Co-Founder: Form Found Design
Architect, Educator: Orange Coast College (Architectural Technology)
fabricFORMS
Exploration in robotically positioned, fabric formwork for concrete casting
Team Members:
Joseph Sarafian
Ron Culver
Instructor:
Julia Koerner
Traditional rigid formwork has distinct disadvantages for casting complex geometry. The system we propose couples the precision of 6-axis robots with the flexibility of fabric which can adapt to virtually any shape when appropriately positioned prior to filling with casting materials.
Flexible fabric has natural form-found rather than explicit geometry. Lycra formwork produces a unique shape and texture. The amount of stretch (and rotation) leads to a series of variable results (bodies) between the fixed end points. Therefore this system not only creates accurately positioned geometries, it also allows for organic variation, texture and a natural unpredictability.
Our work was published in Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2016, Springer 2016. The project was presented at the Robots in Architecture Conference in Sydney 2016.