maklab digital materiality

7/28/2019 MAKLAB Digital Materiality

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MAKLAB | Digital Materiality

Bruce Newlands

Kraft Architecture

Gantenbein Winery, Switzerland, by Gramazio and Kohler


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ew approaches to manufacturing are set to take hold in

cotland over the coming decade, these approaches

hallenge the basic assumptions of production through the

pplication of new affordable manufacturing technologies &

ays of working.

he concept of centralised factories may be replaced by

stributed workshops. Global centralisation will likely be

eplaced by highly adaptive local cottage industries

echnologies like CNC Routing, Cutting & Drilling have been

round for decades. What is interesting is how these

echnologies have been steadily transferred from industry to

he garden shed with a burgeoning tech shop scene in the

nited States and the development of CNC into laser and

asma cutting.

he emergence of cheap DIY 3D printers offer mass

ustomisation & potentially the democratisation of design that

reaks free from traditional assumptions of designer & client.

new generation of small makers promises to bring these

ophisticated means of production into the home, applying it

o everything from making church benches, to printing

ewellery; from making toys to printing whole houses.

his sophisticated making culture is sustained through social

media networking, swapping, sharing, co-operating and

ollaborating. All community building techniques that goes

and in hand with the powerful concept of a global village of

ocal makers.

aving access to the means of fabrication has the potential to

emocratize design and transform the entire life cycle of the

hings we use daily from conceptualisation, design,

manufacturing and recycling. The disruption of the orderly

roduction cycle is profound, creating new values, changing

ow we associate commercialisation with wider social &

thical impacts.

Gramazio Kohler dimRob

Kerf Pavilion by Hoffer, Mackey, Crain and Miranowsk

Digital fabrication


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otions of intellectual property are being challenged; Open

ource, where you can build on someone elses work, in return

or publishing your work under the same license and sharing

ack any changes. Hacking clubs that encourage people to

ismantle, understand and mod existing products with new

nd additive functions.

Fablab is a concept developed by Neil Gershenfeld Director at

he Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. It provides a hub to learn

nd share ideas, techniques and skills openly. It has grown to

e a global network of over thirty workshops from as far afield

s Afghanistan, Amsterdam, South Africa, Iceland, USA and

Manchester.

Crowd funding provides a way to raise get funding for ideas

om a wide range of people who share an interest, it works well

with the concepts of open source and rapid prototyping.

hese are all ideas that suit the nimbleness of being innovative

nd small. They all have a place in Scotlands industrial

evolution 2.0. They all have a place in places which are

ollaborative, places which seek new creative futures, places

ke MAKLab www.maklab.co.uk

Were excited by the prospect of developing a decentralised

etwork of fabrication facilities that with the assistance of local

reative networks will provide the platform to explore 21st

entury entrepreneurialism with tangible local and global

ommunity benefits. Learning from this de centralised

xperience of making and doing will have value for the future of

ollaborative working.

MAKLab aims to give everyone from school children through to

ntrepreneurs, the capability to turn their ideas and concepts

nto reality.

Digital technologies have existed in the aerospace and

utomotive industries for some time, but have just recently

nfiltrated the architectural-fabrication industry.

The newly renovated Digital Fabrication Lab (FABLa

Taubman College leverages state-of-the-art indu

technology to perform architectural fabrication research

It is one of few select academic institutions around

world utilising robotic automation to perform

subtractive and additive manufacturing processes.

The Gantenbein Winery, in Flsch, Switzerland

Gramazio & Kohler has been the prototype for an en

new approach to bricklaying: using modified indu

robots.

Gramazio & Kohler use the term digital materialit

describe an emerging transformation in the expressio

architecture. Digital materiality crosses the divide in p

between digital and material processes in design

construction. Data, material, programming

construction are interwoven.

This synthesis is enabled by the techniques of d

fabrication, which allows the architect to control

manufacturing process through design data. Tradition

the promise of industrial robots has been that they w

replace the human workforce. But these projects, le

the Architecture and Digital Fabrication laboratory at

Zrich, demonstrate a different result: architects are fre

create designs and patterns of a precision that si

could not be achieved by hand. Architects ideas en

permeate the fabrication process.

This new situation transforms the possibilities and thus

professional scope of the architect. Perhaps e

characterised as a return to a crafts based fabricatio

architectural components.


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athlon Solar House

Decathlon Solar House, Barcelona

In Barcelona they recently successfully built the Decathlon Solar

House www.fablabhouse.com bringing together ideas around

information exchange, collaboration, design, energy use and

technical precision.

This scale of project gives an indication of the learning & practice

benefits possible when the architecture professional & education

institutions engage with digital fabrication technologies creatively.

Today, practitioners have an unrivalled access to fabrication

possibilities, whether that be off site manufacture or the use of

CNC Technologies for engraving, shaping, cutting or creating

components.
http://www.fablabhouse.com/http://www.fablabhouse.com/http://www.fablabhouse.com/


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Wikihouse Live Build

Wikihouse is an international project where ope

source shelter designs are shared and constructed b

students as live build projects. Structures completel

digitally fabricated, transmitted through the interne

and output via large bed cnc routers using low grade

ply sheet materials.

Wikihouse


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On Friday 14th & Saturday 15th September, were offerin

a drop in event tailored for architectural practices from a

over Scotland, to visit the space at the Lighthouse

Glasgow and learn about whats possible.

Saturday will feature guest presentations on Digit

Fabrication and Live Build Projects in Europe, Africa

Scotland

MAKLAB is open weekdays 10-5pm and on Saturdays 1

4pm.

Architects are uniquely placed to engage with thesetechnologies, whether it be for model making or building

1.1 prototype junctions to test ideas, creating customised

signage for projects or detailed decorative engraving for

wall panels. MAKLab has capacity for doing this

affordably.

MAKLab is keen to engage with the architectural

profession in Scotland.

We think there is a creative opportunity here for architects

to engage directly in making components, artefacts and

finishes for their projects.

Perhaps reinstating the architect as a maker.

Supported by

maklab digital materiality

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