2023IALectures
Lectures MSc 2 IA Studio 2023
Lecture 1
25th May, 13:00h: Xavier de Kestelier (Hassell Studio) lectures on Architecture in Extreme Environments (http://www.roboticbuilding.eu/2023/04/25/20230425/)
Lecture 2
2nd May, 13:00h: Mariana Popescu (TU Delft, CiTG) lectures on Tailored Materiality (http://www.roboticbuilding.eu/2023/04/04/2nd-may-1300h-mariana-popescu-lectures-on-tailored-materiality-in-room-y-08-02-west-560/)
Computational tools and digital fabrication give us the possibility to have a positive impact on the built environment by enabling us to design more efficient and materially effective structures.
Including intelligence in material systems needs sustained development of computational design and fabrication pipelines. This presentation will give you an overview of my work-related centred around such design and fabrication pipelines specifically applied to the architecture and construction sector.
Lecture 3
9th May, 13:30h: Hamed Alavi (UA) lectures on Designing with Data: Artificial Intelligence in Human-Building Interaction Design and Research (http://www.roboticbuilding.eu/2023/04/21/20230509hamedalavi/).
For centuries, something as simple as opening or closing a window has provided remarkably sophisticated opportunities to regulate temperature, light, air quality, acoustics, privacy, and even social relations between inside and outside. The introduction of automated ventilation systems, smart lighting, and mixed reality, however, is about to change all of this. What will be the consequences of truly smart buildings on the humans who inhabit them? The scope of such questions not only concerns human experiences in buildings but also extends more widely to public and social environments and urban spaces – what will it be like to live within highly monitored smart cities and in interaction with emerging mobile actors such as autonomous vehicles and delivery robots?
In this talk, we will see some examples of how artificial intelligence and more broadly data-oriented methods can help create a conception of smart buildings that is not hinged on optimization and efficiency calculation goals but rather takes human experience as the main subject of investigation and improvement. These examples are described under the banner of Human-Building Interaction which will be also introduced in this talk.
Lecture 4
16th May, 13:00h: Claire E. Parfitt (ESA) lectures on Future Mars Missions at ESA (http://www.roboticbuilding.eu/2023/04/14/20230516/)
It is an exciting time for space exploration as humans will soon move beyond low Earth orbit and return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. In the next leap beyond the Moon, the European Space Agency plans an ambitious exploration strategy which will contribute to a huge international collaborative effort to see the first humans on Mars in the 2040s. This presentation will give you an overview of the work to be done to make this ambition a reality in the coming decade and beyond.
Lecture 5
6th June, 13:00h: Jelle Feringa (Terrestrial) lectures on Prøegressive architecture (http://www.roboticbuilding.eu/2023/04/04/6th-june-1300h-jelle-feringa-lectures-on-proegressive-architecture-in-room-y-08-02-west-560/)
When exploring robotic fabrication in architecture, it’s important to consider the paradoxical relationship between the progressive and the regressive. This paradox is highlighted by the work of Le Corbusier and his contemporaries during the late 1930s. While his acquaintances Eugène Beaudouin, Marcel Lods, and Jean Prouvé were creating groundbreaking machine-made buildings like Buc Airport and Clichy Market Hall, Le Corbusier himself was designing houses using rough masonry and heavy timbers.
An oxymoronic reflex, since no other but Le Corbusier himself ushered architecture into the machine age. But robotics can offer new perspective on archaic construction methods, which in turn ushers in progressive ideas that build upon archaic building techniques. Can automation render the dichotomy between what’s archaic and contemporary inconsequential? And if architecture is to yearn for timelessness, is it worthwhile to emancipate anachronistic approaches to construction?
Considering the environmental impact of building practices, the use of archaic construction methods like rammed-earth and natural stone, which have a modest carbon footprint, should be explored as part of the construction industry’s goal of achieving zero carbon emissions. By embracing the paradox of the “prøegressive” and incorporating both traditional and advanced robotic techniques, we can work towards a more sustainable and innovative architecture.