Robotics
Norman Foster Foundation Public Debates Supported by the Rolex Institute
Robotics
Norman Foster Foundation Public Debates Supported by the Rolex Institute
Robotics | Introduction
Over the past 10 years designers have been teased by the potential applications of 3D printing. Anything from 3D-printed shoes, cars, bicycles to violins; 3D printing has been proclaimed to be the inception of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with the potential to disrupt and holistically transform existing manufacturing practices. Although 3D printing has been a major disrupter in medical sciences, mechanical engineering and to a certain extent consumer products, I would argue that it has not yet made any major changes in architecture and the construction industry. Most of the start-ups and academic institutes that have developed large-scale 3D printing for architecture and construction have done so through materials such as clay, concrete and steel. Though these materials are traditionally used in construction, they are problematic when used in 3D printing processes. Therefore, for the third instalment of the Robotics Atelier we will focus on large scale 3D printing with recycled plastics. One of the advantages of 3D printing with plastics is the inherent freedom of form. With that comes the potential of an integrated approach to design. The field of application will be building skins. These are often build up out of a series of materials that each have their own shape and function. But what if we can start to blur the lines between these different materials, forms and performances? What if we can design a building skin that can have multiple functionalities embedded within one complex geometrical system. Can we integrate a variety of functions that respond to specific environments into one 3D-printed element? By only using recycled plastics for large scale 3D printing in construction, we can start to re-use our planetary excess of plastic waste, upcycle it into performative construction material and therefore hopefully start reduce the amount of waste plastics in our environment.
Xavier De Kestelier Atelier Mentor Norman Foster Foundation  5
Public Debates
Speakers
Chair of the Public Debates Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom Speakers Xavier De Kestelier, Principal and Head of Design Technology and Innovation at HASSELL Studio, London, United Kingdom
Philip Beesley, Director of the Living Architecture Systems Group, Toronto, Canada; Professor at the University of Waterloo and the European Graduate School Adrian Bowyer, Founder and Director of RepRap Ltd., Nootdorp, The Netherlands Anna Dyson, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (CEA), New Haven, CT, United States Frédéric Migayrou, Deputy Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Création Industrielle (MNAM-CCI) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Claudia Pasquero, Director and Co-founder of ecoLogicStudio, London, United Kingdom Liam Young, Director of the Fiction and Entertainment Program at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Chair of the Public Debates Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom
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Philip Beesley Philip Beesley is a multidisciplinary artist and architect whose research is recognized for its pioneering contributions to the rapidly emerging field of responsive interactive architecture. He directs the Living Architecture Systems group (LAS), an international group of researchers and creators. He is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Waterloo and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the European Graduate School. He represented Canada at the 2010 Venice Biennale of Architecture. The work of the LAS evolves through collaborative exchanges with an international network of scientists, engineers and artists including leading engineers Rob Gorbet and Dana Kuli, Atelier van Herpen, Salvador Breed and 4DSOUND in Amsterdam, among many others. Collaborations with LAS’ artists, scientists, and engineers has led him to participate in a diverse array of projects, from haute couture collections to complex electronic systems that can sense, react and learn.
Adrian Bowyer Adrian Bowyer graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, where he later obtained a PhD in tribology. Bowyer is the former Head of Bath’s Microprocessor Unit (now the Bath University Computing Services) and a former Senior Lecturer in Bath’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Bowyer retired in 2012 to concentrate on the RepRap Project, creating humanity’s first general purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine, and RepRap Ltd., a company that researches self-replicating open-source 3D Printing. As one of the creators of the Bowyer-Watson algorithm for Voronoi diagrams, his main areas of research include geometric modelling and computing and the application of computers to manufacturing and Biomimetics. In 2017 he received the 3D Printing Industry Award for Outstanding Contribution to 3D printing and was inducted into the 3D Printing Hall of Fame. In the New Year’s Honours List for 2019, her Majesty the Queen awarded him an MBE for services to 3D printing. 7
Anna Dyson Anna Dyson is the Hines Professor of Architecture and Professor of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University. Dyson is also the Founding Director of the Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (CEA), a joint initiative between the Yale School of Architecture and the Forestry & Environmental Studies. She was previously the Founding Director of the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE) which hosts the Graduate Program in Architectural Sciences and Built Ecologies. Her work has been internationally exhibited at venues including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The World Future Energy Summit (WFES), The Center for Architecture and the Postmasters Gallery. Recipient of the Innovator Award from Architectural Record in 2015, Dyson holds multiple international patents for building systems inventions. She is currently directing interdisciplinary research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE), among others.
