Out of the Factory, Into the Field: Robots Go to Work for Architects
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- A student at the Vienna University of Technology uses an iPad to control a robot arm. Photo: TU Vienna
- Using a mixture of heating and grabbing, a robot arm forms a column out of plastic tubes. Photo: SciArc
- With their modular attachments, robots can work with just about any substance. This one is forming clay. Photo: Harvard GSD
- Decades after modernists fell in love with its plastic properties, concrete is still one of the most common building materials.Photo: TU Graz
- Robots are interesting not only for the architecture they can produce, but also for the performance of that architecture, as seen in this promo spot for Federico Diaz's Geometric Death Frequency-141. That said, the final product has to be seen to be believed. Video: Federico Diaz
- In another example of the performance of architecture, ETH Zurich set up a robot arm to lay bricks on a traffic island in the middle of a New York street. Video: Storefront for Art and Architecture
- This is a much more standard use of industrial robots in architecture: fabricating steel beams. Photo: Zeman
- Students use a robot equipped with a hot wire cutter to shape foam.Photo: TU Delft/University of Michigan
- The molds for this Red Bull promo piece were created by robots milling out forms under the direction of artists new to the interface. Photo: Red Bull
- Just some kids and a robot, hanging out and playing with blocks. Photo: Courtesy of Rob|Arch
Sigrid Brell-Cokcan and Johannes Braumann want you to make architecture with robot arms.
For decades, robots have been used on assembly lines to do things like make cars and package food. Over a long period of refinement, the iconic robot arm has become a nearly commoditized piece of hardware. You can buy them, and essentially plug then play. Their generalized capabilities make them very flexible in terms of application.
Brell-Cokcan and Braumann are co-founders of the Association for Robots in Architecture and organizers of the Rob|Arch 2012 conference, being held in Vienna on Dec. 17 and 18. Over this past weekend they ran a series of workshops in Vienna, Graz, Zürich, Rotterdam, and Stuttgart to expose architects and designers to the possibilities of utilizing this technology. “We try create a platform that shows the innovative uses of robotic fabrication in the creative industry, and brings together members of industry and academia, as well as architects, artists, and designers,” says Braumann.
Unlike a lot of the machines involved in industrial production, robot arms are generalists. They can be easily reconfigured to do different tasks via software and changing the attachments on the end of the arm. This is why they are ideal for assembly-line work where the shape of the product changes frequently (as with annually changing car models) and, Brell-Cokcan and Braumann say, why they are ideal for architecture. In fact, because architecture generally involves tolerances measured in millimeters or even centimeters — units robotic arms work in — the hyper-precision of tools like 5-axis CNC machines are generally wasted when used for building purposes.
In the lead up to Rob|Arch2012, the team has been collecting example of robots arms being used to build structures. A variety of the submitted photos and videos are shown in the gallery above, ranging from formed concrete blocks to massive structures made from individually glued plastic spheres; more can be found on their Vimeo page.
Beyond the conference and workshops,
Braumann says the use of robotics in architecture has made huge strides since the mid-2000s. On the one hand, he sees a growing number of faculties and firms that are making use of these tools. On the other, he sees a production industry that is moving toward increasingly creative and custom applications.
“Not too long ago, the creative industry looked up toward the large industry players and attempted to duplicate their automated processes,” he says, “We are now at a stage, where individualized and customized products are increasingly important and the sides are switching — as architects and designers often work with such small series of objects, industry is now looking at ways to adapt strategies developed by creative minds.”