The 2019 Open Thesis Fabrication (OTF) research aimed at achieving a sustainable and structurally stable construction system using km-0 robotic additive manufacturing. Building Architecture Continuity employs continuous printing and cantilever geometries to enhance the structural capacities and spatial qualities of its expected results.
2019
Building Architecture of Continuity
The tools employed in the project consist of a combination of computational methods, robotic manufacturing, custom made material solutions and performance-based design. During the six-month exploration, the research has produce several scaled models and a final construction of a complex design, printed in different scales and materials.
The design process of the final prototypes followed a path from abstraction to specificity. Based on the structural research conducted before the finalisation of this step, seven modules of various qualities were produced. This modules acted as the connecting pieces between the abstract design and the technicalities of the new technology. They were combined, manipulated, twisted and deformed in order to create spatial solutions in the form of series of rooms and single architectural elements, such as stairs, openings and columns.
Year:
- 2018-2019
Programme
- Open Theses Fabrication (Now Postgraduate in 3D Printing Architecture)
Faculty
- Alexandre Dubor, Edouard Cabay, Joaquim Melchor, Kunaljit Chadha
Faculty assistant
- Eugenio Bettucchi, Sheikh Riaz, Armin Akbari, Ya-Chieh Chang
Students
- Ozgur Cengiz, Yuchen Chen, Ipsita Datta, Yingxin Du, Ashkan Foroughi, Pavlina Kriki, Yi Fan Liao, Bhakti Vinod Loonawat, Shahram C. Randeria, Payam Salehi Nejad, Nusrat Tabassum
Collaborators
- Lapo Naldoni, Alberto Chiusoli, Massimo Visonà and Francesco De Fabritiis (WASP), Josep Ramon Sole and Joal Juanpere (Windmill), Runze Wang (Un-Habitat), Nadia Soledad and Gloria Font (LaSalle)
Based on our surface geometry catalogue, OTF students selected as their design basis seven modules that have the same tangency but different degree of curvature and shape. The tangency allowed them to connect the modules seamlessly, and forming a series of architectural elements such as walls, columns, rooms, and opening. These moments, each with its specific functions and spatial qualities expand into an endless city carpet that has no boundaries.
From the endless carpet, one house is extracted. The main design focus is blurring the distinction between the interior and exterior, creating a smooth transition between the ground and first level, also between the horizontal and vertical direction. Surfaces fold in and out to create openings and guides the way of circulation.
For the abstract house to become 3D printable with clay, volume and infill are added according to structural stability and functional purposes. It has the potential to create a new kind of spatial experience.
Inspired from the endless house, OTF students rethought our current building system by selecting several connection elements, such as arch opening, staircase, and integrating them into a continuous surface – created with space in one go.
After all the tests and prototypes at different scale, OTF students could shift to the 1:1 scale model in collaboration with WASP in Italy. There they worked with the km-0 material available which was the Rice house material they used for their GAIA project.
Building Architecture Continuity succeed to demonstrate the language and style of large-scale 3D printing with a full scale prototype in Italy and two scaled prototype in Barcelona. This shows us that the near future of architecture and construction could be a bright one with the use of advanced construction techniques in combination with materials from our past.
