This article speaks of the merits of robotics in
architectural design in a similar way to the last week’s reading. It stresses
the adaptability of multi-axis robots for varied uses, rather than iterations of
one specific process. The authors go so far as to posit that robotic design with
do away with the conventional divide between intellectual and manual work in
the construction industry.
The use of the industrial robot, which can be programmed
into a near infinite variety of tasks, is the basis for this revolution of
building processes and design. Robots and digital design were considered
separately in the 1990s, without great success. This is because the robots used
were highly specialized to one specific task, which did more to restrict
architectural design than to advance it. Digital design was considered entirely
separately from robots or any sort of fabrication, leading to overly abstracted
and somewhat contrived “pure forms”. It is the marriage of robotic processes
and digital design that can allow for new architecture to develop.
The emphasis throughout this article is on robotic
fabrication informed by the architectural process, instead of vice versa. The
designer must have an understanding of material systems and site specific
conditions in order to develop the robotic process. The experiment with 1:50
scale skyscraper design from the Future Cities Lab is once again discussed to
point to a connection between the digital, theoretical, and material that must
constantly be reevaluated. Both the physical and the digital model must be used
to inform the other, with a new emphasis on the physical. With robotic
fabrication, architecture can finally be brought into the digital age.
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