Home Position: Reflecting on Disciplines, Discontinuities and Design Spaces

Abstract

Home position is a robot's pre-defined configuration to which it returns after it has fulfilled its daily tasks. While architecture has ventured far outside its boundaries into more and more experimental technologies in the last decades, it has always remained connected to its own home position or comfort zone. The construction sector - and the affiliated field of architecture - has historically lagged years behind other industries in adopting digital technologies. The fields of robotics, computer science and material engineering have entered architectural research and many architects have embraced new developments with unprecedented openness. One means of tapping into the vast design space of robotic construction is by looking at multi-robotic processes. However, from an architectural perspective, the cooperative robotic process paradoxically increases both the possibilities and the limitations for design. The process design exercise is preceded by a thorough introduction to algorithmic thinking, coding, robotics basics and a custom robotic control tool.