Details

<p>About the Guest-Editor 05<br /><i>Skylar Tibbits</i></p> <p>Introduction From Automated to Autonomous Assembly 06<b><br /></b><i>Skylar Tibits</i></p> <p><b>Combinatorial Commons</b></p> <p>Social Remixing in a Sharing Economy 16<br /><i>Jose Sanchez</i></p> <p><b>How Specific Interactions Drive the Complex Organisation of Building Blocks 22<br /></b><i>Zorana Zeravcic</i></p> <p><b>From Self-Assembly to Evolutionary Structures 28<br /></b><i>Athina Papadopoulou, Jared Laucks and Skylar Tibbits</i></p> <p><b>The Vanishing Actor</b></p> <p>How to Let Things Happen: The Art of Order Without Orders 38<br /><i>Robin Meier and Bastien Gallet</i></p> <p><b>Complex Design by Simple Robots</b></p> <p>A Collective Embodied Intelligence Approach to Construction 44<br /><i>Kirstin Petersen and Radhika Nagpal</i></p> <p><b>Crowd-Driven Pattern Formation</b></p> <p>Computational Strategies for Large-Scale Design and Assembly 50<br /><i>Marcelo Coelho and Tovi Grossman</i></p> <p><b>The Immersive</b></p> <p>Stagecraft to Urbanism 60<br /><i>Simon Kim and Mariana Ibañez</i></p> <p><b>Baskets and Architecture</b></p> <p>Ritualisitic Making and Collective Design 66<br /><i>Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch</i></p> <p><b>Aleatory Construction Based on Jamming</b></p> <p>Stability Through Self-Confinement 74<br /><i>Kieran Murphy, Leah Roth, Dan Peterman and Heinrich Jaeger</i></p> <p><b>Granular Jamming of Loadbearing and Reversible Structures</b></p> <p>Rock Print and Rock Wall 82<br /><i>Petrus Aejmelaeus-Lindström, Ammar Mirjan, Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, Schendy Kernizan, Björn Sparrman, Jared Laucks and Skylar Tibbits</i></p> <p><b>Granular Construction</b></p> <p>Designed Particles for Macro-Scale Architectural Structures 88<br /><i>Karola Dierichs and Achim Menges</i></p> <p><b>Distributed Structures</b></p> <p>Digital Tools for Collective Design 94<br /><i>Caitlin Mueller</i></p> <p><b>Compressive Assemblies</b></p> <p>Bottom-Up Performance for a New Form of Construction 104<br /><i>Philippe Block, Matthias Rippmann and Tom Van Mele</i></p> <p><b>Disarmed Strategies</b></p> <p>New Machines and Techniques for an Era of Computational Contextualism in Architecture 110<br /><i>Hannes Mayer, Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler</i></p> <p><b>2060</b></p> <p>An Autonomously Crafted Built Environment 120<br /><i>Alvise Simondetti, Chris Luebkeman and Gereon Uerz</i></p> <p><b>Counterpoint</b></p> <p>Autonomous Assembly as the Fourth Approach to Generic Construction 128<br /><i>Andong Lu</i></p> <p>Contributors 134</p>

<strong>Skylar Tibbits</strong> is the Director of the Self-Assembly Lab in MIT's Department of Architecture. He also teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios and co-teaches 'How to Make (Almost) Anything', a seminar at MIT's Media Lab. The Self-Assembly Lab recently invented and pioneered the field of 4D Printing with Stratasys Ltd and Autodesk Inc. Skylar is the recipient of a 2014 Inaugural WIRED Fellowship, a 2013 Architectural League Prize, The Next Idea Award at Ars Electronica 2013, the Visionary Innovation Award at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, 2012 TED Senior Fellowship and was named a Revolutionary Mind in SEED Magazine's 2008 Design Issue.

<p>We are now on the brink of a new era in construction – that of autonomous assembly. For some time, the widespread adoption of robotic and digital fabrication technologies has made it possible for architects and academic researchers to design non-standard, highly customised structures. These technologies have largely been limited by scalability, focusing mainly on top-down, bespoke fabrication projects, such as experimental pavilions and structures. Autonomous assembly and bottom-up construction techniques hold the promise of greater scalability, adaptability and potentially evolved design possibilities. By capitalising on the advances made in swarm robotics, the collective construction of the animal/insect kingdom, and advances in physical computational, programmable materials or self-assembly, architects and designers are now able to build from the bottom up. This issue presents future scenarios of autonomous assembly by highlighting the viability of decentralised, collective assembly systems, demonstrating the potential to deliver reconfigurable and adaptive solutions.</p> <p><b>Contributors include: </b>Marcelo Coelho, Andong Liu, Robin Meier, Kieran Murphy and Heinrich Jaeger, Radhika Nagpal and Kirstin Petersen, and Zorana Zeravcic.</p> <b>Featured architects: </b>Aranda\Lasch, Arup, Philippe Block, Gramazio Kohler Architects, Ibañez Kim, Achim Menges, Caitlin Mueller, Jose Sanchez, Athina Papadopoulou and Jared Laucks, and Skylar Tibbits.

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