About the Book
The use of robotics in architecture is already commonplace, ranging from computers in the design and planning process to intricately programmed machines. Complex shapes are created with the help of 3D printing robots while autonomous swarms of robots working together are constructing ever bigger structures. And the potential for artificial intelligence in architecture, construction and structural engineering is only beginning to be applied.
But how does the use of robots affect the resulting structures and how does it affect the thinking of architects who work with them? Will architects soon become programmers of algorithms? These are some of the questions that the editors of Robotic Building, Gilles Retsin, Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Mollie Claypool and Vicente Soler, answer in their new book. In five chapters they look at the possibilities for robots in design, shaping and construction – focussing more on practical examples than algorithms. These examples range from Gramazio Kohler’s experiments with complex timber structures that were manufactured and built by robots, over the first bridge built by robots in the Dutch town of Eindhoven to 3D printing with concrete and the use of swarm robots in construction. Each chapter is introduced with an essay and subsequently documents three project examples. A final chapter explores the idea of architecture itself as a robot, the fully-automated home and similar concepts in which the robot merges with its environment and becomes part of our experience.
On the one hand the book provides an overview on the current state of research on the use of robots in architecture with the participation of international research teams such as the Bartlett School in London, the ETH Zurich and the MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the other its declared target is to initiate a discussion on what defines the essence of architecture and its production when human labour is not needed any more. With an introduction by Mario Carpo, and contributions by Maria Yablonina, Philip Yuan, Greg Lynn, Antoine Picon and others.
About the Publisher
Among architects DETAIL is well-known on account of its international Review of Architecture and Construction Details. But the name DETAIL also stands for a publishing house. The Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1961 and is located in Munich. The editorial staff publish high-quality reference books for architects, among them the series in DETAIL, Construction Manuals, DETAIL Green Books, DETAIL Practice, DETAIL Engineering, DETAIL Special.
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