Abstract
Architect Gottfried Semper built a discourse on architectural aesthetics based on his belief that textiles were the mother of all arts, and the initial motivation for all architectural form. Inherent in this evolutionary premise is the concept that cultural development begins with pliable and easily manipulated materials, and can be extended and transformed through technological advances for crafting more robust and permanent materials. As a contemporary projection of this framework, Robotic Lattice Smock (RLS) presents a method for transposing pliable fabric folding techniques of smocking to an architectural scale through robotic bending and folding of rigid planar sheet metal. Building on the limitations of three-axis CAD/CAM fabrication techniques for unfolding and cutting planar pieces, RLS explores the process of six-axis robotic curved folding and bending to “gather” or “smock” planar developable surfaces to overcome brute force assembly, build volume through more efficient material use of planar sheet material and generate novel material aesthetics through the hard constraint of disciplined material transposition.
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Acknowledgments
Robotic Lattice Smock is a collaboration of Andrew Saunders and RoboFold Ltd. sponsored by the Rensselaer Robert S. Brown’s 52 Fellows Program. Design Team: Andrew Saunders, Sahar Mihandoust, Guo Huanyu, Jessica Collier, Elizabeth Sammartino, Matthew Vogel. RoboFold Team: Gregory Epps, Ema Epps, Florent Michel, Jeg Dudley.
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Saunders, A., Epps, G. (2016). Robotic Lattice Smock. In: Reinhardt, D., Saunders, R., Burry, J. (eds) Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2016. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26378-6_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26378-6_6
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