Robotic Sewing and Timber Shells

Designing Matter, ITKE, No Density, Project, Senseable Technologies, Technology and fabrication

Biomimetic architecture, Collective research, Design-based research, Designing Matter, Digital design, Digital fabrication, Digital technologies, Emergent technologies, Ephemeral pavilion, Experimental Fabrications, Germany, Innovation, Learning with wood, Material experimentation, Plywood, Project, Responsive technologies, Robotics, Stuttgart, Technology, Timber, Wood, Wood construction

The Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) of the University of Stuttgart have completed a new research pavilion demonstrating robotic textile fabrication techniques for segmented timber shells. The pavilion is the first of its kind to employ industrial sewing of wood elements on an architectural scale. It is part of a successful series of research pavilions which showcase the potential of computational design, simulation and fabrication processes in architecture. The project was designed and realized by students and researchers within a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, biologists, and palaeontologists.