Robotic Design-Fabrication - Exploring Robotic Fabrication as a Dynamic Design Process

Abstract

This research explores the relationship between digital design and digital fabrication, investigating robotic fabrication as a dynamic design process. It examines the potential of utilizing production tools as the key part of the design process, where the final geometry is neither simulated nor pre-defined in the digital realm before materialization. This “design-fabrication” or “design-by-fabrication” workflow fosters a new way of thinking about architectural design and practice, as well as unlocking creativity and discovering new geometries and aesthetics. To illustrate this, the paper presents a series of directed design experiments developed by students in two seminars at Graz University of Technology. A unique fabrication technique is investigated, combining laser cutting and robotic thermoforming, which was developed by the author in the course of her PhD-research. Utilizing this robotically aided design process, sheets of acrylic glass are laser cut and thermoformed by a robot into 3- dimensional spatial objects, each element with individual geometries, textures, transparencies and apertures.