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Immersion in robotic design keeps ACADIA workshops true to 'Posthuman Frontiers' theme

2016-11-10T13:17:00-05:00

The ACADIA (The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) conference is a yearly, highly anticipated event for many architecture practitioners, researchers, educators, and inventers around the world. It is a chance for architects to come together and reach into the work that they have been starting or contributing to over the last year. This year ACADIA was hosted at The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, chaired and organized by accomplished and celebrated faculty members from Taubman College. The theme for the ACADIA 2016 conference is “Posthuman Frontiers: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines”; an elusive title meant to question certain fundamental conventional methods in architecture.

The workshop series: immersive, full-service learning

Every year, the workshop series is an integral part of a successful ACADIA conference. This year, there was a total of seven workshops that spanned across three intensive days in intim...

ACADIA's 'Robotic Softness' workshop experiments with Xbox Kinect and robo-weaving

2016-11-08T20:07:00-05:00

The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) conference 2016, hosted by the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban planning at the University of Michigan, is a preeminent platform to discuss design philosophies and acknowledge new realms of work done by individuals or organizations among the architectural community. The Institute for Computational Design at the University of Stuttgart's contribution to the field of computational design and architecture has been immense, and the workshop gave us valuable insight into the technology and know-how being developed at the there.

Through the seven ACADIA’s workshops, we participated in “Robotic Softness: Behavioral Fabrication Process of Woven Structures,” led by Lauren Vasey, a Research Associate from the ICD and Giulio Brugnaro, a graduate of the ITECH Master’s Program at the University of Stuttgart who is currently also pursuing his PHD at The Bartlett School of Architecture. The three day workshop was structured...

ACADIA's 'Floating Megalith' workshop challenges architecture's obsession with surface over volume

2016-11-04T14:24:00-04:00

Last Wednesday afternoon, traffic briefly stopped at the main entrance to the University of Michigan’s North Campus as 12 of us hauled a stark white blob the size of a jet ski up hills and across intersections. Curious and confused onlookers watched us as we carried what must have seemed like an unidentifiable object towards the small pond located behind the School of Music. Despite the cold and the rain, the workshop group prepared the form for its maiden voyage, and watched as its water ballast was filled, allowing the foam blob to slowly position itself into a floating megalith. Throughout this trek the workshop’s leader, MIT Assistant Professor Brandon Clifford, walked alongside answering questions. For Brandon, this procession towards the water was not just a familiar aspect of his research in megalithic constructions, but instead an essential element of the history and significance of volumetric design.

Two days earlier, Brandon began his ACADIA workshop session by telling the ...

ACADIA's 'Wooden Structures' workshop takes a hack at automated fabrication of multi-species structures

2016-11-02T13:26:00-04:00

There is a misleading myth that “architecture is just architecture”, that assumes that architecture is a form of knowledge that neither research definitions, nor processes applied in other disciplines, can be applied to architecture research. It is a myth that has been used enduringly as an excuse to avoid further forms of research, claiming that other disciplines do not have the capacity to comprehend the nature of the field and the kind of work it entails. While part of these claims might be true, these claims have led to the severance between architecture and other disciplines, thus marginalizing architecture. Furthermore, it has made architecture seek authority from other disciplines such as art and science.

In the last decade there has been a tremendous change in the way architecture is perceived, which came along with the growing awareness of the importance of research in architecture, initiating interdisciplinary research, and removing all the intellectual paradigm boundaries ...