Xavier De Kestelier Xavier De Kestelier is interested in designing long-term space habitats and believes that architects have a crucial role to play in the design of any future settlements on Mars or the moon. He has worked on research projects with both ESA and NASA and is interested in how 3D-printed structures could protect astronauts from solar radiation, meteorites and extreme temperatures. He was previously Co-head of the Specialist Modelling Group (SMG) at Foster + Partners. Over the years, he has been a Visiting Professor at Ghent University, Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University and a Teaching Fellow at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Since 2010, he has been one of the directors of Smartgeometry, a nonprofit educational organisation focused on computational design and digital fabrication. De Kestelier is currently Principal and Executive Board member at the international design practice HASSELL Studio where he leads the global efforts in design technology and digital innovation. 8
Frédéric Migayrou Frédéric Migayrou is the Deputy Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Création Industrielle (MNAM-CCI) at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and a Chair and a Pofessor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Migayrou was Professor of Art History at the Art School of Saint Étienne and Advisor for the French Ministry of Culture. He has written extensively about art and architecture and has curated many exhibitions including Pol Abraham, Le Corbusier, U.A.M, De Stijl, La Tendenza, Japan-ness, Morphosis, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and Dominique Perrault. He is Founder of the Frac Center Art and Architecture Collection and Co-founder of Archilab, the international festival of prospective architecture in Orléans that he curated from 1999 to 2001. He has also curated the exhibition Non Standard Architecture, Naturalizing Architecture and more recently Coding the World and Neurons, Simulated Intelligences. He is the Founder of the Post graduate program Bartlett Prospective / B-Pro.
Claudia Pasquero Claudia Pasquero’s work operates at the intersection of biology, computation and design. She is Co-director of ecoLogicStudio; Director of the Urban Morphogenesis Lab at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; Professor of Landscape Architecture at Innsbruck University; and a Senior Staff Member at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. In 2017 Pasquero served as Head Curator of the Tallinn Architectural Biennale and was nominated in the WIRED SMART top 10 smart list, together with other innovators and researchers. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally including at the FRAC Centre in Orléans; the Venice Architectural Biennale; ZKM Karlsruhe; and the Milano Expo 2015. She has recently completed HORTUS XL Astaxanthin.g for the Center Pompidou in Paris; the BioTechHut Pavilion for Expo Astana 2017, HORTUS Astana 2017 and Urban Algae Folly Aarhus 2017. Pasquero is also co-author of Systemic Architecture: Operating Manual for the Self Organizing City. 9
Credits
Tim Stonor Chair of the Public Debates Tim Stonor is an architect and urban planner who has devoted his career to the analysis and design of human behaviour patterns—the ways in which people move, interact and transact in buildings and urban places. Stonor is an internationally recognised expert in the design of spatial layouts and, in particular, the role of space in the generation of social, economic and environmental value. Stonor is the Managing Director of Space Syntax, a company created at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in 1989, to develop and apply predictive design technologies. He is a Member of the Board of Directors at the Academy of Urbanism, London; a Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; a Harvard Loeb Fellow; and Deputy Chair of the United Kingdom Design Council. Stonor joined the Advisory Board of the Norman Foster Foundation in 2018.
Liam Young Liam Young is a speculative architect and director who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. He is a Co-founder of Tomorrows Thoughts Today, an urban futures think tank that explores the local and global implications of new technologies, and Unknown Fields, a nomadic research studio that travels on expeditions to chronicle these emerging conditions as they occur on the ground. His worldbuilding for the film and television industries has been acclaimed in both mainstream and architectural media, including the BBC, NBC, Wired, The Guardian, Time Magazine and New Scientist. Young is a BAFTA nominated producer and has published several books including the recent Machine Landscapes: Architectures of the Post Anthropocene and has taught internationally at the Architectural Association, Princeton University. Young now runs the ground-breaking Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at (Sci Arc) in Los Angeles. 10
Supported by
Rolex has an ethos that encompasses the vision and values of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. This is manifested in the timelessness of our watches and our determination to break boundaries and build a better world. The Rolex Institute embodies this philosophy of supporting visionary men and women who make a meaningful contribution to society. It comprises the educational initiatives and philanthropic programmes of Rolex SA. These include the Rolex Awards for Enterprise that recognize individuals for groundbreaking initiatives in applied science, technology, exploration and the environment, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative that brings together promising young talents with world-renowned masters in architecture, dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual arts for a period of one-to-one collaboration. Rolex has a long-held interest in great architecture based on its synergies with fine watchmaking: both share a profound respect for the legacy of knowledge built up over centuries as well as a culture of design excellence and technical innovation at the highest level. To assist the profession in the transmission of architectural ideas to new generations of architects, Rolex supports the International Architecture Exhibition–la Biennale di Venezia. Renowned architects who have mentored talented young architects through the Rolex Arts Initiative include Álvaro Siza, Kazuyo Sejima, Peter Zumthor, Sir David Chipperfield and Sir David Adjaye. Lord Foster served on the Advisory Board of the Initiative in 2015.
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