CHAPTER.01 // Introduction

INTRODUCTION

1.1 MOTIVATION - WHY SOFT ROBOTICS IN ARCHITECTURE?

Since the beginning of time architecture was conceived as an entity opposite to the organic, an immutable object that withstands the effects of time. For centuries the keyword associated the most with the construction of buildings was stability, the tendency to stay firm and preserve the same characteristic over a long period of time. This is what people traditionally aspired for in their buildings, leading thus to a certain degree of stagnant predictability.

Architects have been and still primarily deal with the classical building materials that help them achieve their goal of defining and enclosing space, which are usually concrete, steel, glass or wood. These traditional materials are familiar and easy, designers could work with empirical data already gained from decades of experience and use advanced methods that provide complex calculations allowing to use these materials in an almost risk-free manner. All of these available methods using wellknown building materials are creating a design leading to more or less foreseeable outcomes.

Nowadays, new ideologies and technologies are being gradually introduced into architecture making a new paradigm prevail for the built environment, in which the guiding keyword is adaptability, the ability to change, transform and react according to the changing needs and environmental conditions (Andresen, 2005). There seems to be an increasing interest in the less known crossroad of fields where architecture meets automation, the point in which architecture becomes a machine. This automation process is aimed to improve our desirable results - the performance of our built spaces. Keywords like optimization, responsiveness and robotics are prominently more present and affecting our lives.

As a field that tends to be rather inflexible in its nature, with changes and innovations being introduced over the course of decades, it is always challenging to involve new technologies and materials in the architectural design. This is a good reason why it is our job, as participants in the less restricted academic counterpart,

to identify and investigate a design process dealing with non-conventional materials and technologies. It is in our hands to establish the theoretical background, tools and methods that will push forward and bring about the evolution of architecture. Our built environments might take a completely different shape when one employs a “building material” which is yet to be established in the architectural canon of materials.

Recent decades have experienced several small movements in architecture deriving from High-tech architecture, also known as Structural Expressionism. These are showing a shift from fashionable attitudes towards scientifically supported design of the form (Davie, 1988). The constant change of lifestyle and rising awareness to the problem of global warming and sustainability is forcing architects to search for new solutions. Some of these involve familiar materials in new unconventional uses and some exploit the breakthrough in the chemical industry by introducing innovative responsive materials with embedded active properties. The emergence of the field of biomimicry in design and engineering is providing for new solutions and technologies with the conception of bio-inspired ideas, using the principles of biology - decentralization, bottom up control, evolutionary advances (Kelly, 1995), and taking inspiration from biological systems and mechanisms existing in nature.

These two latter fields had given birth in recent years to a new exciting field in automation and robotics: soft robotics (Trivedi et. al., 2008). Its original concept is to make all of the components in a robot soft and flexible in order to move and manipulate in very limited spaces and change gaits fairly easily. Using innovative elastic materials to emulate biological structures and mechanisms, inspired by animals such as octopus or starfish, allows for unprecedented advantages over traditional “hard robotics”. Unlike hard robots, that are fabricated from metals and often heavy and expensive to make, flexible robots are relatively cheap and easy to produce, they require simplistic designs and controls to generate a wide range of mobility and they are more resistant, in many ways, than their hard-bodied counterparts to damage from common dangers (Whitesides, 2011).

figure 1.1

Soft-robotic actuator produced by FUNL Maker Club Course on Soft Robotics (The University of Nebraska–Lincoln)

The abovementioned advantages could be harnessed in their turn to develop new typologies of kinetic architecture, produce a new language of aesthetics and push forward the evolution of our built environment.

This thesis is motivated by the idea of a new kind of building, one that is not just a lethargic mass of material, a passive container, but rather one which is alive, it breathes and adapts, it is aware.

1.2 OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE

The overall goal of this thesis is to explore the possibility of applying soft robotic technologies and principles into an architectural practice.

This will be done by introducing the field of soft robotics, its mechanism of work, upsides and downsides over traditional systems, establishing a method of designing and producing soft actuators that could facilitate the incorporation of such actuators into building technology and architectural design, discussing existing state of the art examples of soft architecture and finally proposing a building skin system design that will manifest the opportunities of this merge of fields.

figure 1.2

Soft-Robotic prototype, developed during the work

WHY Chapter 1 : Motivation, Objectives and Scope

WHAT Chapter 2 : A Definition of Soft Architecture Chapter 3 : Studying from State of the Art

HOW Chapter 4 : A Workflow for Soft-Architecture

DESIGN Chapter 5 : A Meteo-Responsive Proposal

ROUND-UP & FUTURE { Chapter 6 : Summary, Criticism & Future Chapter 7 : Thesis Conclusion

figure 1.3

Thesis outline scheme

1.3 THESIS OUTLINE

The outline of this thesis is represented in the adjacent scheme (Figure 1.3). The introductory section, explaining the “Why” was unrolled in the previous sections of Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 is a collection of relevant definitions in the preliminary fields for the topic of soft robotics: inflatable architecture , kinetic architecture, the topic of smart environments, and introduction to the topic of Soft Robotics - as a part of bio-inspired ideas.

Chapter 3 is presenting and discussing the cutting-edge works in the emerging field of soft-robotic architecture, Questioning the potentialities and possible improvements for the future in each of the projects.

Chapter 4 is the “How”. It takes a dive into the practical procedures and knowledge necessary to the design and fabrication of soft-robotic systems. comparing the simulation and design tool alternatives and demonstrating the process of fabrication of a specific soft component, relying on the pneumatic principles. It is also introducing the technological solutions such a responsive component should be accompanied with: typologies of sensors depending on the function, and other accessories required in order to demonstrate the responsive capabilities of this technologies that could be implemented in an architectural application.

Chapter 5 goal is to apply studied knowledge in an original architectural proposal hypothesis, comprising of a meteo-responsive shelter design, explaining in detail design and prototyping processes.

Finally, chapter 6 is analysing in detail the advantages and drawbacks of the technology and methods, and suggests future possibilities of application for soft robotics,

REFERENCES

Colin D, (1988) High Tech Architecture (paperback). Thames & Hudson Ltd

Whitesides G, Shepherda R, Ilievskia F, Choia W, Morina S, Stokesa A, Mazzoa A, Chena X, Wanga M (2011) Multigait soft robot, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University.

Kevin K (1995) Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World. Addison-Wesley.

Trivedi D, Rahn C, Kier W (2008) Soft robotics: Biological inspiration, state of the art, and future research, Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 5(3), 99-117.

Andresen K, Gronau N (2005) An approach to increase adaptability in ERP systems. In Managing modern organizations with information technology: proceedings of the 2005 Information Resources Management Association international conference, San Diego, Idea Group Publishing, Herschey (pp. 15-16).