Robotic Moon-Scaping: Extraterrestrial Architecture

In accordance with the semester’s core theme- ‘Moon Village’, the workshop will explore the potential for ground-scaping of the lunar surface as a foundation for extraterrestrial architecture. The notion of ‘digital scaping’- using robotic tools and simulated moon grounds will guide the workshop. Advancements in robotic fabrication are bringing about new ways to craft materials- in vaster scales and on a wider range of materials. They also allow to perform various digital fabrication techniques (subtractive and additive), using the native soil for the construction of the architectural artefact. In this context, robotic tools can help establish a long-lost art of ‘scaping’ earth-based matter through applying in-situ digital manufacturing to natural and remote terrains. In the context of lunar construction, the robotic tool thus becomes a mediating link between the architect and the distant matter. The workshop will explore this form of robotic scaping of large-scale environments through applying traditional craft techniques on sand-based matter, and its shaping to a desired form using a hybrid of formative, subtractive and additive digital techniques. By doing so, it will explore ways to reinstate old forms of earth-based crafts, but also investigate new channels for scaling digital manufacturing beyond the production of objects. These channels will be demonstrated by design works conducted at the Material Topology Research Lab (MTRL), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Instructors: Karen Lee Bar-Sinai, Tom Shaked

February 2019 | Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture | 23 rue Montrochet | Lyon, France