The above video comes from a Smartgeometry workshop held in Troy, New York in 2012. The project was to create ceramic tiles using computer-aided drafting and robotic fabrication to make a wall for the purpose of diffusing sound. A more-technical abstract of the project follows here:
“The challenge posited by the Ceramics 2.0 cluster is twofold. Firstly, the exploration and definition of the potential that computational design and digital fabrication can bring to ceramic as a material, through the lens of material efficiency and performance. Secondly, to explore the potential of clay based ceramics to inform the use of digital design and parametric design tools.
“Research questions influencing the direction of the workshops include, What novelties can advanced computational design methods introduce in a material system with such a dilated tradition? How effectively can contemporary simulation and analysis techniques feedback the design process? How environmental and structural performance can drive tectonic geometry of a system? How can a material inform computational design methodologies through its inherent physical properties?
“Workshop participants will engage in collaborative projects to develop innovative material systems, prototypes and formal experiments through a merger of CAD/CAM technologies and Ceramic material processes. The cluster will explore the potential of the material under the new light of computational design methods, advanced material simulations and digital fabrication methods (thrust network analysis, iterative F.E.M. analysis, robotic fabrication and assemblies, and computer numeric control) while exploring process based design emerging from the materiality of ceramics.”
Above image: A screenshot of the acoustic wall created at Smartgeometry in 2012.
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