Looking Outwards – 03

Rock Print is an architectural sculpture by Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich, and the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT constructed using robots. The sculpture was designed using algorithms that guide a robotic arm to place wire and low-grade granular material precisely so that the structure can be held up by only these two elements. I find it interesting as the structure uses material to form something that would be almost impossible without the help of robots. This material would normally be used as a base layer for other materials (concrete, asphalt, etc) to be put on top. It is interesting to see it being used in other ways that seem to contradict its normal usage. In the world of architecture, reuse is something we need to think about and have not thought about for a while. This project starts to consider reuse as it reuses material that could be considered scrap and it also has a simple deconstruction process that returns the materials to their original state by just unraveling the wire holding the structure together.
https://selfassemblylab.mit.edu/rock-printing
https://gramaziokohler.arch.ethz.ch/web/e/forschung/297.html