CITA: Working for and with material performance

Advances in computational techniques allow for the integration of simulation in the initial design phase of architecture. This approach extends the range of the architectural intent to performative aspects of the overall structure and its elements. However, this also changes the process of design from the primacy of geometrical concerns to the negotiation between encoded parameters. Material behavior was the focus of the research project that led to the Dermoid 1:1 demonstrator build in Copenhagen. Dermoid was a 1:1 prototype, plywood structure that explored how the induced flex of plywood meets structural loads. The integration of simulation tools into the digital design and fabrication process allows producing bespoke members. Contrary to the ease of the concept its realization needed in depth collaboration between engineers, architects and the use of a wide range of customized computational tools. The project challenge today's protocols in design and production and emphasizes the importance of feedback channels in more holistic design and building practice.

Digital fabrication has become the true counterpoint to computer aided design in architecture. Thanks to new C.A.D./C.A.M. technologies architectural design can now manufacture complex buildings that only a decade ago could have been almost impossible to develop. This convergence between C.A.D./C.A.M. technologies is producing a trend from construction to manufacturing. Arbitrariness of architectural form should not be confused with arbitrariness of architectural design, the latter being contradictory with the very essence of design. Conventional or digital architecture must achieve design consistency and must rely on architecture’s basic principle, that of necessity. New materiality is a term being coined in relation to digital fabrication and the way it should address materiality in architecture. Innovation in the use of conventional materials, the ways in which they may be manufactured or tiled, as well as the emergence of new materials may outline what new materiality is about. Keywords. digital fabrication; new materiality; ideation; representation; open form.

The Design Journal, 2010

Both the nature of many products and their process of creation are becoming increasingly digitally mediated. However, our bodies and minds are naturally conceived to interact with the physical, so crucial design information can be elicited by constructing meaningful prototypes. This paper examines how physical materials impact early design through a study that explores how groups with very different materials tackle a common design challenge. The inherent physical properties of the materials and the ways in which designers interpret and manipulate them give rise to subtle patterns of behaviour. These include the ways in which groups move between abstract and concrete discussions, the way groups comply with or resist the materials they are given, and the complex interactions between the physicality of materials and the group dynamics. This understanding is contributing to our research in explicating the fundamental role of physicality in the design of hybrid physical and digital artefacts.

2009

This paper describes and assesses an approach to teaching an architectural design studio grounded in exploration of materials, their inherent properties and behaviors, and the performative capacities of material constructs. The goal of the studio was twofold: to blur the boundary between form generation and materialization of an architectural construct, and to examine the capacity of a materially driven approach to redefine traditional notions of function, context, and design methodology. The underlying ambition was to engage making as intrinsic to the design process. The resulting products of the materialand making-driven processes were then tested by projecting and engaging them in the public realm. In conclusion, this paper discusses possibilities brought forward by the emergence of an “intelligent” material – possibilities that relate not only to a change of a design methodology and process, but to the change in architect’s attitude that may arise from better understanding of ma...

2012

Today, material performance is regarded as one of the richest sources of innovation. Accordingly, architecture is shifting to practices by which the computational generation of form is directly driven by material characteristics. At the same time, there is a growing technological means for the varied composition of material, an extension of the digital chain that foregrounds a new need to engage materials at multiple scales within the design process. Recognising that the process of making materials affords perspectives not available with found materials, this paper reports the design and assembly of the fibre reinforced composite structure Composite Territories, in which the property of bending is activated and varied so as to match solely through material means a desired form. This case study demonstrates how one might extend the geometric model so that it is able to engage and reconcile physical parameters that occur at different scales.

Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal—Annual Review, 2011

Buildings consist of subsystems and components which have various functional and performance requirements. This inherent multiplicity demands the design and production of multi-material systems with varying and complementary properties and behaviours. This paper discusses a set of methods of digital design modelling and robotic production of hybridity in various architectural scales. In the case studies, the performance criteria serve as the underlying logic of the design and computation. The projects showcase how programmability and customizability of robotic manufacturing allow for establishing feedback loops from the production to design. Three projects are discussed in detail: a hybrid of flexible cork and rigid polystyrene, a hybrid of structural concrete with an intertwined permanent mould, and a hybrid of soft additively deposited silicone and subtractively produced hard foam. Each project has specific design performance criteria, with which a certain level of geometric complexity and variation is accomplished. Therefore, the research objective is to define and materialize the practical and robotically producible ranges of geometric complexities for each of the proposed methods. Additionally, the customization and development of robotic production setups are discussed. The research concludes that multi-materiality achieved through multimode robotic production methods introduces a higher, on-demand, and performance-driven resolution in building systems.

Digitally conscious architectural design is founded on the assumption that computer tools should modify architecture’s own language, not just the way architects must work. The idea of open form is the result of producing encoded designs, that is: geometry is defined parametrically and codified in a non material language instead of being imposed over materiality –drawings or physical models- as is characteristic to architectural design tradition. A parametric design is open in as much as it defines a topological model where the connectivity between the parts and their relation to the whole generates a typology of possible designs limited by the range of parameters involved. Some parallels can be drawn with Eco’s idea of open form referring to some artistic production of the second half of the XX century. The increased complexity that can be achieved with new design tools has often led to a banal formalism inconsistent with architecture’s own tradition. The baroqueness of recent digital designs is confronted with the aesthetics of simplicity established by Modernism derived from its constructive principles. As Tafuri or Moneo pointed out, and recently Eisenman has proved with his own architectural production, there is a certain degree of arbitrariness in architectural form. However, architectural sense must rely on the principles of utility and construction. Thus, arbitrariness of architectural form should not be confused with arbitrariness of architectural design; it just refers to the fact that the complexity inherent to architecture may not optimize the relation between form and function. Thus, a variety of different architectural forms may well suffice the use requirements for each project. Digital tools have improved the potential of architectural design thus broadening architecture’s role and providing the apparatus to explore geometries and constructive systems that would have been unimaginable decades ago. C.A.D./C.A.M. tools are beginning to produce extraordinary synergies in the context of complexity. Digital fabrication is the logical extension to digital design as it relies on the computers’ precision and their potential to manage complexity in varied ways, shifting from construction to manufacturing. The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation of open form and digital fabrication. Conceptually, it will address what has been referred to as new materiality understood as the constructive logic intrinsic to materials and new fabrication techniques. New materiality may articulate an architectural constructive logic as stated by Milizia in the XVIII century and new digital fabrication techniques.

Journal of Architectural Education, 2014

2023

This study investigates the use of analogue tools throughout the process of parametric architectural design and explores the impact of modelling technologies on such design activities. This research focuses on the interaction between students, sketches and scale models, the roles and methods of materializing such prototypes, and the difficulties they face. The originality of this paper lies in considering both the traditional physical models and the computer-aided manufacturing technologies available, examining the various applications of materialization tools, and analysing the roles fulfilled more specifically by physical models throughout a parametric design process. The research methodology is based on observations in the context of architectural training, through two workshop case studies: (i) "Digital Materiality" organized at the University of Mons, in collaboration with the University of Liège; (ii) and "Digital Design Fabrication" at the National School of Architecture in Nancy. Additionally, a survey is conducted amongst the students to gain insight from their perspectives. The results reveal different levels of integration of digital technologies in modelling processes, and highlight certain limitations regarding the adoption of digital fabrication tools. Analogue practices are shown to still constitute a key component of the students' thinking, designing and communicating processes. Findings emphasize the roles of physical models and their significance in the current digital context.