linear robotic movements.

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With the collaboration of :