Michael's Reading Response: Integrating Robotic Fabrication in the Design Process

This article follows the research work of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) at the Singapore ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability (SEC). The studio as a whole shares a focus toward the redevelopment of the traditional and repetitive condition of the residential high-rise. The driver behind this work is the integration of robotic technology and computational design, with the end goal being the a scaled construction method for producing physical working models. The vast capabilities of computer modeling allow us as designers to input a rigorous level of detail, however this form of modeling removes the tangibility offered by the physical model. Coupling the constructive capabilities of robotic fabrication with the computer aided design process allows the designer an opportunity to replicate with high levels of precision a physical representation of the digital model. By relinking the digital with the physical, the model regains it tactility and allows for a higher level of understanding. 

The process developed through this study opens up a new, digital age approach to architectural problem solving. I feel that the introduction of robotic digital fabrication to computer aided design is a crucial step toward understanding new construction capabilities. Through the scale model construction of these robotically fabricated high rise buildings, we can begin to see a blending of digital design and its translation in to the physical realm. Pushing this concept forward it seems to be very process driven, as the designer accommodates to the limitations of robotic fabrication. This process driven robotic fabrication method generates the ability to reproduce prototypes in a relatively quick manner. I question how this method will change the the industrial repetitiveness of high-rises in South East Asia and other densely populated areas. It is the overall model of efficiency and ability to reproduce quickly and cost-effectively that makes the high rise a strong contender. Will finding a new process driven way of producing high-rises quickly and efficiently really redefine the typology?

Photo: Callaghan Walsh