As part of my education at Virginia Tech I have focused on digital fabrication and specifically utilizing robotic arms for automation of my design workflow. The advantage of digital fabrication is a quick and precise process where a multitude of iterations can be produced in a short amount of time. Depending on application and intention, complicated designs or parts of designs can be digitally designed, fabricated, tested, evaluated, redesigned and refabricated with little time and effort. Compared to a digital evaluation process, the product of digital fabrication can offer an almost 1:1 relationship in terms of materiality, light qualities, haptic qualities and aesthetes. By utilizing the computer as a design tool, designers can produce and visualize new, highly experimental geometries previously impossible to do within a reasonable time frame. With these studies I have begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities for how digital fabrication can impact the way I think about architecture.

The first study to be done with the robotic arm was an exploration of ruled surfaces, and in this case, an hyperbolic paraboloid.

The advantage of the hyperbolic paraboloid is shape of relatively advanced complexity and shape, yet still easy to compute and analyze. Even in the field it can be relatively easily constructed. Famous architects have since long been playing with this idea, for example Eladio Dieste, Eero Saarinen, Felix Candela and Frei Otto.

To take this experiment with ruled surfaces one step further, the stock material was turned 45°. However difficult to imagine before hand, the final outcome takes the shape of a very commercialized product from a different industrial sector.

The final step in the exploration of shell structures derived from hyperbolic surfaces was a number of casts in concrete. Although seemingly free from restrictions, the shape always seems to stay the same and is rather limited to a set shape.

Further Explorations

Although great in applications regarding shell structures, a remaining question was, how far could this logic be pushed? Could it move from a shell to an object while still appearing coherent?

To answer this, the next exploration was a stool project. The idea was to use a number of cuts so that the remaining shape was a stool - a useful object that could have real benefits.

Before cutting the major form, a number of smaller scale models were produced. This is not only a time saving exercise, but also very cost saving. Despite it's low finish quality, foam is an expensive material in these quantities, to not talk about the environmental impact that it has.

The first large scale product cut.

The second large scale model.