Unlike standardized mass-production methods, robotic fabrication enables an unprecedented world of possibilities for highly specific and customized architectural responses. Along with emerging material and manufacturing technologies, architects can leverage robotic manufacturing to explore alternative approaches to material organization, formal expression, and part-to-whole relationships within architecture that embody ethical, environmental, performative, and aesthetic impact. Today, large-format additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is disrupting aspects of the construction industry both on-site and off-site by enabling one-off designs to be rapidly manufactured on demand. Off-site, fused granulate fabrication (FGF) additive manufacturing is being used to produce large thermoplastic components that are crafted from materials already utilized for building facades, roofing and interiors, or in precast concrete mold applications. While FGF offers exciting possibilities, it is presently under-explored within architectural research and practice. Robotic Approaches to Spatial 3D Printing, explores non-standard approaches to Industrial Robot FGF. While 3D prints are typically manufactured in horizontal layers, this seminar utilizes six-axis industrial robots to transcend this limitation. By 3D printing in diverse orientations and configurations, free-form material deposition and scalable, hybrid fabrication techniques become possible. Exploring these exciting capabilities, participants will master cutting-edge manufacturing and 3D workflows for industrial robot FGF. Lectures, tutorials, and hands-on sessions support students working in teams on the development of an experimental, robotically fabricated prototype. Operating primarily from the Weitzman School of Design’s ARI Robotics Lab, students will gain state-of-the-art knowledge in robotic fabrication techniques that are currently expanding and recalibrating contemporary architectural design and manufacturing possibilities.
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